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Early LaserWriter ROM dumps

C

chi100

6502
I recently added support for running these LaserWriter ROM dumps to MAME. The ROM dumps on that page are a revision with PostScript Version 47.0 from 1986-1987. I'm interested in getting the earlier versions working in MAME as well. Does anyone have any of the original ROMs (PostScript Version 23.0) or Rev 2 (PostScript Version 38.0) (342-0081-A - 342-0104-A) that they'd be willing to dump and share? Alternatively, I'd be willing to buy the physical ROMs and dump them myself.

I'm also interested in ROM dumps from the II NTX, IIf or IIg.
 
Its going to be tough to find. Many folks upgraded their ROMs with the LaserWriter Plus font set. On top of that, most of these printers have long since been tossed. Heck, I can't even find a disk image of the original LaserWriter 1.0 driver (called "LaserWriter Installation Disk"). It doesn't help that Apple's directions state to discard the earlier software.
 
I believe the LaserWriter Plus ROM set was (342-0089-A - 342-0104-A). I'm definitely interested in dumps of those if anyone still has them.
 
I would like to have more ROMs for Apple printers too (and other manufacturers), but here's ROMs for LaserWriter IIg (downloaded from Bitsavers.org, where they were available for couple days only).
 

Attachments

Clueless here. What do you use Laserwriter ROM dumps for in MAME? Is it just to see the different test pages?
 
ArtiomWin said:
I would like to have more ROMs for Apple printers too (and other manufacturers), but here's ROMs for LaserWriter IIg (downloaded from Bitsavers.org, where they were available for couple days only).
Click to expand...
Thanks for that ROM. It looks like the IIg software is a lot different from the II NT software so it won't be easy to get running in MAME.

trag said:
Clueless here. What do you use Laserwriter ROM dumps for in MAME? Is it just to see the different test pages?
Click to expand...

I haven't hooked up video yet, so you can't see the output from the printer. However, there's an interactive PostScript shell that you can run PostScript programs in.
 
chi100 said:
Thanks for that ROM. It looks like the IIg software is a lot different from the II NT software so it won't be easy to get running in MAME.
Click to expand...
Yep, that's newer generation, and this model was flagship one. As for implementing support in MAME, at least there are photo of boards on BitSavers.
P.S. How can I see test page? I've failed to use instruction on BeefChicken since I'm using Windows. And do you need ROM for StyleWriter II?
 
I've attached what I'm pretty sure is the IIg test page. It will need some manual modification to get it to render in standard postscript renderers because it use some device specific stuff.
 

Attachments

ArtiomWin said:
How can I make them? I've failed to open in Ghostscript.
Click to expand...
You'd need to read the PostScript to figure out what it's trying to do.

ArtiomWin said:
By the way, StyleWriter II (found somethere on GitHub):
Click to expand...
It looks like the StyleWriter II doesn't support PostScript so it's less interesting to me.

trag said:
So they get MAME running on the controller board for another printer and emulate it? Still kind of clueless. I guess I should have been paying more attention to MAME.
Click to expand...
No, MAME is running on a regular computer. Currently the LaserWriter emulation lets you connect to the virtual serial port of the emulator and run batch or interactive PostScript jobs (with no output)

I got copy of a LaserWriter Plus ROM and now MAME has support for running it too:
github.com

lwriter.cpp: Add support for LaserWriter Plus ROM · mamedev/mame@2ce1571

To make this ROM work we need to initialize VIA CA1 to 1 so that we don't miss the first serial interrupt.
github.com github.com

So now the challenge is finding an original LaserWriter that hasn't been updated to LaserWriter Plus or someone that still has the original ROMs around.
 
chi100 said:
No, MAME is running on a regular computer. Currently the LaserWriter emulation lets you connect to the virtual serial port of the emulator and run batch or interactive PostScript jobs (with no output)
Click to expand...
Thank you for the explanation. I appreciate it.
 
chi100 said:
You'd need to read the PostScript to figure out what it's trying to do.
Click to expand...
Sorry, I'm profane in such things.
chi100 said:
It looks like the StyleWriter II doesn't support PostScript so it's less I got copy of a LaserWriter Plus ROM and now MAME has support for running it too:
github.com

lwriter.cpp: Add support for LaserWriter Plus ROM · mamedev/mame@2ce1571

To make this ROM work we need to initialize VIA CA1 to 1 so that we don't miss the first serial interrupt.
github.com github.com
Click to expand...
Where did you get this one?
 
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