[ Retro Scan of the Week ] Orange+Two Apple II Clone
May 31st, 2010 by Benj Edwards
Like comparing Apple IIs and Oranges+Twos
There was a time in the early 1980s when one could find ads for many different unauthorized Apple II clones in the back of just about any computer magazine. The ads promised inexpensive reverse-engineered copies of the Apple II computer hardware designed to use Apple II software and peripherals. Apple wasn’t too happy about the illicit machines and even managed to win some import bans on them in the US, but many remained on the market.
Some folks, like my father, even bought underground replicas of the Apple II motherboard, copied the Apple ROMs onto EPROMs, and built their own Apple IIs from scratch. It was a lot cheaper than buying directly from Apple, so many people with the technical know-how chose that path.
Discussion Topic of the Week: Have you ever owned or built an unauthorized Apple II clone? Tell us about it.
May 31st, 2010 at 8:13 pm
My next door neighbor owned a clone. It was cheesy, but it had a few cool options that the Apples didn’t have (like a volume control!).
I owned another type of Apple ][+ clone until about a year ago. I had to get rid of it, ’cause I couldn’t think of what to use it for (I already have a //e, //c and //GS) and I was moving.
Of course, now I have a use for it, but that’s hindsight for you.
May 31st, 2010 at 9:06 pm
My grade school had a Laser 128. I don’t remember any of us thinking anything about it really, except it was…different. It ran all the same software, and that’s all that mattered to us at that age.
May 31st, 2010 at 10:50 pm
yeah. my father owned one way back in the 80s. in fact, that is the first computer our family has. (we never own a real Apple, btw) after that machine broke, it will be a few empty years before we got an XT.
June 1st, 2010 at 4:45 pm
I want one! Dual processors too? That’s really neat. Knock off electronics are the range in China, again, because of Apple’s ridiculous prices.