Mike's Hobby Blog

They are do to arrive around the first week of November.

I’ll be ordering my next batch of Mimeo’s sometime in October and be able to start shipping PCBs sometime in November. Keep an eye on this blog for an announcement in November. This version will fix a couple of minor issues in the silk screen layer, but the copper and mask layers will be identical with the last version.

I’m completely going over the Apple II rev 0 reproduction PCB layout. This was the first reproduction PCB that I did and either my skills or my standards have gone up. I’m tweaking a lot of minor issues, mostly on the front of the board, particularly on the silk screen layer. The average person will not notice any difference, but some Mimeo builders have turned out to not be average people. The first time around, I didn’t have a really good bare board image of the front side, only the poor photocopy of a bare board that can be seen in the “Red Book”. Since that time, a couple of bare board, rev 0 PCBs have turned up, and I have a really good scan of the front of one of them. Anyway, I’m mostly done with the tweaking, and only need to fix a few minor things and do a good bit of design checking. I hope to have boards made and ready to ship by the end of the year. With all the tweaking I’m doing, I’ll have to build one, before shipping, just to make sure I didn’t mess something up.

Fixed – extra 22MF 25V legend

The lower 25V 22MF legend in this picture was a feature of the non-NTI Apple 1s. The legend is a duplicate of the one slightly higher up in the image and was removed for NTI series production.

The Mimeo is a NON-NTI clone and is missing this duplicate legend. Note that I had been shipping Mimeos several years before anyone brought this to my attention. Future production Mimeos will have this error rectified.

As can be seen in the image above, I have found a fix for the missing legend for existing Mimeo owners. This is water slide decal that I have printed. If you are a Mimeo owner, I’ll ship you several decals (extras in case you make a mistake) for a shipping and handling charge of $10.00. If you are a Mimeo owner and happen to be ordering kits, PCBs or any other stuff, let me know you want them and I’ll add a few copies of the decal into your shipment for free.

To apply the decal follow the this procedure.

This is something that I had intentions of getting going for a long time and finally succeeded.

Microchess in emulation

I just added an Apple 1/Ipod compatible AIFF file of the version of Microchess that was available on the applefritter website. I also took the trouble to figure out the user interface, which was not obvious.

check it out on my Apple 1 software page:
http://www.willegal.net/appleii/apple1-software.htm

Oh my, what I have I started. Apple 1 registry maintenance has become far more effort than I expected. They keep popping out of the woodwork, sometimes in waves. Others are changing hands, at a steady rate. In the last year, quite a surprising number have been brought up into operating condition.

In an attempt to make it easier for me to maintain this data, I have made a significant update. A table of all 61 units that I have listed in the registry has been added, with some major characteristics listed and links to individual units descriptions. Detailed descriptions are now organized into three catagories.

I also added a number of newly uncovered Apple 1s, including one in the National Museum in Scotland and one possibly owned by the first female graduate of Stanford Law School.

The curators of the Nixdorf Computer Museum in Germany were nice enough to send me pictures of their unit. I always appreciate receiving quality images of original Apple 1 computers. The table indicates what kind of images that I presently possess, so if you have quality images of units, that you think may improve my image library, let me know.

http://www.willegal.net/appleii/apple1-originals.htm

Check out this article in the San Jose Mercury News. I never thought that this would be the result when Ralph Simpson, a volunteer for the History San Jose museum contacted me for tips on bringing up their Apple 1. I put him in touch with Wendell Sander and Dan Kottke and the rest is “news”. Note that there were several Apple 1s present that are not in my registry. Probably an indication of how many are still out there in the wild, unaccounted for.

It also shows why I don’t count working Apple 1s anymore. Ever since it was determined that working 1s were far more valuable than non-working 1’s, everyone is fixing them up. In a way, this is great, as we originally noted that there weren’t many that were operating, anymore. We thought it was a bad thing that so many were not powered up and being used. My point of view has shifted a little bit, since there are quality reproductions out there, that can be operated instead, and the value of the originals has gone through the roof, maybe running those old machines doesn’t make as much sense, as it used to. That said, so far, I haven’t heard of one being damaged by power up, so why not run them and keep them working.

There is another small number that is interesting, though. There are not very many left in the hands of original owners. Original owner, Wendell Sander asked me this question, and I could only come up with a few, though I’m guessing that there are more out there in the “wild”, still in the hands of original owners. I’m not giving a count, but it definitely seems like a small number.

Also Bob Luther is launching a book on the Apple 1. His kickstarter is almost over, but it sounds like it will be available elsewhere, afterward. I was interviewed by one of Bob’s assistants a couple of years ago, so this book has been in the works for a while. It will be interesting to read what Bob has found out about the Apple 1.

a1-6502-quick reference

I’m calling version .97, my beta version.

Update – this version has errors in the definition of the ROL and ROR instructions – replaced by http://www.willegal.net/blog/?p=6454