Goblin II - Apple 2 Clone?

[dexters_lab]

interesting one this... looks to be a apple 2 clone called 'Goblin 2', it's not in great shape and i have not tried to power it up yet so remains to be seen if it's working

anyone know anything about this machine? i can't seem to find any reference to it online? 

i will probably try and have a look at it properly tonight

[PA0PBZ]

i will probably try and have a look at it properly tonight

Live on YT please? 

[CJay]

Clone? Looks like a direct copy, even down to chip layout.

Would be interesting to know if there's any text on the board and those ROMs would be interesting to compare against genuine Apple 2 ones.

I'm wondering if it might even be a rebranded Apple but I guess we will find out more soon.

[dexters_lab]

i will probably try and have a look at it properly tonight

Live on YT please? 

ah, it's so hard to do stuff on a livestream. I find it much simpler to make a vid as i go and then edit it, else you'll just have me swearing on camera for hours trying to find my eprom reader!

[stynx]

The case is identical to the (custom) ITT2020 case...
Maybe an early prototype?

http://retromaccast.ning.com/photo/apple-system?context=user
or maybe a reused case?

remove the keyboard and look for a company name or something on the keyboard PCB

[dexters_lab]

damd, yea that is pretty close!

should know more once i remove the keyboard

[nali]

There were a load of clone blank PCBs doing the rounds probably early 1980s - I bought one - as most of the ICs were available to me. At the same time ITT had discontinued the 2020 so there were also a few cases available fairly cheap. The ROMs were pretty easy to hack, I renamed mine Banana I.

Sounds like you might have something pretty similar?

[SeanB]

ROMs likely will be identical, except for all the locations with APPLE ][ replaced with GOBLINII, and the copyright assertions changed as well. Will probably be bug for bug compatible with the official ones.

[xtech]

Photo of my Apple II clone - unknown brand. Comes in the condition like on photo - it was relatively easy to make it running. My clone is something between revision 7 and RFI - yours is definitely older. Nice that you have ascii keyboard - i've used arduino based ps/2 -> ascii converter.

[dexters_lab]

video here:

It's not working at the moment, i spent maybe 30 mins looking at after i made the video... the main and cpu clocks are present, power on reset is working but but there is no activity on the CPU and no syncs out of the video port. We also can't get the ROMs to work in MAME (as an apple 2) so... 

The machine doesn't belong to me and i don't really have time to do anything with it at the moment so i will pass it back to it's owner, it will likely appear on ebay shortly.

[Shock]

Nice Sony monitor Dex, have one as well.

If the ROMs are dodgy you can try reading them several times to see if you get a different checksum. Hard to know they are complete, and who knows if it ever worked. Didn't know Mame was emulating personal computers now, that is interesting.

Not sure how far you got but if the supplies rails were loaded down open circuit one thing I would have tried is running it up from bench supplies, it could have been part of the problem.

If the Goblin II was a actual product it might be worth repairing, don't think she is a keeper myself unless you are restoring one.

Thanks for posting that, the guys just trolling youtube for vintage computer videos to post here or patting themselves on the back for hoarding junk need to step up.

[dexters_lab]

i've not played with MAME in a looong time myself but it does seem it's become a very advanced emulator

anyway, OzOnE tried to get the ROMs running in MAME but it tripped up part way through during start up expecting some change in a memory location (maybe a missing floppy controller?), though i think the ROM BASIC seemed to work and did seem to be the same as an Apple 2

i checked all the basic stuff on the board, voltages, power on reset, clocks etc and spent a few hours looking over the schematic and probing with a scope... all the data and address lines on the CPU are just permanently high. I did start to see some activity if i started disabling some of the ICs that control DMA thinking it might be in some locked up half DMA state and that's when i thought i could end up spending hours and hours on it.

I am sure someone with more experience than myself will be able to diagnose it quicker than me

Once it's on ebay i'll post a link in case someone fancies it

[BradC]

Once it's on ebay i'll post a link in case someone fancies it

Must. Not. Look.

I had an Asian clone as my first computer and spent many hours over many years re-seating chips and cleaning edge connectors. It's funny what memories a brief look at a board like that can bring flooding back.
I've still got my photocopied Apple ][ manuals with the multi-page schematic.

Thankfully shipping to Australia would be prohibitive.

[CJay]

Once it's on ebay i'll post a link in case someone fancies it

Nyarrghhhm, must not look...

Looks like a fun board to play with though, the problem would be if I bought it and fixed it I'd probably not want to part with it.