Category: Hacks

One of the more interesting projects I came across today is Travis DeRose’s iPad replacement for the internals of the Macintosh Plus. While there are Mac 68K users who might get a bit peeved at the sacrilege, it is more pleasing and appealing the some of the other horrid changes and supposed updates I have seen such as fish tanks and beer dispensers. This is one upgrade that allows the coolness of the Macintosh 68K while having a modern computing…

When it comes to Apple II, I’m easy to please. Every time I see a new product or something that gives new use, combines new technology and makes my retro computing more fun, I’m very happy with it. Now add some lights to the equation and let me control it within the computer – I’m in heaven! That’s just what Plamen Vasilov from a2heaven did: the newDisk II LED, is a perfect addition to the retro gadgetry. It allows me…

Convert CH Mach III Joystick to Apple II About a year ago I bought a very cheap CH Mach III PC joystick and found some schematics on the web for convert it to Apple II. Everything went fine, the conversion was successful and moved on, even sold the joystick to a fellow enthusiast. A couple of months ago I purchased again two PC CH Mach III joysticks, and started the conversion. This time I couldn’t remember the process and of…

A few years ago I acquired a Franklin 500 computer. This was one of the few Apple //c clones that had extras and enhancements, as well as a “brick on a leash” power supply just like the //c. The excitement lasted me just a couple of days, then the power supply died. I looked around forums and groups in search of a replacement, but being such a ‘rare’ item, there were no replacements. I put away the computer but always…

Charles Mangin of RetroConnector fame has been working on an interesting conversion project.   He has converted an Apple II Disk II drive to a Blu-Ray drive.  This particular hack is being done by Charles as a  special order item. For more on this hack and to view the photos of the hack, check out Charles RetrioConnector Blog at: http://retroconnector.com/updates/

After I gave a presentation on Retrobrite at KansasFest, people asked me to write about the process, never wrote about Retrobrite as there are so many articles and videos on the internet but finally found some time to write about it. There are many ways to Retrobrite.  I avoid submerging because it’s a waste of peroxide, and maybe toxic for the environment, also don’t wrap in plastic as it allows areas to wrinkle and get more concentrated than others, promoting…

Once again I converted a 15″ Apple Color Monitor IIe to a modern display, using a 15″ color LCD screen. I had to cut lots of plastic from the front plastic panel of the IIe monitor, but didn’t compromise the integrity of the plastics and locking mechanism. To solve the main issue – the curved screen, I added a black cardboard pieces to close the gaps with the flat screen. after several tries found it was the best approach keeping…

A few weeks ago I posted a story about a LCD color conversion, here’s a video of two converted LCDs in action. Enjoy!

some years ago, I got a //c 9” green monitor, which worked fine for a few months, but I missed the color games. My options were connected to a TV (impractical) and also tried a small LCD monitor without success, as new monitors are 16:9, much more elongated than the traditional 4:3. The best solution was to get a replacement color monitor of the same size. In many forums asked if I could adapt Color Classic Macintosh monitors, Sony televisions…

Dave Cheney has posted an Apple-1 Replica build project which utilizes the Arduino platform.  The build covers all aspects of the Apple-1 and is small enough to actually be inserted into almost any case.  The Mega6502 is basically a two chip Apple-1 computer improving in the same tradition of the great Steve Wozniak (@woz on twitter), reduction of the number of chips required for the computer. For more information about the Mega6502, check out Dave Cheney’s blog at: http://dave.cheney.net/2014/12/26/make-your-own-apple-1-replica

The third section of the Ben Heckendorn Apple-1 replica build has been posted on The Ben Heck Show page on YouTube.  This section completed the build and shows how to build the case with the CNC machine.  Ben even tries his hand at entertaining the masses with his singing in this episode.

Ben Heckendorn has posted the second episode of his retro build of an Apple-1 clone.   This episode covers adding the keyboard and display of the data to the build. For those of you who missed the first episode, you can catch it in an earlier posting here at: http://www.callapple.org/hardware/ben-heck-building-an-apple-1-from-scratch/ The third episode is scheduled for next week and will complete the build with the case and other final adjustments to the build. Episode 2:

Ben Heckendorn’s latest video series is now covering the building of an Apple-1 computer from scratch.  The Apple-1 was Steve Wozniak’s first commercially available computer and was sold initially by Steve Jobs through The Byte Shop in Mountain View, California.  Ben Heckendorn is famous for his hacks of vintage and modern gaming and computing platforms.  His videos over the past few years have come to represent the leading edge of hacks for these platforms. The Apple-1 shown by Ben in…

One of the simplest and the lowest tech devices made for the iPhone is the new “Love Box” for the iPhone 4 / 4S.   The device is a grooved piece of wood with a sliding mirror allowing for both the back of the camera and the front view of the camera to be recorded at the same time, making The Love Box the first device to allow true split screen video mixing without all of the hassle. The Love Box…

A new modification for the Carte Blanche Board allows the user to get 12 bit color output from the board. The creator of the modification for the board, posted the following in CSA2: “I have made a little modification to the Carte Blanche to allow 12 bit color VGA output for the Apple IIgs. The modification is very simple to make. Its just a cable with some resistors and a bit-stream to send the video to the IDE connector instead…

Mike Willegal has announced that final beta testing on the Brain Boards has begun and that the kits will be $59.00.  Pre-built units will be available at some point for an additional fee.  Mike has also put  out a beta of the users guide for users to familiarize themselves with the board and created a website for the board at: http://www.willegal.net/appleii/brainboard.htm Orders for the Brain Board will begin to be taken on 19 March 2011 with the first units expected…

Mike Willegal has posted a photo of his fully assembled Brain Board for the Apple II. The Brain Board turns an ordinary Apple ][ computer into an Apple-1 allowing the user to perform all of the same functionality of the Apple-1 computer while utilizing the Apple ][ cassette interface and keyboard for I/O. For more on the brainboard, check out the post at: http://www.willegal.net/blog/?p=1321

This week, we were thinking about the new iPad2 and the discussions of a holder for the machine came up.  So we started searching and came up with a number of case hacks or cases themselves that we thought were absolutely brilliant.   The funny thing is that in another few days, many of those hacks will have to change in order to accommodate the long awaited camera that is expected to be in the iPad2.  But in the mean time,…

By J.A. BACKMAN If you have dumped a program by hitting “RESET” when you meant to hit “RETURN” and Ctrl-C wouldn’t bring the program back – – I’ll bet the air was as blue around your APPLE II as it was around mine! – ! – ! A sweet little fix is a simple gadget that stops accidental keying “RESET” but does not stop its operation when it is needed. It does not hide the key, and doesn’t require lifting…