About This Video
Dive into one of the more unusual Apple II clones in my collection, the MicroSCI HAVAC, or Home Academic Very Affordable Computer. This compact 6502-based Apple II-compatible computer dates from the early 1980s, and it's not one you see very often. There isn't a lot of information about the HAVAC out there, so I wanted to take a closer look at mine and document as much as I could.
One piece of surviving information comes from the FCC identification for the machine. The HAVAC was registered under MicroSCI Corporation and Roger Peters with FCC ID C4M7N9HAVAC. The FCC grantee code is C4M, the product code is 7N9HAVAC, and the final action date was May 29, 1984.
I open up the HAVAC and take a look at the hardware inside and out, including:
- Rear expansion ports
- Internal floppy disk drive
- Power supply
- Keyboard connector
- Joystick port
- Motherboard layout
- DIP switches
- Socketed integrated circuits
- EEPROM hardware that may contain some interesting archival data
Of course, I also wanted to see how compatible this thing actually is with Apple II software. Using my Floppy Emu, I try several classic Apple II titles:
- Oregon Trail
- Dino Eggs
- Lemonade Stand
- Hard Hat Mack
And because we're dealing with 40+ year-old hardware, things don't go completely according to plan. During testing, a RIFA capacitor inside the Astec power supply decides it's had enough and releases the infamous "magic smoke." That gives me another reason to dig into the machine and see exactly what happened.
The MicroSCI HAVAC is an interesting and apparently pretty uncommon piece of Apple II history, and I'd really like to learn more about it. If you have any documentation, manuals, advertisements, technical information, or even personal memories of using or owning a HAVAC back in the day, I'd love to hear from you.
You can find more Apple II and Apple IIe information and projects in my Apple IIe System Guide.