Junk Junkie
Member
Does anyone remember this machine? This was my very first real computer. I was in highschool and we used Apple II's. I knew nothing of a PC except that they existed and they were expensive. We didn't own any computer, few families did. This was 1987 and I was 17. I was working part time at a convenience store and I managed to save about $500. I heard of a salavage store that sold some computers among other things. I found my way there with my cash in hand hoping to find any sort of apple clone that I could afford. I explained to the salesman that I was looking for an affordable apple clone and he tried with all his might to talk me into a PC. When I wouldn't budge he showed me something I will never forget. He described it as a PC that ran Apple programs too. It was brand new and only $300. Certainly I was intrigued.
It was a Cordata PC Clone with approx. 512K memory, Dual 360K Floppy Drives, Hercules Graphics and an Amber Monochrome Monitor. Plugged into one of the 8bit bus sockets was what was called a bridge board. it connected to one of the floppies with an adapter and allowed a PC floppy drive to read and write Apple programs. The machine would naturally boot into PC mode, but with a special disk, it could be booted into an Apple II and for all practical purposes, it ran and acted like an Apple. For many months I used it exclusivley for Apple II purposes. At some point though I found myself with a PC program that I needed to run. I think it was for keyboarding class in college. Thats when I first began to use the machine as a PC and I purchased a Gorrilla Bannana Dot Matrix Printer ( remember those). Thats when I pretty much abandoned Apple and began using this machine as a total PC. I rogued all the memory off of the Apple Bridge Board and updated the PC memory to 640k and added a 10mb mfm hard drive and 720k 3.5" floppy drive. Having a PC was much more practical. Apples in those days had their place, but certainly PC's were more widely used and far more software was available.
Today I think about that machine very often. I wish I had never sold it. Back in those days I was very young and quickly discarded things that had no purpose. I would probably trade my whole collection today for that machine, just the way it was, an apple and a pc.
It was a Cordata PC Clone with approx. 512K memory, Dual 360K Floppy Drives, Hercules Graphics and an Amber Monochrome Monitor. Plugged into one of the 8bit bus sockets was what was called a bridge board. it connected to one of the floppies with an adapter and allowed a PC floppy drive to read and write Apple programs. The machine would naturally boot into PC mode, but with a special disk, it could be booted into an Apple II and for all practical purposes, it ran and acted like an Apple. For many months I used it exclusivley for Apple II purposes. At some point though I found myself with a PC program that I needed to run. I think it was for keyboarding class in college. Thats when I first began to use the machine as a PC and I purchased a Gorrilla Bannana Dot Matrix Printer ( remember those). Thats when I pretty much abandoned Apple and began using this machine as a total PC. I rogued all the memory off of the Apple Bridge Board and updated the PC memory to 640k and added a 10mb mfm hard drive and 720k 3.5" floppy drive. Having a PC was much more practical. Apples in those days had their place, but certainly PC's were more widely used and far more software was available.
Today I think about that machine very often. I wish I had never sold it. Back in those days I was very young and quickly discarded things that had no purpose. I would probably trade my whole collection today for that machine, just the way it was, an apple and a pc.
Last edited: