Apple IIgs with floppy drive

[robin-fo]

Today I collected my latest toy, one of probably very few Apple IIgs’ here in Switzerland. Sadly, it has a 110V PSU which I‘ll need to convert to 230V. If possible without much effort, I‘d like to retain the PSU rather than do an ATX conversion (although I will certainly test the computer using one).

Having seen a real IIgs for the first time in my life (I think?), I was very surprised about how small and lightweight this thing is and how huge and heavy the floppy drive is!

Any chance to connect a Mac CRT to this? I‘d use a small TV of similar age using composite signal otherwise… .. or a 15“ flat-panel Studio Display. Do I have to be careful about NTSC/PAL standards?

Can I network-boot the IIgs using LocalTalk even without a harddrive?

Any suggestions are welcome as I am a complete novice to the Apple II world…

 

[NJRoadfan]

Yes, you can netboot using LocalTalk without any drives connected, but it'll be SLOOOOOOW. You'll need a RAM card though as booting GS/OS (or most any IIgs software) needs more than the base 256k that machine has (stock ROM 01 board).

All Apple IIgs machines output NTSC composite video regardless of where they were sold. The signal is slightly out of spec though, and some TVs have trouble detecting the color burst. All text modes via composite will output in black and white as the color burst is only enabled in graphics modes. This is to improve text readability. The RGB output is 15.75Khz like the Amiga and Atari ST, so Macintosh monitors will not work. If you happen to have a Commodore 1080 monitor, it'll work with it. Also there are IIgs to SCART RGB cables out there too.

 

[robin-fo]

Thanks for the Info; I have an Atari ST Monochrome monitor I could try to wire up!

 

[NJRoadfan]

Monochrome ST monitor won't work. They are the only one that scans at 30khz to support 640x400 mode!