In Mike Willegal’s blog post Video Imperfection he described about a problem with the Apple 1 that caused dots to be seen on the screen when the brightness on a monitor was turned up to a very nigh level. This turns out to be true on his kits, the Obtronix clones and even the original Apple 1’s. Interesting, little-known problem. I snapped a couple pictures of my own Apple 1 to demonstrate. »
If you listen to any telling of the early days of Apple, it probably involves a couple of guys named Steve in one of their parents garage assembling computers by hand. While this makes a good story, its not exactly accurate. Intrigued by the fact that every Apple 1 I have ever seen was wave soldered (not hand soldered), I shot an email off to Woz to get some answers. His reply came 6 minutes later and was about as clear as could be: »
To give an idea how true Mike’s Apple 1 board is to the original Apple 1, take a look at the traces overlaid with the original board. »
In 2008 I began looking for an Obtronix Apple 1 clone. After many months of finding that there were none available I set out on the task of creating one from scratch. It was not long before I got wind that Mike Willegal was also interested in doing the same. Knowing of the work he did on the Apple II Rev 0 I knew that Mike could do a much better job creating an Apple 1 board than I. »