jordan@hpfcdj.HP.COM (Steve J. Jordan) (12/21/89)
-------------------------------------------- REVIEW: PC TRANSPORTER -------------------------------------------- The PC Transporter is an excellent product. It adds the ability to run PC software on your Apple II. It provides CGA graphics only, can expand to 640k RAM (768k from the Apple side.) It is XT compatible, and can use most of your Apple's current peripherals: monitor, keyboard, disk drives, printer, etc. It has an 8086 processor (actually a V30 which is faster--7.14 Mhz) with an empty socket where you can plug in an 8087 math coprocessor. The 3.5" disk drive can be used as an 800k drive to store PC programs on (in a SPECIAL PC-Transporter format, which is not compatible with anything), or as a 720k PC drive which is compatible with standard PC disks. (If plugged into the PC Transporter Card.) A special 5.25" disk drive must be purchased if you wish to use PC disks of that size, although any disk drives you have that ProDos can read, can be used to store PC programs in a SPECIAL format. I purchased a 5.25" PC-Transporter-compatible disk drive from a 3rd party Company. It appears to work perfect and saves money. See A+ magazine for an ad for the product. I mail-ordered my PC-Transporter and received it with a missing cable. I don't know whose fault it was, but I simply called Applied Engineering and some guy said he'd send me one for free. It came in 3 days. Installation didn't go too smooth. It took a long time to get things working. It took half a dozen long-distance calls to get everything working the way it should (incl the software.) The software isn't too flashy, but it usually does what it should. I basically use the software to transfer files between Prodos and PC-DOS (text files.) Once everything is working, the PC-Transporter is just like a PC compatible computer. I haven't found any incompatibilities except that it can't recognize the Apple joystick at all (...so much for playing games...) Some programs might have problems with the GS mouse (?-not fully tested.) And, don't forget, you only have CGA graphics. The built-in ROM on the PC-Transporter board offers a control panel similar to the GS control panel. You can select various printer or disk drivers, as well as view a translation map between the Apple II keyboard and the PC keyboard. If you really don't like keyboards that don't have function keys, then you can buy a special keyboard that looks like a PC-keyboard and plug it into PC-Transporter. The user's manual is 205 pages, half of which is Installation. The manual is pretty good, and gives a brief introduction to MS-DOS although MS-DOS System Software is NOT included with PC-Transporter. The manual provides no real technical details about the card at all, which I view as a serious problem considering I'm a programmer. I would recommend the full memory configuration of 640k--it doesn't cost much more (now that memory chips have dropped in price.) In general, PC-Transporter provides a great PC-Computer built into your Apple II. It sure saves money since you don't have to buy a 2nd monitor, keyboard, drives, modem, etc. (like you would if you were to just go buy a PC-Clone.) Written By: Steve Jordan steve@hpfcmb.HP.COM