Re: Mimic Spartan -more info

["Ernest" <ernestls@home.com>]

I spoke with Derick some more today, and if I understood him correctly,
there were two companies involved in it's development: Mimic, and it's
parent company ATG. ATG conceived the idea, earned a grant from the Canadian
government during it's push to develop technology industries in the
Vancouver B.C. area, and then created Mimic to develop the idea into a
retail product. The Mimic guys (about five in all) designed the products and
built the prototypes, and ATG actually produced the final design products
(cards, cases, etc.) and the signatures that you see on the bottom of the
case lid are those of the ATG group.

Derick also said that originally, the Spartan was just a small board that
was basically what you see on the Spartan CPU card, that would have plugged
into the back of the C64 and been sold for less than $200.00, however under
the nutty management of ATG, the concept mushroomed into the over designed
and over priced Spartan that was finally released for $600.00. He said that
it was doomed to failure before it was released because by then, you could
buy a real Apple II and a C64 for about the same price as the Spartan. He
thinks that only around 200 were ever sold (probably less.)

As for the story about the owner running off to South America, he was never
able to find out what really happened. He said that he showed up to work one
day, and there were several security guards waiting at the doors who made
everyone sign in before entering. All that he was able to find out was that
a few million dollars had been "misplaced," the owner was missing, and the
security guards were there to make sure that none of the remaining inventory
of parts and supplies grew feet and walked away. Derick said that he never
went back after that, and that was the sorry end of Mimic.

His memory might be a little vague, considering that this all happened 17-18
years ago but it was fun to hear him talk about it. I think that, for me,
it's kind of like being able to hang out with a movie star or something like
that. I collect these old computers but this is the first time that I've
been able to talk to someone who actually designed and built them.

He was only able to find some of the items for me this weekend, and sadly,
several key parts are still missing. I have the Spartan box, case, CPU card,
power supply, disk controller card, and packing slip. I'm still missing the
main board, connectors, and a few other odds and ends but he said that he
still has the rest of the missing items but he'll have to dig around some
more for them, as well as the wire-wrap proto-type. He also thinks that he
can get an unopened Spartan from his friend but I may have to pay him
something for it.

E.

"Rubywand" <rubywand@swbell.net> wrote in message
3AFDE6DD.135782BD@swbell.net">news:3AFDE6DD.135782BD@swbell.net...
> Ernest writes ...
> >
> > Here's an interesting story. I'm sitting at lunch with our director of
> > technologies, and I mentioned to him that I was planning to go up to
Canada
> > next saturday to pick up some Apple II clones, and he proceedes to tell
me
> > about a project that he worked on in the mid '80's called the Mimic
Spartan.
> > (see the link below.)
> >
> > http://www.applefritter.com/appleclones/spartan/index.html
> >
> > It turns out that he (Derick Smith) was one of the original developers
of
> > this project, and that he has several boxes of Spartan proto-type
boards,
> > ROMs, notebooks, about it's developement -and a couple of the actual
> > devices, still in their shipping boxes, with the display boxes inside.
>  ....
>
>      Nice A2 clone web page! The Spartan is an interesting machine-- kind
of
> like what we might do to come up with an upgrade for the IIgs.
>
>
>
> Rubywand