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Sacrilege Conversions


Keatah

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Sacrilege Conversions. Could be the name of a company. Or something else - namely the gutting of classic hardware for replacement with R-Pi. We've all seen them. Some are good. Most are lousy.

 

Personally I can entertain and romance the idea of retrofitting (no pun intended) modern processors and tiny SBC's into TRS-80 model III or Model II, C= PET, or those IMSAI or Altair housings. And I suppose that's because the electronics in those original machines are just so damned bulky and heavy. Not to mention loud and hot an unreliable compared against today's silent options.

 

That is a trend I see increasing more. Not necessarily in a significant amount as to cause shortage of parts or anything. But just a little increase. It's happening because of practical aspects and knowledge of old-school logic chips is fading away with the oldsters. A modern-day R-Pi is far more reliable and familiar. Easier to put an emulator on it and stuff it into an Apple II case than it is to troubleshoot a faulty original motherboard.

 

What I don't like is the removal of perfectly working original circuitry so that the housings can be made into fish tanks or lamps or kitten cubbyholes. MacQuarium was seemingly the first of this trend. And now on etsy I saw a Disk II drive converted (stripped and stuffed) with an R-PI + VLC/Kodi so as to make a home media player. At $400 it's a total ripoff, and the ports on the back aren't even even. Lousy craftsmanship. As much as I like the vintage Disk II, it makes for a lousy looking STB.

 

But gutting those big-ox consoles like Model II & III and PET? Anything is an improvement.

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Well, as painful as those replace the guts projects can be, we are also seeing some put remade original guts back in projects too.

 

One can build an Apple 2 Plus mainboard today.  Saw a PET one too.

 

People have emulated SID and VIC 2 with enough precision to make new boards possible.

 

I think it will all go back and forth for a while.  Some good, some bad.

 

 

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It's easy to fall into a rabbit hole of semantics and exactly what constitutes what. A modern repro I suppose is alright - until the maker decides to sell it on ebay for big profit of hundreds of dollars. Then it gets unappealing.

 

Simulation of custom chips in CPLD/FPGA is something we're going to have to accept sooner or later. Don't mind added features, but hate it when they leave out small details. Like leaving out cassette support "because everything is flash based". Those differences only serve to diverge the platform away from authenticity. If it's ok to do that, then someone else reasons it's ok to leave something else out ad infinitum. Drop parallel support because no one uses it.

 

If the Apple II mobo you're talking about is the one one reactive micro, that's ok. It seems to be electrically identical.

 

Custom chips are another area where the replacement should be 100% identical in timing and function. Didn't they make a half-assed pokey that would work in arcade cabs but not the 400/800 home computers? That's what I dislike. Going 90% of the way then stopping. And especially stopping early to save $3.00.

 

I believe the choice was to leave out some of the keyboard or paddle inputs? Or something with the pseudo-random number generator?

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Absolutely.  As those get better, the classic hardware will last longer too.

 

There are only so many chips from that time.  When they go, they go.

 

Partial implementations vary and can suck.  Same can go for excessive ones, depending on what people want to or can do.

 

FPGA boards, with some support circuits should end up being the goto.  Even if those options are jumpers and empty pads.  People wanting to do it in the authentic way can and will.

 

And, in some cases, an FPGA won't even be needed!  An entire Apple can fit nicely onto some microcontrollers.  Depending on what options they have, the experience and I/O can range from just enough to work with current devices to an authentic, full boat experience too.

 

The latter is a project I want to try one day myself.

 

As things progress, crazy good tech falls into the hands of hobbyists.  I suspect authentic experiences will be available in some fashion or other for some time.

 

The rest is goofy art.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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