Every time RIck Astley dancing came up on the little screen, I was totally mesmerized and can't recall what you were talking about... lol

Adrian, your videos are never too long.

That version of CP/M had some strings altered. The original error string was "CAN'T FIND Z80 SOFTCARD", and the original copyright string was "(C) 1982 Microsoft".

@SiD3WiNDR

3 жыл бұрын

Yeah, googled the error, it was mentioned on groups.google.com/g/comp.sys.apple2/c/KKUuO_vMs7U : "I still get "CAN'T FIND Z80 SOFTCARD" (or, in the hack, "CAN'T FIND STUPID CARD.""

lmao "CAN'T FIND STUPID CARD" That made my day

@Rudofaux

3 жыл бұрын

Finally some common language.

@BilisNegra

3 жыл бұрын

@@Rudofaux Yeah, could have gone on: "have you even plugged the goddamn thing"? But back then you didn't want to waste resources with lots of text, right?

@Rudofaux

3 жыл бұрын

@@BilisNegra sounds about right.

@tarstarkusz

3 жыл бұрын

Guru meditation is funnier. And, really, "Cant find stupid card" is way better than "Error number 32856"

@Darxide23

3 жыл бұрын

Best error message I've ever seen since "printer is on fire"

I had The Lazer 128 simular to the one featured on this video but it wasn't the EX, thank you for doing a vid on this computer it was totally underrated and it brought back some good ole memories from my youth

I remember back in elementary school in the mid 80's. The classroom I was in had 3 Apple IIGS's. The teacher got a copy of Jeopardy! for the Apple II. When it was running it was discovered that it was running too fast. We couldn't type the answere fast enough before the timer ran out. So two of those IIGS's the speed was slowed down to make that game playable. Great videos keep up the good work.

Your description and links to videos are on point... wow!😊

If I remember the Apple joystick right (or at least the paddles), it uses a software loop to determine how long it takes a bit to flip. This was how Woz was able to avoid using an expensive A/D converter. He used software to count how long it took an R/C circuit to discharge and flip a bit. So a higher speed CPU would screw this all up.

@SpearM3064

3 жыл бұрын

Not quite... the only thing you got wrong is you read a memory location to _discharge_ the capacitor and count how long it takes to _charge_ (not the other way around). You're also right in that the faster CPU speed would screw up most paddle games unless you modified the game, or unless VTech had the foresight to modify the built-in PREAD function to take CPU speed into account.

@scottlarson1548

3 жыл бұрын

@@SpearM3064 Well... I like my solution better! 😃

@0LoneTech

Жыл бұрын

The PC game port used the same technique.

@greenaum

Жыл бұрын

@@0LoneTech And the Atari 2600 reading it's paddles.

I love the fact that you keep some of the retro tech going there Adrian. Never saw the Laser series computers but most of the others you have on your channel. I did a quick search on ROMs for the laser and found one that is a latter version that someone copied off of a 128ex/2. I did download it unless you have already found it. Good luck on getting it to do more things.

Apple II have so many new cards that making testing combination of cards crazy! And it's where the fun is.

The expansion port on the Laser 128 is *mostly* Apple II compatible, but is really meant to be used with the expansion box. They put the slot 5 enable on an unused pin, and the expansion box routes it to the right place for 5. Without the box, only slot 7 will be properly enabled, as you discovered.

31:38 "CAN'T FIND STUPID CARD." lol, I was not prepared.

Whoa, nice screen capturing! In some ways I like the aesthetic of seeing your screen and your fingers together, but it’s certainly much easier to show the things like the colour fringing and stuff, and the graphics are really crisp.

I used to work for this company back in the mid-80's -- specifically on these machines. Wow -- talk about a flashback to younger days.

The Apple I/II and Laser clones were a series of computers I missed in my childhood to the point I didn't even know they existed until I watched your channel. Lots of great history here how they tried to clone the Apple II line and did a decent job of it too I might add. I did know about Apple, but only starting with the Apple Mac Classic and up.

so much fun and much to learn with Adrian..👌🤟

Please do a 24hr live stream event! All digital basement All day… would be epic

I'm envious. I always wanted a CPM card but never had one. :) You're making me want to dig my Laser 128EX out of storage. I still run some of my old Apple 2 games in emulation, but hearing those disk drive noises is making me feel nostalgic.

Such a fascinating machine and amazing degree of compatibility. The 40/80 column implementation seems to be a direct result of the clean room reverse engineering. Neat stuff. The "turbo" modes are pretty mindblowing as well, going up to 300% performance no less.

@evknucklehead

3 жыл бұрын

360%, if you want to get picky. :)

I keep a jar of plastic slurry for things like this (broken lid.) Just a glass jar with a screw-on top. Fill it with some acetone, drop in some generic beige plastic parts (broken CD tray, keycaps, etc.) After a couple days, it’ll be soup. It will off-gas the acetone and at some point turn solid. No worries. Reconstitute and carry on. I have been trying to fix the front of a 3.5” floppy drive that needed some TLC. Trying to put the flap back in the two retaining slots requires bending the flap, which has resulted in it snapping three times now. Apply plastic weld with Q-tip, smoosh parts back together, hold for a minute, set it aside for a day. Use an Xacto knife to trim off the splooge, sand with progressive grits, looks almost good as new! (Minus texture.)

Probably someone said it already but, gotta love that Retrotink. Great to see you leveraging it here!

I also have that Applied Engineering Z-80 Plus card. There is a version of CP/M made specifically for the card called CP/AM that you should be able to find online.

@TheJeremyHolloway

3 жыл бұрын

I might be mistaken but I believe the founder of Applied Engineering is discussing the old days in one of the main Apple II groups on Facebook. If not, it's the founder of another 3rd Party company that made Z-80 cards for the Apple II that was founded by a former Apple employee with Woz's financial assistance.

Dazzle Draw! I’d forgotten all about that program!

@4:52 “So if you’re working on a laser 128…” 😂 hrm, have a feeling this won’t be the case for many of us. Thx for sharing as always!

You have the absolute best intro. I always find myself doing a little dance with the music. Keep up the good work!

I always knew the Lasers were out there back in the day but I had no idea they were so affordable vs. the actual Apple II.. That plus all of the added hardware functionality made this a killer deal. My Dad also got me a //c in 1985 and spent at least double that!

i’d love to see what motherboard and chips are inside this //c clone. great video!

Can’t wait for part 3!

Cool video. I have two. They work great. Thank you

I had this machine when I was a kid and it was so much fun to read the Apple magazines and to type in the programs that were in there some were really boring and irrelevant and somewhere really awesome. And one of the Apple magazines there was a voice synthesizer and I typed that program in and it actually ran really good

I've seen a CP/M card in a IIc. It had to connect so that it piggybacked off the IIc's CPU socket, and sat right behind the keyboard's PCB. This particular IIc was also configured with the Dvorak keyboard layout. We also had a few of the Laser 128's in our middle school. Not sure if they were the EX version, though. They did have the expansion unit which gave a cage for the slot 5 and 7 cards. The school had a mix of Platinum IIe's and Laser 128's all networked together so they could share one hard drive, which was connected to a IIgs that was configured as the server. Talking about the UniDisk 3.5 reminds me that they did make a Superdrive card for the IIe and IIgs that let you use a high density drive on them. Haven't seen one in person, but did see them in an Apple catalog sometime around the end of the IIe's life span.

Great videos and what a lovely machine! Perhaps the only good Laser computer.

The 3.whatever mhz. clock speed of the later Apple II machines (and clone!) always made me a little envious as a C64 user. Yes we had a greater software library but subLogic's flight simulators, etc., all seemed to run so smooth compared to my 64!

@TheJeremyHolloway

3 жыл бұрын

Check out the videos on KZread of Flight Simulator II and Karateka running on an Atari 8-bit computer with a 65816 upgrade to see how fast those games can play...

28:00 - That's the most OG Zaphod Beeblebrox thing you've ever said. :D

Thats a really neat looking computer!

Ahhhh lovely artifact colors!

This is indeed a very interesting machine, and I'm not sure I would have rather had this over my Apple IIe back in the day.

Fyi: a good way to repair plastic like that is to pin it in place. First glue it with something like epoxy or crazy glue. Then get some thin graphite fiber rod from the hobby shop. Drill one or more small holes though the part across the break such that the graphite rod fits snugly then glue it in place. (Generally you need a drill press, doing it by hand usually ends up with a mess) Graphite rod is crazy strong and and makes a great reinforcement. A similar repair can be dobe on the little doors that use little nibs of plastic as higes when the little nibs break or wear off. Drill a hole though,cpress a piece of appropriately sized graphite rod in place and your good to go.

I can say that when we got our IIGS in 1986 we couldn't get a 3.5" drive... They weren't available yet. Instead we got a Unidisk 3.5" which wouldn't play some games and was a little slower. I mowed lawns all summer just to buy a $385 3.5" drive to play Bard Tale.

Wow, I'm fascinated by the Laser 128EX. So far, it looks like a perfect piece of hardware for early Apple II fans.

@jamesdavis5096

2 жыл бұрын

This is the computer I had when I was a kid and we spent hours reading magazines and typing in programs. All the Apple magazines of the day had basic programs in there

That was really fun!!

Yes IIRC Total Replay will run at full system speed in it's menu but will lower the speed down in games so they work correctly. This was done to support an Apple IIgs that's set to it's fast system speed so you don't have to keep going into Control Panel to switch it back and forth.

@adriansdigitalbasement

3 жыл бұрын

Ah nice. I wonder if the Laser and IIgs use the same memory location to slow down the system?

@stevesether

3 жыл бұрын

@@adriansdigitalbasement The technical reference manual mentions that address $C074 is used to control the speed. It uses bit 7 and 6. 00 and 01 are 1mhz, 10 is 2.3, and 11 is 3.6 mhz. I'd also make a guess that the crash issues you experienced are related to some sort of timing issue between the CPU and the rest of the system. The CPU actually slows down when it accesses various parts of the system to maintain compatibility. I found the technical reference manual here:www.apple.asimov.net/documentation/hardware/machines/Laser%20128%20Series%20Technical%20Reference%20Manual.pdf

I believe you are right about Total Replay slowing the system down for games, as it normally does this on IIGS computers.

If the CPU is a WD65C02. The reason some programs may lock up or reboot may be because some programs may be using the undocumented op-codes in the MOS 6502 that are unsupported on the WD65C02..

@Mr_Meowingtons

3 жыл бұрын

lol well that's BS!

@brentboswell1294

3 жыл бұрын

The Apple //c and Enhanced //e both used a 65C02

@brentboswell1294

3 жыл бұрын

As I recall, the 65C02 had 10 extra instructions over the 6502...maybe WD/Rockwell (the two companies that made the 65C02) just documented some hidden instructions? The //c and the Enhanced //e also reintroduced the mini assembler that was in the original Apple ][ ROM's, and didn't make the cut in the ][+/ original //e ROM's. You can tell an Enhanced //e in two ways: the boot screen shows "Apple //e" (instead of "Apple ][") on the boot screen, and if you enter the system monitor, and type "!" at the * prompt, you get the ! prompt (and are in the mini assembler). You can enter assembly language directly in that prompt, but it's a little lame in that it doesn't take mnemonics (unlike a nice software assembler!)

I love the floppy disk noises.

The "booti" card is da bomb. I recently got one, you will LOVE it! I stopped using my FloppyEMU. It is the affordable solution most of us are looking for. It takes standard USB flash drives with standard windows FAT32 filesystem and allows you to attach any prodos ordered (.po) disk image to the Apple II. Just make/edit .po disk images on a PC using CiderPress, chuck them on the USB, and attach via the booti's configuration menu. You can even attach multiple images at the same time! 32MB .po for booting GS/OS 6.0.2? No problem! $60? No brainer!

the other computer was jealous and the cover fell out of spite and anger because you were paying too much attention to the laser hahaha, it was like "that's not even a real apple!!" hahahaha.

@wofwof007

3 жыл бұрын

I was thinking the same thing. It felt bad when he started playing with the 128. But when he opened up the real Apple II and took a card out of it to put in the 128? "That sir, is taking it too far!" LOL

Still have my Laser 128ex,also have the expansion slot box unit,with 3.5 disk and adaptor card

Gotta wonder how well the AppleWorks spreadsheet works at 3+ MHz. I recall building some sheets which took a while to run on a stock Apple //e (decades ago, of course). The higher speed would've been really nice. WRT copying floppies, might wanna try running the Laser at a higher clock rate. The Apple //e had difficulty running terminal programs. It worked just fine when everything fit on the screen but, when the screen had to scroll, it was not uncommon to lose the first couple characters because scrolling the screen ate several milliseconds and the Apple Serial Card had 1 byte of buffering, meaning multiple characters were sent before the terminal program could check the port. I discovered this while trying to use an Apple //e as a terminal connected to an Osborne O1 (52 column screen, physically painful keyboard). I could run at 300 baud (but who wants to do that) without issue but 1200 baud lost characters when the screen scrolled. I have no experience with a //c so I can't speak to how well those worked. The fact that you could copy floppies at 115,200 on the //c means they likely had more hardware buffering on the serial ports.

Awesome video, especially that you're willing to risk sacrificing working hardware to test compatibility.

i miss my laser 128, had one as a kid, wish i could find one close to me.

Hi Adrian love the channel! I use my FloppyEmu to make real Apple II disks using an un-enhanced Apple IIe. Maybe it works for me because I'm putting FloppyEmu on Disk 2? Also, there have been significant firmware upgrades, not sure how long you've had your Emu?

@johnhlynn9625

3 жыл бұрын

I’m using a FloppyEmu on slot 6 on an enhanced IIe and am able to make Apple II disks, as well. I don’t use Copy II+ for copying. I use Apple Copy or other file copy programs. Bit copiers just don’t seem to work.

@NerdlyPleasures

3 жыл бұрын

​@@johnhlynn9625 I think you would have good results with copying by matching program with format. So for a sector-based copier like COPYA, a .dsk, .do or .po image would be acceptable. But if you want to use a bit copier like CopyIIPlus, try a bitcell format like .nib or .woz with Floppy Emu.

It could be due to the way some games were coded an exception is generated, like for instance a divide by zero error. Could also happen due to hardware, memory not keeping up, but then dazzledraw should lock up too.

40:46 Part three? I am going to pause on this series until all parts are released.

There was an Applied Engineering Z-80 1 Megabyte card I had for the Apple IIc that was mounted internally. Lots of bank switched memory and when using assembly language.

Around the 9.00 mark I thought you were doing a dance party! Joke aside, when you used Dazzler Draw in the highest speed I notice it wasn't doing the flood fills correctly, it was not filling some area's. Anyway, another fun video even though I'm not a huge Apple fan..Paul..

@sittingstill3578

3 жыл бұрын

Use a colon to refer to a time stamp like this 9:00.

@Mclaneinc

3 жыл бұрын

@@sittingstill3578 Whilst I agree I should have used a colon I find your reply a bit confrontational..I don't think the mistake needed that tone..Relax...

@sittingstill3578

3 жыл бұрын

@@Mclaneinc I was just trying to help. I enjoy finding time stamps in comments so I can see what others have enjoyed. As a result I try to clarify how this works for folks for the enjoyment of everyone. Thanks for sharing the reference!

The story behind the 5 1/4" drive being driven almost entirely through software that Woz wrote is essentially correct, but there is a lot of interesting stuff to the story. It's worth looking up the whole story, but briefly, the reason it's mostly driven through software is because when Apple went to Shugart back in the day for disk drives, their drives had a controller chip and was a total package, but was very expensive. Something like 2-3x the cost of a bare drive. Apple balked, so Shugart gave them some bare drives to test, thinking Apple would get frustrated without the controller chips and come back to Shugart and pay the price for the full package. That gambit failed, as Apple had Woz, who simply (for him) read through the schematics and wrote routines to drive the drive through software, and I'm talking from the bare metal. He had to create an encoding scheme of the bits, and as there was no track 0 sensor due to not having those controller chips, he simply sent 40 "minus 1 track" commands upon start up, which is why it does that "Grrrrr-dt-dt-dt-dt-dt" upon power up. Shugart was shocked when Apple came back and put in a large order for the bare drives. Never doubt The Woz. Wiki has an account of some of this at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk_II but it's worth looking up Woz's recollections too.

High speed mode will be awesome for Shadowkeep!

the laser line essentially have a UDC built in. Any drive that works with UDC will work on the laser.

🤘😁🤘 Lucky you having such beautiful machine. I wanted to buy it but in Europe it's quite challening to get it. Sometimes it's available on ebay in USA but importing it would cost a fortune... :(

The only carp with these machines was always the quality of the keyboard build. They were notorious for having larger keys (space, shift, return esp.) breaking off in ways that weren't easily fixed. The //c keyboard was much more robust.

I had a separate metal assembly that plugged into the expansion port that'd fit two Apple IIe form factor cards, so the port might have some stuff to support that. Sadly, all that was thrown away years ago...

Cool machine.

Dang, Adrian. I want one soooooo badly.

On my Atari 8-bit with SDriveMax, I can use it with a 1050 disk drive and copy files and disks back and forth.

I guess a programmer knew anyone who saw the message "CAN'T FIND STUPID CARD" was already having a bad day and needed some cheering up.

I had this machine when I was young, but I don't remember having any software issues with the faster speeds. I do remember having trouble running a few games we bought. We had this disk called "Vegas games" but one of the games (I believe it was the 2nd game on the menu) would crash no matter what we did.

On the slot 5 vs slot7 issue, the expansion connector is prewired as you say to be physically slot 7. Two connections not normally used for slot 7 on an apple2 contain the select pins for slot5 and are routed to the secondary slot in the expansion box. I used my original laser 128 as a high school student in the 1990s with an AE Phasor in the side slot, and it always appeared as 7. Also, the cp/m card may give you a hard time on this machine due to DMA timing needs since the card relies on the apple/laser computer's ram to operate, especially if you're not running at 1mhz. I never tried it with a softcard style cp/m card. However, an applicard style cp/m card should work at any speed, as I use mine with a IIgs at full speed and my IIe with a transwarp at 3.6mhz. :) Last, try finding an AE cp/m disk, as it might take advantage of some hidden things on the AE card.

If the lid from the ][e is ABS plastic, you can weld that back together with a drop of acetone.

CANT FIND STUPID CARD. When that popped up in his screen that was hilarious! 😂

We had Laser128 with CP/M and Turbo Pascal in my high school computer lab.

Language Arts=Electronic Arts before selling out? Idk lol great video Adrian

thank you for that cpm error! made my day! cant find the stupid card! ...the feeling when when your pc cant use a smartcard OR a stupid card...

was there a Laser with an integrated CP/M-card? i remember such an "all in one" model which was at least announced in magazines. (myself i have never seen that machine)

Superglue and baking soda maybe? That is a nice clean break, just not sure about the plastic compatibility.

Alot of games, to prevent tearing, frame lock using a vertical sync function (not sure that 6502 has it, but the 6809 does), and in those cases, regardless of speed of the processor, the game will always run at the same speed (although faster speeds will make it run a bit smoother).

@adriansdigitalbasement

3 жыл бұрын

Yeah the Apple natively doesn't have any kind of vertical interrupt available for that. I think the mouse hardware does but it's definitely not stock on any Apple II. :-(

@Starchface

3 жыл бұрын

The 6809 was such a superior processor to the 6502! I enjoyed programming assembly language on my Color Computer 3 a lot, not that I really did anything useful.

@sprybug

3 жыл бұрын

@@Starchface The CoCo 3 was my first home computer. Loved that thing. I did so much with it.

@TheJeremyHolloway

3 жыл бұрын

@@Starchface It definitely was but Motorola wouldn't license it as loosely as the MOS 6502 had been so it never reached the same level of success. Look at the Atari Lynx released in 1989. It has a 6502 because Motorola wouldn't grant a similar license to Epyx/Atari Corp offering customization of the 6809 - and the 68000 too for that matter - as was available for the 6502 from the start.

The joystick doesn't work with the faster clocks because the "A/D" conversion is done by using an oscillator (I believe it's a 556) where the variable resistance changes the timing: the internal routines measure the time in cycles, and for this reason the measures for the joystick will be completely off.

What is that card called that has an SD card reader on the side? I'm interested in getting one for my Laser 128 base model. Although, the floppy drive works just fine and I don't have a notch to make a side 2 of the diskettes. Also, was there an adapter that allows you to plug in an Apple mouse and a joystick at the same time or not really? It's also amazing that you can boot from an 800KB 3.5" drive, FloppyEmu, and that card that was on the side.

That speed issue reminds of the days with my first PC, a 80286 machine. It had a turbo switch, to switch between I believe 4.77 MHz and 16MHz. The 4.77MHz mode was for speed compatibility with older Intel systems. I remember the game digdug was unplayable in 16Mhz mode because it ran too fast. Putting the machine in 4.77MHz mode made the game run just fine.

@adriansdigitalbasement

3 жыл бұрын

Yeah those initial games didn't even think that we would have faster PCs one day :-)

@TheJeremyHolloway

3 жыл бұрын

I'd be surprised if those early games haven't been patched by enthusiasts in recent years...

Mind giving me the model of the red Acer laptop at 33:37? I believe I used to own one of these and I might get another one to relive my old laptop days. I used to really love it, but I think that it was thrown out because of a software fault (not by me, but by my parents) I remember using a binder clip on the hinge to make it last longer because the hinge had snapped and I wanted to keep using it.

Adrian- to fix that, try Jet Glue. I've used it on C-64's and it works great. My daughter is a dancer, and she uses it on her shoes. I broke a tab off my breadbin and decided to try it, and it works!!

@adriansdigitalbasement

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the tip

Even if the Laser didn't have the IWM chip for the disk drive, it still might work with the 6502 running at warp speed! Try cpm after adding the additional ram. The B version must have been sysgened for more memory.

Actually the Laser 128 EX has a COMPLETELY different but compatible disk controller in slot 7. It's known as a UDC (Universal Disc Controller). VTech sold it as an add in card for the //e.

3:09 - The width is wrong too (note that the left robot's wheels are out-of-round)

In //c, the switch won't affect programs. As you mention Laser build the ROM by themselves not copy Apple's, there may be slightly different.

You actually can make a floppy disk for a IIc from source on the Floppy Emu. I've done it with both ProDOS and choplifter. You should maybe look into that again... You need to have the Floppy Emu internally connected if I recall...

The IIc has a timer-the mouse card. Nobody used it to detect the speed of the system though. Likewise the IIgs has timer hardware that can be used. Older machines … it might be possible using some trickery, but nobody did that either.

Just a minor clarification but on the IBM PC and compatibles, games written for AT and later PC and compatibles check the CPU and adjust their speed but not games written for the IBM 5150 or XT (or compatibles wit the same CPU) as they just assumed the clock speed was 4.77 MHz as that was the only CPU speed option at the time on those machines. That is why latter PC compatible machines include the misnamed Turbo button, which contrary to its name does not speed up the machine when pushed but rather slows it down to 4.77 MHz so older games assuming the speed will run at the correct speed. I’m sure the namer of the turbo button might argue that Turbo mode is on default on those machines so pushing the button deactivates the mode thus the button is not misnamed but I’d argue it’s still confusing in that case regardless.

@kaitlyn__L

3 жыл бұрын

Even more confusing, while most turbo buttons slowed it down when pushed in, a minority of them were the other way around, slow until you push it in. In which case they’re more in line with the name and thus in some ways less confusing, but since the operation is opposite on most machines as you say, that makes it more confusing overall because people don’t expect pushing it in to make it faster.

That flood fill glitched out there though at the faster speed...

@23:06 IF it really is ABS, use Nitro, put one drop of Nitro on the crack of either piece, wait 15 to 20 seconds. It will soften up the surface and let you glue it together without introducing foreign chemical substances. Works perfectly on lego and derivates.

Hmm... wondering if running at the higher speed mode speeds up the bus timing; and that’s exceeding what the CP/M card’s Z-80 can handle? 🤔

I had totally forgotten about this machine I sold them back in the day.

God I love those names they put in a cracked disk. I have one disk that says it was Ripped by Jack the Ripper. LOL

The zx spectrum had some tricks even with the missing timer: im2 interrupts (generated with raster 50 times /second), or floating bus. Did not had something similar on the Apple 2? It's really curious for me since I had the Macintosh back then (128k), and that computer had very crappy games in comparison.

@jordanhazen7761

3 жыл бұрын

On //e and later machines, you can poll I/O location $C019 to tell when the display's in vertical-blanking, intended to help with flicker-free screen updates, but this could also be used to calibrate a timing loop for different CPU speeds by counting elapsed cycles per 60Hz field. Also, when a mouse interface "card" is present (including inbuilt ones in the //c, //GS, and Laser 128*) it can be set to trigger an actual Vsync interrupt, though the mouse firmware uses this itself, so you'd want to set the vector back after calibrating to avoid breaking that. As far as I know, no games used either method, maybe because early Apples (II, II+) didn't support it, and accelerators were uncommon, especially early in the life of the platform.

23:00 I can't speak to it myself, but I've heard other people mention plastic revitalizers/rejuvinators/conditioners that help with old, brittle plastic like this to help restore some of their elasticity to that they don't just snap apart like that. The comments I've seen say that it works in a lot of cases. What exactly the product is that you use, I can't say for sure, but Google will likely point you in the right direction.

I am a fan of the AppleIIc, so this is very interesting stuff! How was the Laser perceived at the time? With disdain by “real” Apple users? or a legit option? Given the significantly lower price, would Apple fans buy a Laser as a back-up?

Sheer awesomeness

I wonder if a Mockingboard could be set up as Slot5 for games that supported it?

23:00 - if the ABS plastic welding is not an option, maybe you could try CA glue+baking soda. Look it up, it gives a lot of structural strenght and you can use it on surfaces that are not visible.

@adriansdigitalbasement

3 жыл бұрын

So I was looking at bit more at the tab -- sadly that specific broken part is what clamps onto the lower section of the case, so it needs to fit perfectly over this ridge in the lower section. Meaning when I glue it, it cannot have any glue "oozing" from the crack, even on the underside. I think the ABS welding is going to be my only option.... I would normally try to reinforce it with some extra ABS but unless I do it on the OUTSIDE it won't be possible. What a pain!!

@Dukefazon

3 жыл бұрын

@@adriansdigitalbasement Ohh, I see, that's bad news. Good luck on fixing it! By the way, did you find the CA glue+baking soda trick? It might be useful in the future. Cheers!

On the Hacker game, the logon is Australia. I remember playing that on the C64…