Apple 1 Replica

[westcoastech]

Hey

I see an Apple 1 Replica board that someone is selling up here in Canada. It is just the motherboard itself without any capacitors or chips etc.

Does anyone know if it is possible to acquire the chips, capacitors etc and if so how challenging would that be to get it working?

 

[unity]

Well what does the auction say is included?

As for finding the chips, doable but not all are that easy to find. And some will demand big $$. I have a few that are original to the Apple One based on production dates, etc. But to get all of them would be a great challenge. I think that challenge is what brings some to buy the board.

 

[westcoastech]

The auction is just a bare replica board, like just the PCB without anything attached or installed. I figured it would be a fair challenge to find the right parts but thought I would ask to see if anyone has had any experience or what their thoughts would be. Having just the board alone would be pretty cool though, but a working replica would be amazing.

 

[wthww]

Hello,

You should take a look @ applefritter.com's forums. Its heavy into Apple I/II and failing that I'd look at the a2central irc's #a2c.chat channel.

//wthww

 

[Elfen]

Most of the 74XXXX Series chips are easy to get and most are cheap ( $1 a chip or so ). The ROMs might be a problem to get though.

 

[CelGen]

If you don't care for looks I'm sure you can substitute in an EPROM using an adapter.

 

[westcoastech]

This is what I was looking at first

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-Computer-1-Motherboard-Replica-/111483805717?pt=US_Vintage_Computing_Parts_Accessories&hash=item19f4f3e015

But this also just came up, there is one picture of a fully assembled board but I don't think thats what is being sold, just the ROMs and board?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-1-I-Non-NTI-bare-board-with-A1-A2-PROMs-Newton-NTI-version-Mac-II-/251675631015?pt=US_Vintage_Computers_Mainframes&hash=item3a99095da7

 

[Gorgonops]

 Having just the board alone would be pretty cool though, but a working replica would be amazing.

I know this is an odd question, but... how do you define "amazing"? (Or to put it another way, how much do you know about the original Apple I/other similar systems of its era? If you think it's going to be "amazing" because it's somehow a precursor to the Macintosh, or even the Apple II, you'll probably be somewhat disappointed. The Apple I was essentially a dime-a-dozen minimalistic 6502-based computer like a KIM-1 combined on the same board with a video system mostly derived from Don Lancaster's TV Typewriter Cookbook. Probably the one most innovative thing about it was one of the earliest hobbyist machines that used DRAM instead of SRAM for main memory; DRAM appeared at about the same time as affordable microprocessors but its timing requirements made it tricky to incorporate into designs like the Altair.) Unless you want to play with 6502 machine language you're probably not going to be that impressed with it.

Anyway. If you're serious about wanting one of these ask about it on Applefritter. The guy who makes the "best" Apple I kits hangs out there, and I believe he's had a few choice things to say about the outfit that makes the board featured in these eBay auctions you're looking at. In any case, realistically it'll probably cost you at least $500 or so to buy all the parts to stuff it. (An outfit called Unicorn Electronics will sell you a complete set of parts minus the board and ROMs for $666.66.) Expect to pay more if you want the date codes on everything to be 100% authentic. Some of the parts on an Apple I, particularly the shift register ICs used for the video memory, simply haven't been manufactured for quite a long time.

 

[westcoastech]

Hey, thanks for the response, as well to everyone else, you have given me a lot of great info, this has been something I have had in the back of my mind for a while. I do have a lot of other projects at this time and never seem to have enough time and/or get around to do them all, thus something is always on the go, so I will see if I truly go ahead with this. It has always seemed like a pretty serious project, though I am sure I would learn a great deal in doing so.

I simply meant it would be amazing to have one of these, from a historic perspective as the beginning of what is now such a huge company. Having the board alone, or atleast an assembled board would be really neat, if it was to also be functional, that would just be icing. I honestly have no idea what I would do with it in a functional state, I would just love to have the board and all components. 

In any case, thanks a lot for your time, we will see if this pans out at some point.