Home
Artists
Search Recent Random
Posts
Search DMs Popular Hash Lookup Tags Random
Importer
Import FAQ
Register
Partychan Telegram ThePornDude
Home Artists Posts Import Register

LGR Oddware - Diamond Trackstar, Apple II on PC (Patreon)

Published:
2023-07-06 02:40:22
Imported:
2023-07

Content

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-6AKe2pvsQ

This one's been a long time coming! For years I've been curious about the Diamond Trackstar series of cards from the 80s. And after a couple of pricey purchases and some items courteously on loan for this video, we've finally got a nice Oddware episode to show for it.

So let's take a look at the Diamond Trackstar cards! These are effectively Apple II computers on an ISA card, bringing near-perfect compatibility to DOS PCs. The idea of slapping a whole computer inside of another computer is delightful, especially when we're talking legends like the Apple II and the IBM PC. It's one thing to run an emulator or a virtual system through software years after the systems were relevant, but this hardware was out during the heyday of each platform. The concept is brazen and awesome, I can't help but be enamored by these kinds of things! And the educational details I uncovered along the way were pretty fun, too.

Hope y'all enjoy this one! I'll be back next week with a donations unboxing, it's been like... seven months since the last one? Yee. And $5+ patrons can expect the LGR Wrap Up for June pretty soon, too!

Files

LGR Oddware: Installing an Apple II in a PC! 1980s Diamond Trackstar Cards

Exploring the Diamond Trackstar cards on LGR Oddware! Effectively Apple 2 computers on an 8-bit ISA card, bringing near perfect compatibility to DOS PCs by slapping a whole computer inside of another computer. The fact that these were out during the heyday of each platform is wild, so let's test the 1984 Trackstar and 1989 Trackstar Plus in an IBM PC XT and PS/2 Model 30! ● LGR links: https://www.patreon.com/LazyGameReviews https://www.twitter.com/LazyGameReviews https://www.facebook.com/LazyGameReviews ● Check out Brandon's Trackstar archive here: https://www.diskman.com/presents/trackstar/ ● The reverse engineered Quapple project: https://github.com/schlae/quapple ● All background music licensed from: http://www.epidemicsound.com 00:00 An Oddware Introduction 00:34 The Diamond Trackstar 02:15 QuadRAM Quadlink 02:44 Diamond Computers / Multimedia 03:56 The 1984 Trackstar 05:15 Trackstar Version 2 05:50 Trackstar 128 06:38 Dirty yet fascinating Tandy 1000 SX 06:50 LAUSD, Model Technology Schools 07:42 Trackstar E 08:13 Trackstar Plus 09:08 Unboxing an OG Trackstar 10:17 Hardware installation 12:27 Testing the Trackstar 14:55 Running The Oregon Trail 16:20 Composite or RGB 17:15 MS-DOS and Apple II modes 19:53 File transfer utility program 21:47 Moon Patrol with Gravis Gamepad 23:31 Floppy Emu and CP/M 2.2 25:04 Apple floppy on an IBM drive 26:38 Installing the Plus card in a PS/2 27:33 Trackstar Plus usage 28:47 TrackStore floppy disk images 30:36 King's Quest III, double speed test 32:38 Trackstar Plus setup utility 34:07 Apple ProDOS hard disk volumes 35:54 so yeah this thing is awesome #LGR #retro #apple #computer

Comments

Jim Leonard

Beat me to it! Guess I'll send my cards back :-D

Daniel Aufmann

That is really hilarious about the manual recommending putting tinfoil under the monitor. I recently got an Apple IIe setup and found that the TV I was using as a monitor was interfering with the disk drives and giving me all sorts of I/O errors. The solution I came up with? Take a board, wrap it in tinfoil, and put it in between the monitor and the drives. It looks ridiculous, but it actually does work, so yeah, I guess if it's stupid and it works, it's not stupid, right? :)

LazyGameReviews
>>112493069

Hehe, indeed! Can't imagine it did anything here at all with that thick steel-enclosed IBM PC XT, the Trackstar worked just fine without foil too. But yes, certainly ain't stupid if it works in the situations that need it :D

CubicleNate

Such a cool device! Thanks for this video. I like the time in the 80s and 90s when computers would play the part of multiple machines through emulation or hardware trickery. Such a neat time!