Re: help needed

[supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer)]

Bryan Villados <news001@macgeek.org> wrote:

>Well, the only DOWNSIDE of using assembler routines in the ROMs is
>portability with other models. It may work with similar models by
>Apple. But when you start getting into the clones (Franklin, Laser,
>Basis, etc.) those routines may be in different places, non-existent,
>or react differently on the register level or memory level. I've yet to
>see a disassembly of a clone's ROMs, so I'd be very curious about the
>compatibility.

Laser would support it.  The others probably will not.

Laser 128 series computers are not like the others.  They
are so good, you can run practically any Apple II 8-bit
software.  No need to patch ProDOS, Lasers pass the
"Apple II check code" easily.

Contrast to Franklin: on many Franklin models, you had
to boot from a special Franklin boot disk.  Basis would
even be worse, I suspect.

The Laser 128 series ROMs are the only real legal A2
clone ROMs.  Completely cleanroom reverse engineered.
They've survived battle with Apple in the courts of every
country where Apple challenged Laser.  They simply do
not infringe on Apple copyrights/patents but they act
just like an Apple IIe or IIc.

If the Laser 128 was released a few years earlier, Video
Technology might have started peddling the legal ROM
just as Phoenix and Award do for the PC today.  Then
history might be different.  The Apple II might have lived
on regardless of what Apple tried to do just like the
original PC architecture survived IBM's attempts to bend
it (to the proprietary microchannel architecture) because
the clones were all using the original open architecture.