Legend Industries, Ltd.
July 24th, 2010
Legend Industries made it’s mark with RAM Cards, in many ways they were a Legend in RAM cards.
Each of their cards had a uniqueness, like the 18SRC, in many ways it could be considered the first “Thumb Drive” in that it retained it’s content when the power was removed and the card could be transported to another Apple II and the content retrieved. Sure, it was only 18K – but think of the possibilities. ..and people sure did. Like other Slot 0-7 Legend cards, the S Card functioned as a Language Card except that the extra 2K could be used for stashing small routines, boot routines, ROM patches, etc. Combining an S Card with a Wild Card or other “Crack Card”, hardware and you had a platform that aided you well in foiling any protection routine.
The 64KC, their first RAM card is like having four Language Cards in one slot. Use 16K for the Apple II and 48K as RAM drive .. move content in and out of RAM areas similarly to that of the S Card.
The 128DE was designed primarily as an additional disk drive, size wise- without the DOS storage, but could also be used as a Language Card, too.
The S Card took all of this even further by using either 64K or 256K DRAM to offer a full 1024K when using four banks of 256K DRAMs.
The C Card is is a 1024K piggyback expansion for the Apple //c and it even works in the IIc Plus, introduced many years later! As with the other Legend RAM cards, the C Card functioned much in the same way but instead of being built around the Language Card, it was designed to bring the new Apple //e type of bank switching expansion to the //c, and that pretty much sparked the AppleWorks revolution. Since the //c didn’t have the slot, or any slots, but the hardware was largely the same – adding expansion to the //c meant piggy backing them to the motherboard and the MMU and IOU IC’s provided the perfect way to do it. Almost as if Apple intended this from the onset.
The E Card is feature equivalent to the C Card only it’s for the Apple //e Auxiliary Slot and has RGB Video Support added to it. RAM Cards such as these helped pave the way for AppleWorks to become it’s own sprawling industry within the confines of the Apple II.
All of Legend’s RAM cards were compatible with their many software offerings for Apple DOS 3.3, ProDOS, CP/M and Pascal, as well they also created some of their own software products to go along with their hardware. One example is the Pascal Super Emulator which allowed the Slot 0-7 RAM Cards to function as disk drives supported by Pascal for super-fast access, and the Super Emulator that added similar ability for DOS 3.3.
Even with AppleWorks being designed for the Apple //e & //c, that didn’t stop the industry from bringing it to the Apple ][ Plus, and the Legend RAM Cards were a part of that success. MouseWorks / Desktop Mouse is a software enhancement that provides the missing link allowing the Apple Mouse // to be used with AppleWorks.
Some other products are the Slot 8 and Soft 8, which helped you re-locate some of those cards you may have had to move out of the way to add these great RAM cards. With the Slot 8 you could swap between one of two cards in Slot 7 and reboot the computer. With the Soft 8, you didn’t have to flip a switch- it was done completely within software.
Another product meant to take up the slack was the multifunction P Card. So if you didn’t want to get a Slot 8 or Soft 8, you could double up on functionality with the P Card, and still have room to put that music card in.
All of the Legend Products have been reclassified as Freeware, through the generosity of Dave Heiden, of Legend Industries, Ltd., are being made available here at the Lost Classics Project. All Rights are being retained, and this release is for non-profit, private enjoyment only.
As we get more items, they will be added, as the entire Legend product library is not yet present here. If you have something you would like to add, drop us a line, you can mail anything, scan and upload, or whatever is easiest. Donations of hardware and software are gracefully accepted, and will help build the library even further, or the items can be returned once we have scanned and/or duplicated them.