Boot Apple II, Lisa, or classic Macintosh from a micro SD card

[Winston]

RAMd®d and mattkime had recent posts on gadgets from Big Mess o' Wires to add a new ROM to some early Macs, and an ADB to USB adapter.

The same guy offers the "Floppy Emu", a device which emulates a 3.5" or 5" floppy drive, or a relevant hard drive, using a micro SD card as the storage source for files. The Floppy Emu can be used to boot and load files on an Apple II, a classic Mac, or a Lisa.

https://www.bigmessowires.com/floppy-emu/

He also offers an SD card with the relevant systems for booting, and other things such as
"classics like MacPaint and Hypercard; Apple II GS/OS, ProDOS, DOS3.3, Oregon Trail, and others; Lisa Office System, MacWorks, LisaCalc, and more."

The Floppy Emu would allow me to dig out my old 512K Macintosh, which I haven't booted for almost 25 years. The internal and external floppy drives might not work, and the floppies I have are probably ready to turn into piles of iron oxide dust. And while I got the external floppy drive upgraded to 1.2 MB, the internal can only read 800 K floppies.

Like his ADB to USB adapter, he sells a case separately. Likely so people who want to mount the Floppy Emu internally don't have to pay for the case.

Interesting video on the site showing him booting older Macs using the Floppy Emu.


Good luck.

- Winston

[mattkime]

This guy's work is amazing.....more like artwork than typical engineering. I don't doubt he has some customers that very much rely on old tech - would love to hear those stories.

Computers have become objects of productivity and commerce. Its nice to be reminded that they can also be mediums of expression.

[Forrest]

Lon.tv review of a Mac Plus booting from FloppyEmu Lon.tv

[Bill in NC]

Not the first out of the gate, at least for Apple // & IIgs:

http://dreher.net/?s=projects/CFforAppleII&c=projects/CFforAppleII/main.php