Talk:Laser 128

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Compatibility[edit]

It looks like a IIc but utilities reported it as a IIe, and I think in some other resepects it acted more like a IIe than a IIc. But I can't remember enough to report definitively. In the interest of "To be, rather than to seem," I therefore think it is incorrect to call it a IIc clone.

I owned one of these and added the extra ram and drives. What was explained to me was the EX (I had this one) was like a IIe clone and the EX2 (my friend had one of these) was a IIc clone. The EX2 had a memory expansion board that allowed you to add ram chips to expand it's memory. You had to buy the expansion board extra for the EX. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.95.117.92 (talk) 20:12, 15 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Incorrect. You absolutely did NOT have to buy the board for the EX. You had to buy the board for the plain Laser 128. I still own two Laser 128 EX's and a Laser 128.

All three models, the plain Laser 128, 128EX, and 128EX2 had the following features in common:

 -IIE-compatible expansion slot
 -Memory expansion port under the keyboard.

Like the IIC, all laser 128s had a memory expansion card header on the board under the keyboard. The difference with the 128EX and 128EX/2 was that these two actually came with the memory -card-, and all you needed to do was put chips on it. You could buy the expansion card for the plain 128 model -- this was stated in the manual. I'm not sure what the availability of this was, and whether it was actually compatible with IIC memory cards.

The Laser 128 EX added the following functionality to the Laser 128:

 -Accellerated motherboard - ran at 2.8 or 3.6 MHz (user-selectable)
 -Built in memory card
 -192k RAM - 64k of video ram, whereas the Laser 128 only had 128k of ram, which shared with the video area

The Laser 128 EX/2 added the following to the Laser 128 EX:

 -On-board clock
 -MIDI ports
 -Enhanced control panel
 -Internal 3.5" drive

Whereas you COULD plug a IIE-compatible card directly into the slot on all Laser 128s, it was preferred to use the "Laser 128 Expansion Box", which had two slots, and its own power supply. The sticker over the slot on the computer itself says "For Laser 128 Expansion Box". This box provided the equivalent of IIE slots 5 and 7. Some cards would have power issues (notably modems) when plugged directly into the side slot without the use of the externally-powered box. Not sure how we can verify all this, other than some of the details which are shown in the PDF version of the manual which is still available on the web.

Exclusive Graphics Modes[edit]

Does anyone have details on the "Laser-only graphics modes"? I go way back with Apple IIs and have never heard of these modes. Jerry Kindall (talk) 19:01, 17 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Featured in media[edit]

Featured recently on The 8-Bit Guy's YouTube channel. Elizium23 (talk) 03:28, 21 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]