8086YES!'s BOOK II Is a Compact, Feature-Packed Portable Apple II — Built With TTL Logic

Chinese nostalgia-driven portable computing specialist 8086YES! has launched the latest entry in growing retro-laptop family: the BOOK II, a compact clamshell offering compatibility with Apple's iconic Apple II — using primarily period-appropriate components.

"The BOOK II is a portable Apple II (Plus) compatible computer, redesigned using standard TTL [Transitor-Transistor Logic] chips and equipped with ROMs [Read-Only Memory chips] from early Apple II compatibles or clones. As a portable computer, the BOOK II features a built-in lithium battery, an RGB LCD, and a low-profile mechanical keyboard. It supports original Apple Disk II floppy drives as well as floppy drive emulators."

The original Apple II, also known as the Apple ][ and later italicised as the Apple //, launched in 1977 as Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak's follow-up to the computer that had put the company on the map. Built around a MOS 6502 processor running at a little over 1MHz and with up to 64kB of memory, the machine was a smash-hit and gave Apple the funding it needed to develop what would become its most enduring product line: the Apple Macintosh.

Building on its work on x86-based machines, including the Pocket8086 and Pocket386 with original Intel-compatible 8086 and 80386 processors respectively, 8086YES! has now crammed an Apple II clone into a tiny portable — coming with 48kB of static RAM and a 16kB language card expansion, a Zilog Z80-compatible coprocessor implemented as Microsoft Z80 SoftCard compatible expansion, an 80-column video card, printer interface, full-color display, and a floppy controller compatible with both Apple's in-house Disk II 5.25" drive and third-party compatibles including emulators.

The BOOK II itself, though, is not an emulator, but a true clone built from largely period-appropriate parts — excluding, of course, the very modern backlit mechanical keyboard and full-color RGB LCD. The motherboard is built using standard TTL logic chips, while the operating system is loaded from ROM images dumped from original Apple II or compatible machines. There's also an integrated four-cell 18650 lithium-ion battery pack, meaning the machine can be used on-the-go wherever you get an urge for some classic Apple computing.

More information is available on the 8086YES! website, while the company has put the machine up for sale on Tindie — which has recently returned from an extended outage under the new ownership of a small Chinese firm of seemingly little retail and e-tail experience, having been sold by former owner Supplyframe — at $480 including shipping.