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Comment by TedDoesntTalk | Hacker News Reader

The easiest and fastest way to get software onto your new beloved:

Search the internet for the FTP Apple Asimov server (there are http mirrors if you don’t want you use ftp). This is an archive of many thousands of Apple diskette images and software.

Download stuff from the archive onto an SD card. Then purchase an SD to Apple disk emulator card (plugs into one of those 7 slots and emulates an Apple disk drive). You can load software from the sd card onto the Apple just as if each file from Asimov were a real 5.25” diskette.

Also pick up one of these:

https://www.cbmstuff.com/proddetail.php?prod=WiModem232OLED

You can connect your Apple to WiFi and then essentially telnet to one off the many BBS servers that are still running. Actually you can telnet to anything on the Internet at that point. You just need to load terminal emulation software, like Ascii Express (often abbreviated as AE or AE Express), onto the Apple first.

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Wow, I'll definitely be picking up both of those cards. Thanks for the tips. I had a feeling the serial card would be my ticket to the Internet, rather than the impressive-looking, but clearly past-its-prime modem card.

Thank you for this!! I’ve got a IIe and Classic in my parents basement (where I used to spend a lot of time as a kid...) that I’ve been meaning to have shipped to me. This would be a fun project.

For completeness, here is Ian Kim's ebay store where he sells the SD Disk ][ emulator:

https://www.ebay.com/usr/ksd09?_trksid=p2047675.l2559

He doesn't have any left but is making another batch as I type this.

A cheaper way for him to get started is to use his Super Serial Card with ADTPro (https://adtpro.com). ADTPro can be bootstrapped onto the Apple using just a null modem cable ($5-10) connected to his PC and a couple of console commands. ADTPro can then transfer disk images from the PC and write them to floppy disks. Even if he also has to buy a USB serial adapter ($10) and floppy disks, it will be cheaper than buying a SD floppy emulator like the BMOW FloppyEMU ($109+).

I agree that is cheaper, but it is also more painful and slower. If you want to try out 100 different disk images, imagine writing those to 100 floppies (even if you overwrite and only purchase 10 floppies -- still a lot of time)

I don’t disagree, but there’s something magic about using old floppy drives. Even if you were a bit too young to have used them yourself, you may enjoy the experience. I think it’s worth trying even if you end up buying a floppy emulator later.

I also suggest the CFFA hard-disk emulator. I always wanted a hard disk for my Apple II.

I have one of the old ones, its good, but the new ones look even better because you can copy images from the internet directly to it.

OTOH, I also have the https://www.bigmessowires.com/floppy-emu/ for that.

The CFFA is better as a HD, while the floppy emu is good for just plugging into random disk ports (IIGS/IIC/laser 128).

There are other options besides the CFFA. There’s a South Korean guy named Ian Kim who makes the awesome SD Disk ][ emulator. Sell it on ebay. It has the best firmware I’ve used on these types of devices. It has an LCD screen and onboard controls and menus with which you can scroll through all images & select the one you want to load.

The FloopyEMU also has an LCD with menus and onboard controls to select images, change modes, etc.

They are out of stock. Do you know how often he produces them?

Floppy Emu is great. I haven't used the CFFA so I can't make a comparison. I never had a hard disk drive in my Apple II days and the Floppy Emu gives a reasonable approximation of using the Apple II w/ floppies.

I have a hard disk emulator and honestly have never used it on the //e. Maybe because very little software back in the day used them.

Does anyone have a source for a Super Serial Card, or similar that would work with this? I have had my //e since '83 and deeply regret that I never picked one of those up.

There are a few Super Serial Cards listed on eBay right now. Your deep regret can be fixed for about $20-60.

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