Is there anything I can do with a 5.25" floppy?

[Austin Arlitt]

I don't have an Apple ][e around anymore, but I just found a box of my dad's old 5.25" disks. Being a curious person (and also finding Zork I at the very front of the box & wanting to run it on AppleWin) I want to see how some of these games and programs function now that I'm old enough to actually read them. The last time I was playing a text adventure on an Apple ][ was in second grade with a terrible vocabulary incapable of solving the first puzzle.

Is there any place in the Austin, TX area that might be able to convert a 5.25" floppy to 3.5" floppy format for me, or are there any cheap Apple ][s still around? I may be a decade or two too late...

[Brendan]

My guess is that after twenty years they will probably be unreadable.

[tiohn]

My guess is that after twenty years they will probably be unreadable.

Then how could he tell that the first disk was Zork I?

[Quaro]

www.virtualapple.org

[Coca Cola Zero]

Then how could he tell that the first disk was Zork I?

The label on the front? The whole point of his post was that he does not have the hardware available to read data off these disks, so I think it is safe to assume he doesn't know if they are readable right now.

I wouldn't be surprised at all if most or all of them were useless. Floppy discs were pretty horrible for long-term storage.

[Skipper]

Is there any place in the Austin, TX area that might be able to convert a 5.25" floppy to 3.5" floppy format for me, or are there any cheap Apple ][s still around? I may be a decade or two too late...

If you're willing to mail them in, something like this will work:
http://www.floppydisk.com/transfer.htm

If you need an Apple II:
http://cgi.ebay.com/VINTAGE-Apple-II...QQcmdZViewItem

If you're just wanting a drive, you're probably going to need one like this (less thatn $10 on ebay):
http://cgi.ebay.com/Apple-II-5-1-4-5...QQcmdZViewItem

Or if you just want to play Zork (or any infocom game), you could go this route:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~pot/infocom/

Sounds like you just want to play the games, I would recommend that last option.

[mystery]

If you're willing to mail them in, something like this will work:
http://www.floppydisk.com/transfer.htm

"We copy only DOS or Windows based floppies. Please don't send us Apple, CPM, UNIX, or other disks."

[Skipper]

"We copy only DOS or Windows based floppies. Please don't send us Apple, CPM, UNIX, or other disks."

My bad, here is a very workable replacement for that link:

http://retrofloppy.com/

[Austin Arlitt]

The label on the front? The whole point of his post was that he does not have the hardware available to read data off these disks, so I think it is safe to assume he doesn't know if they are readable right now.

That's part of the mystery! I would have assumed that they're dead by now, but there are people on Ebay selling supposedly tested Apple ][ games still.

VirtualApple has never worked for me, but I had forgotten that the first three Zork games were released as freeware. That kind of makes half of this situation pointless. (though I'm still interested what a disk labelled "Mario Bros." is doing on the Apple II)

[JPR]

I had Mario Brothers for my Apple ][.

[Kunikos]

To OP: Viagra or Cialis, good luck.

[tiohn]

The label on the front? The whole point of his post was that he does not have the hardware available to read data off these disks, so I think it is safe to assume he doesn't know if they are readable right now.

The joke, I think you have missed it.

Edit: A 5.25" floppy can often be cured with Viagra. Hurrr.

[dgallina]

Why not pull the images from one of the abandonware sites & run in an emulator?

You've *got* the media and license in this case, so nobody can argue :-)