iPadRainbow . . . circa 1983 . . .

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

. . . YUM! Just a tad early.

It seems The late Steve forgot about the KBD . . . that, or it was anathema as it was an Apple II spinoff.

How about a Rainbow Laser128 . . . sans expansion slot, of course! )

Methinks Laser cloned a bit more than the Apple II ROM!

 

[Bunsen]

Huh? Your linked article is about a genuine Apple IIc prototype. It doesn't mention Laser at all.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Exactly! :approve: Laser copied this Helmut Esslinger ProtoAppleII design, or so it would seem. The IIc was yet another, and the final, portable Apple II design.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

The Laser128 came out AFTER the IIc, and was a (bad) clone of the released IIc directly. It's not that they had access to the IIc prototype. http://books.google.com/books?id=Qi8EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA51&lpg=PA51&dq=Rainbow+Laser128&source=bl&ots=qrYTPJMQ_E&sig=fAhF6jcQmWxHQbEtzgRGP3dmuGo&hl=en&sa=X&ei=jbT8TuycC6mdiQK4n8GPDQ&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=Rainbow%20Laser128&f=false shows it, and while it is obviously "inspired by" the IIc, it's no direct copy by any means.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

I never said the Laser 128 came out before the IIc, nor did I mean to imply such, but Laser's cloning of the Apple II ROM certainly started before the release of the IIc. My statement regarding cloning this FrogDesign ProtoIIc/Design Study was more than a bit tongue in cheek. That's a nice pic in your link and my link shows how the IIc probably would have looked if it had provision for one or two Apple II slots like the expandable 128 series.

I had a Laser 128 for a few years and played with it quite a bit. Laser was one of only two successful (legal) Apple II Clone makers, IIRC. It was based on the same ROM as Laser's Desktop Clones as far as I know, but I never had one of those. I had fun running my 128 with a bare board sticking out the side and even had an Apple II (bare board) Slot Replicator that somebody sent me. I thought the 128 was a lot better platform than the IIc when it came to Apple II playtime, certainly better than the Apple II Emulator card for the LC. When I did research for my second computer, the Laser 128 was a better choice for me than the Apple version . . .

. . . but I settled on a Tandy 1000sx (barely) PC Compatible in the end. :

I even displayed the 128's video output within the Video Player window on my 6360's secondary monitor! }

 

[phreakout]

Ah, the Tandy 1000SX. 'Twas my first DOS PC, as well. I got so good at tearing that machine apart and reassembling it in about an hour. I tried to put a 3.5" 1.44 MB floppy in it, but the PC/XT bus wouldn't take it. So I waited until I upgraded to a 286 clone and got it working on that.

My 100SX had one nice feature where pressing the PRINT SCREEN button actually would have the computer output anything on screen to the dot matrix printer: a DMP-2110. What a beast!

73s de Phreakout. :rambo: