You Can Help!
The archive is always expanding but we need submissions from everyday Apple IIGS users like you to complete it. There are many ways you can help the archive:
Submit box scans
Submit 2image archives
Submit expansion card scans
Submit photographs of external peripherals
Submit screen grabs
Submit music recordings
Submit manual scans
Submit game solves
Written below are some simple steps for submitting any of the above to maximise quality and how to upload the files to the archive.
SUBMITTING BOX/COVER SCANS
Firstly, check the following list of required box scans needed to complete the archive. We don’t want anyone to waste their time scanning something that’s already available!
Games
Cavern Cobra, Space Fox, Space Shark, Solitaire & Cribbage, Solitaire Volume II, Mean 18 Famous Course Volumes, Mighty Marvel, Star Saga 1, and Hostage.
Applications
Beagle Draw, Deluxe Paint Arts Parts Volumes 1 & 2, Designer Prints, Designer Puzzles, Mercury, Smart Money, Master Tracks Jnr, Prosel, The Graphics Exchange, Transprog III, Express, Call Box, Disk Commander, Iconix, Sonix, Font Factory, Independence, Life Guard, Prism, Soft Switch, SuperConvert 4, Switch It!, Wings.
Educational
Color 'n' Canvas, Kid Writer Gold, Reading Magic - Jack & the Beanstalk, Once Upon a Time I & III, My Paint, Mr Py and I, Inner Body Works, InfoLab Chemistry & Life Science, Animal Tracker, Dueling Questions, Volcanoes Deluxe, Where in America's Past is Carmen Sandiego?, First Letters, First Shapes, KidTalk, MathTalk Fractions, Mad Libs, Talking USA Map, Super GS Award Maker, Talking Academic Quiz Kid, Computer Video Reader: World of Nature - Reading About Animals, Reading About Sharks, Reading About Reptiles, Reading About Fish, Weather, Global Express Atlas, Aesop's Fables, All About America, Animal Kingdom, Arabian Nights, Kinderama, Magical Myths, Math Wizard, Word Master, Logic Master, Aubudon Whales.
If you have one or more of the above, here’s the best way to scan and submit them:
1) Set your scanner software settings to default/factory reset.
2) Clean the box from dust. Ensure the surface of your scanner is also clean.
3) Lay the object down flat to the scanner’s glass and try to ensure that the item is straight (Your scanner might have bevelled edges whereby you slot the item up against keeping it at a right angle).
4) Scan the image in at full RGB colour, 100% of original size and at 300dpi. Use a 133dpi de-screen or ‘General’ descreen if your scanner software doesn’t display anything more specific. Do not use unsharp mask or allow the software to auto correct colour and tone.
5) Save as 90% quality JPG.
If you're intending to submit more than one scan, archive them together as a .zip file and upload that single file. Please be patient after pressing the submit button; as an example, it may take 2 or 3 minutes to upload 5 megabytes of data. Upon successful completion of the upload, the site will give you a 'Thank You' message for confirmation.
6) Submit Scan
Additionally, if you have any IIGS promotional materials such as brochures, advertising, etc, you can also employ this method of scanning for best possible quality.
SUBMITTING 2IMAGE ARCHIVES
Although the archive is mostly complete in regards to disk images of Apple IIGS software, there are still a few programs that have eluded collection. These are all educational titles and are listed below:
Talking Dinosaur Reader, Talking USA Map, Talking Academic Quiz Kid
Computer Video Reader: World of Nature - Reading About Animals, Reading About Sharks, Bird Watcher, Color 'n' Canvas, Inner Body Works, Snoopy's Reading Machine, Stars and Planets, Sky Travel, Land of the Unicorn, World Disk, Learning Spoken English, Electric Crayon, Atlas 2000, Geographic Jigsaw, GS Plot, Children's Writing & Publishing Center, Logic Master.
HOW TO CREATE 2IMAGE ARCHIVES
There are several ways to create 2image archives.
The easiest way is to use the Bernie ][ the Rescue emulator on a PowerMac with a built in floppy drive. Run System 6.01 within Bernie, create a new 2image disk image from Bernie’s ‘File’ menu, insert the original disk, and use the emulated Finder to do a disk to disk copy from the physical media to the virtual disk image.
You can also create DiskCopy disk images with 68000 and PowerPC series based Macintosh computers. Simply run DiskCopy 4.2 or 6.0 (version 6.0 came with MacOS 8 and higher), insert the original disk and the program will automatically create a DiskCopy disk image of that floppy disk. DiskCopy 4.2 images can be used with Bernie ][ the Rescue, where they can be converted into 2image disk images.
You can also create 2image archives from original floppy disks on an Apple IIGS, using the either the programs ImageMaker v2.2 ($5 shareware) or Asimov v2.0 (freeware). Using either program, you can insert a floppy disk into your IIGS and it will save it to another disk drive (preferably a hard drive) as a 2image archive. From there, it may be a little tricky getting the newly created 2images from the IIGS to a Mac or PC but solutions to that issue are included in the FAQ.
If you're intending to submit more than one 2image, archive them together as a .zip file and upload that single file. Please be patient after pressing the submit button; it may take 2 or 3 minutes to upload 5 megabytes of data. Upon successful completion of the upload, the site will give you a 'Thank You' message for confirmation.
SUBMITTING EXPANSION CARD SCANS
Firstly, check the following list of required expansion card scans needed to complete the archive. We don’t want anyone to waste their time scanning something that’s already available!
RAM Cards
Applied Engineering RAM Keeper, Applied Engineering GS-RAM Ultra, Applied Ingenuity GS Juice Plus, Checkmate Technology MultiRAM GS, MDIdeas OctoRAM, QRAM, On Three, Inc. On-Board, New Concepts NCS-GS RAM.
Disc Drive Controller Cards
Applied Ingenuity Inner Drive, MicroDrive IDE.
Graphics Cards
Computer Eyes GS, AST VisionPlus.
Sound Cards
Paralax Inc Sound Ace, Applied Visions FutureSound, Hyperstudio Sound Card, G Stereo.
Modem Cards
Applied Engineering Datalink 1200 and 2400 baud.
Scanners:
Lightning Scan (Box)
If you have one or more of the above, here’s the best way to scan and submit them:
1) Check that your scanner is capable of scanning depth – for example, Canon scanners that employ their LIDE technology (LED Indirect Exposure) are NOT capable of scanning expansion cards – the circuit board will most likely be blurred, while chips that sit up against the scanner’s glass will be in focus. Most older flatbed scanners ARE capable of scanning some depth of objects. If you’re not sure, do a test with a card, and if any area of it is blurry or too dark, don’t persist with it. If you’re unsure, submit it anyway but let me know of your uncertainty.
2) Set your scanner software settings to default/factory reset.
3) Carefully clean the card from dust, crud and hairs. Ensure the surface of your scanner is also clean.
4) Lay the card down as flat to the glass of the scanner as possible.
5) Scan the image in at full RGB colour, 100% of original size and at 300dpi. Do not use any de-screening or unsharp mask.
6) Save as 90% quality JPG.
If you're intending to submit more than one scan, archive them together as a .zip file and upload that single file. Please be patient after pressing the submit button; as an example, it may take 2 or 3 minutes to upload 5 megabytes of data. Upon successful completion of the upload, the site will give you a 'Thank You' message for confirmation.
SUBMIT PHOTOGRAPHS OF EXTERNAL PERIPHERALS
There is no compiled list of external peripherials yet, however, simply write in and let me know what you have to offer and I’ll let you know whether it’s required or not.
More detailed instructions will come later, but suffice to say that photographs should be taken against a pure white (or as pure white as possible) background and be taken with a tripod. Photos should be taken without a flash, which will require long exposures (hence the need for the tripod).
If you’ve had some photography experience and are willing to spend some time photographing external peripherals, gimme a holler and perhaps we can nut out a standardised way of photographing external peripherals.
Submit Photo of External Peripheral
SUBMIT SCREEN GRABS
The archive (and the coffee table book on the way) is also requiring a greater variety of screen grabs, particularly for games and even more specifically for RPGs and other games where it’s much harder to take screenshots throughout the entire course of the whole game, owing to the amount of time needed to play a game through to its end. Ideally, 20 to 30 screen grabs of a game are wanted – showing the most exciting, varied and colourful compositions of what can happen in game.
Play any game you like – just take a few screen grabs along the way. Each title in the archive will have the ‘Submit Screen Grabs’ button available for those titles that are a priority for obtaining more screen grabs.
Bernie ][ the Rescue allows you to easily copy what’s currently being emulated to the Mac’s clipboard, where you can paste into image editing software, such as Photoshop or Graphic Converter.
Although Sweet 16 v2.0 allows a correct aspect ratio display of IIGS video, please turn this option OFF if you creating screen grabs with Sweet 16. It creates anti-aliasing and pixels, which isn’t necessary for the purposes of the archive (although it looks great when using Sweet 16!). Additionally, don’t use any version of Sweet 16 prior to v2.0 for screen grabs – earlier Sweet 16s didn’t properly display a true IIGS colour palette.
It is preferable not to have the Apple IIGS border included with the screen grab.
However you make screen grabs, what’s also very important is how you save them: NEVER SAVE THEM AS JPEGs! Save them as GIF or 8-bit PNG files – these formats might only support limited colour palettes, but that’s perfect for IIGS screen grabs! And they use loss-less compression, so you don’t get any nasty compression artefacts that JPG leaves!
When you've got a collection of screen grabs assembled, archive them as a .zip file and upload that single file. Please be patient after pressing the submit button; as an example, it may take 2 or 3 minutes to upload 5 megabytes of data. Upon successful completion of the upload, the site will give you a 'Thank You' message for confirmation.
SUBMIT MUSIC RECORDINGS
Something new to the archive is the recording of music for games and music applications, so anyone can enjoy a nostalgic flashback aurally: much more convenient when at the office!
There are a couple of different ways to record IIGS music. Firstly, you could record from a real IIGS, outputting via the built in headphone jack or preferably, from the stereo enabled headphone jack of an Audio Animator, Sound Meister, Future Sound or Sound Ace, recording either into a PC or Mac. The gain or levels at which you record is important – it should neither be too loud or too soft – the volume peaks should never hit the red part of the VU metre when recording; volume peaks should only ever touch the top of the green.
You can also digitally record music with Sweet 16 or KEGS, WireTap Pro and MacOS X 10.3.9 onwards (don’t record from Bernie when running in Classic – music timing is no longer accurate). WireTap Pro, while shareware, will let you record and save as an AIF without registering, if you don’t use of any of the special features of the program. Please check to see if Sweet 16 or KEGS are providing accurate timing when emulating music, otherwise, it’s preferable to record from a real IIGS.
You could also use Bernie ][ the Rescue (running from OS 8 or 9 ONLY, because audio timing is affected when running in Classic in OS X) for emulation and output the sound from your Mac to another Mac or PC as a recording device. Again, levels are important when recording this way.
If you're intending to submit more than one mp3, archive them together as a .zip file and upload that single file. Please be patient after pressing the submit button; as an example, it may take 2 or 3 minutes to upload 5 megabytes of data. Upon successful completion of the upload, the site will give you a 'Thank You' message for confirmation.
SUBMITTING MANUAL SCANS
Some manuals are very important to appreciating Apple IIGS software. Most manuals are black and white printed documents and the best way to scan them is as black and white with these steps:
1) Set your scanner software settings to default/factory reset.
2) Clean the item from dust. Ensure the surface of your scanner is also clean.
3) Lay the item down flat to the scanner’s glass and try to ensure that the item is straight (Your scanner might have bevelled edges whereby you slot the item up against keeping it at a right angle).
4) Scan the image in ‘Black and White’ or ‘Line Art’ (depending on your scanner software) at 100% of original size and at 1200dpi. The only setting to check is the threshold setting, which I recommend be set to 90.
5) Save as TIF using LZW compression.
This method works like a high-resolution photocopy – it doesn’t leave any unnecessary anti-aliasing, and the LZW compression on 1-bit images ensures small file sizes despite the high resolution. You can also use this method to scan earlier issues of GS+ magazine (from Sept-Oct 1989 to Nov-Dec 1990) or any other type of black and white document relevant to the IIGS.
When you've got a collection of screen grabs assembled, archive them as a .zip file and upload that single file. Please be patient after pressing the submit button; as an example, it may take 2 or 3 minutes to upload 5 megabytes of data. Upon successful completion of the upload, the site will give you a 'Thank You' message for confirmation.
SUBMITTING GAME SOLVES
You can upload either PDFs or text files of any kind for game solutions or hints and tips.