The XTRA8Bit 32 MB image for the Apple II platform

 A Brief History of My Journey with the 8 bit Apple II

When I was still in grade school my father brought home a computer terminal that we could use to connect to a time-sharing mainframe system via acoustic coupler modem.  It was slow. It was primitive. It was fascinating. My brothers and I used it to play Hunt the Wumpus and Star Trek.

Upgrades followed and eventually we had an Apple ][+ with an Amdex color monitor, 2 5.25" Disk II drives, a Hayes Micromodem, a Mountain Hardware clock card, and an Epson MX-80 printer. In addition to being used by my father for a variety of work related purposes and charity work, and school paper writing using Apple Writer, it was also used to play games like Lemonade Stand, Little Brick Out, Autobahn, Olympic Decathlon, Akalabeth, and Wizardry. Of course we had LockSmith and Copy ][+, but we used disk copying tools only to make backups for our original purchased 5.25" disks, because in a family of 5 young boys the fragile floppy 5.25" disks were prone to damage before their time.  My interest gravitated to BASIC programming, initially so that I could customize Little Brick Out and outscore my brothers, but later to develop more sophisticated HELLO programs, a Slot Machine game, and enhance Apple's File Cabinet program to suit the needs of my growing comic book and record collections. I was the only one in the family who caught the programming bug. While this cut significantly into my AD&D time, it seemed a fair trade-off.  All of this was before computer labs were common in schools, the internet, and national BBS systems like AOL, so subscriptions to magazines like Nibble, A+, and InCider were my primary way of gaining knowledge and there was really no way to share anything I was developing.  It never occurred to me to finalize and package anything I was doing for sale, nor did it ever occur to me to steal other people's work. So I was never involved with the communities who did.

I attended a computer summer camp at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute focused on Pascal programming, and then took a summer programming course at the University of Notre Dame that used early Macintosh computers so I had to buy a single 800K 3.5" diskette.  It cost me $5 at the ND bookstore.  I remember thinking that $50 for a box of 10 disks was crazy expensive. But my experience with the diskette was so much better than using 5.25" disks that I quickly bought a VTech 3.5" Drive and Universal Disk Controller card so that I could make 3.5" disks my primary development storage. To support DOS 3.3 I bought UniDOS Plus so that I could store DOS 3.3 programs on 3.5" disks as well.  Having 3.5" disks made using ProDOS reasonable so I began playing with Apple's newer operating system for the 64K Apple II family. This opened the door to developing intelligent startup programs that could run on DOS 3.3, UniDOS, or ProDOS disks.  Since ProDOS had clock support and date stamped files, I also started looking more closely at clock routines that worked with the Mountain Hardware clock card.

As the Apple //e gained in popularity more and more of the magazine articles covered //e specific features like Mousetext, DHR graphics, the open and closed Apple keys, and the 80-column card. This was mainly ignored by me as I was starting college and these new features weren't compelling enough for me to switch from my trusty Apple ][+.  My freshman year in college I was one of the only people in the dorm that had a computer, the other being a freshman across the hall with a brand new 512K Macintosh. We connected them using ASCII Express Pro so that he could print his papers on my Apple][+ since we found that the Epson printer fonts made the papers seem slightly longer than when printed on his ImageWriter.

When the IIGS was released I was completely blown away by its capabilities and appearance and bought one - CPU/keyboard/mouse - and the Apple RGB monitor. My UDC card worked in the IIGS in slot 5 and I was able to purchase a custom cable from Redmond Cable that allowed me to connect my 2 Disk ][ drives to the disk port. I later bought an Apple 3.5" drive, but I never did buy an Apple 5.25" drive. My focus switched to 16 bit software, icon creation, and after its release HyperCard IIGS became my favorite development tool. But by 1995 I was no longer developing on the Apple II and that interest slumbered for many, many years.

My Apple II Interest Awakens

During the worldwide COVID pandemic in 2019 I began working from home and decided to set up some of my old Apple II computers in my work area to make it feel more cozy. That has led to my revisiting many of my 1990's development efforts, publishing 9 issues of Script-Central Special Edition and other HCGS efforts, and the BASIC A2.Jukebox program which utilizes Micah Cowan's machine language routine for playing music on any Apple II.

In the early 90's I was on AOL and GEnie and Delphi and uploaded my own developed software as well as downloading freeware and shareware. Some of that was for the 8-bit Apple II and as a result I have a decent amount of software and programs. At times in the early 90's I attended computer swap meets and purchased disks of Apple II software. While these were often advertised as shareware or freeware collections, they sometimes included cracked 8-bit games and so I acquired some of those as well. Nothing like the 4 AM collection available now, but a small number of games and programs, no longer published, that may be of interest to the vintage Apple II community.

About the XTRA8Bit 32 MB Image

The XTRA8Bit image is a 32 MB hard drive image that can be booted on any Apple II that can run ProDOS. This image includes all of the software that I had in my collection that I did not readily find on other published disk images for BOOTi, XDrive, and other current Apple II storage solutions. The image also includes my own 8 bit software development including three new BASIC program launchers.

If you want to learn more about these program launchers keep reading. If you just want to download the image: get it here or browse all of my Apple II downloadable software here.

SoftLaunch

When booting the XTRA8Bit image a short startup program loads that allows setting the ProDOS clock and then launches the program SoftLaunch. SoftLaunch is a BASIC program that works on any 64K Apple II and displays a menu constructed from its preference file. SoftLaunch can display text files (using Karl Bunker's DogPaw) and on mouse-enabled //e and //c computers the mouse can be used to make selections. SoftLaunch will work just as well on a 40 column Apple ][+ as an 80 column Apple //e, //c, or IIGS.

SoftLaunch screen in 80 columns

SoftLaunch can launch only the applications defined in its preferences file and does not do disk browsing. One of the applications it can launch is BREEZE which does allow browsing.  More about BREEZE below.

The Window, Windows, and SneeZe Program Launchers

The Window program launcher was written by Andy Anderson in 1987 and updated by Fred "AG6O" to use Karl Bunker's DogPaw and allow SHR graphics to be displayed. Window allows browsing to launch BASIC, SYS, and BIN programs, view HGR, DHR, and SHR graphics, and reading TXT, SRC, and AppleWorks documents (via DogPaw). Window will not work on an unenhanced //e or earlier Apple II computers. It requires 80 columns, mousetext, and keys that are not on pre-//e keyboards. Written in BASIC though allowed the program to be modified easily.

Window v1.51.2 by Andy Anderson, w/ mods by AG6O

Karl Bunker and Dean Esmay modified Window for the purposes of the disk magazine A2-Central On Disk, renaming it Windows. This version was modified to work on unenhanced //e computers and added several features such as scanning text files for a string and booting from a slot.

Windows 1.95.A2 by Karl Bunker

Karl Bunker wanted to do more with it to support IIGS specific features - like display 3200 mode pictures - and decided to rewrite it entirely and move much of its code into machine language routines. He called his new application SneeZe. The final version was 2.3, though its screen shows 2.2.

SneeZe v2.3 by Karl Bunker

SneeZe is highly dependent on machine language routines for file display, graphic display, and even program launching. Unfortunately this makes further modifications challenging.

Window.Launcher/Window.2025

Window.Launcher/Window.2025 was developed based on the Window.151.2 code (I had not even looked at the Windows 1.95.A2 or SneeZe code). My primary intent was to develop a version of Window that could be used as a program launcher for any Apple II that had lowercase capability. In addition, files are listed in alphabetical order and commands are changed to use keys that are available on all Apple II keyboards. Because of memory restrictions the program was split into Window.Launcher and Window.2025. Window.Launcher loads routines like DogPaw into memory and then initiates Window.2025. If an Apple II only has 40 column capability then Window.2025 will display the file list and allow displaying the commands on a separate Help screen. On Apple II's that have 80 column capability Window.2025 defaults to 80 column mode but can be switched to 40 column mode with a keypress.

Window.2025 in 40 column mode

Window.2025 in 80 column mode

However, because all of its code is in BASIC, it was not possible to add all of the features desired.

Breeze and BREEZE.6502

After looking at the features of Karl Bunker's Sneeze, Breeze was written to merge the capabilities of Window.2025 with the more advanced graphic display features of SneeZe and provide a version that would work with even an Apple II that only has uppercase capability and allow mouse use. The Boot Slot command from Windows and SneeZe was added as well as file/folder count display.

Breeze in 40 column mode

Breeze in 80 column mode

Breeze uses the DISPLAY command from the Sneeze.Utils to display HGR, DHR, SHR, and 3200 mode graphics. Unfortunately the Sneeze.Utils are incompatible with 64K Apple II's so the BREEZE.STARTUP program determines the kind of computer being used and launches BREEZE.6502 instead of Breeze if running on an Apple II or ][+.  Since Sneeze.Utils modifies BYE to initiate a program named SNEEZE, there is also a SNEEZE program which duplicates the code of BREEZE.STARTUP.

BREEZE.6502

BREEZE.6502 Help screen

Because Breeze uses Karl Bunker's Sneeze.Utils it was possible to add more BASIC code and so a few features are in Breeze but not in BREEZE.6502.  Breeze displays the day and date and has a command to set the ProDOS clock.

Breeze uses Karl Bunker's DISPLAY command to display graphics, and so requires a keypress to advance through graphics when using the slideshow feature. Breeze.6502 can only display HGR graphics but auto-advances through graphics and can be set to repeat the slideshow indefinitely by pressing R.

SneeZe has additional undocumented machine language code for launching programs that Breeze DOES NOT use. SneeZe and Breeze remove DogPaw from memory when launching programs, but BREEZE.6502 does not. So it is possible that SneeZe may be more successful at program launching, although it will not work on all Apple II models.

Both Breeze and Breeze.6502 look for a mouse and will allow it to scroll through files and back up or select a file or directory. However, using a mouse with BASIC is tricky and can sometimes cause the program to become unresponsive. If this is the case then both programs can be changed to ignore the mouse by altering lines 9 and 10. This is explained in the documentation included with Breeze.

Feature Comparison

Feature	Window	Windows	SneeZe	Window.2025	Breeze	Breeze.6502
Apple II and ][+ compatibility*				✅		✅
Unenhanced //e compatibility		✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Does NOT require lowercase						✅
Does NOT require mousetext		✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Does NOT require 80 columns				✅	✅	✅
Automatic slideshow advance	✅	✅		✅		✅
Repeat slideshow						✅
40/80 column toggle				✅	✅	✅
Mouse support**					✅	✅
Relaunch after BYE		✅	✅		✅
Display HGR	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Display DHR	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Display SHR (on IIGS)	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Display 3200 mode (on IIGS)			✅		✅
Volume selection from list			✅
Volume Prior/Next cmds				✅	✅	✅
Boot Slot			✅		✅	✅
CAT/CATALOG				✅	✅	✅
Dash command (for EXEC)				✅	✅	✅
Sorted File Display				✅	✅	✅
Dynamic File Display	✅	✅		✅	✅	✅
Show Current Slot and Drive				✅	✅	✅
Show Free Space***			✅	✅	✅	✅
Show File Lock Status	✅			✅	✅	✅
Launch S16 (on IIGS)				✅
View TXT, AWP, APW, SRC	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Print TXT, AWP, APW, SRC	✅	✅	✅
Delete file	✅		✅
Scan files		✅	✅
Copy files			✅
Display Date correctly****					✅
Set Date and Time					✅
Show file and folder count*****			✅		✅	✅

Note that BREEZE.STARTUP determines whether to initiate Breeze or BREEZE.6502 based on the Apple II machine type.

* Window.2025 will work on any ProDOS capable Apple II that has lowercase.

** Window.2025 does not include mouse support, but there is an alternate version that has limited mouse support but sacrifices displaying graphics.

*** SneeZe shows free space only when typing ?; Window.2025, Breeze, and BREEZE.6502 show free space using the CAT or CATALOG feature

**** SneeZe displays the date, but assumes all years are in the 20th century. Breeze determines the century using a window from 1940 to 2040.

***** File and folder count shown will be low if the number of entries in the directory exceeds 255. Breeze allows up to 255 files in a directory but its practical limit is about 75. Breeze will show a + sign on the file/folder count line when there are more than 255 entries in the directory.

All of the above programs are included on the XTRA8Bit image so if you prefer to launch something other than Breeze you can simply edit the SoftLaunch preferences file to do so.

To download the image: get it here or browse all of my Apple II downloadable software here.

The "HCGS Best Of" 32 MB Disk Image for Apple IIGS

HCGS Best Of Home stack

HyperCard was first released for the Macintosh in 1987 and through its final release v2.4.1 in 1998 the product provided an assortment of Apple developed stacks; some for personal productivity and others to assist in stack development. HyperCard IIGS was first released in 1990 and updated to v1.1 in 1992 and also included some Apple stacks, but not as many as were included with the Macintosh releases.

HyperCard 1.2.5, released in 1989 and the version of HyperCard that HyperCard IIGS is based upon, included the personal productivity stacks for managing addresses, phone contacts, To Do lists, and weekly and monthly event calendars. There was also a Phone stack to facilitate using the computer with a modem to make calls from an office environment. For stack developers, many resources were provided via the Art, Button, Card, and Stack "Ideas" stacks. There was also a "Plots" stack for creating simple pie, bar, and coin charts for use in presentations. At the time Apple was using HyperCard internally for product documentation, training, and presentations, and the "Plots" stack was intended to be an aid to Apple's own employees as well as customers. Another stack "Quotations" was included that could be used to keep track of favorite short quotations.

HyperCard v1.2.5 Home card

HyperCard IIGS which was released in 1990 and updated to v1.1 in 1992 included the personal productivity stacks: Addresses and Calendar, and development stacks: ScriptersTools, ArtIdeas, ButtonIdeas, IconEditor, and TuneBuilder. No graphing stack was provided, probably because Apple did not intend HCGS to be used for internal presentations at Apple. The IconEditor stack was provided because, unlike Macintosh HyperCard, HCGS did not include a built-in icon creation mechanism. In keeping with Apple's view of the IIGS as a computer primarily for children, a jigsaw puzzle stack was included and two educational stacks were included: Birds and StoryBoard. The What's New and StoryBoard stacks included with the v.1.1 release demonstrated the use of two floating palettes (HyperCard calls them "windows"), similar to those made available in Macintosh HyperCard v2, but Apple released little documentation explaining how to use those palettes in your own HCGS stacks and no utility for creating them.

HyperCard IIGS v1.1 Home stack Welcome card

HyperCard IIGS What's New stack

As Apple continued to develop HyperCard for the Macintosh they changed the stacks that were released with the product, reducing the number of personal productivity stacks included.  The stack "Stack Templates" was created which combined several of the formerly released stacks into one stack which could be used to generate the individual stacks if desired.

Stack Templates stack from HyperCard 2.4.1

The stacks that could be generated from the Stack Templates stack were not identical to the earlier stacks that had been provided, but were comparable in their features.

HyperCard 1.2.5 To Do stack

To Do template from Stack Templates

HyperCard 1.2.5 Address stack

Names & Addresses template from Stack Templates

HyperCard 1.2.5 Weekly Calendar stack

Appointments template from Stack Templates

The HyperCard 1.2.5 Phone stack was replaced by the Phone Dialer stack.

HyperCard 1.2.5 Phone stack

HyperCard 2.4.1 Phone Dialer stack

The Plots stack was replaced by the Graph Maker stack.

HyperCard 1.2.5 Plots stack

HyperCard 2.4.1 Graph Maker stack

Several additional stacks were provided to aid in stack development. The Power Tools stack included several utilities, including "Super Grouper", which was based on an earlier stack called Groupies, and a Resource Mover stack to facilitate moving sounds, externals, icons, and other resources between stacks.

Super Grouper from HyperCard's Power Tools stack

Resource Mover from HyperCard's Power Tools stack

A pair of stacks, Readymade Buttons and Readymade Fields, provided a number of pre-scripted buttons and fields that could be dropped into any stack.

HyperCard Readymade Buttons stack

HyperCard Readymade Fields stack

HCGS had only the Addresses and Calendar stacks but no equivalents to the Macintosh Stack Templates stack, Phone Dialer stack, Graph Maker stack, Power Tools stack, or ReadyMade Buttons and Fields stacks.

HCGS Addresses stack

HCGS Calendar stack

The HCGS Best Of image seeks to address these gaps. It presents a version of HyperCard IIGS that might have existed had Apple continued developing HCGS beyond 1992 and chosen to provide solutions to the HCGS community that were comparable to those provided to the Macintosh HyperCard community.

Many of the stacks included on the HCGS Best Of image have been released previously by Brendan Bellina on issues of Script-Central Special Edition from 2019-2024. The HCGS Best Of image also includes the unofficial HyperCard GS 1.2 update developed by Antoine Vignau that addresses a bug in HCGS Y2K date handling.

The image includes several stacks for adding additional functionality to HCGS - such as HyperText links and talking - and several stacks that provide additional documentation - HCGS Bug Tracker, HCGS Xtras (a documented collection of HCGS externals), HCGS Palettes (explains how to use the palettes introduced with HCGS 1.1), and Apple II Technical Notes. There are also HyperCard courses, resource handling stacks, icons, utility stacks, some useful fonts, games, the four HyperHack stacks released by Apple, applications such as HC.Word.2023, HyperTuneMaker, MyPics, and HyperMover v1.2 (a developer utility for migrating stacks between Mac and IIGS), and much more.

HCGS Stack.Templates stack

HCGS More.Templates stack

HCGS To Do template from Stack.Templates

HCGS Appointments template from Stack.Templates

HCGS Phone.Dialer stack

HCGS Graph.Maker.GS stack

HCGS Groupies 3.2 GS stack

IIGS Resource Mover (by Apple)

HCGS Readymade.Btns stack

HCGS Readymade.Flds stack

The 32 MB HCGS BestOf disk image can be downloaded from the Apple II section of the Silverwand Software site at https://sites.google.com/view/silverwandsoftware/apple-ii-forever

Instructions for running this within a web browser

It is possible to run IIGS applications like HyperCard IIGS within the IIGS emulator "Bernie ][ the Rescue 3.0" on classic MacOS 8 and 9. It is possible to run classic MacOS 8 and 9 within a web browser from the site infinitemac.org. Note that I am not affiliated in any way with infinitemac.org or the developers of Bernie and it is possible that in the future these instructions may not work perfectly.

What you will need:

From the Apple II section of the Silverwand Software site download without unzipping and move to your desktop:

Customized Bernie ][ The Rescue 3 image with HCGSBest Of

If your web browser is configured to automatically unzip downloads and moves the zip file Bernie ][ The Rescue 3.0.zip to your trash you will need to recover the zip file from your trash, because the zip file is what the MacOS emulator at infinitemac.org requires.

Initiating a MacOS Virtual Machine (VM)

1. Using Chrome or another modern web browser go to infinitemac.org

2. Scroll down to the Mac OS 8.5 emulator and click the Run button to create the Mac Virtual Machine (VM)

3. Drag the downloaded file "Bernie ][ The Rescue 3.0.zip" from your desktop onto the VM desktop. It should very quickly copy the file to the VM Downloads folder. During this process you will get a few errors stating that "This disk is unreadable by this Computer" with the options to Eject or Initialize. Choose the Eject option each time.

4. Open the ":The OutsideWorld:Downloads" folder and drag the "Bernie ][ The Rescue 3.0" folder onto the "Saved HD" desktop icon (position the mouse pointer over the icon's ring, not the empty center of the ring). This will create persistent copies of the files that are stored in your web browser, allowing you to update them as your wish without altering the original downloaded image and they will be retained across web browser sessions.

Initiating Bernie ][ The Rescue within the VM

Open the "Saved HD" volume displayed on the VM desktop.

Double-click the "Bernie ][ The Rescue 3.0" folder within it to open it.

Double-click the "Launch HCGSBestOf" icon near the bottom of the window. This is an executable script that will first copy the Bernie preferences file from the "HCGSBestOf Prefs" folder to the "Macintosh HD: System Folder: Preferences" folder and then launch the Bernie ][ The Rescue 3.0 application. (Using this script prevents you from having to setup the Bernie preferences each time you launch the VM. If however you decide to change the Bernie preferences then you should copy the Bernie Prefs file from the "Macintosh HD: System Folder: Preferences" folder to the "Saved HD: Bernie ][ The Rescue 3.0: HCGSBest Of Prefs" folder so that your new preferences settings are retained.)

The first time you do this you may get an error from Bernie that the startup disk cannot be found.  In that case do the following:

1. Open Bernie's settings by using the "Setup > Preferences..." menu option.

2. Click on the "Storage" icon and then click the button "Select Startup Disk or Folder..."

3. In the displayed file dialog navigate to ":Saved HD: Bernie ][ The Rescue 3.0"

4. Highlight "DiskImages" by clicking on it once, and then click the "Choose" button.

5. Close Bernie Preferences by clicking the close box in the upper left corner of the window.

6. Quit Bernie by using the "File > Quit" menu option. If prompted choose "Shut Down".

7. Open the folder "Macintosh HD: System Folder: Preferences"

8. Drag the file "Bernie Prefs" from the Preferences folder into the folder ":Saved HD: Bernie ][ The Rescue 3.0: HCGSBestOf Prefs". If prompted, choose to replace the existing file.

9. Double-click the "Launch HCGSBestOf" icon to launch Bernie.

During IIGS booting an error message may be displayed that Battery RAM settings have changed. If this occurs just press the return key and the boot process should continue.

When the boot of the IIGS has completed you should be in the IIGS Finder desktop.

IIGS System 6 Finder desktop

There are a number of applications preinstalled on the GSHD1 and GSHD2 images. To quickly launch applications the colorful TransProg III menu in the menubar can be used. Click on its icon and use the customizable hierarchical menu to select an application.  HyperCard IIGS is in the Hypermedia category along with HyperStudio.

Accessing the TransProg III menu

Once the Home stack is displayed you can click on the buttons at the bottom to navigate to the different cards in the stack and launch the stacks that you want to look at.  Since you are running an emulator within a VM within a web browser you should not expect great performance, so some stacks (like Fangborne for example) will be painfully slow. If you really want to use such stacks then you should download a IIGS emulator that will work on your platform rather than running a VM in a web browser. You can also experiment with Bernie's preferences to set the IIGS emulator speed.

HCGS Best Of Home stack Welcome card

Click on "My Name ..." to customize HyperCard with your name.

Click the balloon button above "Home Stack" to read about some of the enhancements made to the Home stack.

WARNING: While the infinitemac.org site claims that a backup of the Saved HD volume can be made by dragging contents to the ":The Outside World:Uploads" folder, I have found this to not work reliably and the created Zip file is often missing content. I do not recommend counting on the Saved HD volume for anything you truly care about, like stack development. If you care about your content then you should use a real emulator.

When you are finished:

- Quit HyperCard IIGS

- From the IIGS Special menu select Shut Down and choose Shut Down in the dialog.

- In the VM menu for Bernie select File > Quit and then choose Shut Down in the dialog.

- Shut down the VM