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Building an Apple-1 From Scratch — Just Like Woz
Lucas123 writes "This year at KansasFest, computer fans from around the world gathered to celebrate the Apple II — the computer that put Apple on the map. But the Apple-1 (a.k.a. the Apple I), the machine Steve Wozniak invented and first demonstrated at the Palo Alto Homebrew Computer Club in 1976, has always been near to my heart. In attendance at KansasFest was Vince Briel, who created an authorized reproduction the Apple-1 and showed others how to build their own. 'As a regular KansasFest attendee (and the conference's marketing director), I was one of his students. Follow along as I assemble a fully functional Apple-1 clone.'"
Copyright and trademarks (particularly "Apple" referring to a computer) can last much longer.
Although in this case, the authorization may just be the annointing from Woz himself.
I was hoping for something more in-depth than just soldering stuff on a prefabricated PCB. That's a no-brainer.
Now, go through the steps of doing a schematic, then translating it into artwork and etching the boards and it might be a pretty interesting article.
There is a book (linked in the article) called "Apple I Replica Creation: Back To The Garage" by Tom Owad that basically walks you through the construction of the Breil Computer kit, as well as a crash course in programming it in assembly and BASIC as well a a crash course in electronics design. It is a good read.
All-in-all, this is nothing really special. Anyone who buys the kit can solder it together. I believe he also has fully constructed boards as well. This seems more like an advertisement than an actual story.
Slow Down Cowboy! It's been 1 hour, 47 minutes since you last successfully posted a comment
There are some details about the legal hurdles behind the Apple-1 replica in this 2002 article from Wired: http://www.wired.com/gadgets/mac/news/2002/11/56426
Not only that, but didn't Woz give the schematics away to anyone who wanted it?
Slow Down Cowboy! It's been 1 hour, 47 minutes since you last successfully posted a comment
To get the true Woz experience have your best friend steal thousands from you and then lie to you about it.
If I recall correctly it wasn't that Apple was forbidding him from making the Replica 1. He was just worried that Apple MIGHT sue him. So he tried to get permission from Apple but kept running into brick walls.
No one ever said no to him, they just kept saying no comment. So out of left field he calls up the Woz to see if maybe he knows who to talk to in Apple. He tells the Woz what he's up to and the Woz loves it. Woz told him to go ahead because the Apple 1 ROM is "open source". Woz made copies of the ROM code freely available to anyone who wanted it. Then Woz offered him copies of the original code and documentation.
It's not so much Apple authorized but Woz blessed.
"You can see I know very little about pimp policy." George McGovern.
Not only that, but didn't Woz give the schematics away to anyone who wanted it?
The early Apple was a truly great company in the way it shared information. My first machine ever was an Apple ][+ I bought (with 50% of the cost from my parents) in 1981. It came with several spiral bound books, my favourite being the System Reference manual. That had an assembler dump of the ROM, schematics, etc. I cut my teeth on that machine (which I still have in working order FWIW). Replaced the resistor in a resistor/capacitor pair on a 555 timer chip with a potentiometer to have a variable repeat key speed.
Yeah, that kind of shit is all done in software nowadays, but I did this by reading the docs from Apple and some Trial & Error when I was 15.
Fast forward to today and, honest truth, I was THIS CLOSE to buying a pair of iPhones for the coolness and opted not to because of the way those NON TECHNICAL CUNTS who run things opted to SUCK THE COCK of AT&T rather than being true geeks.
Obviously, I didn't buy the phones. Have a jailbroken iPod touch for Google Voice and future cool Bluetooth stuff but I'm saddened that I have to go off the grid for coolness when, back in the day, Apple == Cool.
Now get off my fucking lawn.
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Trolling is a art,