Building An Apple 1

replica1 (Custom)

With all the recent talk of hackintoshes going around, we thought we should post this oldie. It is a writeup on how to build your own Apple 1 called Replica 1. If you’ve got the $149 laying around and think you can handle the construction of a mere 88 components, you can make one yourself. Not only can you order kits or complete units, they even have a download page with applications and games. It might be fun to have one of these sitting on the desk right next to our minimac. If you really don’t want to buy one, but maybe want to just play a little bit, there’s always virtual apple.

[via DVICE]

22 thoughts on “Building An Apple 1

  1. I like the idea of having a functional clone of the Apple I, but I’d much prefer having a trace-for-trace replica instead. After all, for me at least, the whole idea behind having an Apple I is to have it for Steve Job’s design skills. It’s Art. IMO it’s like having a paint by numbers copy of the Mona Lisa instead of a high quality print.

  2. Pretty cool; there are a lot of things that are old that I’ve not heard of, this one being one of them.

    @atrain
    The “USB” you’re referring to is an optional module that simply couples the RS232 interface to a Virtual Com Port device. It’s no different than buying a USB to RS232 device and hooking it up to a real Apple I, Replica I without optional USB, or an Apple I clone.

  3. @heegemcgee… i second that thought, although, i probably already have most of those parts in my bins collecting dust. i know i have a couple of 6502s and eproms (no firmware) in stock.

  4. You can find the original Apple I schematics online if you google around a bit. I’ve contemplated trying to put one together once, but sourcing some of the original components would be very difficult. It’s definitely very neat to spend a few hours looking over, though—going through and trying to figure out how it works. There are some very clever parts.

    The Replica I is neat, but not quite as neat as the real thing. It’s somewhere between building the actual original and an emulator.

  5. Makes me wish I’d kept some of this hardware over the years. At the time, replacing it with the latest and greatest every couple of years and putting the old stuff on the yard sale table seemed to make sense.

  6. i am also saying fail due to the strange ‘replica’ nature. for a historic/nolstagic project like this, i think you should either go whole hog and use the original design, or emulate the design with modern components like they did with the c64 chip. i don’t get the point of the 50/50 new/old mix.

  7. Why 8-bit Apple? CoCo 2 had mediocre hardware, but the 6809 CPU is faster, much more powerful and easier to program. For example, there’s Nitros-9, an open-source multitasking RTOS.

    I do praise the 6502. Back then it was amazingly cheap, performed well, and made micros affordable (except the Apple II).

  8. Woz gave this the go ahead, so I won’t gripe. Replica, clone, or whatever one would want to call it, it’s better than trying to fork out the dough for an original. And its more fun than trying to stick it all on one chip, like the NES-on-a-Chip.

Leave a Reply

Please be kind and respectful to help make the comments section excellent. (Comment Policy)

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.