The Apple IIGS is the last and most powerful model of the Apple II range. Released in September 1986, its suffix stands for "Graphics & Sound": its 16-bit 65C816 CPU, its display of up to 256 colors and its 32-oscillator Ensoniq sound chip placed it straight away at the level of the 16-bit machines of its time.
Its distinctive trait is being fully backward compatible with Apple II 8-bit software: the machine boots either into its GS/OS graphical environment or into the older DOS 3.3 and ProDOS, and runs the library accumulated since 1977. That dual nature is why the GSplus emulator is also offered on Recalbox's Apple II system.
Despite its qualities, the Apple IIGS was deliberately held back by Apple, which did not want to compete with the Macintosh: clocked at only 2.8 MHz while the machine could take more, it never received the commercial attention of the Amiga or the Atari ST. A last revision, ROM 03, was released in 1989, and production stopped in 1992. It still has an active scene, which produces games and demos to this day.
Emulator availability per board:
| Emulator | RPI3/RPI02W | RPI4/400 | RPI5/500 | OGA/OGS/RG351 | PC | RG353 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| gsplus | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
GSplus is the only emulator for this system, and it is available on every board. Netplay is not available. RetroAchievements are supported. CRT output is handled.
A keyboard is mandatory on this system, and a mouse is strongly recommended: the GS/OS environment is driven with the pointer, like on a Macintosh, and 8-bit software expects precise keys. A pad remains optional.
The Apple IIGS does not boot without its ROM. GSplus expects two revisions: ROM 01, from the early models, and ROM 03, from the 1989 revision. Both files must be present.
| File name | Description | MD5 | Emulators |
|---|---|---|---|
apple2gs1.rom |
Apple IIGS ROM 01 (mandatory) | 20a0334c447cb069a040ae5be1d938df | GSplus |
apple2gs3.rom |
Apple IIGS ROM 03 (mandatory) | ba89edf2729a28a17cd9e0f7a0ac9a39 | GSplus |
Place your BIOS files like this:
/recalbox/share/bios/
├── apple2gs1.rom
└── apple2gs3.rom
Both files go at the root of
/recalbox/share/bios/, with no sub-folder, and their names must be respected exactly.
Put your games in:
/recalbox/share/roms/apple2gs/
Supported extensions: .2mg .gsplus .hdv .po
A few pointers about these formats:
.2mg is the standard Apple IIGS disk image format: it is the one you will meet most often;.po is a raw image in ProDOS sector order;.hdv is a hard disk image, handy to install GS/OS and several programs on a single volume;.gsplus is an emulator-specific configuration file, meant for advanced setups only.Recalbox ships with two Apple IIGS games: Cogito and The Tinies. The full list of included games is on the Included games page.