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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 didnīt 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 1980īs 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 Iīm 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 Iīm
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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