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Can a bridge exist here? (Archon, SE, MouseStick)

Mu0n

Well-known member
I want to use my Gravis MouseStick drivers on a SE to play Archon.

Archon: according to Mac Garden, it's stable under System 1.0 to 4.2. My tests are not extensive here, but under 6.0.8 on my SE, you can have no sound effects to not having clicking funtionality (though the mouse cursor moves)

MouseStick, hardware: requires an ADB port so the Mac SE is absolutely the barest minimal mac on which to do this (allows deep dips into the earlier System versions). Even without the drivers, the joystick acts as a mouse, but under "self-centering" settings, which isn't ideal for some games (including Archon)

MouseStick, drivers: the documentation says you need at least Sysyem 6.0.4 (which I haven't tried) to System 6.0.8 (which I've tried but it makes Archon glitchy) and System 7.0+ (fuggedaboutit for Archon). You can set a non-default configuration for the joystick as the OS loads, but you need the cdev present in the System folder for it to work. 

My question : are cdevs only working with 6.0.4 and up only? Or could you use them with like 6.0 or 5.0?

There might be an out-of-spec combo out there which lets me use all these 3 things together.

 
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Crutch

Well-known member
Cdev’s definitely became available before System 6. They existed in System 5 and maybe (??) 4.1. They’re documented in Inside Macintosh: Volume V, so were around by 1987 latest. 

 
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Dog Cow

Well-known member
My question : are cdevs only working with 6.0.4 and up only? Or could you use them with like 6.0 or 5.0?
CDEVs came with the new modular Control Panel in System 4.1, which debuted in March 1987 with the Macintosh II.

 

Mu0n

Well-known member
I found a combo that worked. It involved:

-digging up some old 2006 dvd backups of retromac68k

-testing out System 4.2, 6.0.3, 6.0.5 and 5.5 from there

-Booting with 5.5. in the external drive, swapping furiously between that and Archon (my internal disk drive on my SE is shot and can damage disks now - I have to service it)

-All the sounds weren't present but it was still playable and I could mess with the joystick settings in the Finder.

Turns out having System 4.2 is not sufficient, you gotta have the right Finder version in order to use that control panel device. I got it right with that backup of 5.5.

 
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