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.

Apple IIe without disk drive

Posted by: toples50 on 2018-05-02 12:35:18 Because I'm looking to buy an Apple IIe without disk drive it is possible to load programs without external disk drive? Is it possible to load programs via SD card with some way? At the end is it worth to buy an Apple IIe w/o external disk drive?

Posted by: dcr on 2018-05-02 14:15:02 Is it possible to load programs via SD card with some way? A Floppy Emu should do the trick.

Posted by: Dog Cow on 2018-05-02 15:02:44 I got a CFFA3000 about 4 years ago and haven't had any external drive regularly attached to my IIe since then. It's that good!

Posted by: olePigeon on 2018-05-02 15:14:52 You can also load programs over the audio port.  Apple IIs originally shipped with tape players, and data was loaded to and from cassette tapes.  I believe there are several programs that let you send apps over the speaker port on your PC or Mac to your Apple II. I believe it's an option in ADTPro. I think some people have even made MP3s of various programs which you can load up on your phone or music player, then "play" them to your Apple II.

Posted by: Gorgonops on 2018-05-02 15:56:10 If all you want to do is play games then this will probably keep you amused for a while. Remember of course that only the original ][, ][plus, and IIe actually have the requisite cassette port. IIc and IIgs users are SOL. If you want to actually *do* anything with your IIe then a disk drive or suitable replacement would probably count as a necessity. There was a *fair* body of software for cassette-based ][s and ][plus-es, but a not insignificant amount of it requires Integer Basic, which a IIe can't straightforwardly run without booting a DOS disk and loading it into its built-in equivalent of a language card.

Posted by: olePigeon on 2018-05-03 08:42:50 Hah!  Figured there was something like that out there. 🙂 I think he can use ADTPro to bootstrap DOS over the cassette port.

Posted by: david__schmidt on 2018-05-03 10:27:53 I think he can use ADTPro to bootstrap DOS over the cassette port. He can, but it won't make a ton of sense.  The operating system will be there, but no disk to operate on.  Even the virtual serial drive of ADTPro requires a *serial* connection - there's not an option to do that via audio.

Posted by: olePigeon on 2018-05-04 07:55:10 Oh, OK. 🙂

Posted by: bibilit on 2018-05-05 08:35:03 Tested this afternoon, works great. borrowed the Iphone of my son, mine not having the right connector anymore, and the biggest challenge was finding the lost headphone cable. Cranking the volume and playing the Lofi file instead of the Hifi one worked for me, the progress bar helped a lot to see what was going on.

Posted by: Juror22 on 2018-05-05 10:42:40 OMG - that is so awesome!  These are magical times in which we live. 🙂 I have to fire up the Apple][+ to try this out.

Posted by: MOS8_030 on 2018-05-05 10:58:24 That is pretty slick actually, never would I have thought to use an iPhone to interface with an Apple II!

1