November 3, 2008by Chris

XGS was created by Josh Thompson and was updated by Steven W. Mentzer. Both own copyright on the original material -- you can do anything you want with the source code except claim it or sell it -- XGS has moved to open source (but remains under copyright).

The server core (xgs32.dll) is written as an ATL/COM component in Microsoft Visual C v6.0 and the client executable (xgs32.exe) is written in Visual Basic v6.0.

XGS requires the xgs.rom file and, for legal reasons, the install does not include it. If you own an Apple IIGS, you can make your own ROM file. The XGS.ROM file is also available for download from the XGS Project web site. A wide variety of legal ROM images, each listed with detailed functional information, are also found at the site.

KEGS: Kent's Emulated GS. Chea Chee Keong created KEGS32 for Windows from the original Unix version created by Kent Dickey.

As the Apple IIGS OS images remain under copyright, KEGS does not come packaged with these necessities. If you own an Apple IIGS you can generate and export the files using Kent's method by creating ShrinkIt disk archives of the 5.25" and 3.5" disks and then transferring them with a modem or a serial cable or even by email to your target computer. Expanded information can be found at kegs.sourceforge.net for getting a bootable disk image.

KEGS supports fast 65816 emulation, all the Apple II/GS resolutions and audio formats, and it flies at about 80Mhz on a Pentium 4 1.7Ghz or a Mac G4 1GHz at 60 frames a second. Full screen is supported in OS X only. Further infos can be found in the KEGS read me file.

For Apple IIGS emulation right in your browser - check out the developments at the www.virtualapple.org site. It appears to only be IE6x compatible at the time of this writing with not much luck with IE 7, however, they appear to be updating the plug-in for Firefox compatibility, so here is hoping for best. You can also find a wide variety of ROM images at the site. Finally, the Free tools Association also offers an excellent Active X GS emulator with a beta version for Firefox plus demos and other miscellaneous goodness.

CS 11-8