Apple Computer 1, also known later as the Apple I, or Apple-1, was released by the Apple Computer Company (now Apple Inc.) in 1976. It was designed and hand-built by Steve Wozniak. Wozniak’s friend Steve Jobs had the idea of selling the computer.

The Apple I was Apple’s first product, and to finance its creation, Jobs sold his only means of transportation, a VW Microbus, and Wozniak sold his HP-65 calculator for $500. It was demonstrated in July 1976 at the Homebrew Computer Club in Palo Alto, California.

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Apple 1 (Mimeo / Mike Willegal Clone) Assembled for a friend of mine; Paolo Cognetti.

Many thanks for the Technical & Moral support to: Piero Todorovich and Alessandro Polito.
I also thank for some electronic components: Gabriele Molesto Zaverio of Museo Dell’informatica Funzionante, Piero Todorovich.

I had several problems with this Apple 1 clone, i very briefly describe the problems below and i attach some photos of the assembling stages.

• 1 – No video image, all voltages are ok.
• 1 + MPS3704 Transistor failure replaced with a 2N3704 pinout not compatible.

• 2 – Garbage screen during boot.
• 2 + Replaced 2 of 7 Shift Register 2504V

• 3 – Keyboard inputs not working, the WOZ monitor is freezed and shows an “@ \” but the “\” does not wrap.
• 3 + Replaced a 27k resistor half broken, probably during transport the capacitor has crushed the resistor.

• 4 – The keyboard does not respond correctly, typing A they print @, typing 1 they print 0 … and so on …
• 4 + Keyboard adapter from Apple II/+ to Apple 1 in short circuit. A wire is skewered in a pin of a Socket.

• 5 – The computer does not respond correctly, but it seems to work. The WOZ monitor responds to commands but does not write to memory and print random locations.
• 5 + Replaced a 7410 which had a pin always at high level.

• 6 – The keyboard has several problems, some switches are completly dead.
• 6 + Replaced switches.

Photos of the assembling stages:

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Video:

Defect:

• Dead and then Garbage screen.

Components replaced/fixes:

• 1 x CPU 6502 (DH8)
• 1 x RAM MN4164P (DC3)
• One switch of the DIP Switch was in a wrong posistion.
• Fixed the connection of the original lamp (power on led) with the pins cutted.
• Inserted the missing Z80 CPU (DF8)

The keyboard is not working correctly, some keyboard keys are totally dead.

Gallery of the repair:

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Pravetz computers

Pravetz (Правец in the original Cyrillic, series 8 and series 16) were Bulgarian computers, manufactured mainly in the town of Pravetz. Some components and software were produced in Stara Zagora, Plovdiv, and other Bulgarian cities.

The first Bulgarian-made personal computer, IMKO-1, was a prototype of the Pravetz computers that were developed by Ivan Vassilev Marangozov, who was often accused of cloning the Apple II. A few early models were produced at the ITKR (pronounced ee-teh-kah-reh, Institute of Technical Cybernetics and Robotics), a section of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Industrial production in Pravetz started shortly after.

Pravetz computers were of major importance in the economy of the Comecon.

In October 2013, a privately held Bulgarian company claimed in their website to have the rights on the trademark and misleadingly announced that “Pravetz Computers are returning to market”. In fact, the company has no link to the original “Pravetz” computers known during the Soviet Era.

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source: wikipedia

SpartaDOS X (or SpartaDOS 4.0) is a disk operating system for the Atari 8-bit family of computers, that closely resembles MS-DOS. It was developed and sold by ICD, Inc. in 1987-93.

Ten years later SpartaDOS X considered abandonware has been picked up by its enthusiasts, and developed further. These unofficial revisions, incorporating many of the utilities written since 1992, cleaning many identified problems and including numerous improvements.

Highlights:

• Improved compatibility of 1 MB RAMBO and 576k Compy Shop RAM extensions with the internal BASIC on XL/XE.
• CAR.COM: added support for the Weronika cartridge: to run the dedicated programs, use CAR /F filename.ext;
• INIDOS.SYS should now work for SIDE2.
• Fixed a major bug in the S_VBXE driver, which caused occasional hang ups after the Reset key was pressed.
• CON.SYS: 80-column mode can now survive a warm reset.
• CHKFAT.COM: new command line tool to verify FAT file systems compatibility with our FATFS driver
• New program: MD5 hash tool
• SC now version 1.0.0

Please read the release notes (the whatsnew.txt file) for full information.

The new SpartaDOS X 4.48 runs on the following hardware platforms:

• intSDX128 and intSDX128 “flash”
• IDE Plus 2.0 interface (*)
• Maxflash 1Mb
• Maxflash 8Mb (*)
• Maxflash MyIDE+Flash
• MyIDE II RAM
• MyIDE II ROM
• SIC! Cartridge 256k (*)
• SIC! Cartridge 128k
• SIDE HDD cartridge (*)
• SIDE2 HDD cartridge (*)
• SuperCart cartridge (*)
• Ultimate1MB (*) (**)
• Turbo Freezer 2005 (*) (***)
• Altirra and Atari800 emulators

(*) – includes MAN on-line help
(**) – also use with Incognito board and Turbo Freezer 2011
(***) – use with Freezer ROM only

Dowload: SpartaDOS X 4.48 with Toolkit (1373)

source: sdx.atari8.info wikipedia

Sorry, this entry is only available in Italian.

Below the post of the author on Atariage Forum.

A new firmware and flashtool is availible for Sys-Check V2 series.

The new flashtool now supports both Sys-Check PCBs equipped with a SST39SF010A flash chip (V2.1 and V2.2). When you start the flashtool, it will ask you which version you have. To be absolutely sure, the flashtool shows a simplified graphic view of both versions. I think, everybody can handle it :)

Of course the flashtool (and all other documents) are written in german and english.

Also there´s a new firmware V1.4 out. This firmware can be used with ALL Sys-Check versions – also with the old V2.0 (without flash). Owners of the V2.0 must burn the 16 KB firmware image into a 27128 EPROM. All other please use the flashtool to update their Sys-Check.

V1.4 has this minor changes:

• Sys-Check can be used with the U1MB expansion.
• The new version first checks the whole memory (to be more exact… the first 48 KByte) and then displays the defective bits (if there are any…)
• When bad memory within the first 48 KB is found, the upper 16 KB will not be tested.
• If memory is fine, OS-ROM will be tested as before.
• If both tests are fine, then pressing START after this will set Sys-Check into endless loop test mode. Memory and OS-ROM are tested infinite – until any error occurs.
• During memory tests the background will be coloured red if defective bits were detected.

Download: Sys-Check Firmware & Tools v2.2 (1088)

source: atariage.com

The High Voltage SID Collection (HVSC) is a freeware hobby project which organises Commodore 64 music (also known as SID music) into an archive for both musicians and fans alike.

The work on the collection is done completely in the Team and contributors’ spare time and is proudly one of the largest and most accurate computer music collections known.

This update features (all approximates):

• 1022 new SIDs
• 811 fixed/better rips
• 24 repeats/bad rips eliminated
• 791 SID credit fixes
• 143 SID model/clock infos
• 59 tunes from /DEMOS/UNKNOWN/ identified
• 1 tunes from /GAMES/ identified
• 70 tunes moved out of /DEMOS/ to their composers’ directories
• 4 tunes moved out of /GAMES/ to their composers’ directories

Download:

• Complete HVSC #65 (1387)
• HVSC Update #65 (1343)

source: www.hvsc.c64.org

Commodore 64C (ASSY 250469) Repair (1 of 2)

Defect:

• Garbage Screen/Auto Load/Device not Present.

Replaced parts/Fixes:

• 1 x MOS 6526 (U1)
• 2 x Diode 1n4148 (CR9/CR11)
• Rebuilt a pcb track (see photo)

Note:

• As you can see from the photo of the the broken pcb track, evidently someone did a short circuit on the IEC connector on the data lines: SRQin and DATA.

Gallery of the repair:

Commodore 64C (ASSY 250469) Repair (2 of 2)

Defect:

• Black Screen.

Replaced parts:

• 1 x MOS 8580R5 SID in short circuit (U9)
• 2 x TMS 4464 RAM (U10/U11)

Gallery of the repair:

Commodore 64 (ASSY 250407) Repair (1 of 2)

This Commodore 64 has been already repaired in years past.

Defect:

• Grabage screen/Out of Memory.

Replaced parts:

• 5 x MT 4264-15 RAM (U10/U11/U12/U21/U23)

Gallery of the repair:

Commodore 64 (ASSY 250425) Repair (2 of 2)

Defect:

• Black Screen ..then.. Grabage screen ..then (when hot).. Screen out of Sync

Replaced parts:

• 2 x MT 4264-15 RAM (U11/U23)
• 1 x MOS 901227-03 Kernel ROM (U4)
• 1 x MOS 8701 Clock Generator (U31)

Cleaning Tape and User port connectors.

Gallery of the repair:

This is the official demo party results from Gubbdata 2016 (Top 3 Entries only). See also the CSDB GUBBDATA 2016 section for more informations.

C64 Demo:

• 1 – Nothing but PETSCII by Genesis Project
• 2 – Classics by Booze Design
• 3 – Monochrome by Triad

C64 Music:

• 1 – Nothing Compares 2 EU by Fegolhuzz
• 2 – Ruins by X-jammer
• 3 – 2 Days by Magnar Harestad

C64 Graphics:

• 1 – Cock Picture by ilesj
• 2 – Korvsatan by Razorback
• 3 – Elsewhere by Mermaid

C64 Mixed Graphics:

• 1 – Glad Gubbe by Genesis Project, Vision
• 2 – Duelling Invaders by Genesis Project
• 3 – Green Falcon by PVM

Download: Gubbdata 2016 Party stuff (1053)

source: gubbdata.se

I have sacrificed a Floppy Disk Drive Commodore VIC 1541 to give a new look to a Floppy Disk Drive Commodore 2031 (IEEE-488).

It ‘s not been an easy job, but i’d say the result is very good.

Gallery:

Commodore Amiga 500+ (Battery Acid Leaked) Repair

Defect:

• Battery Leaks.

Components replaced and fixes:

• Battery Removed.
• Cleaned the PCB with PCC Kontakt
• Sprayed DUE-CI G-22 on all IC sockets.
• Made ten bridges to restore the traces corroded by the acid of the battery.
• Replaced 1 x 74LS244 (U12)
• Replaced 1 x 74LS373 (U13)

Gallery of the repair:

Texas Instruments TI-99/4A Repair (Wave/Raster Lines)

Defect:

• Wave/Raster Lines (see photo).

Replaced parts:

• 1 x Variable Inductor 2 -> 4.5 μH (L100).

Gallery of the repair:

CBS Coleco Vision Repair (Black/Garbage Screen)

Defect:

• Black Screen and then Garbage Screen.

Components replaced:

• 1 x 2114 Static Ram (U4)
• 2 x 4116 Dynamic Ram (U11/U14)

Gallery of the repair:

APF Electronics Inc MP-1000 (1978) – Joystick Repair

Defect:

• Both Joysticks dead.

Fix:

• The adhesive tape has dried and the conductive pad move inside the joystick. I have disassembled,cleaned and used a new adhesive tape, now they are like new.
• Replaced the fire button on one of the two joystick completely dead.

Gallery of the repair:

I used a product to regenerate the rubber keypad of remote controls to repair the keyboard flat cable of a Home Computer MSX.

I have used this product many times for my work of Retro Computer restoration but never to regenerate the rubber keypad of remote controls :D

Gallery of the repair:

Keyboard #1

Defect:

• When the keyboard is connected, the computer doesn’t work (black screen)

Components replaced:

• 1 x 74LS132P (U4)

Keyboard #2

Defect:

• The Caps lock flashes three times and the keyboard doesn’t work.

Fix:

• Cold solder joint on the capacitor (C11)

Gallery: