Playing 5.25" Floppy Disk Games from a 3.5" Floppy Drive

[davidg5678]

My Apple IIgs only came with a single 3.5" floppy drive, and I would like to use it to run some games and software which came on 5.25" floppy disks. I have ADTPro set up and working, but I am not able to use this setup for transferring games without a 5.25" floppy drive (at least according to the documentation). Is there a way to convert a 5.25" floppy disk image so that I can use it on the 3.5" disks? If not, is there another way (short of buying a FloppyEmu) that I can get software onto the computer? I do have an AsanteTalk, so I could try A2Server, although I'm not sure if that would be helpful in this situation.

Thanks!

 

[olePigeon]

You can use a Unidisk 5.25" drive on an Apple IIgs without any extra hardware.  You can daisychain either your 3.5" or the 5.25" drive off the other.  The original Disk ][ drive will also work, but it'll require the Disk ][ drive card to connect the ribbon cable.

 

[Dog Cow]

Is there a way to convert a 5.25" floppy disk image so that I can use it on the 3.5" disks?

If the 5.25" disk is ProDOS-formatted, then you should be able to copy its contents to a ProDOS-formatted 3.5" disk. This is a task that you could do in an emulator, or with a disk utility application such as AppleCommander or ADFS.

 

[olePigeon]

I've run into apps and games that reference specific tracks on a floppy.  They stop working if you copy them off a 5.25" to something else.  I was thinking it might be copy protection, but it doesn't stop you from copying it to another 5.25" disk.  So who knows.

 

[davidg5678]

If the 5.25" disk is ProDOS-formatted, then you should be able to copy its contents to a ProDOS-formatted 3.5" disk.

Is it possible to do this if the disks are not ProDOS formatted?

 

[waynestewart]

AMDOS will let you run some DOS 3.3 software on a 3.5" disk

 

[Dog Cow]

If the 5.25" disk is ProDOS-formatted, then you should be able to copy its contents to a ProDOS-formatted 3.5" disk.

Is it possible to do this if the disks are not ProDOS formatted?

Maybe, but it's a lot trickier. DOS 3.3 was designed only to use the 5.25" disk. There are a few work-arounds, such as the one that waynestewart mentioned above.