Random Classic Projects
Rather than creating separate pages for each of these projects I thought I'd collect them here.
- Mac-on-a-Stick. This is an interesting project. I've played with various Mac emulators including Mini vMac and Basilisk II, but I came across this interesting use for USB pen drives. This page at No Thick Manuals describes how to have a plug-in-play Mac emulation using Mini vMac and a USB pen drive. The magic is in the use of the Windows AutoRun capabilities to automatically start vMac. For my initial testing, instead of using a thumb drive, I used a spare SD card and a small SD-to-USB adapter.
This worked very successfully. I found a deal on 2gb USB drives so I built two of them for my various emulators. Basilisk II (main page, Windows port) has much larger hard drive images, so I put that and Mini vMac on one USB stick, and some of my other favorites such as Stella and Apple II Oasis on the other.
To tie them all together, I use the simple Intrepid Mouse FileLauncher (link) to give me a simple AutoRun menu to work with. With proper tweaking, you can get multiple Basilisk configurations to work (i.e., separate B&W and 256 color configurations).
AppleTalk Network. I have several old Apple computers which span several years, from the ][+ to a IIci. Since I had nothing to do one particular weekend, I thought I'd try networking them using AppleTalk. I had all of the connector kits, so I connected the //gs, Mac 512k, Mac SE, and IIci together. I had purchased a copy of AppleShare Server 3 a number of years ago, so I installed that on the IIci. AppleTalk software was built into MacOS starting with System 3.3/Finder 5.5 (called "System Software 2.0"). Most of my Macs were already running some version of System 7 (the Mac SE runs 7.0.1 and the IIci runs 7.5.5). The Mac 512k was running System 1.01 with the HD20 init for the external hard drive. The most difficult aspect of upgrading the 512k was trying to locate a copy of System 2.0 on 400k disks. I was able to locate a disk image called "s33f55" and once I got that installed, I was able to get AppleTalk working. AppleTalk hardware is available on eBay now and again so I pick it up when I see it. The site Mac512k.com has some great info and links to get this kind of setup working.
Copyright (c) 1998-2023 Richard A. Cini, Jr. (rcini at msn dot com) All Rights Reserved. All copyrights of any third parties referred to herein are hereby acknowledged. There is no warranty, either express or implied, relating to any of the content contained herein. The site maintainer shall in no event be liable to anyone for damages, including any loss of profits, lost savings, or other incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use or misuse of the information contained on this Web site. Batteries not included. You may use the information contained herein for NON-COMMERCIAL purposes only and AT YOUR OWN RISK.
Last updated 2023-02-12 12:54 -0500