The Apple II on a PC Card - Diamond Trackstar Oddware

Exploring the Diamond Trackstar cards on LGR Oddware! Effectively an Apple 2 computer on an 8-bit ISA card, bringing near perfect compatibility to DOS PCs by slapping a whole computer inside of another computer. The fact that these were out during the heyday of each platform is wild, so let's test the 1984 Trackstar and 1989 Trackstar Plus in an IBM PC XT and PS/2 Model 30!

● LGR links:

● Check out Brandon's Trackstar archive here:

● The reverse engineered Quapple project:

● All background music licensed from:

00:00 An Oddware Introduction
00:34 The Diamond Trackstar
02:15 QuadRAM Quadlink
02:44 Diamond Computers / Multimedia
03:56 The 1984 Trackstar
05:15 Trackstar Version 2
05:50 Trackstar 128
06:38 Dirty yet fascinating Tandy 1000 SX
06:50 LAUSD, Model Technology Schools
07:42 Trackstar E
08:13 Trackstar Plus
09:08 Unboxing an OG Trackstar
10:17 Hardware installation
12:27 Testing the Trackstar
14:55 Running The Oregon Trail
16:20 Composite or RGB
17:15 MS-DOS and Apple II modes
19:53 File transfer utility program
21:47 Moon Patrol with Gravis Gamepad
23:31 Floppy Emu and CP/M 2.2
25:04 Apple floppy on an IBM drive
26:38 Installing the Plus card in a PS/2
27:33 Trackstar Plus usage
28:47 TrackStore floppy disk images
30:36 King's Quest III, double speed test
32:38 Trackstar Plus setup utility
34:07 Apple ProDOS hard disk volumes
35:54 so yeah this thing is awesome

#LGR #retro #apple #computer

[nnthayer]

The signed letter from *a technician* lends dignity both to the product and to the technician's position. What a wonderful thing to see, and something you'd absolutely never get today.

[anonymouschicken]

It feels so wrong yet so right to see old PC working with an Apple DOS!
Talk about Hackintosh before Hackintosh

[malcontender]

9:50 I can't stress how much I miss the professional touches, like those neat, tidy binders. These days you're lucky if you get documentation, it's usually all ads.

[Thebitbeard]

This would have been amazing for NES game development back in the day. Apple II systems were used for that purpose back then since the Apple II shares the same CPU as the NES. The ability to easily transfer files from the PC side to Apple II and back would have been an amazing godsend.

[InfectiousGroovePodcast]

I used to spend SO much time flipping through Computer Shopper and literally every other computer catalog I could get my hands on. Over the years, this channel has cover nearly every piece of hardware or software that I ever wondered about back then.

[MichaelMarucci]

The binder manual is a nice touch, it speaks to how "techincal" technology used to feel back then.

All of this stuff was so impressive at the time.

[dandreani]

the amount of wire bodges on the back of the first card is alarming and awesome

[PsRohrbaugh]

You need to find a server board with like 12 ISA slots, and build a "do everything" box with all these cards in there at once.

[Stonerman]

I had one of those Gravis pads when I was a kid. There´s always something in your videos that brings back memories

[danielcervantes]

Super neat video. I wanted to note that that Tandy computer you showed from LAUSD (timestamp 6:54) actually came from the same school my mom and her siblings went to for elementary school. When you showed the engraving I almost spat out my coffee cause my mom very well could have seen/interacted with that computer as a kid. Crazy find and reminder of our small world!

[Basomga]

This is amazing. It's like the equivalent of running a Mac VM in the 80s, but better

[PineappleForFun]

Just got off work, its 7:15 AM and i get an LGR video for the train ride home. Today is a good day

[jomeyqmalone]

Earlier this year I bought a Diamond branded AMD 6600XT video card. I was quite shocked to see the company name and logo on what looks like a rebranded powercolor card, but it's fun to see in my case

[anumeon]

Say what you will. Ken and Roberta sure made a company whose name will survive through the ages.. Long may the Sierra name survive in our memories

[mgrsdgfsdafsdgrsdgfsdg]

I love how the Oregon Trail made you think no one really lived on the west coast of North America. Then I grew up and realized my ancestors made that trip hundreds of years before...

[AssaulteedOne]

Everytime I see a video like this, I realize how shortsighted so many people in the general public can be about old electronic preservation. My old school used to have a whole room full of old Apple computers, adapters, and misc hardware that was largely just thrown in the garbage when cleaning out old storage closets.

How great it would be to actually sell them or send them along to someone who would use them, but sometimes that's just how it ends up in the end.

Glad to see cool hardware like this survive long enough to not only be used again, but to be shown off to the world in such loving detail amd comprehensive insight.

[BryonLape]

I tested several versions of this board in the summer of 1987. Apple Presents Apple was the standard software to run.

[TheRetroMess]

23:17 This brings to mind my early childhood misconception that certain PC game controllers also worked on Apple IIs somehow. I came to the conclusion that they somehow enabled the PCs to work with Apple software. This type of card must be why I have that memory. Because I clearly remember running Apple software on IBM PCs in the computer room. I also thought I was mistaken confusing the Apple IIs and IBM PCs that quite possibly were right next to each other in the same room. Maybe not.

[eriksiers]

I'm always interested in the whole "computer on an expansion card" idea. It's like turning your PC into a blade server.

[CaptChang]

Oh boy, that's a fun one. I used to have the opposite: Applied Engineering's "PC Transporter", that turns the Apple II into a PC compatible. :D