68kMLA Classic Interface

This is a version of the 68kMLA forums for viewing on your favorite old mac. Visitors on modern platforms may prefer the main site.

Click here to select a new forum.
Early LaserWriter ROM dumps
Posted by: ArtiomWin on 2021-09-07 09:22:10
Can anyone tell me which LaserWriter rom these are
LaserWriter Plus (Rev 47). There's the table on BitSavers.
Posted by: oldappleguy on 2021-09-07 11:26:09
I do not have the ability to do a rom dump. I am willing to send them to anyone that can use them.
Posted by: oldappleguy on 2021-09-07 13:10:11
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.
is this what you are looking for?
Posted by: olePigeon on 2021-09-07 13:27:07
@NJRoadfan Did you see this thread? Looks like he has one LaserWriter board. Laserwriter 820-0131-B

$10 + shipping seems reasonable.
Posted by: NJRoadfan on 2021-09-08 18:07:15
is this what you are looking for?
YES. Please image these disks. I don't think they are online at all.

I'm not the one looking for the ROMs, just the software.
Posted by: al kossow on 2021-09-08 19:48:47
I do not have the ability to do a rom dump. I am willing to send them to anyone that can use them.
I can take care of dumping them, I'm in silicon valley.
Original LaserWriters are problematic, the paper pick and separation rollers turn to goo.
Posted by: olePigeon on 2021-09-08 20:40:26
@al kossow I'm also in the Bay Area. If you have issues imaging the disks, let me know. I have a flux imager we can try.
Posted by: al kossow on 2021-09-08 20:57:58
@al kossow I'm also in the Bay Area. If you have issues imaging the disks, let me know. I have a flux imager we can try.
I was going to try reading the ROMs. I could take care of the floppies as well, but I suspect whoever has them knows how to use Disk Copy 4.2
Posted by: olePigeon on 2021-09-09 09:14:44
Oh OK. In regards to the disks, early disks (especially from the 80s) often had various forms of copy protection. Even Apple's own software.
Posted by: al kossow on 2021-09-09 09:38:40
I don't think any Mac system software disks were copy protected,
at least I've never run into any that couldn't be copied with DC42.

I know MDS is, which was licensed from Bill Duvall.
It would be nice if someone came up with a list of the problem children.

The earliest LW driver that I have is 2.0

It would also be a good thing to get resource and data fork hashes for
all of the files on those early disks.
Posted by: al kossow on 2021-09-09 09:40:43
It would also be a good thing to get resource and data fork hashes for
all of the files on those early disks.
seems like a feature Applesauce should have.
Posted by: Dandu on 2022-02-04 10:44:15
Just in case : i have dumped the ROM from the LaserWriter Pro 810 and i serahc to extract a PostScript File (i mean).

The ROM is here : down.dandu.be/ROMcostena.bin

Actually, there is an easter egg on the printer : it's possible to send a fax directly to a restaurant (La Costena) to command Burrito. And the text is on the printer ROM. I will try to exctract the file to try to print the file. I suppose it will be PostScript, but i'm not sure.
Posted by: chi100 on 2022-02-14 08:20:48
Dandu, are you able to take a high res picture of the main board of the Laserwriter Pro 810? That could help figure out how to do something useful with the ROM.
Posted by: Skate323k137 on 2022-02-14 09:06:34
Did the ROMS @oldappleguy had get dumped? I am also in MI and have a couple EPROM programmers.
Posted by: chi100 on 2022-02-14 18:31:04
Al dumped them but they failed to pass the internal checksum on boot. He was going to try rereading them.
Posted by: mcpublic on 2022-03-18 13:38:22
The MAME community, already used to dumping arcade game ROMs has multiple LaserWriter ROMs in their collection:
adb.arcadeitalia.net

LaserWriter Plus - MAME machine

LaserWriter Plus MAME detail page - ROM lwriterplus
adb.arcadeitalia.net adb.arcadeitalia.net
Posted by: chi100 on 2022-03-18 13:40:29
Yep, I already have those.
Posted by: mcpublic on 2022-03-18 13:53:28
Excellent. Let us know if-and-when you get around to disassembling them. If Adobe's first PostScript interpreter wasn't written in assembly language, "I'm a monkey's uncle."
Posted by: chi100 on 2022-03-18 13:55:10
I've already looked and am pretty certain most of it was written in C
Posted by: chi100 on 2022-03-18 14:02:04
This is confirmed by "'PostScript' prints anything: a case history" which says "They worked in C, on a VAX 750 running Berkeley Unix, to develop the language, and they tested it on a Sun workstation driving a full-size laser printer that they borrowed from Digital Equipment Corp."
< 2 >