All righty, the FloppyEmu arrived. It looks like it will require that I disconnect the drive as Flack said in order to have it work as the A: - I can't just attach it to the plug and have it be the A: drive. We'll figure it out. It's all coming together!

Also, if you want to buy any of these games in good-looking boxes, the prices are up there. Here is Hacker with a buy it now price of $99.99:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Hacker-by-Activision-for-Apple-II-IIe-IIc-IIgs-1985-/192599729603

Ultima V for $89.99:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-Ultima-V-Warriors-of-Destiny-Origin-Apple-II-64K-5-25-1987-Lord-British/142877807124?epid=1201907359&hash=item21442e5214%3Ag%3ABYIAAOSwvylbU6Xc&_sacat=0&_nkw=apple+ii+ultima&_from=R40&rt=nc&_trksid=m570.l1313

[quote="Casual Observer" post_id=97617 time=1533895346 user_id=77]
ICJ, you gotta play autoduel on that.
[/quote]

Agreed, I tried Autoduel a lot on the PC and it was.......................... disappointing, I guess is the way to put it. It's gotta be better on the //c.

I prefer Beyond Castle Wolfenstein only because I had an original disc (Gold Circle $14.99) for my C64.
They are basically the same game with the same horrible sprite collision issues but you get to blow up Hitler..so bonus.

THE
TICK TICK TICK
AARDVARK

Part of why Castle Wolfenstein is so captivating, however, is the platform. The first thing someone would do, who was of sound mind, if they were going to "re-imagine" it for Windows would be to put in a stone floor for the castle. Of course you would. But! That would look ridiculous! You have a profile view of the prisoner and everything else is top down.

The Apple's lack of decent graphics makes it a black void instead which gives it a haunting quality. A haunting quality based on technical limitations, but haunting nonetheless. And a new version would have proper bullet management and some idea of collision detection and wouldn't make you sit there for 200 seconds to open a crate (which this version absolutely does, not a big deal when it's next to my Windows computer).

Is it better than Wolfenstein 3D? I hesitate to go there. Is it better than the modern Wolfensteins? Probably not BUT.... I did play Return to Castle Wolfenstein and talked about it on The Gas Chamber for a bit. RTCW is a typical post-Quake shooter. And it sucks. I can't say that Castle Wolfenstein is the best version, but it's [i]miles[/i] better than that one.

[quote=Flack post_id=97621 time=1533916127 user_id=840] I can't believe there's not a person on the planet whose jaw didn't drop the first time they saw Wolf 3D[/quote]Maybe my problem was when it came out I was running a crappy 386 SX (the one with the broken coproccesor) and the graphics were horrible. It was innovative but I had trouble enjoying it with my hardware limitations. The first one seemed to have more strategy and story, not just shoot up everything you see.

I gotta get myself an emulator and play Autoduel again.

[quote="Ice Cream Jonsey" post_id=97609 time=1533871598 user_id=3]I have been playing the games that Flack made me, but also ordered some floppy disks off eBay. These are copies that a guy makes, "illegal" as hell, but who cares about that any more.[/quote]
01. Not sure what the guy is charging you, but if it's cheaper to buy blanks and double mail them (to me and back), I'd be thrilled to fill up a hundred disks!

02. Your photography skills really show off the yellowing of that case. There are ways to restore it back to its original color, if so desired. (See: [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retr0bright]Retr0bright[/url])

03. In general, I prefer games where I know what I'm supposed to be doing to games where I seem to be constantly trying to figure out where I am and where I'm supposed to go. I can't say canonically that the original Castle Wolfenstein is better than Wolfenstein 3D, and I can't believe there's not a person on the planet whose jaw didn't drop the first time they saw Wolf 3D, but if I were going to pick one or the other to play [i]today[/i], it would be the original.

04. Lode Runner is more forgiving with a joystick than with the keyboard, but it's still playable.

I always got lost playing W 3-D, so the first one is better

[quote="Casual Observer" post_id=97615 time=1533887925 user_id=77]
i miss the original Wolfenstein . So much better than the fps nonsense that replaced it later.
[/quote]

Wow. I know the nostalgia meter is off the charts on this BBS, but even the most diehard Wistful Wendy on here has to admit that that's incorrect.

ICJ, you gotta play autoduel on that.

i miss the original Wolfenstein . So much better than the fps nonsense that replaced it later.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/g9XF6jy.jpg[/img]

I have been playing the games that Flack made me, but also ordered some floppy disks off eBay. These are copies that a guy makes, "illegal" as hell, but who cares about that any more. Castle Wolfenstein is surreal. This is a game that my brother and I played on our PCjr when we were kids and I have to admit, it did NOT follow us when we got the XT and 286, I don't think. I mean, I kept the disk. I would imagine it is still downstairs. But, God, it's been years.

There's actual German being spoken in the Apple // version.
I don't have a joystick working yet, so the keyboard is used to move and aim the gun.
There's five pages of unskippable text that makes up the game's story when you start a new game. It is better than a lot of introductions in modern games though, so that is fine.

And I think it's got quirks, for instance, if you find 6 bullets and own 7, you do not go to 10 bullets. You only add bullets when the amount found exceeds your own I think.

This is amazing and I have Flack to thank for it. Thank you!

[quote="Ice Cream Jonsey" post_id=97559 time=1533614761 user_id=3]
Is there any JCer I [i]won't[/i] see this year???
[/quote]

You missed me by a state. Maybe next year.

I have a couple of those - my old camera took them. The next time I see you I will either give you one of the cards with that on it or bring it with me if I visit you.

Which, damn, it's getting to be about that time where maybe we should consider that sort of thing? I am going to be in NY Labor Day weekend where hopefully I can see Vark. I hung out with ChainGangGuy and gsdgsd a couple weekends ago. Is there any JCer I [i]won't[/i] see this year???

I'll be curious to see if the FloppyEmu plays Karateka. So far, that is the only game I've found that won't play on the CFFA3000. From what I understand, there's a firmware upgrade that fixes the issue, but it has to be applied via a compact flash card, and it turns out I've never owned one of those.

I bought the stuff Flack recommended anyway.

Also, here is the link to the TOSEC collection of Apple ][ stuff. Games, Applications, Compilations, Demos. Hot damn!

https://archive.org/details/Apple_2_TOSEC_2012_04_23

The store selling this stuff is closed till after the 13th of August, but that is OK. This project continues evermore.

Christ, this thread made me grab the C64 users guide in PDF and start reading it. I don't want to write basic code. Why does stuff like this get me all jacked up to want to write some programs! Ngggggh!

THE
10 QUIT
AARDVARK

Okay, so I have some good news and some not so terrible news.

I'm using the CFFA3000 along with those TOSEC disk images, and I guess every TOSEC disk image is a bootable floppy. On the Apple II/II+/IIe, software expects the primary disk controller to be in slot 6, and the default disk to be 1. Pretty much any multi-loading game is hard coded to look for that, so let's just say that any other configuration -- using disk 2 instead of 1, using a different slot, etc -- won't work. It might work for a few games here and there but... let's just say, it doesn't work.

The IIc's internal floppy is on slot 6, drive 1. That's great for booting real disks and stuff, but now the problem becomes, where do you connect that FloppyEmu thing. Internally, there's a connector for slot 6, drive 2, and you can connect it externally, but nothing is ever going to boot off of it. There's a trick that involves booting up into ProDOS on 6/1, typing a bunch of commands, and somehow that'll get it to boot off of 6/2 on the next reboot, but so many games don't support that, and plus you don't want to type 10 lines of gibberish every time you want to play a game.

So I was digging and I found this -- an A/B switch for Apple II drives. The site specifically mentions hooking it up to an Apple IIc for the purposes of swapping between the real/physical internal floppy and a FloppyEmu. It's $16. And now that I look at it, it's the same place that sells the FloppyEmu. That makes even more sense.

https://www.bigmessowires.com/shop/product/apple-disk-drive-ab-switch/

So, yeah -- an extra $16, and you can flip between having the real drive and the FloppyEmu on 6/1. That's really a win/win. 99% of the time you will leave the FloppyEmu on 6/1 so you can boot those virtual disk image files, and I guess if you bought a real Apple II game or something you could flip it back to the physical drive.

If you have no desire to ever boot off of a real physical disk, you could just disconnect the internal cable for the internal drive and connect the FloppyEmu to that port (6/1), but if it were me, I'd buy the switcher just so I always had the option.

BTW, that external drive you bought should probably show up as 6/2 when you connect it. So if you ever wanted to go from image-to-floppy (or floppy-to-image) you can do that using that second drive and any Apple II copy program (I'm using Nibbler something-or-other) and then just copy from 6/1 to 6/2 or vice versa.

The joystick I bought for it works on all Apple // computers except the //c because of course it does. Nnnnngh. I edited the title.

There is an adapter out there, I guess. It's a brand new joystick so I'd like to use it.