Apple Iie Card For Mac
This page has been archived and is no longer updated. Vectronic's Apple IIe Platinum Archives Section: Vectronic's Collections (New Site): Originally Published: Nov. 10, 2003 The Apple IIe Platinum was introduced in January 1987 as a replacement for the Apple IIe Enhanced. The IIe Platinum motherboard is essentially the same as the IIe Enhanced. Apple changed the case color from the beige of the IIe Enhanced to a blue-gray color it called 'platinum.'
At the time, Apple switched most of its computers to this color. The IIe Platinum also has a smaller 80 Column Card.
The 80 Column Card allows the IIe to display 80 columns of text across the screen. Without it, the IIe can only display 40 columns. The 80 Column Card also provides the IIe with an additional 64K RAM.
The IIe Platinum has 64K onboard RAM and 128K total RAM with the addition of the 80 Column Card. The IIe Platinum uses a 1 MHz SynerTek 65C02 processor. I purchased my IIe Platinum in 2001.
With the addition of a color composite monitor, various cards, and disk drives, the whole system cost approximately $150. While the overall design of the IIe Platinum's one-piece case is the same as the IIe Enhanced, Apple gave the Platinum a more Mac-like keyboard with a numeric keypad. The IIe Enhanced did not have this keypad. The keyboard is built into all models of the II line except for the Apple IIgs, which has a detached ADB (Apple Desktop Bus) keyboard.
Like the IIe Enhanced, the IIe Platinum keyboard is a full two inches off the table, which can be uncomfortable after typing for a long period of time. Apple IIe Platinum one-piece case The monitor connected to my IIe Platinum is an Apple IIe Color Composite Monitor. This monitor is excellent for getting the most out of the IIe's color capabilities without sacrificing the ability to display 80 columns. A color television with AV jacks (as shown below) can be used if you do not have an Apple IIe Color Composite Monitor. The composite signal and the low resolution of a television CRT keeps you from taking advantage of 80 columns. 80 columns on a standard CRT television looks fuzzy. 40 columns on a television is not a problem.
This is unfortunate but acceptable if you only want to play games. It is necessary to turn off color on the IIe Color Composite Monitor when in 80 columns mode due to 'color-blast' resulting from the odd way the IIe generates the composite signal. This is accomplished by pushing a button on the front of the monitor, located under the panel cover. The IIe can use an RGB card with an RGB monitor but I have found that many games optimized for the Apple II look funny on a monitor with that much resolution. Games designed for the Apple IIe were primarily designed to run with a composite signal. Apple IIe Platinum connected to a television The IIe Platinum has two text modes: 40-columns text (24 lines, 5 x 7 dot matrix), and 80-columns text (24 lines, 5 x 7 dot matrix)(80 Column Card required).
It has three graphics modes: low-resolution 16-color graphics (40h x 48v color blocks, 40h x 40v with four lines of text), high-resolution 6-color graphics (280h x 192v dots, 280h x 160v with four line of text), and double high-resolution 16-color graphics (560h x 192v dots)(80 Column Card required). The Apple IIe Color Composite Monitor is great for games The IIe Platinum has 7 Apple II expansion slots and one Aux. Slot for the 80 Column Card (also referred to as an Extended 80-Column Text Card). Apple considered the IIe an 'open' platform and encouraged users to explore ways to configure it.
Apple provided thorough documentation of the motherboard and even provided guidance on ways to hack it. It is a true hobbyist computer. Unfortunately, it has few built-in ports and requires cards for almost anything you would like to add to the system. The only built in ports are one composite video port, one audio cassette output/input port, and one joystick/paddle port. On the motherboard, there is a residual numeric keypad port and a paddle port, both carry-overs from the original Apple IIe. My IIe Platinum has an Apple Super Serial Card for connecting an ImageWriter II printer, an Apple 5.25 disk drive card, and an Apple 800K 3.5 disk drive card. I have connected two daisy chained 5.25-inch disk drives and one 3.5-inch 800K floppy disk drive.
Apple IIe Platinum ports - port numbers 2, 3, and 10 are 5.25-inch disk drive card, 3.5-inch disk drive card, and Apple Super Serial Card respectively (port numbers on the case do not follow actual slot numbers) The only built in external ports from left to right - composite video port, audio cassette output/input, and joystick/paddle port The Apple IIe Platinum is the best Apple IIe. It has a beautiful platinum case and an excellent keyboard with a numeric keypad. Otherwise, it is the virtually the same as the older beige Apple IIe Enhanced. I love the Apple II platform, partially because I grew up using Apple IIs, but also because of its place in Apple history. While the changed the world with its innovative graphical operating system, the Apple II helped create the entire home computer industry years earlier. See Vectronic's Apple IIe Platinum in action: See more Apple-related videos on. (Click) Thumbnails.
I just discovered that you can emulate a Apple IIe on a mac! Does anyone know more about this?
Which Macs is it compatible with? How well does it work? I've always been curious about Macs (my only experience was with a Mac Classic which I absolutely adored), so it would be awesome if I could combine my IIe with a Mac. Tempest Uhh, welcome to the twenty-first century Tempest. You can also emulate IIe/IIgs on PCs as well although I've heard you will burn in hell for this. If your refereing to the IIe card for Macs, that's not an emulator but a real IIe on a Mac card.
Your probably better off running one of the later software emulators though since they're faster and have extra features for dealing with file formats and such. Just do a search for Apple IIe emulators and I'm sure you'll get a bunch of hits. Ok I found this list of systems that work with the card: Macintosh LC Macintosh Color Classic Macintosh LC II Macintosh LC III Macintosh LC 475 Macintosh LC 520 Macintosh LC 550 Macintosh LC 575. Macintosh Quadra 605 Macintosh Performa 4xx Macintosh Performa 55x Macintosh Performa 56x Macintosh Performa 57x. Can any Mac buffs out there tell me anything about these systems? Jsut how freakin' many Macs are there anyway?
I guess I'm looking for the most powerful one that will still run the Apple IIe card (which I've listed). The Performa series looks good, it's nice, compact, and it has the little 14' montior that my original Apple had. Uhh, welcome to the twenty-first century Tempest. You can also emulate IIe/IIgs on PCs as well although I've heard you will burn in hell for this. If your refereing to the IIe card for Macs, that's not an emulator but a real IIe on a Mac card. Your probably better off running one of the later software emulators though since they're faster and have extra features for dealing with file formats and such.
Just do a search for Apple IIe emulators and I'm sure you'll get a bunch of hits. How the hell can an emulator be faster than the real thing? Woudln't that mess the game up? I don't want to use an emualtor anyway, I want to use the real disks and such. I've always shyed away from emulators anyway.
Ok I found this list of systems that work with the card: Macintosh LC Macintosh Color Classic Macintosh LC II Macintosh LC III Macintosh LC 475 Macintosh LC 520 Macintosh LC 550 Macintosh LC 575. Macintosh Quadra 605 Macintosh Performa 4xx Macintosh Performa 55x Macintosh Performa 56x Macintosh Performa 57x.
Can any Mac buffs out there tell me anything about these systems? Jsut how freakin' many Macs are there anyway? I guess I'm looking for the most powerful one that will still run the Apple IIe card (which I've listed). The Performa series looks good, it's nice, compact, and it has the little 14' montior that my original Apple had. Tempest Currently there are approximate 9,744,042 models of Macintosh computers. Not all Performas have built in monitors, but there are the lateest model you will be able to use the Apple II card in. The Performa 61xx series is not compatible because it uses the PowerPC architecture.
Anyways, the upper-level stats for those Peformas are about a 90-130 Mhz processor, usually 8 meg of onboard Ram expandable to 136 (two 64 MB DIMMs, I believe) and a 1 GB HD. That's based on my memory of the last couple Performas I had, anyways.
You should be able to d/l the latest system software that's non-PPC friendly from Apple's web site. I think it's system 7.6.x, but I'm not sure. This is all from my often-failing memory so don't take these numbers as definitive. You'll still need a 5.25 drive to run the majority of IIe/c software; it's probably easier to get an original Apple II. How the hell can an emulator be faster than the real thing? Woudln't that mess the game up? I don't want to use an emualtor anyway, I want to use the real disks and such.
I've always shyed away from emulators anyway. Software-based emulators can usually run as fast as the system allows (which can be a boon for running terribly slow programs). Imagine running games like Sargon II or Chessmaster at the highest setting, and not be a deceased old man by the time the computer makes a move. Matt, Around 1993'ish or so, (Maybe a little earlier) Apple got out of control and began to create dozens of overlapping product lines and models. In this panic mode to get into every nook, niche and cranny Apple ended up causing a great deal of confusion and customer resentment, this lead to its near-death demise and Steve Jobs was able to correct the firm, cut down the product line and get things under control. I was only familiar with the Apple LC (Low Cost) models being able to use the Apple //e card, but its good to know it did work in others.
While there are many software emulators, I think having a true hardware card within the system to run things is a better solution. Curt Ok I found this list of systems that work with the card: Macintosh LC Macintosh Color Classic Macintosh LC II Macintosh LC III Macintosh LC 475 Macintosh LC 520 Macintosh LC 550 Macintosh LC 575. Macintosh Quadra 605 Macintosh Performa 4xx Macintosh Performa 55x Macintosh Performa 56x Macintosh Performa 57x. Can any Mac buffs out there tell me anything about these systems? Jsut how freakin' many Macs are there anyway? I guess I'm looking for the most powerful one that will still run the Apple IIe card (which I've listed). The Performa series looks good, it's nice, compact, and it has the little 14' montior that my original Apple had.
Apple Iie For Sale
The Apple IIe card requires a Mac with an LC Proccessor Direct Slot. Of the models on your list, the Performa 57x series probably have the most horsepower. They run a Motorola 68040, sans floating point unit, at 50-66mhz. I don't think any particular Macintosh model on your list is best if all you want to do is use the IIe card.
I don't think much horespower is required to run the IIe card. It should function fine on a low end LC (20mhz 68020). I don't think any Power PC equipped Macs came with an LC slot. I think you can upgrade the LC /Performa 575 to Power PC, but you lose the LC slot doing so. Also, you'll have to go back three OS versions to System 7 in order to use the IIe card.
You can find tech specs for all vintage Macs at. Uhh, welcome to the twenty-first century Tempest.
You can also emulate IIe/IIgs on PCs as well although I've heard you will burn in hell for this. If your refereing to the IIe card for Macs, that's not an emulator but a real IIe on a Mac card. Your probably better off running one of the later software emulators though since they're faster and have extra features for dealing with file formats and such. Just do a search for Apple IIe emulators and I'm sure you'll get a bunch of hits. How the hell can an emulator be faster than the real thing?
Woudln't that mess the game up? I don't want to use an emualtor anyway, I want to use the real disks and such. I've always shyed away from emulators anyway. Tempest Thanks Tempest, you made me laugh. Yes, the timing would mess up most games, but other software like word processors, databases, graphics programs, etc., would greatly benefit from this. Yea, I can understand about using the real thing.
If you really want a real IIe that's fast, has access to 3 1/2 inch disks among many other things, and is flat out one of the coolest computers, get yourself a IIgs. They rock and will play all your IIe stuff as well as tons of IIgs software. It will also run IIe software faster than a IIe but can easily be slowed down to IIe speed for games. Just to clarify things. The Apple II card for those Macs is not an Apple II emulator. It's an Apple II on a card.
Pretty good FAQ above. The software emulators can run faster than a standard Apple II if you have a fast Mac or PC, but since most people use emulators for games, it's not generally a big deal. Most people run their Apple II emulators at original Apple II speed. Me, I use my Apple //e for Apple stuff and my Mac LC for old Mac stuff.
(Like Continuum. Great GAME!!! B/W Thrust type game. Or Daleks!!:-) desiv. Ok I found this list of systems that work with the card: Can any Mac buffs out there tell me anything about these systems? Jsut how freakin' many Macs are there anyway? I guess I'm looking for the most powerful one that will still run the Apple IIe card (which I've listed).
The Performa series looks good, it's nice, compact, and it has the little 14' montior that my original Apple had. I've decided to forego my first foray into Macs and go with a simple IIgs. It's still a Apple II so it plays IIe games, and it plays IIgs games (not that there are alot of those). I know jack about Macs and I don't belong in that world. Best to stay with what I know. Anything special I should know about IIgs's? Tempest Aw, yeah, a IIgs.
I still have mine from 1987. A couple things you should know is that for the most part the thing runs in IIe mode; all you need to do is put a disk in the floppy drive and it'll auto-run it in either IIe or IIgs mode as necessary. The IIgs will also drop to BASIC if you hit control-reset at startup.
However, if you hit open apple-control-escape, you'll go to the system menu which, among other things, toggles between Normal and Fast mode (for when you want to limit your speed for action games). The system options are powered by a lithium atter so you may want to replace that if necessary. I have tons of IIe software and a fair chunk of IIgs stuff, including a couple of the King's Quest games.
PM me if you're interested in anything.