Apple 1 clear screen

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resman's picture
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Apple 1 clear screen

I have always been annoyed that you couldn't clear the screen programmatically - the "clear screen" button has to be manually pressed. However, I noticed that the CA2 pin on the 6820 is unused and could, with a simple mod, be made to clear the screen. Wonder why Woz didn't do this is the first place?

Dave...

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Re: Apple 1 clear screen

When I was developing the ASCII graphics Lunar Lander program for the Apple-1, I asked Woz why he didn't include a programatic clear screen, it could be done with a single wire. I have to look on my computer for the email, but my recollection was that he said he didn't think to do it, and by the time the Apple-1 was being sold to the public he had already started working on his color graphics experiment that would become the Apple II so he had moved on. Steve did that a lot, if his interest moved on, he typically doesn't go back and tweak things... He works on the new thing. Be thankful for that, or we wouldn't have gotten the Apple II, just a hot rod Apple-1.

Cheers,
Corey

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