This website is the work of long-time Applefritter member speedyG. It is archived here in its original format, that so colorfully captures speedyG’s personality. - Tom Owad.Feb 27, 2020
This new Part of my website is dedicated to my old days with the
Apple-family..... and starting up now again by reanimating the old boxes from
the cellar...
In 1979 I started up first with the ZX81 due to the fact that I started
to study and I didn´t have to much money... so I began with a
constructionset of the ZX81 that was availiable for some 400 German Mark ( long ago before the
Euro was put into the european market ) and i welded the computer together and made my first steps in learning BASIC. Very soon after that
I started to expand the ZX81 from 1 K memory ( as the computer was sold
) to 16 K Memory by modifying the computer. After that I scratched the money
together to buy an ZX81 thermoprinter.In the following time I started to expand the ZX81 with different kinds of expansions on the rear
expansionport ( a board with the 76477 soundchip to generate noises
within the programed games, after that a board with a ZN421 ( a digital /analog
converter ) to enable myself to use the ZX81 as a measurement computer and the ZN425 ( a analog / digital converter ) on another board to carry
out the task viceversa...
Somewhere at the beginning of 1980 I carried out the next step to move on
to the Apple I. In the beginning of 1983 I made the next step to the Apple
][ europlus and then expanded the computer rapidly with many
different expansion Interface cards. In that days I developed too a lot
of expansions by myself an I got in contact with members of the Chaos
Computer Club ( CCC ) in Hamburg. I made in those days the layout of the first PCB of the legendary "Datenklo" ( trenslated: the "datatoilett"
) which was the first acoustic modem in Germany for the Apple II family for less then 150 German Marks ( while industrial modems where priced
somewhere to 500 - 600 German Mark ). That modem was based on the legendary AMD7910 chip.
Soon I made the next model - the AMD7911 -
which instead of the old chip was not restricted to 300 Baud but instead could be switched between 300 Baud and 1200 Baud. That modem
was for hobbyists in Germany long time standard and that developement permitted to startup the first large Bulettin Broadcasting Services (
BBS-Systems ) among the students in those days.
At the same time I started too with CPM2.2 and learned different
programming languages like: MT Pascal, LISP, Prolog, Smalltalk,
PL1, Cobol and C. In that days I roughly started to examine the
basics of artificial intelligence and also started to implement
artificial human skills to the Apple ][. I guess that I have been one of the first guys in Germany with an Apple
][ that had speechinput, speechoutput and handwriting recognition system
within an Apple ][ that had been expanded to 196 K of memory that was switchable
by the gameport ( and of course by programm with "softswitsches" using the 16K in the LanguageCard as "common handover data area" between
the 4 blocks of 48 K on the mainboard ( by having modified the mainboard and plugging in 4164 chips instead of the normally used 4116
chips - by the way of course that modifications have been made at a "clone"board from taiwan and not on the original Applemainboard ! I got
the clone from a dealer in Munich as "naked-PCB" and assembled the clone entirly by myself.... and after successful tests built in that
board in an original Applecase from a computer that had been
"fried" by a lightning stroke.
Sometime around 1984 I upgraded to the Apple //e and few years later I
had my first Apple II GS with the ROM 1 Version in 1985 or 1986. Thereafter in 1986/1987 I got another Apple IIGS with the ROM3 and an
APPLE /// with 512 K.
In 1985 or 1986 I also bought my first IBM-Clone with AT-compatible Board
( again only the clone board and I assembled the board by myself ). Sometime around 1990 I bought the first 80386 board and I upgraded to a
80486 sometime around 1990......
In the entire time between 1983 and 1990 I also was linked to the Apple
User Group Europe ( AUGE ) in Munich and lot of our members went in my place
( formerly in Geltenmdorf ) when any kind of trouble turned out with their computers
or their hardware....
Sometime in the 1986 or so I wrote also conversionprogramms to
enable the conversion of programms written in APPLESOFT BASIC to
BASIC on MS-DOS machines - the programms to transfer from Apple
to IBM via serial connection and after that the conversion from
APPLESOFT-Source to IBM-Source then thereafter could be compiled with
GW-BASIC Compiler. In the late 1980´s I completed a university diploma to electronic engineering on microprocessors.
I guess thats enough of my private computerhistory to explain my
capabilities on computers and hardware. Unfortunately the space of this site is very limited so that it is immposible to me to publish here my
entire archive of material to the Apple-family ( that amounts up till
now to more than 55 Gigabytes ! ). In November 2006 I had my second
heartstroke and got from the doctor the strict prohibition to execute my profession as specialized database administrator ( I had at that time
some several dozends of certifications on most important 8 database systems like Microsoft SQL Server, Informix, Oracle, mySQL and so on
)..... and to continue that task as freelancer was to risky due to the usual stress within that kind of job....
So nowadays I´m something like "retired due to my health" and I started
last year to archive all the stuff from the old "Apple-years and the ZX81 years" by scanning documentation and "reanimating" my old systems
from my cellar. The only limitation nowadays is to the financial situation due to the fact that in Germany you first must spend your own
money and other goods before you end up in the socialsystem with so called "Hartz4"transfers which in clear words means: today I´m
fiancialy "poor".... or in the other way : poor in the wallet
- but not
poor in the mind...Anyhow the financial limits now limit the
activities a bit too, because the possibility to perform my
tasks is partialy limited to the possibilities of the content in
the wallet....
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