Does anyone here remember the Spartan?  This was a box with roughly the
same width and length as the C64, but about twice as tall.  The color and
shape was similar to the C64.  It plugged into the back of the C64 and
promised to turn it into an Apple II of some sort.  I saw ads for it in
magazines of the day, but never actually saw one.


-- 
David Griffith
dgriffi@cs.csbuak.edu  <-- Switch the 'b' and 'u'

I had one, never got it to work properly though.  It did have a lot of
other cool uses too.  It had a multi cartridge port, if I remember
correctly, 3 inside, 1 outside, switchable by use of one of the three
buttons on the outside. It also had a machine language monitor built
into it as well.

One of the local electronic surplus stores here in Toronto was selling
them in the late 80's, so I bought one.  Like I said, never got it to
work properly though. Could be because it came from a surplus shop!
:-)

The main PCB was quite large, and used a CPU daughter board. I think it
was possible to use the 1541 as an apple drive, but it was suggested to
get a proper apple drive card and mechanism.

The whole thing was actually longer than the 64. I had a 64c, and it
was about 25% longer than 64c. It was only about 1/2" wider on each
side,  and maybe 1" taller.

All of the ports on the back of the 64 were connected to the spartan,
and power was supplied through the spartan connection. I know the
spartan used the c64 power supply (had a plug in the back for it, along
with all the other I/O ports found on the 64), but I can't remember if
it also used a separate power supply too. I have a funny feeling it
did.  I haven't seen one of these things since 1988, and my memory is a
bit foggy these days!

The other cool thing I remember about this is when you took the
removable cover off, on the under side it was covered in signatures. I
guess the engineers...who knows!

Funny enough, I was thinking about the Spartan a few days ago.....must
be a vibe being sent out!  LOL!

Michael Brigham

Me again...got me to searching on the web for this....found a cool
site.
All questions should be answered here!
http://www.applefritter.com/node/229

Enjoy!

Michael Brigham

In article <maDJd.535$ia4.226157@okeanos.csu.net>, dgriffi@cs.csbuak.edu wrote:

> Does anyone here remember the Spartan?  This was a box with roughly the
> same width and length as the C64, but about twice as tall.  The color and
> shape was similar to the C64.  It plugged into the back of the C64 and
> promised to turn it into an Apple II of some sort.  I saw ads for it in
> magazines of the day, but never actually saw one.



Check out:

http://www.applefritter.com/node/229


Scroll down to see scans of some of the actual ads placed in various
magazines at the time....

That clown/mime guy looks a bit scary and a bit too excited standing
behind that Commodore 64 system, holding that Spartan. Wouldn't trust him.
Looks like a wacko.

I remember those ads like I saw them yesterday! Funny thing is that I
paid under $50.00cdn for it, not the $599 in the ad! Anyone from
Toronto who has been to Active Surplus knows how crazy that place can
be, and in 1987 they had a load of these things.

Funny enough, I mentioned the signatures in my first message, and on
the applefritter site they have pictures of it!  Also, it did have it's
own power supply! I remember feeling a bit nervous having the spartan
power the 64 through the back ports and not via the 64 power connector
on the side.

Also totally forgot about the board that went into the 1541. It wasn't
that hard to install it from what I remember, although I do recall
certain games and copy programs not working well with it installed.
So many good memories from those days though......

Michael Brigham

On Wed, 26 Jan 2005 dgriffi@cs.csbuak.edu wrote:

> Does anyone here remember the Spartan?

 	Yes, I have a Spartan.

> It plugged into the back of the C64 and
> promised to turn it into an Apple II of some sort.

 	You could use the C64 side of it or use the II+ side of it.

> I saw ads for it in magazines of the day, but never actually saw one.

 	I thought it was a myth until a former user from Los Angeles gave 
it to me.
 	My Spartan has been exhibited at the Vintage Computer Festivals 
6.0 and 7.0 (though at 7.0, it was hard to make it out among the mountain 
of other C= stuff being displayed at our crowded tables).

 					Truly,
 					Robert Bernardo
 					Fresno Commodore User Group
 					http://videocam.net.au/fcug

On Tue, 25 Jan 2005, Space Centurion wrote:

> I had one, never got it to work properly though.

 	Mine came with a non-working power supply.  Jeri Ellsworth is 
looking at it now.  She says it's just an ordinary Apple II p.s..

> I think it
> was possible to use the 1541 as an apple drive, but it was suggested to
> get a proper apple drive card and mechanism.

 	Yes, you were supposed to put a special Spartan board inside your 
1541 so that it could read/write Apple disks.  Unfortunately, when I 
got my Spartan, no such additional drive board came with it.

> All of the ports on the back of the 64 were connected to the spartan,
> and power was supplied through the spartan connection. I know the
> spartan used the c64 power supply (had a plug in the back for it, along
> with all the other I/O ports found on the 64), but I can't remember if
> it also used a separate power supply too.

 	The Spartan has its own internal power supply, but you must also 
use the external Commodore p.s. to provide power to the C64... and the 
external C= p.s. plugs into the right side of the C64 as always.

> The other cool thing I remember about this is when you took the
> removable cover off, on the under side it was covered in signatures. I
> guess the engineers...who knows!

 	Yes, who were those people who signed off on the Spartan?

 					Truly,
 					Robert Bernardo
 					Fresno Commodore User Group
 					http://videocam.net.au/fcug

dgriffi@cs.csbuak.edu writes:

>Does anyone here remember the Spartan?  This was a box with roughly the
>same width and length as the C64, but about twice as tall.  The color and
>shape was similar to the C64.  It plugged into the back of the C64 and
>promised to turn it into an Apple II of some sort.  I saw ads for it in
>magazines of the day, but never actually saw one.

Robert Bernardo has one, and it makes occasional appearances at VCFs. It
sold very, very poorly due to its cost.

--
      Cameron Kaiser * ckaiser@floodgap.com * posting with a Commodore 128
                personal page: http://www.armory.com/%7Espectre/
  ** Computer Workshops: games, productivity software and more for C64/128! **
                  ** http://www.armory.com/%7Espectre/cwi/ **

Belive it or not... I had 2 of them.
One was non funtional and I never did figure out what was wrong.
The other functioned, but I was never able to anything good because it
only ran Apple II+ software.

I wish I could find the case again. I wonder if some one would let me
make a casting of the old case. I would love to make them for
Commodore Ones and 64HDD's. 

On Wed, 26 Jan 2005 02:23:14 GMT, dgriffi@cs.csbuak.edu wrote:

>Does anyone here remember the Spartan?  This was a box with roughly the
>same width and length as the C64, but about twice as tall.  The color and
>shape was similar to the C64.  It plugged into the back of the C64 and
>promised to turn it into an Apple II of some sort.  I saw ads for it in
>magazines of the day, but never actually saw one.