For some of us the games were of secondary interest. Lots of copies of the Apple ][ motherboard were floating around, and if you didn't mind soldering in 100 ICs and building a case and power supply you could have an Apple ][ clone for a fraction of the cost of a real one. Then you could build a Z80 card and run CP/M and get a C compiler, or if Pascal was your thing you could run the p-system. Heck, the Apple dealers would sell you a technical manual with the motherboard schematic and a monitor ROM listing! The possibilities were endless.
http://www.vintagecomputing.com/index.php/archives/116
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For some of us the games were of secondary interest. Lots of copies of the Apple ][ motherboard were floating around, and if you didn't mind soldering in 100 ICs and building a case and power supply you could have an Apple ][ clone for a fraction of the cost of a real one. Then you could build a Z80 card and run CP/M and get a C compiler, or if Pascal was your thing you could run the p-system. Heck, the Apple dealers would sell you a technical manual with the motherboard schematic and a monitor ROM listing! The possibilities were endless. http://www.vintagecomputing.com/index.php/archives/116