Apple II Bits

The Apple II made a brief visual appearance, though earned no actual mention, in last week’s episode of the Escapist News Network, a satirical weekly news report of the electronic entertainment industry. Appearing at time index 2:25 – 2:35, the image accompanied a story that “Developer Splash Damage is claiming that the AI in their upcoming game, Brink, is so advanced, players won’t know whether they’re playing against a computer or not.”

I wasn’t confident that the computer pictured was in fact an Apple II. The form factor of the floppy drive is that of a Disk II but lacks the distinctive rainbow Apple logo, as does the computer on which it rests. For additional perspectives, I consulted with Andy Molloy, associate editor of Juiced.GS, who offered, “It sure looks like a[n Apple] II [and a] Disk II to me. Unless it’s a Russian clone or something.” Dr. Steve Weyhrich of the Apple II History site agreed that the computer looks like a typical Apple II configuration, adding, “I am suspicious that the Apple logo was Photoshopped out of the picture. Or, as Andy said, it might be a foreign clone that didn’t bother putting up a logo of any kind.”

Consider this similar picture found via a Google image search:

This is not the same photo as ENN’s, but the setup is similar enough to suggest that they are the same computer. What do you think is the source of ENN’s vintage computer? Did they grab and edit the first photo they found online? If so, why the coverup? If not, do they in fact have a rare unmarked knockoff?

The full ENN video report is after the jump.