Ken Gates needs help with his cranky SCSI drive.

Hi, I still use my Apple IIe with a Q-Drive hard disk. I run AppleWorks and keep a super large list of movies on the drive, as I’m a movie buff. I’ve recently been having hangup on the hard drive. I’ve been trying to troubleshoot it and/or use some of my old programs to test it, but so far I’ve had no luck in locating the problem. Is there any program that I could use to lock out bad sectors? Any advice you can give will be greatly appreciated. I assume that no one makes a hard drive that I could use with my IIe! I’m running a SCSI card out of slot 7 to the Q-Drive.

Ken, the first thing I recommend is to verify you have a good backup! If you don’t, backup what you can… and if you are experiencing data loss, you might take a look at the late Glen Bredon’s ProSel Utilities (now freeware) and see if you can recover anything. ProSel 8 (for 8-bit Apples) is available HERE courtesy of Apple2.info.

As for a hard drive replacement, several options exist — take a look at the various compact flash drives available from 16 Sector (Focus $99), R&D Automation (CFFA – sold out, check eBay) and ReactiveMicro (MicroDrive $135). A CF card hard drive is probably the most versatile storage solution for the Apple II.

If anyone else has additional advice for Ken, please post a comment here or write him at: kengates at comcast dot com — semi-obfuscated, so we don’t send the spambots Ken’s way.

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Brian Mika needs assistance getting high quality copies of various Sierra Interactive disks for the Apple II.

I am a long-time fan of Sierra’s Adventure Game Interpreter (AGI) games of the 1980’s. I need to get in touch with people who have, or can make, 100% authentic disk copies and graphics/sound samples for use in a research project to decode the Apple versions of AGI games and thus develop superior editors and emulators. Can you help?

If anyone can help Brian out, you can reach him at: bmikaus at yahoo dot com — semi-obfuscated, so we don’t send the spambots Brian’s way.

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Tim McNerney wrote in with a surprising and intriguing request:

I am looking for volunteers to help reverse-engineer and document Apple II VisiCalc, recreating fully commented source code from the binaries in the process. Besides documenting this historic work for engineering students, educators, and future historians, in fact, I plan to give all this work to the Smithsonian, I’d like to get Apple II VisiCalc running in emulation. Right now this isn’t possible because of the copy protection. (BTW the PC DOS version is available on the web, and doesn’t have copy protection).

I have three versions of the Apple II software. I know one of them still boots (1983?) and have some confidence that the other two versions (1979 and 1981) work also.

I have been in contact with both Bob Frankston and Dan Bricklin (they both live practically down the street from me). Of course you ask, well then why do you need volunteers? The answer is because no one can find the sources. Bob and I plan to dig around his garage when the weather gets warmer, but there are no guarantees, and the 30th anniversary is in October 2009.

I’ve done this sort of project once before. See www.4004.com for more details.

Tim McNerney

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Bill Jehle wrote in with an interesting project he’s working on. He’s attempting to hack an Imagewriter II printer into a CNC plotter and needs more information.

I have an Apple IIc, IIgs, and Imagewriter II up in my attic. Yes, they all still run (which is more than I can say for my first 286).

I’ve been repurposing my Imagewriter II to create a CNC plotter. All the power and drive circuits are there, I just don’t know the schematic of the Imagewriter II so I can build my own control logic board to drive the power stepper motor control board. Credit where credit is due, Apple did a great job putting the logic on one board, and the power on another. I just need to make a new brain for it.

I don’t know if you have this information to hand, but you may know of folks that have tinkered around with the Imagewriter II enough that know what I need to continue my project.

Any help is appreciated, and of course, I will be happy to share my experience with your group.

Thanks in advance,
Bill Jehle
www.bellyjellymusic.com

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Justin asks, “Do you know where there is a reliable business to buy aftermarket software for an Apple IIe Platinum class computer? I’m doing a little computer project for pure nostalgia reasons and I am looking for software to do wordprocessing, spreadsheet, repair and troubleshoot utilities, programs etc. for this type of computer.”

And, Phil wrote in, “I have an Apple IIgs, ROM 3. I bought a Applied Engineering 3.5” High Density Disk Drive several years ago, but did not get the drivers to use it as a high density drive on my IIgs. Are drivers available or is there a more recent “fix”? I also run a 5mb Profile (Apple also sold a 10mb & 20mb Profile, but has anyone ever seen or used one? And it worked with DOS 3.3, but it crashed and I lost all data. I have since bought another 5mb Profile that was blank, so I need the loader for DOS 3.3. Can you help please?”

How about it? Does anyone have any recommendations for Justin and Phil? Please post it here and help them out.

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Mike G. writes “We have been maintaining our household files using Appleworks (first on a IIe and then on a Mac LC with a AIIe card). Alas, the LC has collapsed after 16yrs! Are there any file translators that can translate the Appleworks database files to either MAC or PC format to run on Excel or any other application? Thanks for your help.”

How about it? Does anyone have any advice for Mike? Post it here and help the guy out.

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