Where can I get then image
disks ?
All the emulators come with one image disk, to show that the program works well. However, one image disk is not good enough and surely more will be needed to get access to the classic softwares you loved so much. Two options are then available to have more of them. Either you can transform your Apple IIgs floppies into proper image disks by using some programs either on Mac OS or on GS/OS. Either you download files from some Internet sites we provide on the "Links" section.
Which sort of old programs
can I get ?
All of them, from games to desktop publishing. From great FTA Demos to GS/OS applications. Look for the "Links" section of the website to have access to these files. And if there is a program you have which is not listed there, please make an image disk of it and share it with the rest of us.
And for the same reasons we cannot distribute the ROM file, we cannot give old software for copyright reasons. Except the ones on the website because the authors have agreed to do so.
Why do I need to swap image
disks all the time ?
Well, think about what are image disks once again... They are a copy of the original support. This means that if you had many floppies, you’ll have many image disks. If the program was on many floppies, you have to change them as you were doing with the Apple IIgs. And as in the original version, you could merge many floppies on an hard drive, so you can merge some image disks into a bigger image disk.
Why are they so many
standards of image disks ?
In fact, they are not so many of them, but two different things to understand. You have the file format and the original format.
The "file format" is used by the operating system for the image disk. It could be .2mg, .dc, .image, .img. This gives the information to the emulator of how to use the file, just like a quicktime movie has the .mov extension. The various formats have each some characteristics which are useful at one stage, some can be exchanged, some cannot.
The "original format" is the nature of the support. Floppy disks were either on Dos 3.3, Pascal or Prodos file systems. This is the way to organise the information on the support. So the emulator needs to follow these ways in order to find and use the right information.
Can these two formats be
mixed ?
Sure they can and most of the time, they are. So you can have an ".dc" file which contains Prodos 8 data. Or a ".2mg" file containing GS/OS data. Or any combination of these two families. However you cannot change the "original" format. You can take some files from a Dos 3.3 and under emulation put them into a GS/OS file, but if you change the "original" format to another one, it is like formatting the support : everything will be deleted...
Can I swap files from
emulation to another environment ?
Sometimes. For some programs, you can cut and past some data from an application under emulation to another one on Mac OSX. However a program written for the Apple IIgs will not work on Mac OSX ! You need an emulator to run the Apple IIgs program and then explore the data created.