Alternative for the Apple Super Serial Card
April 23, 2023 10:28 AM Subscribe
My Apple II finally showed up after 40 years(!) of wanting one, but it's missing something I'd assumed nearly all of them had. Is there seriously no real contemporary replacement for the Super Serial Card for the Apple II? There's a retrocomputing revival going on, here, people. I want to get this thing hooked up so I can write some disk images.
This comes as kind of a surprise. Other 8-bit and 16-bit platforms I've been playing with have fairly active hardware development and replacement scenes and the Apple II is a perfect platform for it in so many ways! The closest I've seen is the Simple Serial Card, which is just a parts list, a PCB layout file, and a ROM I don't have hardware to burn. Not to mention, it's been decades since I've done that much soldering.
This is a pretty essential piece of hardware for getting an Apple II up and running in the modern world and nearly-obligatory for almost every Apple II out there and I'm really surprised nobody's making a reproduction or a replacement. What are my options for connectivity here? eBaying an OEM part or springing for the Uthernet? Or is someone actually selling something to replace or upgrade what's pretty much mandatory hardware? I've got disk images to write and not a lot of patience for ADTPro over the cassette port.
This comes as kind of a surprise. Other 8-bit and 16-bit platforms I've been playing with have fairly active hardware development and replacement scenes and the Apple II is a perfect platform for it in so many ways! The closest I've seen is the Simple Serial Card, which is just a parts list, a PCB layout file, and a ROM I don't have hardware to burn. Not to mention, it's been decades since I've done that much soldering.
This is a pretty essential piece of hardware for getting an Apple II up and running in the modern world and nearly-obligatory for almost every Apple II out there and I'm really surprised nobody's making a reproduction or a replacement. What are my options for connectivity here? eBaying an OEM part or springing for the Uthernet? Or is someone actually selling something to replace or upgrade what's pretty much mandatory hardware? I've got disk images to write and not a lot of patience for ADTPro over the cassette port.
I think you're looking for Floppy Emu. Transfer files to and from modern machines using the magic of SD cards.
posted by zippy at 8:43 PM on April 23, 2023
posted by zippy at 8:43 PM on April 23, 2023
Response by poster: I'm a little reluctant to pull the BMoW box off the 512Ke, change the firmware to Apple II, and stick it on there but it's an option I've been at least keeping in the back of my mind. I'd hoped, though, to keep things as close to magnetic-media-only as possible for this one machine. Rest assured, the C64, Amiga, the TRS-80s, all the Macs, and pretty much everything else I've got has flash storage stuffed into it or hanging off of it.
I hadn't heard of c2t, though, and that thing looks awesome. I've already built a copy for when my 1/8" to 1/8" patch cables get here tomorrow. Word to the wise: the build sort of silently "succeeds" in producing a broken version if you don't have the special old version of cc65 installed. Not exactly silently, but the actual error is lost in the massive sea of compiler warnings.
posted by majick at 9:16 PM on April 23, 2023
I hadn't heard of c2t, though, and that thing looks awesome. I've already built a copy for when my 1/8" to 1/8" patch cables get here tomorrow. Word to the wise: the build sort of silently "succeeds" in producing a broken version if you don't have the special old version of cc65 installed. Not exactly silently, but the actual error is lost in the massive sea of compiler warnings.
posted by majick at 9:16 PM on April 23, 2023
Perhaps ReActive Micro might have a card that will work for you? Not sure if Mac Effects serial mouse card will also work for standard serial transfers, but they ought to be able to answer that for you.
posted by xedrik at 8:05 AM on April 24, 2023
posted by xedrik at 8:05 AM on April 24, 2023
Best answer: I might have a Super Serial Card sitting around in my basement. I don't need it, since the Apple ][GS is my old-Apple-of-choice. It worked the last time I used it, which was about 20 years ago. If I can find it, and if you'd like it, I'd be happy to mail it to you for the cost of shipping. I'll follow up with a Mefi Mail message and let you know whether I still have it.
posted by Juffo-Wup at 8:31 AM on April 24, 2023
posted by Juffo-Wup at 8:31 AM on April 24, 2023
Response by poster: Thanks! I'd have strongly considered a GS for myself, but apparently the hens around here don't grow teeth. Until then, I'm going to try to inch forward with a c2t solution to get at least a handful of disks written out. I very much owe someone a game of Oregon Trail as it was meant to be played.
posted by majick at 9:02 AM on April 24, 2023
posted by majick at 9:02 AM on April 24, 2023
I have likewise just started playing around with the Apple IIe. I got one back in March, but I have not really started using it directly. My project is to do something like the VidHD, but with an Ethernet connection from the bus-card out to an external Raspberry Pi to do the HDMI rendering.
I have most of the parts to start prototyping the bus card, just waiting on a couple more this week. Somebody did a prototype card doing something very similar but a little less ambitious. Only VGA, no external ethernet. I’m going to take that design as a base and extend it.
Ultimately, I think this project may develop into something that works as an HDMI-out card, and as a tile-based graphics accelerator card, and as a memory expander card, and as a virtual hard drive. And more!
As soon as you have a microcontroller with an Ethernet port and a reasonable amount of extra working memory, able to interface directly with the Apple bus, a huge amount of stuff becomes possible. And I think I can do it basically with off-the-shelf parts plus a WizHAT ethernet-enabled Pico board.
posted by notoriety public at 9:23 AM on May 1, 2023
I have most of the parts to start prototyping the bus card, just waiting on a couple more this week. Somebody did a prototype card doing something very similar but a little less ambitious. Only VGA, no external ethernet. I’m going to take that design as a base and extend it.
Ultimately, I think this project may develop into something that works as an HDMI-out card, and as a tile-based graphics accelerator card, and as a memory expander card, and as a virtual hard drive. And more!
As soon as you have a microcontroller with an Ethernet port and a reasonable amount of extra working memory, able to interface directly with the Apple bus, a huge amount of stuff becomes possible. And I think I can do it basically with off-the-shelf parts plus a WizHAT ethernet-enabled Pico board.
posted by notoriety public at 9:23 AM on May 1, 2023
In general, you are going to find it extremely uphill going to do anything with floppies. Nobody is making the disks anymore, and the existing stock are all getting older and less reliable over time.
There are, however, a number of modern options for disk access, some of which have already been mentioned here. They don’t hit the nostalgia sweet spot, but they work more reliably, more quickly, and more conveniently than floppies.
Doing the footwork to make some working floppies is a good and fun project (such as your “Oregon Trail as it was meant to be played” comment implies), but when you want to move onto doing other Apple stuff, you are probably going to want to leave the floppies behind.
posted by notoriety public at 9:49 AM on May 1, 2023
There are, however, a number of modern options for disk access, some of which have already been mentioned here. They don’t hit the nostalgia sweet spot, but they work more reliably, more quickly, and more conveniently than floppies.
Doing the footwork to make some working floppies is a good and fun project (such as your “Oregon Trail as it was meant to be played” comment implies), but when you want to move onto doing other Apple stuff, you are probably going to want to leave the floppies behind.
posted by notoriety public at 9:49 AM on May 1, 2023
Response by poster: I do have a pretty substantial stock of a couple hundred viable 5.25" DSDD blank disks. Every other machine here (and there are quite a few) is kitted with flash storage and access in one way or another to the zpool at a minimum and usually the entire Internet. Plus, usually, gobs of other modernizations like ridiculous quantities of memory or ridiculously overpowered CPU upgrades. I'm going to see how long I can hold out with the Apple II as a standalone non-modernized machine.
If it comes to it, though, I'll pry the BMoW thing off the 512Ke and stick it on there. I might have to when the SoftCard gets here.
posted by majick at 6:56 PM on May 1, 2023
If it comes to it, though, I'll pry the BMoW thing off the 512Ke and stick it on there. I might have to when the SoftCard gets here.
posted by majick at 6:56 PM on May 1, 2023
This thread is closed to new comments.
If you haven't yet seen the Apple ][ Disk Server it's pretty magical (as is the c2t tool)
posted by credulous at 12:09 PM on April 23, 2023