Bought a Franklin Ace 100

[brandon.lacava@uttsbbs.uucp (Brandon Lacava)]

->    I just bought a Franklin Ace 1000 at a really low price of $10,
-> and I'm not familiar with the Apple scene so if anybody could answer
-> a few questions like:
->
->    How are the expansion slots different from a normal apple?
->
->    Is it compatible with the apple IIe or IIc or etc?
->
->    Where do I get the manuals for it?
->
->    Did I pay to much for it?
->
->    Is Franklin Ace still in business?
->
->    Which slot does the 80 col/memory expansion board go in?
->      (There are 8 slots 0 through 7)
->
->    How much memory does in have? (Without the above board)

Ok, I'll answer those questions in order for you:

        1) The expansion slots are totally compatible with the Apple 2
           expansion slots.
        2) The Franklin Ace 1000 is compatible with the Apple II and II+
           It is 'semi-compatible' with the //e, meaning that a program
           written for the //e that utilizes the extended 65c02 opcodes
           or mousetext will not run on the Franklin. Also, the F8 ROM
           in the Franklin is different from that of the Apple II+, so
           you might have problems running ProDOS, but since the
           F8 was only programmed differently to avoid a lawsuit from
           Apple, you can copy the F8 ROM from an Apple II+ and put it
           in your Franklin which will eliminate the ProDOS problem.
        3) The manuals for it might be a bit hard to find. Maybe.
        4) $10 is a pretty good deal for an old beast like that.
        5) Franklin is still in business, but they don't make the
           ACE 1000 anymore. Call them though, and ask about it.
        6) You can't use the //e 80col/64k ram expansion card in the
           Franklin. It's really only a II,II+ compatible computer.
           You can't use anything that would go in the auxilary slot
           of a //e, meaning that things like RamWorks, certain RGB
           cards, Aux.Slot Z-80 cards (like the PCPI Appli-Card), etc..
           cannot be used. This also means that you won't be able to get
           Double Hi-res graphics. You can expand the RAm with cards
           that go in slots 1-7, but you can't get full //e
           compatibility. You CAN get 80 columns with a card like the
           Videx, however (goes in slot 3).
        7) By itself, the Franklin has 64k of RAM (48k main memory and
           the 16k language card is built in).

If you have any other questions, ask. I had one of those monsters (but
they're terribly wonderful computers) for a long time...
               
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