Re: Those Apple ][ clones...

[steve@dosius.zzn.com (Dosius)]

mjmahon@aol.com (Michael J. Mahon) wrote in message news:<20030309143615.15648.00000718@mb-md.aol.com>...
> In article <20030309033125.17109.00000110@mb-ms.aol.com>, supertimer@aol.com
> (Supertimer) writes:
> 
> >1. Make and Model:
> >     Video Technology Laser 128EX/2 (refined and extremely
> >     popular Apple IIc Plus clone)
> >
> >2. Released:
> >     1988
> >
> >3. Follows:
> >     Video Technology Laser 3000

What about the regular 128? ;)

> >
> >4. Followed by:
> >     N/A
> >
> >5. CPU:
> >     Western Design Center (not to be confused with Western
> >     Digital, the hard drive maker) 65C02 running at 3.6Mhz
> >
> >6. ROM:
> >     192K -- This includes the only legal Apple compatible
> >     ROM by 1988 (Apple lost a lawsuit challenging it) and
> >     Microsoft BASIC (the Applesoft compatible version)
> >     licensed from Microsoft.

!!! 192K?

> 
> This is fascinating.  Is the BASIC a carbon copy of Applesoft
> (including its bugs and omissions), or have some bugs been
> fixed and, maybe, XPLOT added (it apparently lost out in a
> ROM space war ;-).

I think, based on my own analysis, it's a carbon copy of Applesoft. 
SimSystem IIe uses what looks like the same version of BASIC as the
Laser 128.

> 
> <snip>
> 
> >11. Audio:
> >     Simple beeper driven by the CPU.  Because the Laser's
> >     motherboard operates at 3.6Mhz (notice that it requires
> >     120ns or faster RAM), sound in programs designed for
> >     earlier Apple IIs is often distorted.
> 
> Do you know the source of the CPU acceleration technology?
> Was it Zip Technology or AE?  The reason I ask, is that if it is
> Zip-derived (like the //c+), then the standard Zip utilities can be
> used to configure a "slowdown" on speaker accesses, restoring
> normal sound.
> 
> -michael
> 
> Check out amazing quality 8-bit Apple sound on my
> Home page:  http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/

It might not have even been accelerated - that was just its native
speed.  I don't know though.  The 128 I used ran about 1 MHz.

-uso.