18/10/2011: Hard Drive Image Revisions & More Content Updates

I've been constantly revising my 32 meg hard drive images which can provide a quick setup of a virtual or real IIGS with compact flash based storage. The updates include newer versions of software and adding new ones, including more icons, cleaning up directories, colouring folders (red indicates it does not run from System 6 or isn't hard drive installable. The results are now available from the home page of 'What is the Apple IIGS?'. It should be the quickest way anyone even vaguely curious about the IIGS can quickly see what the machine can do.

In the quest to find every obscure IIGS piece of software ever made, feel free to submit your own hard drive images if they're loaded with apps (as long as they're apps no longer being sold), games (we just might find another hard drive installable version that the archive doesn't currently hold), and anything else that may be on them (graphics, sounds, etc). The older these old partitions, the better – any random setup may just hold a few gems not already archived.

Dave Touvell has submitted some awesome updates. Firstly, the archive now has the last revision of Hyper Studio, version 3.1j. I couldn't find any details as to what's different between the older 'g' version held in the archive, but it's nice to know we now have the last iteration of bug fixes and features ever for the popular hypermedia program. Also, Dave has sent an official hard drive installable version of the Print Shop IIGS, including a scan of an addendum that specifically refers to the removal of copy protection in version 1.1. In additon, Dave's scanned the docs for the Graphic Library Special Edition that came bundled with many copies of Print Shop IIGS (not mine, unfortunately!). Last but not least, Dave's also included an addition to the Graphic Exchange – originally the program included a Mac HFS formatted disk with utilities and some sample images to convert to the IIGS. This is now included in the archive, although because it's formatted in HFS, it's a Macintosh Disk Copy format disk image, which will probably only work with emulators Sweet 16 and Bernie ][ the Rescue.

I've recently also added the very excellent Script Central and Stack Central/Studio City collections for HyperCard IIGS and Hyper Studio respectively. A2 Central reported they were now available via a Creative Commons license back in 2010, so I've added them both to the hypermedia section of the archive.

In other news, I was overjoyed to read that the Apple IIGS version of Rastan was decided to be the best home conversion of the arcade title in issue 91 of Retro Gamer Magazine, outdoing all other home computing platforms and console versions!