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Retrocomputing

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    All the devices you've linked seem to use newly designed circuit boards. They aren't using "direct clones" of the original boards as described in the question. Commented Apr 22, 2017 at 5:47
  • If accurate hardware replicas of the Apple I were available, I think the first thing I'd do is try to hack the video circuitry to enhance its performance--probably by adding a means by which the CPU could detect when horizontal and vertical syncs occur, and then setting up a write address to replace whatever character was going into the shift register at that moment. With suitable code, I think it should be possible to draw a row of text in either six frames or one frame (I'm not sure exactly how the shifters interact), reducing the time to draw a full screen of text from 16 seconds to 0.5. Commented Jul 3, 2018 at 16:32
  • Unfortunately, none of the Apple I clones I'm aware of would be at all amenable to that sort of hacking, and of course the real units are all far too valuable to attempt such a thing. Ironically, though, I think the circuitry could actually be simplified while allowing improved performance if it were replaced with code to simply output a character at just the right moment. Commented Jul 3, 2018 at 16:35