Which system software for Color Classic?

[joethezombie]

Happy, happy!  Joy, joy!  I finally found a Color Classic for a reasonable price!  It didn't come with a hard drive, but luckily the floppy drive works and I can boot the machine.  I know the stock Color Classics were gimped by Apple, so I'm wondering which OS would be the "sweet spot" on these machines.  I was thinking 7.1 with the System Enabler 401.   7.5.3 always seemed a bit buggy to me, and I'm worried 7.6.1 would bring the machine to its knees!

I plan on keeping the machine in its stock configuration, but I do have an Apple IIe card I will install and can finally put to use!

What do you guys think?

 

[Bolle]

7.1 all the way. Even that will not be super snappy on a stock CC but it is the most reasonable OS to use.

What are you planning to do with it? If it is just for hosting the // card 7.1 is more than enough.

 

[joethezombie]

Ah, thanks!  Mostly, yep, just hosting the IIe card.  But I'll probably load a bunch of Mac games from that Color Classic list that was posted recently, too.  It's a fun machine.

 

[Bolle]

7.1 should be enough for all of these as well. Most will run with 7.0 as well bit the again the difference in speed between 7.0 and 7.1 is not really noticeable so no reason not to go with 7.1.

I suspect you have the full 10MB of RAM in there anyways?

 

[just.in.time]

Another vote for 7.1 on a stock board. Most features that were found in 7.5 can be tacked on to 7.1 via third party extensions and control panels anyways also, if you are rocking the stock 40mb or 80mb drive 7.1 will leave you more space for games and apps.

If you do any upgrades, in order from most important to least important:

Definitely try to at least get it to 8mb of RAM (4 on board, and a stick of 2 in each slot). 10 is obviously better. That will help avoid using virtual memory. Every little advantage you can give the computer will help. 7.1 itself can operate comfortable with 4MB (it's what I use in my SE where VM isn't supported), but some of the games may push you into a scenario where more memory or turning on VM is necessary. Memory must be installed in an identical pair.

Also, the 68882 FPU can usually be found for under $15 on eBay. My understanding is this helps with select tasks. When something can utilize it, it is a noticeable boost. The most common example being SimCity.

Finally, the extra VRAM slot is the last thing I would worry about but if you happen to stumble upon a stick for a fair price it doesn't hurt to populate it. Stock board will push 256 colors, and most games that run on this board and display resolution are optimized for 256 colors anyways. But again, if you find a stick for $5 or $10 it can't hurt.

 

[joethezombie]

Ah, that's some great info guys.  Thanks a ton.  And yup, I just transplanted 2 4MB sticks in there just now.  Working on getting the hard disk installed, and setting up the 32MB ProDos partition.  I hope the IIe card works, it's untested... I got it about a year ago.

 

[just.in.time]

Glad you are on your way to having it set up.

Now I have a IIe card question for you or anyone else here: how does the IIe card handle disks? I understand the card takes over the monitor, mouse, and keyboard. Does it also take control of the onboard floppy drive, or do you have to get an external unit to work with the Y-cable? Also, can you mount apple II disk images to the desktop in OS 7, then launch the IIe card and have it access the images you had mounted in the Mac side?

Finally, is the Y-cable and an external drive necessary for it to operate, or can you get away with just the card alone inside the CC/LC series machine?

 

[joethezombie]

So I had some problems with my IIe card.  When I would try and start it, the screen would get cut into 2/3 vertically, and the machine would freeze.  There are two capacitors on the IIe card.  They didn't appear to be leaky, but I ordered replacements and got them installed this morning.  SUCCESS!  I now get to the //e  startup!  Woo-Hoo!

You can run the card without the Y-cable, but there would be no way to attach a joystick or external drive.  Of course, any ProDos applications will happy run off the internal drive and ProDos partitions, and with the system extension you can see the ProDos partitions on the Mac desktop.  I'm n00b at this, but I don't think there is a way to mount an Apple II DOS .dsk image and have the IIe card use it.  I plan to use a FloppyEmu loaded up with the images.