New Zealand Vintage Computer Forums

What am I after... Let's see.

Really, I'm interested in Apple II's of all descriptions, but my priority list goes like this..

An international (switch under the keyboard) NON "enhanced" PAL IIe, (i.e. The A2S2064... 6502B, 64k, with the 1k standard 80-col card) preferably with monitor II and "Disk II" drives.

(n.b. This would be "my old machine" from when I was a kid )

A ROM-3 Apple IIgs. The machine I could never afford at the time.

A Zip Chip Model 8000... I missed out on one of these on ebay a day or two back because I fell asleep. (a 3 month old baby will do that to ya)

... then "the rest".

I had to google to find out what a Zip Chip was

Interesting your comment about the switch. When I first got my IIe I wondered what the switch was for. I couldn't find reference to it in web-sourced docs. It was a real mystery. At that time most of my vintage computer buddies were in North America, and they were completely mystified! After a while I found some mention on some obscure discussion board about this "International vrs US" keyboard switch. The mystery was solved!

Well, assuming the sale all goes through hunky dory.. I have just bought this. (Apple IIgs ROM-03)

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll ... _500wt_950

Ended up paying more for it (AUD$810) than that other trademe one, but on the plus side it's absolutely pristine from what I can see.

tezza wrote:... When I first got my IIe I wondered what the switch was for....

Well funnily enough, it's not like it really did anything. In reality, it ended up only setting a single change in the character generator... (# becomes £)

The key still reports the same scancode.. it's still the same ASCII value.

I'm really just being fussy and sentimental, just wanting "my old machine" back. Although it would also be nice to ditch the 110v step down transformer.

I can totally relate. That's the main reason I secured a NEC 8201a. Simply nostalgia for a model I once had.

As can I. My whole museum (now just over 170 computers, consoles and handlhelds, though many are spares/parts machines) all started because I wanted a ZX81 just like my first computer. The rest is just icing

Still looking for a cheap exhibition space in the greater Wellington region somewhere

lizardb0y wrote:As can I. My whole museum (now just over 170 computers, consoles and handlhelds, though many are spares/parts machines) all started because I wanted a ZX81 just like my first computer. The rest is just icing

Still looking for a cheap exhibition space in the greater Wellington region somewhere

Wow. 170 units. I might have asked you this before Andrew but where do you keep them!?

At the moment they're all stored in my garage (I don't keep the car in it ) and home office, mainy sealed and boxed. I've found the large plastic storage boxes from the Warehouse quite good for protective storage.

I'll soon be moving some of the collection into more long-term storage as I need to free up space to get good access to my workbench. I hate the idea of having them locked away, but until I can organise somewhere semi-permanent to exhibit them I don't have a lot of options.

I don't even have that many machines and I have issues with storage - at the moment most of them are either boxed up and in my lair (where all my old computers live) or set up on the desks in the lair. But if I have too many more turn up I simply won't have anywhere to put them.

As for the original topic, is it worth pointing out the complete looks-to-be ex-school Apple IIe Platinum with matching monitor and dual drives on TradeMe at the moment? Sneaky monkey with the 50 dollar starts on each individual component though... why didn't he just bundle it all and call it 150?

Gibsaw wrote:Well funnily enough, it's not like it really did anything. In reality, it ended up only setting a single change in the character generator... (# becomes £)

Mine was also modded to operate the "colour/mono" switch that was otherwise located on the mobo

Carcenomy wrote:As for the original topic, is it worth pointing out the complete looks-to-be ex-school Apple IIe Platinum with matching monitor and dual drives on TradeMe at the moment? Sneaky monkey with the 50 dollar starts on each individual component though... why didn't he just bundle it all and call it 150?

Eventually they did... and I drove to Dargaville and bought this lot. http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=348098404

In the end, I felt a little ripped off. Most of it was in disgusting condition and will require quite a lot of cleanup and repairs. Wherever "webbles" has been storing his vintage stuff is obviously not dry as there is some surface rust and the Apple IIe Platinum doesn't go.

A useful lesson on the weasel-words in vintage auctions. "Turns on, but haven't tested any further" translates to "fairly obvious serious fault, but the light comes on"... HOWEVER

The Non-Enhanced PAL IIe with a single Disk II that was underneath in the picture goes ok and I'm happy about that. Serious restoration work required though.

So now I have... (from various sources.)

Apple IIe (Enhanced) - NTSC 110v - 2 x unidisk 5.25" - Very tidy - My main toy
Apple IIe (Standard)** - PAL 240v - 1 x Disk II - Messy, Yellow, Covered in vivid, but WORKING.
Apple IIe (Platinum) - International NTSC with colour monitor - 2 x Unidisk 5.25" (some sort of motherboard fault. Doesn't beep/boot. Garbled display. Project for another day.)
Apple IIgs ROM 03** - 240v with colour IIgs monitor - 1 x Apple 3.5" - Absolutely bloody flawless. (packed away in it's boxes)

+ Lots of other stuff from ebay - joysticks, paddles, memory expansions, super serial, external keypad, some Apple "diskware" etc.

Sooooo, yeah.. I now have the two major items (**) on my wishlist... aaaaand like lizardboy said... It probably won't stop there.. Probably going to acquire... a "europlus" and a IIc...

Still kicking myself for not buying the 8MHz "zip chip" on ebay for US$100. I thought "yeah, right" when they said it was rare... and I was soooooooo wrong.

I'm envious of the Apple IIGS.

Yes, weasle words on Trade Me. Others to watch are "couldn't find a cable to test it with" when the cable is a standard RCA one common on almost all TVs or a simple PC-type power cable (for power), and "untested" when all the person needed to do was to switch it on!

The Platinum IIes are nice machines. I received one in a similar condition to yours and managed to repair it. I'm sure you know this already but there is a self-diagnostic test you can run on startup which can help identify where the problem lies.

tezza wrote:I'm envious of the Apple IIGS.

Nah, I'd be envious if it had fallen in someone's lap for a bargain... but I paid a small fortune for it, and anyone can have a nice example if they're willing to fork out thousands of dollars.

tezza wrote:I'm sure you know this already but there is a self-diagnostic test you can run on startup which can help identify where the problem lies.

Actually, No.. I'm going to have to admit ignorance on that one... Do Tell? (Is there a URL I can read up on this particular feature?)

(UPDATE) - Found it on the vintage forums

"Apple //e in-ROM diagnostics - Press Ctrl-Open Apple-Closed Apple-Reset to run diagnostics and replace the defective IC shown on the screen."

Gibsaw wrote:(UPDATE) - Found it on the vintage forums

"Apple //e in-ROM diagnostics - Press Ctrl-Open Apple-Closed Apple-Reset to run diagnostics and replace the defective IC shown on the screen."

That's the one. It was spot-on as far as my initial IIe platinum problem was concerned.

tezza wrote:It was spot-on as far as my initial IIe platinum problem was concerned.

I'll give it a try, however I'm not sure how far I'll get. The machine doesn't beep, and the display I do get, the characters themselves are garbled.

Very tempted to shove a ROM01 IIgs upgrade board in there.

(UPDATE) No Joy. Didn't really expect it as the machine's not really capable of even making a beep, let alone running diags. It'll be a long slow process involving finding a working platinum and playing educated swapsies to find out what's fried.