Booting the right ProDOS 8 for any Apple II

Note: this has been superseded by Boot block for PRODOS or PRODOS1

Apple II ProDOS 8 version 2 requires:

• At least 64K of RAM,
• A //e compatible machine, and
• A 65C02 microprocessor.

(The original) Apple ][ and Apple ][+ users must use ProDOS 1.x.

So continuing the time honored technology tradition of creating solutions in search of a problem,  I created a front end to start one of the two copies of ProDOS in the PRODOS system file.

When a //e compatible (which includes the //c and IIgs) with a 65C02 is found, ProDOS 2 is started. Otherwise ProDOS 1 is started.

Pressing '1' or '2' during the considerably longer boot time forces the start of the selected ProDOS.

A CiderPress friendly copy is at PRODOS#ff0000 which is over 33K (67 blocks) and contains ProDOS 1.9 and 2.0.3.

A zipped 140K disk image is at prodos1and2.po.zip and contains:

• The aforementioned PRODOS (1.9 and 2.0.3)
• BASIC.SYSTEM
• PRODOS1AND2.BIN - the front end
• PRODOS1AND2.HLP - BASIC program with the help text for PRODOS1AND2
• PRODOS1AND2 - ugly little BASIC program to create your own PRODOS from two other copies of PRODOS
• Warning: Two copies of ProDOS 2 probably won't work; there isn't enough RAM.

Note that PRODOS1AND2 and PRODOS1AND2.HLP display upper and lower case.

Thanks to Andrew Jacobs for his Dev65 cross assembler.

This is intended for those wanting to create Apple ][+ friendly ProDOS disks.