Question 1

How does the AppleSqueezer GS compare to the Transwarp GS and the Zip GS?

Accepted Answer

These other products don't offer memory expansion or a 224MB RAM disk, and since they are no longer produced, are generally very hard to find. In terms of performance, the AppleSqueezer compares very favorably to these products, as you can see in the What is it? section of this website. To make a long story short: the AppleSqueezer is as fast or faster than the fastest (upgraded to 17MHz) TWGS or Zip GS. Of course, in addition to the acceleration, the AppleSqueezer has additional features such as 14MB of RAM (no other RAM expansion card offers this much), and HDMI output.

Question 2

Which IIGS software is compatible?

Accepted Answer

While I haven't tested all software, you can count on at least 95% of IIGS software to be compatible. This includes:

System 6.0.1, 6.0.2, 6.0.3 and 6.0.4
AppleWorks GS
Graphic Writer III
WordPerfect
PaintWorks Gold
Platinum Paint
Pointless (TrueType vector fonts)
Beagle Draw
Beagle Write
ORCA
HyperCard IIGS
Deluxe Paint II
Soundsmith 2.0b
Dreamgrafix
Marble Madness
Animasia 3D
Out of this World
Deja VU I and II
Wolfenstein 3D
Jungle Safari
Arkanoid
Zany Golf (much smoother animations!)
ChessMaster
...obviously, a lot more! If you want me to test specific software, let me know!

There's also some software that is currently not compatible. This usually applies to some "demos" that use special hardware tricks to get the most out of the hardware, but also may be timing sensitive, making them incompatible. If you are a big fan of demos, you may want to delay your purchase. Mind you, some demos work just fine, just not all.

Question 3

What is this 32MB / 240MB RAM disk?

Accepted Answer

The AppleSqueezer GS gives your IIGS 13MB of RAM in GS/OS. This is mainly a limitation of the 65C816 CPU, which has a 24-bit addressable range (2^24 = 16MB), used for RAM and ROM. However, the AppleSqueezer has 256MB of RAM on board, so the remaining 240MB can be used for other purposes. One such purpose is a huge RAM disk. Putting your applications in the RAM disk makes them run way faster than using them from something like a CFFA3000. Check out this video by Christophe Lambert (a happy AppleSqueezer user) for a demonstration:

Question 4

Which hardware is compatible?

Accepted Answer

Here's a short list of tested hardware that is known to work:

Apple IIGS ROM01 (you may have problems physically installing it for very early ROM01 machines that have a keyboard connector installed near your CPU (J13) - if you have such a machine, you may need to insert additional CPU sockets to extend the height, or remove the keyboard connector.)
Apple IIGS ROM03
Floppy Emu
CFFA3000 
BOOTi 
3.5" 800k Floppy drive (now fully supported with latest core version)
VidHD (AppleSqueezer core v. 4 is too fast for this, but core v. 3 works well)
Uthernet II
A2SCSI - Apple II SCSI card (GGLabs)
Serial ports (SCC)
ByteBoosters DarkSound 
NumberCruncher Reloaded
Phasor
Apple II Video Overlay Card
CIRTECH Apple II series SCSI Interface 
A2FPGA HDMI card

Here what is known not to work:

MicroDrive/Turbo (at least not when acceleration is enabled, see the question about DMA support)
5.25" Floppy drive (this can probably be fixed in a later "Core version") If this is super important for your use case, you may want to delay your purchase.
System self-diagnostics (open-apple + option on powerup) does not work with AS installed.
You may have an issue resetting from the keyboard. You can do a hard reboot instead.

Hardware that is not on this list is not tested, so it's not known if it's compatible or not. As more people get an AppleSqueezer, this list can be updated with all the known (in)compatible hardware. For incompatible hardware, fixes can potentially be made and the AppleSqueezer can then be updated!

Question 5

What's the SD card slot for?

Accepted Answer

Unlock seamless performance by adding up to four 32MB high-speed volumes. This dedicated driver makes expansion effortless, giving you instant, convenient access to extra storage that is significantly faster than traditional methods.

The driver is available from this link:

https://www.brutaldeluxe.fr/products/apple2gs/applesqueezer/

Thanks a lot to Antoine Vignau for creating these drivers!!

Question 6

Can the AppleSqueezer GS be updated after I purchase it?

Accepted Answer

Yes! The FPGA core of the AppleSqueezer can be updated from the Apple IIGS itself. So when a new "core version" appears, it can be downloaded free of charge, and updated straight from your IIGS. This can be done through the AppleSqueezer Control Panel. Reasons for updating it may include: new functionality, bug fixes, performance improvements, etc. What you're doing when you update the FPGA core is, essentially, replacing the functionality of the main chip inside the card! For some more information, see also this blog post.

A user made a video on how this process works:

Question 7

Can the AppleSqueezer GS be slowed down? Can memory be reduced?

Accepted Answer

You can install a CDA (classic desk accessory) and CDEV (control panel) that allows you to disable acceleration, so it runs at stock speed. Additionally, you will be able to disable the on-board RAM (which normally gives your IIGS 14MB), so that it runs almost entirely "transparently" on your system, as if you were running your IIGS with a standard 65816. In this case, anything you have plugged into your expansion memory slot will be accessible.

You can also set the AppleSqueezer to different speeds: 3MHz, 5MHz, 8MHz, 10MHz, and 14MHz.

Question 8

Does the AppleSqueezer GS support DMA?

Accepted Answer

At this point, the AppleSqueezer GS does not support DMA, at least not when acceleration and memory expansion is enabled. Full DMA support may be added as an upgrade later if demand is there: as you will see, the AppleSqueezer consists of two PCB's, and only one would potentially need upgrading. So this would be much cheaper than getting a full replacement, and if this option becomes available, it will be possible to get an affordable upgrade (in the 50 euro range).

But for now, I prefer to have a product that many will enjoy and actually exists today, rather than extending development so long that it will never be finished and exists only in our dreams, something known as feature creep 😁 This also means that some cards that use DMA cannot be used, but others can. For instance, the MicroDrive/Turbo is not compatible because even though it allows you to disable DMA, it only disables that for external RAM. Because the AppleSqueezer also replaces internal RAM, it won't work. Other cards, such as the VidHD, are compatible. See the question about hardware compatibility for more details.

You can disable acceleration and memory expansion (make it run in "transparent" mode), and in this case DMA is supported (but not accelerated and without built-in RAM!)

Question 9

Does the AppleSqueezer GS run stable?

Accepted Answer

Yes 😀 So, you can leave the AppleSqueezer GS on all day and your system will run fine and not randomly crash, at least on the systems it was tested on so far! Random crashes, where software runs fine one time, and crashes another time, could be indicative of timing issues, heat issues, noise issues, etc. If there are issues with certain software (also check the question about software compatibility), these issues are generally reproducible and not random. Fortunately, by far most software is compatible and runs without issues.

Question 10

Does the AppleSqueezer get hot?

Accepted Answer

The AppleSqueezer was built with modern SMD components, and uses efficient switch mode regulators for power. The FPGA, a XC6SLX16 is the warmest component on the board (it also does the most work 😁) at around 55 degrees C (at 23 C ambient temperature), warm to the touch, but not so warm that it burns your finger. A small heatsink can be applied to keep it down further, but should not be necessary.

Question 11

GS/OS only reports 8MB, not 14MB, why not?

Accepted Answer

GS/OS is software-limited to 8MB, even though 14MB is addressable and usable by the IIGS hardware. In order to take advantage of the additional RAM beyond 8MB, you can enable the "Extra RAM" option in the AppleSqueezer control panel (cdev) or CDA. This still has a limit of 13MB (not 14MB) for GS/OS, but other software could use the full 14MB.

By the way, the AppleSqueezer actually has 256MB of RAM on board, so there are even more possibilities in the future. For instance, bank-switching could be used to allow using even more RAM. However, this is probably not generally usable unless software is (re)written to support that.

Question 12

Are there any videos of the AppleSqueezer GS, so I can see it in action?

Accepted Answer

Yes, there are! 😊 Here's a great video by the Action Retro YouTube channel:

One early customer from France also has made some great videos about the AppleSqueezer and posted them on YouTube. You can find them here:

Question 13

Is there any information available for developers, e.g. on accessing the 240MB of DRAM?

Accepted Answer

There is! You can download this document, which offers valuable insights for programmers seeking to unleash the full potential of the AppleSqueezer GS. It provides comprehensive instructions on harnessing the device's complete memory capacity and utilizing the SD card functionality.

Question 14

How can I reset my AppleSqueezer v2 to factory settings?

Accepted Answer

You may have run into the issue where you switched off the AppleSqueezer's built-in RAM through the AppleSqueezer control panel, but since your IIGS only has 256 KB of RAM, you can no longer boot into GS/OS to revert this setting back.

Antoine Vignau made a great tool for this: you can run this with minimal memory settings, and it will reset your AppleSqueezer's settings so that memory is enabled again!You can download it here: https://www.brutaldeluxe.fr/public/applesqueezer/restore.po

Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently asked questions