MarkO
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Posts posted by MarkO
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Just a little correction here.
BASIC wasn't built in, it was on tape.
It's not a clone of Applesoft licensed from Microsoft. If it had been licensed by Microsoft, they could have taken their existing Z80 BASIC and made minor changes to make it Applesoft compatible, simplify the math library, etc...
It was developed by Randall Hyde specifically for Coleco.
Since it was developed independently, it's actually faster than an equivalent Microsoft BASIC.
It has been many years since I looked at the Adam Computer ( 29 or 30 years )... So the some of the details are vague recollections.
I do remember that the Adam mimicked the PR#x and IN#x of the Apple ][ for Printer Output and Booting the "tape" And thought that was a good way of having BASIC Programmers be immediately familiar with how it worked, compared to the Commodore C64, or Atari 400/800 or Tandy CoCo.
I think my Uncle would have kept it, except for the Tape Drive Issues... I think the C64 he bought instead was a better solution...
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My Uncle bought one of these, before he Bought a C64..
I knew the Tape Units would "mess up", my regular Audio Cassettes had issues, these Data Tapes were just Trouble from the beginning..
The Built In BASIC was a Clone of Apple BASIC ( Must have been licensed from Micro-Soft), but the Processor was Z80, which meant that Apple Basic Programs with Machine Language in DATA Statements, that was POKED into Memory, Would Fail entirely..
If any one is interested, I believe I have a complete set of manuals for this machine..
MarkO
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Honestly, the same can be said for many classic platforms. There's nothing special about the Apple II or its users in that regard. I do think partly that the higher price of the Apple II back in the day and the relatively low number of users as a result in relation to something like the Commodore 64 has made ownership of the II series a bit more "exclusive" feeling, which I think carried through over the years. Also, while it was a very well supported platform with a close knit community I think the fact that Apple is the only surviving computer maker into the present era - and the fact that they're so incredibly high profile now - has certainly helped with the present value/community. There's something to be said for longevity when its other peers, even the ones who were more successful for a time, petered out by the early 90s.
I Agree with this.. On ALL Points...
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I've been trying to find a photo of a 386SX-16 computer I used to own way back in the 90's. It was not very wide, had rounded corners in the front and purple feet. If I remember right the 3.5" was over the 5.25" drive, both drives were tan/grey in color. It had a little control panel on the right side with lights and a flat reset button. It's been a LONG time ago, but I think it was a Leading Technology or a Leading Edge, I cannot remember. I do remember the lame little 105 meg HD though! I paid $1,200 for it and replaced it six months later! Anyway it was a CUTE little computer.
I remember those.. I have one somewhere.....
Leading Edge, I believe... I will see if I can locate it, for a Photo Op..
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Very cool! A great way to learn. What sort of monitor could you use in the darkroom?
I modded my ZX81 wth internal SRAM, but nothing as extensive as yours. Cool that yours still works. My keyboard ribbon cracked.
You can buy a replacement Keyboard through this Web Site, RWAP Software.
I haven't bought any, but some of my ZX-81's have the cracked ribbon too,,,
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The summer of 1984, was traveling with my Uncle from Western Oregon to Eastern Oregon, and we could not bring all the Items in a small Truck and Trailer up the Willamette Pass, I got left with the items from the Truck, while my Uncle went back down the Pass to get the Trailer.. ( Right About Here, plus or minus 1/8 of a Mile )
I connected my Sinclair ZX-81 to a 2.5 KW Generator and Loaded a program from Cassette Tape and added 20-40 lines of Code, then saved back to the Tape.. Really kind of cool....
MarkO
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It's actually easy. The //c is the one with the built-in floppy drive, and the Dvorak and 40/80 switches on the keyboard. =p
And NO SLOTS!! Don't forget that....
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One more thing, the fragmentation in the Apple II community (and I suspect to a lesser extent other platforms) seems it can be divided up into several modes of activities.
Apple seems to lead in this area, probable because Apple as a Company still exists...
I am not rich, but I do appreciate Original, Period Apple "stuff"...1- Period correct rich collectors hemming and hawing over date codes and serial numbers.
I have most all my Original Hardware from 1983-1989, one place or another...2- True hobbyists from back in the day using their own hardware today.
Not It...3- Noobs
This I definitely want to get into doing...4- Developers making new hardware.
I am working on doing this already.5- People documenting peripheral devices and archiving material.
PUKE!!!! eBay miss-naming drives me to Anger... "Apple ][+ Macintosh by Steve Jobs", now REALLY!!!6- Fat ladies on epay, equating anything old and "Apple" with Steve Jobs and $$$.
Many times over the years I've contemplated disposing of 80-90 percent of my collection and retaining only my original disks and my 5 original consoles and their peripherals. I would be focusing on enjoying the platform and essence and history behind it instead of collecting everything. An example would be dumping all the printer cards except for 1 or 2 Grappler+ interfaces. Getting rid of all the near-no-name disk drives and hard drives except for my original Siders. Getting rid of all the modems except for the Apple Cat and Micromodem.. You get the idea!
WOW!! and hurt ALL those "Fat Ladies" on epay by Depressing the Apple ][ Market.. Your a Cruel One, Mr. Grinch....
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I don't get this. It's a pretty strong community, although quite fragmented. I think it is actually an older crew than the commies, in general. I'm starting to find it a bit more, but I do wish it was more localized on the 'net.
I agree with an Older Crew and yes, Apple ][ users are harder to locate, there still is a lot of activity on UseNet ( comp.sys.apple2 ).
Commodore may have more newbrew game releases (after all it was designed with games in mind), but the Apple II has more new and weird hardware design going for it. The scenes still differ and offer different things.
The Apple][ seems to have more new hardware than new software...
It's always disheartening to hear inter-system animosity from Commodore fans. I don't know why anyone cares anymore about seriously pitting one retro system or group of users vs another. Both systems are awesome, each with their own strengths. I'm happy to own both and enjoy both, even though I was originally an Apple II user. And I love Atari 8-bit stuff too. I would have had all three back in the day if I could.
I agree, I own some Sinclair ZX81's, Apple]['s and Commodore's including a very nicely working SX-64.. Each platform has it features and drawbacks.. Their each cool in their own way..
As far as the archive, the Asimov archive has most of the dsk images available. And nearly everything fits on a 16gb CF card, which is fun with a CFFA.
There are many other sites that have PDF's of Manuals and Magazines too..
I think cracked images are cool, but when they are the only thing archived, it's hard to know exactly what the original work was. I'd really love to see all the versions available, not unlike when you have MAME arcade images and they have all the images to choose from.
I'm happy to see folks fixing the images. Some cracks refuse to work outside of slot 6 or are very picky about the location of disks or disk images.
Because of the Apple Disk System being entirely on the Floppy, the ability to customize the Operating System is a large part of the Copy Protection of Apple ][ Products... It would nice to see Perfect Cracks, so you could experience the Applications like they were designed, but I have to admit the Modified Screens are part of the History too... It would be nice to chose to see them either way...
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I guess I qualify as an Old Guy ( 47 almost 48 ), and I have used a TI994A before, with the Chassis Expander and the Speech Synthesizer, that belonged to my friend Randy:
Me on Left, Randy on Right
My Avatar is now a fairly current picture of me....I have a fairly large collection of Apple ]['s and some Commodores and a few Sinclairs.... -
Yes, I *make* my kids play video games...
However I would never make them use the original TI sticks! Look close, they got to use Wico sticks. Also, testing was not limited to the 99/4A, it included an MSX1 and a CV with a mega-cart.I have some Wico's for the Commodore... Excellent Sticks!!!
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I believe the sole purpose for the the SuperCard Pro is to make Images of ALL types of Floppies.
Does anyone know of any issues with the SuperCard Pro????
MarkO
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Yeah, boiled down . . .
VIC-20: 8 colors, no sprites.
Commodore 64: 16 colors, 8 sprites, better sound effects and music, more memory.
Things eventually got faster on the Commodore 64 with various fast load cartridges. Here are a few examples:
And we can't leave out the Vorpal Utility Kit.
The Epyx Fast Load Cartridge... My SX-64 never goes anywhere without it!!!
Looks like I need to get the Vorpal Utility Kit.
MarkO
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Welp, finally received it today! Really nice product I must say. This upgrade was extremely simple (took longer to remove the screws on the casing) and works great. If you are into the Coco3, I would highly recommend it now that they are in stock:
Thanks for the Testimonial and the Link....
I recently acquired a CoCo 3, New In Box, from a friend that was getting rid of his Apple ][e Platinum system, since I am into Old Apples...
Now I can expand the CoCo3 and have some fun with it too......
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I would do the scanning myself, but there are two factors preventing that:
1: Not owning a decent scanner, or a scanner that I'm willing to burn out the lamp life on.
2: Being too lazy - I can't even imagine the hours that ThumpNugget put in to provide the quality end result he uploaded.
You have to admit that when you get other Scaned Magazines, ThumpNugget's are one of the very best scans...
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I think TS1000 and ZX-81 to most part are the same. .
<< SNIP >>
It has been a while since I "cracked open" a TS1000, but IIRC, the ZX81 had 4 or 5 Chips, ( the RAM was either 2x512KB or 1x1024KB and the RAM in the one I built with my dad was the 1KB chip ), the TS1000 had 4 Chips, with the RAM being a 1x2KB .
Other than the Label ( e.g. ZX81 or TS1000 ), the Country of Manufacture ( ZX81 was listed as UK, TS1000's were Scotland and Portugal ) and the 1K vs. 2K, they were the same Basic, the 16KB RAM Packs were Interchangable, as well as the Printers...
Looking at my Sinclair collection this last weekend, I have Qty 8, ZX81/TS1000, Qty 8, 16KB RAM Packs and one Memotec 64KB RAM Pack and I can only find One Printer, the TS White Paper Thermal Printer... Somewhere I have a Silver Paper Thermal Printer..
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I haven't built a Joystick, but my Uncle did for the Sinclair ZX81, over 20 years ago.. When he moved on to a IBM PC Syetem, he gave me ALL his Sinclair stuff......
It is setup to mimic Keyboard Presses..
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I may be a bit late to this thread, but one thing that wasn't mentioned is that the Z-80 had built-in support for DRAM refresh, which saved a few chips.
Unfortunately, it was only 7-bit refresh, so it became mostly useless when 64K DRAMs came out. At some point in the past couple of years I came across a web page where someone explained the weird counters used in the Z-80. It explained why the R register only counted 7 bits because of how it was connected with the I register. I was really surprised and sad that it was due to such an obscure reason.
I think that in a lot of cases, the designers of a Chip ( e.g. CPU, DMA, I/O, PIA/VIA, etc... ) did the best they could in for seeing how their device would be used at the time and in the future.... Occasionally there is a limitation, such as space on the Silicone Die or Costs that would push the device beyond the Target Price, but in reading history about most the designers, they wanted to make the Best Product available....Sometime their devices were used in ways they never imagined....
The WOZ, knew that ALL those slots in the Apple ][ would be important, in the future, even though they had no purpose when the Apple ][ was shipped.. Jobs was thinking they needed maybe Two of the Slots.. It was a good thing that Woz got his way, because the Apple ][ was chosen for all kinds of purposes that were never envisioned when it was released.. In fact the Original IBM PC came with so many Slots, because the Apple ][ did..
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My parents still have their original PC from 1983. Sounds like connecting one with the AT adapter to a modern computer isn't as simple as buying an adapter, right?
The IBM PC/XT Keyboards used a different Encoding than the 1984 IBM AT Keyboards.. I had a Keytronics in 1988 that was switchable for either..
Some of the Type M keybaords had removable Cords, I have a couple different lenghts, and a few of the Old 5-pin DIN plugs ones..
If you need a PS/2 to USB adapter, clickykeyboard.com has a nice adapter.. Not all of them work, the Type M keyboards pull a LOT of Power... I had to buy one for my NEW Win 8 machaine at work.. No PS/2 plugs
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I own about 18 Model M Keyboards..
Some need some repairs, like when you spill liquid in them, the Space, M and B keys seem to be damaged...
But over all, they are the Best Key Board!!!!
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I think some guy named Gates wants to talk to you about that paper basic and make sure that you paid him the $500 that he is asking for it.
Oh, come on... I'm sure it's legit..
It was right there in the desk drawer, next to the tape of Spacewar and Hunt the Wumpus...
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I have reviewed 7 of my 9 Apple ][e's, plus my two Apple //e Motherboards.
From what facts I can piece together, BoatofCar's Apple ][e has an RFI Case, and an Enhanced //e Motherboard. And it should also have the Dark Keys with Black Letters. Even if the MotherBoard was swapped out, All of the White Key Apple ][e's I have, have the Golden Anodized case Power Supplies, not the Silver Anodized case Power Supplies...
I am linking to an Open Office Spreadsheet with my Apple ][e information and in a second Sheet, a description of the Terms and Reasons used in the Spreadsheet..
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Keatah, is that what you need?
I too would be interested in seeing the Case Serial Number.. Unless this computer went in for Warranty Service, and the MotherBoard was swapped out, this computer should have the Dark Keys with the Black Letters on them.. It also should have the 65C02 and Enhanced ROM's...
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There was a range of //e consoles that had black keys and were un-enhanced. I have one.
I have Three, they have the RFI Enhanced Case, the ©1982 MotherBoard 820-0064-B, No Enhanced ROMS or 65C02 and the Keyboards are Attached to the Bottom PAN, rather than the Case, but have the Dark with Black Letter Keycaps and what I call the Black Key mechanizes..
I clearly remember getting the enhancement kit. I even remember being so a-scared to rip into my system, despite all the electronics hacking I partook in. I was "brainwashed" into believing the CMOS 65C02 was hypersensitive to static.
I bought a kit for my original Apple][e.. Never installed it as well....
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What vintage computer modifications have you performed recently?
in Classic Computing Discussion
Posted · Edited by MarkO
What are the advantages of the Hitachi over the Motorola?? I have a CoCo 3, NIB and not being a Radio Shack User, I am looking to see what I can do to enhance it...