A 386, a 286, and an Old Apple 2+: Ideas Wanted

[root@telecom.chi.il.us (Patrick Townson)]

My life story, chapter whatever --- :(   

For about eight years, from sometime in 1980 through 1988, I made a
great deal of use of an Apple 2+. Actually, it is one of the very
limited issue 'Black Apples' -- the special run done for the Bell and
Howell Company.  On the front where the Apple ][ metal sticker goes
is even the indicia "Bell and Howell, made exclusively for Bell and
Howell by Apple Computer". In all respects it is simply a standard
two-plus, with the usual 48K of RAM expandable to 64 K, eight slots
in the back for the disk drives, 'language card', modem, etc.

Prior to that (1977-80) I used an Ohio Scientific C-1-P, but we will 
skip that for now ....

For quite a few years this B&H Apple 2+ ran my BBS. I had the thing
loaded with cards; still have them all here in fact:

     Slot 0   Language Card
     Slot 1   Printerface
     Slot 2   Hayes Micromodem 110/300 baud card  (wow!)
     Slot 3   80 column screen display card
     Slot 4   RAM disk, about 512 K addressable as 'disk storage'
     Slot 5   Disk Controller  Drives 1 & 2
     Slot 6   Disk Controller  Drives 3 & 4
     Slot 7   Thunderclock Time Card

A Zenith color monitor, a joy stick, an 'improved' speaker (larger
speaker with volume control) and a hardware shift-key mod (making the
shift key actually work, allowing lower case letters) completed the
package. 

On booting , I loaded the four disks out to the RAM disk and ran the
BBS straight from there making it super fast; now and then I saved it 
all back to the regular floppies to protect the new messages, etc.

Anyway, it was a gem ... BBS went out of service in 1986 after about
20,000 calls, and in 1988 the machine started acting up.

Monitor was giving a 'split screen' reaction -- i.e. the top half
of the screen got nothing for a display and everything was dropped by
about the same amount; the bottom part of the screen was out of sight
below the bottom.  I traced the problem down to a chip 74 LS 08 N
which is the first chip in row H on the board. That chip has to do
with the screen display; somehow it went bad, I think maybe when I 
put a card in one day without powering down.  

Any how .... put the machine away and forgot about it ...

Began working almost entirely on Unix via my terminal and eecs.nwu.edu.  
Kept saying to myself I should get a replacement 74 LS 08 N and get
the thing running so our little one will have a great learning tool
when he gets just a few years older ...

Now -- 1993 -- I can find *no one* with such a chip.  

                     ==========================


Second half of the problem:

Do I *really* want to repair the Apple and keep it around?  Not
really, considering I now spend my time with a 286 and a 386 instead.
But the 386 is pretty skimpy inside:

   There is room for a meg of RAM in there. Bank 0 is full,
   all the slots marked Bank 1 are empty.  I get 640 K of RAM.
   I would rather upgrade that to a meg or more.

I hate to see the various cards that were in the Apple just go to
waste --

The question:   Is  ** anything ** of the Apple hardware compatible
                with the Packard Bell 286 (it has a meg already)
                or the IBM-PC clone 386?

                That is, are any of the RAM chips swappable?
           
                Are any of the cards from the Apple usable?

                Can the disk drives be plugged into the controller
                board on the 286/386  (and be expected to work)?

                What about the 512 K of memory on the 'RAM Disk'
                card I had in the Apple?  Any possibility it will
                work in any way, shape or form in the 386?


Hardware mods do not scare me; I can seat chips, solder and make 
a few basic changes without any hassle -- did it on the Apple all the
time.   ** But will any of it work from Apple ==> 286/386?

Is there anything in common between the machines which can be scrapped
out of the Apple?

I guess what I am saying is I would love to to put the Apple to an 
honorable and meaningful death by using whatever I can to enhance and
improve my two other machines. Cannibalize it entirely and junk the
rest. Is this realistic at all?

Bearing in mind that Apple used Microsoft DOS and Microsoft BASIC
(which they chose to relabel Applesoft BASIC, but no matter), will any
of the thousands of old Apple diskettes here with BASIC program on
them *actually run* without a lot of hassle should I figure a way to
get them off the Apple disks and onto the 386 disks?  (I suppose I
could use Norton or similar to get the data moved, but is it worth
the trouble?)   I know stuff that made specific references to the
machine and was not relocateable won't run, but what about the more
general stuff?

My 286 and 386 both use MS-DOS 6.0.

Am I wasting my time?  Should I junk the 2+ and get it over with
now  (sniff  :(  ) .... 

Anyone have a few 74 LS 08 N chips to spare?  I used the two or 
three I could find elsewhere narrowing down my problem and still 
need a couple to replace the ones I worked on.

Well thanks for help, etc ... the Apple 2+ was *such a great machine*
and I would love to have it 'live on' if that is possible, or at
least become a learning toy for our kid in the next couple years.


Patrick Townson