Category: Hardware

Vintage Micros, a North Carolina vintage computing company, has made a new connector for the Apple-1 Computer.  The connector allows Apple-1 owners to connect an Apple II keyboard to their machines making it possible to use the Apple II case to house their Apple-1’s. The converters are available for $35 and comes complete with cables for each side of the conversion.  You can purchase the card on EBay at: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-1-to-Apple-II-Keyboard-Connector-with-Cables-NEW/141863275792  

A2Heaven has announced the immediate availability of the Software Automated Mouth board for the Apple II.  A2Heaven.com, owned by Pamen Vayssilov, has made a number of the boards available for $45.00 USD. The S.A.M. board allows for voice output by the Apple II and can be controlled by a software binary and Applesoft.  For further information about the S.A.M. board, check the A2heaven website at http://www.a2heaven.com. A2Heaven has also made a video demonstrating the board:

The October 2015 edition of the Marina IP stack for Apple II is now available. This project is a completely new TCP/IP networking implementation written in 6502 assembly language for the Apple II series. The Uthernet card is the network interface used, and programs interface with a Berkeley sockets-style API. Marina is not complete, for it has only a UDP implementation, and not TCP, but it does have a good DNS resolver and DHCP client. The October 2015 edition of…

I just received an Apple //c VGA adapter from Пламен Вайсилов, a prolific Apple II hardware creator. This adapter has a button that lets you switch between video modes: color, green, mono and mono-white. also simulates scanlines in all those modes. Check the video. At the time of this post there has not been pricing and availability announced, keep checking Apple II heaven site. Also important to mention is that this is only NTSC, a PAL version is on the…

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…

Ian Kim, a member of the Korean Apple II community has developed a new Mockingboard compatible sound card for the Apple II series computers.  According to the introduction document sent to A.P.P.L.E, Apple II Fans and Afficiandos, I’m am a member of the Korean APPLE II group in community. Having grown up with the APPLE II and having spent tons of time with it, I have a particular fondness for the machine, It was my first computer and if its…

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

For a long time I have been looking for the Apple //c Flat Panel LCD, one of the nicest items on the line. This monitor was short lived as its readability was poor and the item expensive. It was retired early so not many were produced, which is what makes them rare and sought today by collectors. I was lucky enough to be able to secure one, but quickly disappointed when first using it. I am a hands-on person that…

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…

Back in 2012, I bought an Apple //c to mod it put a G4 inside. When I started cleaning it, I went online to do some drive alignment, chip reseating and general restoration. That’s when I stumbled upon Retr0bright. First I had some trouble finding xantam gum, so i settled for Arrowroot. Waited for a weekend and on a Saturday, I lay down all the parts on the sun for a full day. The parts were so yellow, that I…

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…

As promised, the beta Uthernet II card has finally arrived for me to test out and share my feedback. Big thanks to Glenn Jones of A2RetroSystems for including me in his beta testing program and allowing me to give the Apple II world a preview of this exciting new technology! My first impression after opening the box and removing the bubble wrap is that this is definitely a little card! If you thought the original Uthernet was small, the Uthernet…

As we all know, it’s never a dull moment in the world of Apple II. Let’s look around and see what’s happening. We are all still looking forward to Dr. Weyhrich’s Apple II History book. The Daily Apple blog is talking about podcasts, emulators, and the prices of old Apple equipment. option8 made a USB to Apple joystick adapter. It lets you plug in a USB joystick. Bill Buckels is still at work with Aztec C, and now has Aztec…

Quite a lot has happened since last time. Let’s take a look at what’s new in the world of Apple II! David Schmenk has made an Apple II card that will interface with the Raspberry Pi. It is called Apple II Pi. A new utility called Spyglass is an online disk image browser that will show disassemblies, hi-res graphics, and BASIC listings. It is in beta and will be improved in the coming weeks. Option8 is selling Apple IIe card…

What’s been going on in the Apple II world these past few days? Let’s take a look:   1.) Steven Weyhrich is asking about the Applesoft Firmware card in comp.sys.apple2 for his upcoming Apple II history book. 2.) The Daily Apple blog has been keeping up with daily updates. Currently we are working on Pascal and BASIC programming, and trying to use the Apple IIc as a command-line terminal. 3.) Wade Clarke has started a new web site called Wade-Memoir where he…