Apple IIGS computers (GS = graphics + sound) is a 16-bit personal computer released on Apple's 10th anniversary by Apple Computer Inc on September 15, 1986. the Apple 2 GS was the fifth and most powerful computer to be released from the Apple II computer series. It was thus designed to have backwards compatible with the Apple II software and hardware. The 2 GS CPU came with an in-built MOS 6502 emulation, which is the CPU in all the Apple II line of computers. The IIGS was also the first Apple computer system to make use of the Apple Desktop Bus (ADB), this is a low-speed bi-directional serial bus which connects input devices, like keyboards, mouse devices, and graphics tablets to the IIGS, this was later on replaced by the USB (Universal Serial Bus) in the late 90's. The Apple IIGS was Apple’s response to its major competitors at the time; Commodore Amiga, and Atari ST. Being built as the Apple with the best colour graphics user interface in 16 colours, the IIGS also had the best sound, as it utilized the Ensoniq sound chip, which came with an entire 64K of RAM dedicated to it and is capable of playing 15 simultaneous sounds, this computer genius was quick to gain popularity among users and outsell the competition.
When it comes to games, the system was capable of playing standard Apple ][ games, and also games made specifically for the GS. These Apple 2GS games were highly entertaining, especially in terms of sound and graphics and likewise packed with productive and educational game series. However, with Apple increasingly focused on the Macintosh platform, Apple ceased II GS production in December 1992 and thus faded out unceremoniously and so did the thousands of floppy disks that housed great Apple II GS games. But with the aid of ROM technology the great games on the almost forgotten floppy disks have been rescued and preserved for posterity. Users can still relieve great game memories with the aid of Apple IIGS ROMs file to enable game play on their newer devices. These Read Only Memory files more popularly known as ROM(s) are files that house a copy of your games ripped from the original game source or saved from an online download. This means that anyone can easily and conveniently get the Apple 2 GS ROMs without having a old computer.
From action packed games such as Airball, an isometric action games that is similar to Marble Madness in terms of graphics, but comes with much more complex controls and game play; to Strip Poker II, a computer version of five-card draw poker featuring photos of women (models, Suzi and Melissa, but expansion disks were also available), all rendered in digitized graphics, you are sure to find something that will keep you entertained from the Apple IIGS game library. Other great games from the GS catalogue include Road Rash, Bubble Ghost, Championship Basketball - Two-On-Two, Captain Blood, Dark Castle, Dream Zone, Zork, and so much more, racing, poker, puzzle, adventure, sports, and combat games.
Back when Apple IIGS computers were all the rage, games were stored on copy-protected floppy disks. The computers were discontinued decades ago and these game floppy disks pretty much went extinct with but overtime a couple of emulator creators have worked at preserving as much of the throwback catalogue as possible, making each game playable via an Internet browser. Once an Apple IIGS game has been downloaded and saved in a ROM file, you would also need to download an emulator to enable you play the downloaded game. An emulator is a software that can mimic play of any file format on your device. There are quite a number of emulators you can download online, some of the most popular ones that support Apple II game ROMs include;
This is an Apple II emulator for Windows that is able to emulate Apple II GS, II+ and II e ROMs. It also emulates the extended keyboard, has a built-in 80-column text mode, 128 Kb of RAM, two 5.25 inch floppy drives, a joystick, paddle controllers, an Ethernet support, soundcard, hard disk images, a serial card and 65C02 processor. It is able to emulate both the monochrome Apple II monitor as well as the colour monitors, with lo-res, hi-res and double hi-res graphics mode all being supported. You can save states of the system as you go.
This emulator for Mac OS lets you play the old Apple games and it supports all graphics modes, allowing you to control the game paddles with a USB gamepad or mouse and emulates the internal speaker. If a user wants to temporarily interrupt game play, Virtual ][ can allow them to save the entire virtual machine, and continue from where they left off. If you have original diskettes and a working Apple II GS, Virtual ][ can easily allow you convert the diskettes to the Mac, even those that are "copy protected".
You can easily play old-school System games on your Android device using the KEGS IIgs Emulator.
This emulator is an open source emulator that allows you to play games that ran on Apple System and comes with several shareware games and software. It also allows for the use of external disk image (ISOs) that can be loaded into an SD card memory space. There is also a mouse emulation support on this app.
Other emulators that can play Apple IIGS ROMs games include:
MAME
Sweet16
Catakig
cAndy Apple
OpenEmulator
Agat Emulator
MicroM8
Note that before you download any of these emulators you can also check the compatibility list on each emulator download site to know which games can be played using the emulator, so you know which emulator suites your gaming needs best, before you go on to download.
Just as it is import to note the compatibility of games and emulators, it is also very important to note which emulators are compatible on your device such as Windows, iOS, Linux, Web or Android. And I’ll be listing the emulators that are just suitable for all of your devices and Operating Systems. These emulators are sure to allow you play great games on the exact device as listed below.
One great thing about Windows is that it supports almost all the emulators out there. Most often these emulators are supported on a wide range of Windows OS, so you are easily able to play all you Apple II GS ROMs on your PC. The most compatible emulators for Windows include:
AppleWin
MAME
Agat Emulator
MicroM8
Most emulators that enable you play Apple II GS ROMs on your Android can easily be found on Google Play Store for download. So most often when you do not see the emulator on the app store then it is most likely that your version of Android does not support the emulator. Sometimes you could also check on the emulator site for downloads if you don’t find any on the app store. The most compatible emulators for Android include:
MAME
Octalyzer
KEGS IIgs
cAndy Apple
If you want to get the best out of the emulators listed below and enable them function properly on your Mac, iPad or iPhone while you play your Apple II GS ROMs, then it is best you have the iOS X version or higher. Compatible emulators include:
MAME
Virtual ][
Sweet16
Octalyzer
Catakig
OpenEmulator
MicroM8
With these emulators listed below you are sure to get the best game play either by playing online or downloading the Apple IIGS ROMs to play all on you Linux devices. Compatible emulators for Linux include:
MAME
Octalyzer
MicroM8
