A Few Bits and Pieces

[TheNeil]

Been pretty quiet on the liberation front recently and, while I realise that they're not exactly Mac orientated, there is a slight Apple tang to at least some of this lot:

Acorn A7000 - Fully working with 4Mb RAM (now upped to 20Mb), a 2Gb hard disk, and RISC OS 3.6. Hooked it up to my PC monitor, mouse and keyboard and it runs a treat (even threw in a CD-ROM drive and it happily took it). Now if only I could figure out how to simulate the middle mouse button on a 2 button PS/2 mouse...

Apple /// boot disk - OK it's not an Apple /// but I've got to start somewhere

Apple IIgs - An absolute steal (£23 8-o ). Comes with a pair of Apple ][ drives, a 3.5" drive and what looks like an Apple branded digitiser tablet. Should just be a case of hooking up an ADB keyboard and plugging in a monitor. No idea what it's got installed but this is my first Apple ][ so it's exciting

 

[MacMan]

Acorn A7000 - nice! I've got an A4000 and a RISC PC 600 and they are both great fun machines to play with. Check out http://www.acornarcade.com/ for some good games downloads. You will need a RISC OS application called "Sparkplug" to decompress Acorn Zip archives, it's floating about on the internet in a few places.

There was also an Apple /// floppy drive on eBay UK a while back but the seller wanted too much for it.

That IIGS - I was really expecting it to go for much more than that. The last one that sold in the UK went for about £150 to £200, the main reason why I shipped mine from the USA. I really should have waited and nabbed this one instead, but never mind. At least it's going to a good home!

The monitor is going to be more difficult as the IIGS has either NTSC composite output or the IIGS-specific RGB port. IIGS video requires a TV frequency monitor (ie 50 or 60Hz) so ordinary, modern monitors won't work directly. Many modern LCD TVs in the UK can handle NTSC so that may be the way to go, or alternatively it is possible to build a video cable for linking the IIGS RGB port to a SCART connector for a TV/monitor.

If building a IIGS SCART cable, there are good instructions to be found here. I made one recently and it works perfectly.

 

[TheNeil]

That IIGS - I was really expecting it to go for much more than that. The last one that sold in the UK went for about £150 to £200, the main reason why I shipped mine from the USA. I really should have waited and nabbed this one instead, but never mind. At least it's going to a good home!

The monitor is going to be more difficult as the IIGS has either NTSC composite output or the IIGS-specific RGB port. IIGS video requires a TV frequency monitor (ie 50 or 60Hz) so ordinary, modern monitors won't work directly. Many modern LCD TVs in the UK can handle NTSC so that may be the way to go, or alternatively it is possible to build a video cable for linking the IIGS RGB port to a SCART connector for a TV/monitor.

Thanks for the heads-up on the video connection. I'm hoping that my trusty Eizo will handle it and that the '15 pin connection' that the auction talked about is either VGA or good old Apple 15. If not then I'll just have to get 'creative'

TBH I expected it to go for a whole lot more than £23 so I was pretty amazed when it didn't go insane in the last few minutes (not that I'm complaining you understand)

Don't suppose you have any idea about the A7000 mouse do you? It's driving me mad not being able to access 'menu'. I've tried a no-brand 2 button PS/2 and a couple of M$ scroll wheel mice but with no joy

 

[John8520]

... and that the '15 pin connection' that the auction talked about is either VGA or good old Apple 15.

Neither, unfortunately. It's some weirdo IIgs specific shenanigans.

EDIT - Oh, and for the mouse, they did make three button PS/2 mice, I've had several. Really easy to find, look for something for an RS/6000 or SGI Indigo2 or something along those lines. In some cases the scroll wheel button click works, but that's uncommon.

 

[MacMan]

No idea about the mouse I'm afraid. The only ones I've ever used on Acorns have been Acorn-specific mice. I do have a feeling that there may be some way to re-map the mouse buttons but I can't remember how, either it was in a certain application or perhaps just the control panel. I'll have a look at my Acorns later and see.