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I recreated the Apple Lisa computer inside an FPGA [video]

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Re: I recreated the Apple Lisa computer inside an FPGA [video]

#41

Post by ndiddy »

The same person who did this project also worked out how to compile the Lisa Office System code Apple released: https://github.com/alexthecat123/LisaSourceCompilation This took a lot of work because Apple didn't release any of the tooling required to build the code, and the code was actually too big to fit on a stock Lisa hard drive (the hard drive is 10 MB, the code is ~20 MB) so they had to hack the OS to patch in support for higher capacity drives.

It’s neat that there’s such passionate Lisa fans out there. If anyone here is a current day Lisa enthusiast, I’m curious what makes you interested in it.

Re: I recreated the Apple Lisa computer inside an FPGA [video]

#42

Post by godzillabrennus »

whartung wrote: post #6

What's cool about this is that we're at the point where a committed hobbyist can pull something like this off. I don't know what's in the FPGA, and I honestly don't know that much about FPGAs, but I imagine it's a pretty much "drag and drop" of the Lisa logic board schematic rendered in whatever FPGA language is used, while leveraging as many, stock, "off the shelf" cores as necessary. It's telling that they external…

This reminds me of the SuperStation One project, advertised as "The world's first affordable FPGA gaming console.": https://retroremake.co/pages/superstation%E1%B5%92%E2%81%BF%...

It also appears to have been spearheaded by Taki Udon, one guy who wanted something so he built it. We do indeed seem to be entering the golden age of FPGA.

Re: I recreated the Apple Lisa computer inside an FPGA [video]

#43

Post by rufo »

mghackerlady wrote: post #37
rufo wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why doesn’t this project “really matter?”

It matters a lot IMO, the Lisa is expensive and this is a good inexpensive way to preserve it

Oh, I completely agree. But I admit I'm a bit of a retro enthusiast and preservationist at heart, so I was curious what "mattered" to a rando HN commenter :P

Re: I recreated the Apple Lisa computer inside an FPGA [video]

#44

Post by Joel_Mckay »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #28
Joel_Mckay wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lisa was $9995.00 or $32300.00 in 2025 US dollars. C64 was $595.00 or $1990.00 in 2025 US dollars. Note, people still port in new C64 game titles ( https://www.the8bitguy.com/product/petscii-robots/ ) Not sure what additional software the average consumer could have run to change that value proposition. There were a lot of failed platforms in that time. =3

A Wang word processor - as used by Stephen King - was around $12,000. In the CP/M market, small business Z80 systems with a hard drive could easily top $10k. The Lisa was pitched at those markets, not people playing 8-bit games. The Mac hit the midpoint between the two markets to create something new - desktop metaphor computing just barely at the absolute high end of the privileged consumer market. With the original…

Stephen King famously did a lot of his work on typewriters, and often claimed it was part of his creative process. Not a great example, as publishing had odd ecosystems up until Aldus PageMaker (1985) revolutionized later Mac markets.

The Lisa was simply a delusional mismatch from the kits and retail consumer products Apple had sold up to that point.

No different from NVIDIA inferring a $12k RTX 6000 GPU is for gamers, when a $500 PS5 or $800 steam deck is also popular with home users. =3

"The past does not repeat itself, but it rhymes." (Theodor Reik)

Re: I recreated the Apple Lisa computer inside an FPGA [video]

#45

Post by Joel_Mckay »

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #30
Joel_Mckay wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lisa was $9995.00 or $32300.00 in 2025 US dollars. C64 was $595.00 or $1990.00 in 2025 US dollars. Note, people still port in new C64 game titles ( https://www.the8bitguy.com/product/petscii-robots/ ) Not sure what additional software the average consumer could have run to change that value proposition. There were a lot of failed platforms in that time. =3

Nobody (sane) was putting a C64 in an office. The competitor to the Lisa didn't really exist yet. Closest would have been a Xerox Star Office system or like the other poster said, one of the various dedicated word processing / office systems like the Wang, etc. and they were even more money. People were wedging Apple IIs into service in the office, but they weren't exactly cheap, actually, and they couldn't do much.…

PC & Apple II pfs:Write (1981) was popular, and later offered PC Lotus 1-2-3 integration.

Again, the average user was not going to buy Lisa when functional alternatives were a fraction of the price. =3

Re: I recreated the Apple Lisa computer inside an FPGA [video]

#46

Post by rbanffy »

mghackerlady wrote: post #40
rbanffy wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was a fascinating idea - programs were hidden behind a document template metaphor. It was not as neat as Windows “New” menu and its templates folder.

This was the original desktop metaphor, from Xerox. I think it's pretty charming and enjoy playing around with it, but I can imagine getting real work™ done on it would get annoying quickly

Most of the apps I work with these days keep state on remote servers, and that state doesn’t always map nicely to a folders and files metaphor, or documents.

The Star was quite inconvenient to work with - and worked with removable media via an import/export metaphor. Also, it had very little of the direct manipulation of desktop objects the Lisa introduced. It knew no drag, only point and click. Ironically, we can say that drag-less UI was a drag.

Re: I recreated the Apple Lisa computer inside an FPGA [video]

#48

Post by kstrauser »

rickreynoldssf wrote: post #31

I see this kind of thing and have two reactions. 1. Wow! That's so cool! 2. Why didn't someone this smart spend that time to build something that really matters?

I played a piano this weekend. That didn't improve the world.

I'm typing here on HN this morning. I could've been doing something more useful.

I'm about to put this down and play Animal Crossing. That isn't something that matters.

You could reasonably argue that I'm not as smart as this person, but I'm 100% behind his desire to have hobbies he enjoys.

Re: I recreated the Apple Lisa computer inside an FPGA [video]

#50

Post by AlexTheCat123 »

ndiddy wrote: post #41

The same person who did this project also worked out how to compile the Lisa Office System code Apple released: https://github.com/alexthecat123/LisaSourceCompilation This took a lot of work because Apple didn't release any of the tooling required to build the code, and the code was actually too big to fit on a stock Lisa hard drive (the hard drive is 10 MB, the code is ~20 MB) so they had to hack the OS to patch in…

My interest mainly just comes from the Lisa's unique architecture, both in terms of hardware and software. As I learned during my LOS compilation efforts, the OS was quite advanced for its time, and many of the decisions made in the hardware design (like soft power and the discrete-logic MMU) were quite impressive and advanced for a personal computer. I had already done the software side of things during my LOS compilation project, so I figured that the next logical step would be to recreate the hardware within an FPGA!
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