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| GemStart Drivers Various Versions | |
| Posted by: Phipli on 2023-06-20 07:45:07 I swear I'd already uploaded them here somewhere but can't find them.  Find attached two versions of the GemStart drivers for Total Systems 020 / 030 processor upgrades, such as the Mercury, Gemini, Gemini Ultra and Gemini Integra. Version 2.1 is good for System 6 etc, version 3 is good for 7.0.1 and seems to mostly work with 7.1. The Extreme Systems Vandal driver is actually a modified version of the GemStart Driver and can also be used with similar cards.  These drivers work with other upgrades as well, often being quite happy to work with Mobius, Applied Engineering and GCC cards, as well as probably others. There are some more version variants about (I have seen two Extreme Systems versions, and several variants of GemStart version 2.x)... but this is a start to get it searchable on here. A fresh install of Virtual is needed to access up to 16MB of RAM on cards with additional RAM slots. Its a bit of a fiddle to set up. | |
Posted by: mg.man on 2023-06-20 11:19:35The Extreme Systems Vandal driver is actually a modified version of the GemStart DriverOoo... are you gonna upload that as well? 😀 | |
Posted by: mg.man on 2023-06-20 11:21:27A fresh install of Virtual is needed to access up to 16MB of RAM on cards with additional RAM slots. Its a bit of a fiddle to set up.Can you share the incantation? I've so far not been able to make that work - but I've not spent serious time on it yet. | |
Posted by: Phipli on 2023-06-20 11:30:16Can you share the incantation? I've so far not been able to make that work - but I've not spent serious time on it yet.The trick is 90% starting from the installer, not just grabbing Virtual from another computer. The installer asks you what card you have and modifies Virtual to suit. You can't retrospectively change how it sorts out the memory map. I'll grab some more files off my Pismo. GemStart 2.2 is on my SE so a bit more tricky to fetch, but I have a copy of ExSys to hand. Excuse the mess, this is every different file I have on my phone for ExSys... including the LC card driver. There will be duplicates. | |
| Posted by: Phipli on 2023-06-20 11:32:28 And Compact Virtual 3 (needed for 7.0.1) is here : | |
| Posted by: Phipli on 2023-07-02 09:33:17 @JC8080 Worked out why GemStart 2.2 wasn't on my network share... Find attached a copy of Version 2.2 from my actual driver floppy disk 😆 @Bolle : is this in your collection?  | |
| Posted by: ObeyDaleks on 2023-07-02 09:46:25 Nice, I don’t think 2.2 is available anywhere else - at least not that I could find. | |
Posted by: Phipli on 2023-07-02 09:50:10Nice, I don’t think 2.2 is available anywhere else - at least not that I could find.Sorry about that, I assumed I'd downloaded it from somewhere. I usually try to make sure anything I have is available online. In my defense, I had imaged it... just my SE isn't networked so it hadn't made it any further. The attached image is a copy of the files (and the System Folder on it isn't blessed so you'll need to boot from another disk to 'poke' it into life), not a perfect disk copy. There was a bad block in the unused space and Disk Copy was throwing a fit. All the actual files copied just fine. | |
| Posted by: ObeyDaleks on 2023-07-02 16:53:52 No worries, I wasn’t calling you out, I’m just happy we have access to it now. Thank you! | |
| Posted by: Phipli on 2024-01-07 05:00:12 Software in this thread is also potentially useful as there are commonalities between the cards. Novy System ImagePro 50I recently obtained a non-working SE with a compact-Mac accelerator, the Novy Systems ImagePro 50. It features a full 68030 (has PMMU), a 68882 FPU, 4x4MB 60ns RAM, and 256KB of video RAM. The DE9 + DB15 bracket is included. The board runs at 50 MHz. Below is the board and the jumpers in the...
68kmla.org
Thanks @Bolle for reminding me. Perhaps I'll have another go at getting video running. | |
| Posted by: David Cook on 2024-12-22 11:13:17 Adding GemStart Universal 7.1.  Welcome to GALAXY Hardware Publishers Inc GEMStart Universal 7.1 · This version of GEMStart is for System 7.1 only: Given the memory demands of System 7.5, together with the absence of support for Color QuickDraw, we have standarized on System 7.1 as the optimal operating system for accelerated compact Macs. GEMStart Universal has been developed to maximize the potential of a wide range of different 68030 based accelerators. Particular attention has been paid to fixing known problems with sound, printing and AppleTalk. FPU support has also been enhanced. · GEMStart Universal may be used with a variety of compact Mac 68030 accelerators for the Plus, SE and Classic from-Total Systems, Mobius, NewLife, Novy, Mac Products and Extreme Systems. There should be some small improvement in performance for many of these boards once the new software is installed, and there will be a considerable improvement in overall reliablity. ·· To install GEMStart Universal : 1) System 7.1 should be installed first. · When installing System7.1, customize the installation: > Select "System Software for any Macintosh" > Select all other categories that you require (e.g. Appletalk, Laserwriter). · Complete the System 7.1 installation. · Install the System 7.1 Hardware Upgrade tuneup. 2) Choose the folder from the GEMStart Universal disk that corresponds to your accelerator. 3) Drag the Gemstart Universal icon into your system's extension folder. 4) Unless you are running VIRTUAL (which needs to load before GEMStart) make sure that GEMStart Universal loads before all other extensions. This should occur automatically. 5) Make an alias of the Gemstart Universal file, and drag it into the 'Control Panel' folder. 6) Restart your Macintosh. That's it! Now you have the latest and greatest fix for your accelerator! >> Don't forget to reinstall VIRTUAL if you are already using this utility to expand your memory to 16MB. If you are NOT using VIRTUAL, and need more memory you might consider purchasing it from GALAXY - we are making it available, especially in conjunction with the GEMStart Universal upgrade, for only $59! · Earlier versions of GEMStart will not run with Mobius, Novy, or New Life products. · The correct version of GEMStart for runnning with System 6.xx is GEMStart v 2.2. · The correct version of GEMStart for running System 7.0 is GEMStart v 3.0. · Both of the current earlier versions are included with this disk in the 'GEMStart Archive' folder. You would only use them if for some reason you choose to move to a different operating system at a later point in time. · System 7.0.1 is "quirky". It is not recommended that you use this version of the Mac operating system with your compact mac accelerator. · A System 7.5 version of GEMStart is not planned. | |
| Posted by: eharmon on 2025-02-01 16:21:59 I've obtained copies of 1.1b and 2.0.3. Probably interesting just from a historical perspective. These came off a 2.0.3 disk but it had clearly been modified, so unsure if these are complete. 1.1b comes with a tool to patch AppleTalk, but I'm missing installation instructions. 2.0.3 had a partial system folder in it, but the readme doesn't mention any extra installation steps than copying GemStart to the system, so I've only included those components. 1.1b advertises support for only the Gemini 020/030. 2.0.3 came with the following changelog: Bugs fixed: • A bug in the Apple ROMs which could cause sounds to hang or crash the Macintosh has been fixed. • The remaining floppy problems with 2.0.2 have been fixed. • GemStart 2.0.3 IS compatible with VIRTUAL 2.0.3!!!!! • Balloon help is fixed. • A problem with the location of the stack on the Gemini Classic and Gemini Ultra is fixed. • AppleTalk under Systems 6.0.6, 6.0.7, and 7.0 are now fully operational. • Digitized sound is now fixed!!!! • Copy ROM to RAM is now fixed for all Gemini accelerators and works correctly. There is still a problem with the Mercury accelerators, so it is disabled for these boards. Copy ROM to RAM is more robust since it now exploits the memory management unit built-in to the Motorola MC68030 processor. This also increases the speed of your accelerator card! • All new startup animation • SANE patches are fixed and now are highly compatible with the built-in SANE routines, trading off a little precision for more speed, which is about 3 bits of precision for more than twice the speed. • Burst mode is fully supported on compatible accelerators. • Option-click on the graphic in the top of the control panel displays a dialog which shows the current configuration of your TOTAL SYSTEMS accelerator. • Occasional disk formatting problems on some SEs is fixed. • Most disk problems with Mercury Pluses are fixed. Some issues which remain with the current version of GemStart: • LaserWriter IINT and IINTX still have problems when communicating with Mercury 030 accelerators on Pluses or earlier without 32-bit RAM. • SEs with an FDHD sometimes have a problem when restarting when the last inserted disk was an HD disk. Inserting an 800K disk prior to restarting is a workaround. When we are able to obtain the necessary information from Apple Computer, Inc., this problem will be fixed too. I think this gives us: - 1.1b - 2.0.3 - 2.1 - 2.2 - 3.0 - Universal 7.1 | |
Posted by: eharmon on 2025-02-16 20:18:19Adding GemStart Universal 7.1.I tried this out on my SE with a 40MHz Gemini Ultra today, using System 7.1.1. Seems to work fine at a basic level, and the installer does all the setup including removal of older versions, which is nice. Better than the manual setup for 3.0. Nothing obviously works better, though, which makes sense given the claims in the documentation are just bug fixes across the stack. I need to run some benchmarks to see if the claimed "small improvement in performance" is present on my Ultra. Only problem is my system seems unable to restart now. Need to see if I just have an extension conflict somewhere or if 7.1 has a specific regression. Cold start always works fine. | |
| Posted by: eharmon on 2025-02-16 22:09:22 I forgot to mention, the Universal version claims to support:
Also noticed the Total Systems and Galaxy addresses are just down the road from each other in Eugene, OR. Curiously, the 7.1 driver blacks out the street address number with question marks. While it seems a ton of accelerators were OEM boards being marketed, I'm surprised two companies offering boards were just down the road from each other. Given no Galaxy branded boards are listed, I wonder if they took over from Total Systems when they went under. Curious! | |
| Posted by: eharmon on 2025-02-17 20:28:15 I've got to be the master of monologues on this forum...anyway, ran a benchmark today and it might be the slightest bit faster. This machine only has Speedometer right now but maybe I'll get around to Norton at some point. "This Machine" is the 3.0 driver.  Rest of the scores below this were identical. Also, mysteriously, my machine shuts down and reboots fine now. Guessing the hardware was just being a little old and tired. I did rebuild the desktop so maybe something was funky. The 7.1 version appears to install itself earlier in the boot process, I wonder if that's so it runs before the 7.1 Tune Up. Anyway, from my perspective, 7.1 seems, at worst, a little better 🙂. | |
| Posted by: Veeb0rg on 2025-03-04 00:34:06 I am glad to have found this thread. I have an SE with the total systems 68030 board in it and haven't had any luck finding the software for it. I'm not fimilar with Mac's. I grabbed the 7.1 universal. Between this and the bleuscsi hopefully I can get it up and running for marchintosh!  (I have removed the battery)  | |
Posted by: Realitystorm on 2025-07-06 18:29:01Also noticed the Total Systems and Galaxy addresses are just down the road from each other in Eugene, OR. Curiously, the 7.1 driver blacks out the street address number with question marks. While it seems a ton of accelerators were OEM boards being marketed, I'm surprised two companies offering boards were just down the road from each other. Given no Galaxy branded boards are listed, I wonder if they took over from Total Systems when they went under. Curious!They seemed to be a reseller of old parts in to the late 90s, they were selling 68030/040 accelerators until at least mid 1998 I just sent a connection request to David Shipway the previous CEO of GALAXY Hardware, to see if he remembers anything about those days. | |
Posted by: eharmon on 2025-07-06 22:44:18They seemed to be a reseller of old parts in to the late 90s, they were selling 68030/040 accelerators until at least mid 1998Not sure why I never thought to check the wayback...here's the 1996 accelerator price list: •• Mac • Description • Price • Condition • Part No At the end there: GemStart Universal v 7.1 68030 Accelerator Driver [N] • $35.00 • new • SOFTW-90346 So I assume they commissioned an update from the original author to sell alongside NOS accelerators. Wild how cheap the Rockets are there! | |
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