Game Developers Refuge

I road tripped a couple hours to pick these up. Like my Amiga before, I'm hoping to give these the restoration treatment.

- An Apple IIc (later model Apple II in a smaller case and built-in floppy drive)
- A Macintosh 128k (the computer Apple was selling you with that 1984 commercial)
- Timex Sinclair 1000 (Sinclair ZX81 North American version)




As you can see the Apple computers are in rough shape, in dire need of retrobriting. Also this and an RF adapter is all it came with.

So at the moment, the things I need:

- an Apple IIc Power supply (or alternative)
- an old Macintosh keyboard (or alternative)
- an old Macintosh mouse (or alternative)
- a boot disk for the Macintosh
- a way to fix the crack in the back of the Macintosh
- a new battery for the Macintosh

In other words, at this time I don't even know if the Apple IIc works.

As for the Macintosh...



This is it asking for a keyboard and disk. So yes! It works!

Side note: The CRT is a bit dark, so I can already tell it's going to need a capacitor replacement.


The Timex Sinclair is in pristine condition, though I don't have photos of that handy. The cables and power supply do concern me though, so I might not power it up until I can find a replacement.


I've since wiped everything down with disinfectant, and removed that gross apple sticker from the Apple IIc. Color didn't change, but some of the caked on dirt is now gone. I'll have restoration photos to share as I get started on that.

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Apple IIc Power Supply
This is 2021 and original power supplies for retro computers are ready to _melt_, so my first question was how viable would it be to make my own power supply?

Holy shit! Thank goodness, the Apple IIc has simple power requirements. It only needs a single voltage, unlike the Commodore 64 that wants both 5V and 9V. When you dig into the weeds, it sounds like the Apple IIc can actually accept any voltage from 9-20 volts, so long as it can provide enough amps. Awesome!

Doing a bit more digging I found an amazing suggestion: use laptop power supply (with an adapter).

https://retrocomputing.stackexchange.co ... -apple-iic

This guy modified a standard Lenovo/IBM/ThinkPad power plug adapter with the required DIN-7 plug, and hoo boy do I have lots of ThinkPads.

I even had the necessary DIN-7 female connectors on my parts shelf, so I just need a sacrificial adapter. I've since made an eBay order for a few of those adapters, and should have those in a few days.

In the mean time, I could hook the Apple IIc up to my bench power supply, but I need to finish cleaning my home-office first as ... hehe ... I've been sort-of dumping things in front of my workbench and can't exactly sit at it right now.


So yeah! New project! Fixing some new computers. No rush, but I'm hoping to take advantage of all that sunlight and start retrobriting.

I have watch several youtube videos of people doing this, and they can be seriously entertaining. I think you will have a good time

I actually don't have a lot of experience with vintage Apple computers, though I have a fond memory of childhood when I remember playing a game on an Apple that was wheeled into our classroom. Don't ask me what the game was, I have no idea. Best I can describe is it featured a white man (like a better drawn stickman) that moved around on screen.

Anyway logically my next question when it comes to retro computers is HOW CAN I DOWNLOAD AND PLAY SHITE I GET FROM THE INTERNET?

The ultimate solution for the Commodore 64 is something conveniently name the Ultimate 1541 (a device that emulates a commodore disk drive, and numerous other devices). In the case of the ENTIRE VINTAGE APPLE LINE, there's the Floppy Emu.

https://www.bigmessowires.com/floppy-emu/

To my surprise, Apple computers all feature a DB-19 connector for external disks, be they floppy drives or hard drives. Huh. There are platform specific options, but the Floppy Emu supports pretty-much the whole Apple legacy. Put your files on an SD-Card, tell it what mode you want to work as (Floppy or HDD), pick a file, and boom!

There are other devices, but this seems overall the best choice.

I nearly pulled the trigger, but I decided I should at least check if the Apple IIc actually works first. Once I have confirmed this, I have given myself permission to order one of these.


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My Apple devices pre-date the ADB standard... at least I think they do. ADB was Apple's Mouse+Keyboard protocol. In the Apple IIc's case it has a built-in keyboard, but the original Macintosh used an odd phone-cable like connector for the keyboard. Mice seem to be DB-9 connectors for both.

IF I had a newer mac, this would be the thing I'd want.

https://www.bigmessowires.com/usb-wombat/

It's quite neat, a unidirectional Apple keyboard+mouse adapter, meaning you could decide one day to be silly and use your Apple gear on your modern PC.

Alas, I'm still on the hunt for a keyboard+mouse solution.

I do have some old IBM PS/2 keyboards. I was hoping to find an adapter but I haven't found one yet. I think I'd prefer to go with adapters instead of original keyboards & mice, since I'm not really here to preserve the original experience. I'm here to restore/refurbish them and eventually make using them easier/better.


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Oh right, I can't remember if I told this story here. Back in May I...

I TRADED A CASE OF BEER FOR A VIC-20





It too needs a cleaning, but it's not as bad.



And as we can see above, this VIC-20 actually works.

I have a pair of other VIC-20's that unfortunately do not work. Both appear to have bad VIC chips.

I've been watching some computer repair videos lately and I'm now kinda glad I have those spare VIC-20's, as they give me something to steal RAM chips from. Excellent.


Anyways, that's all I got for right now.

carra wrote: ↑Thu Jul 08, 2021 6:55 am I have watch several youtube videos of people doing this, and they can be seriously entertaining. I think you will have a good time

Oh yes. It's not my first restoration. I've fixed a Commodore 64 and retrobrited an Amiga 500. Unfortunately I've failed to fix the original VIC-20's I acquired, since they were quite literally unfixable (bad rare chip). But as mentioned above, I did find a working unit.

I mean technically I've also repaired broken audio equipment, swapped out screens in laptops and phones, but I dunno retro vintage stuff is best.


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For my own reference here some of my repair threads from Twitter.

Failed VIC-20 Repair

TAC-2 teardown

SoundCanvas SC-88 battery replacement and Yamaha MU-50 Audio Jack repair

Unfortunately I can't go far enough back in time to find my Amiga restoration.

That Apple IIc is almost red enough that it could pass for an actual apple! (ok, no, not quite, but still, holy moley!)

I would love to get one of the classic Macintosh systems (System 7 era) again. My step dad had one back in the day, and I remember playing all kinds of games on it. Dark Castle stands out particularly to me as a game I played a ton of. Also Dungeons of Doom was great fun. There were some great adventure games that he had but I cannot remember the names of any of them now. Anyway, I think he ended up tossing that system out over a decade ago though. :'(

I'm not a particularly big fan of retrobriting personally, but in your case it definitely seems warranted.

So you're into Computer/Game Restoration are ya. Then you're going to love TYSY's youtube channel, it's like ASMR for restoration geeks.

See some of his vids below:

My large plastic bins arrived.

Years ago I would just leave them on the kitchen table for a few days (big window beside it), but there's a certain SOMEONE I can't trust.

Okay, I made some cables so I could finally test the Apple IIc, and unfortunately it doesn't work. But it has video. I'll have photos later.

One of the ROM chips looks rusted. I found some binaries of the various ROMS. Putting the link here for later.

https://mirrors.apple2.org.za/Apple%20I ... ple%20IIc/

Finally some photos.

Before.



The motherboard.



I did find that this one chip (the character ROM) looks a bit off.



I don't think this is why the system glitches though. Still, I picked up some Deoxit to help with this restoration.



I also have something for dissolving rust on the way.

I still have an old Sanyo monitor that's in need of a little love. The red convergence is off just a tad (and really you'd have to be looking for it to notice), and the case has gone seriously yellow over the last ten years in storage. It's still a fantastic display for retro gaming. The only quirk I've found is that it syncs on white, so games that periodically display a pure white screen can cause the display to rollover while it resyncs. A minor annoyance at worst.