To make a long story short:
- The ROMs in the Laser computer was created via reverse-engineering of the
original Apple II ROMs. Therefore, the ROM is supposedly original.
- Most of the other "kits" were more likely illegal. Even though they booted
with a name other than "APPLE ][" on the top, most of them contained code
copyrighted by Apple. Also in most cases, if you happen to stumble across
genuine Apple II ROMs, they may actually work. I think one of the challenges
would be for these logic boards to use the pre-fab ROMs seeing most of the
clones (when I say "clones" in this sense, I'm thinking more along the line
of clones coming out of Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, etc.) used EPROMs.
- Laser was one of the rare Apple II clones that were sold legally in the
U.S. market. Other clones, including the Franklin Ace series, were sold in
the U.S., but were later taken off the shelves after Apple sued them for
copyright infringement.
- Right now, someone on eBay is selling a naked Apple II+ clone logic board
with no chips. It would be neat to build an Apple II+ clone just for
academic reasons.
--- Bryan
"Cali Ruchala" <macvaya@mindspring.remove.this.com> wrote in message
macvaya-1310021608220001@dialup-65.56.135.202.dial1.chicago1.level3.net">news:macvaya-1310021608220001@dialup-65.56.135.202.dial1.chicago1.level3.net
...
This is purely academic. A friend of mine and I have a running
bet about one of the AppleII clones, called the LASER. Did this
come with its own ROM, or did it require a ROM from a working AppleII?
I seem to recall reading about a company that built "build-your-own
AppleII-kits" which had everything but the ROM, and I'm not as
certain as I'm pretending to be in this dispute whether or not
that was the LASER or a different computer altogether.
I've still never seen one of these in the... err.. plastic. Where
did LASERs come from, and how were they sold?
Cheers,
Cali