--- title: ACT Apricot F2 / F10 categories: - Computers types: - Professional Computer origins: - United Kingdom years: - '1985' cpus: - Intel 8086 params: name: Apricot F2 / F10 image: /media/museum/photos/act_apricot-f2_1.jpg company: /companies/act company_name: ACT specs: - label: NAME value: Apricot F2 / F10 - label: MANUFACTURER value: ACT - label: TYPE value: Professional Computer - label: ORIGIN value: United Kingdom - label: YEAR value: '1985' - label: BUILT IN LANGUAGE value: '''''Activity'''' graphical interface (Desktop, wordprocessor, drawing, communication and Basic)' - label: KEYBOARD value: infrared full-stroke keyboard with editing and numeric keypads, 92 keys, 8 function keys - label: CPU value: Intel 8086 - label: SPEED value: 4,77 Mhz - label: RAM value: 512k, up to 768k - label: ROM value: 32k, up to 64k - label: TEXT MODES value: 80 x 25 - label: GRAPHIC MODES value: 320 x 256 (16 colors), 640 x 200 (4 colors), 640 x 256 (4 colors) - label: COLORS value: '16' - label: SOUND value: Beeper - label: I/O PORTS value: Serial port, parallel port, RGB video out, Composite video out, 2 x expansion slot (Apricot F series) - label: BUILT IN MEDIA value: |- F2 : 2 x 3.5'' disk-drives, double-sided, 720k each\ F10 : 1 x disk-drive (720k) and a 10Mb hard-disk - label: OS value: MS-DOS (Apricot customized) + Activity (graphical interface) - label: POWER SUPPLY value: Internal PSU - label: PERIPHERALS value: 10Mb hard-disk dir the F2, RF modulator tabs: - photos - adverts - emulators - links - docs forum_thread: 487 photos: - title: APRICOT F2 subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/photos/act_apricotf2_system_1.jpg - title: THE F2 AND THE F10 subtitle: '' text: |- The F10 is at the back and the F2 at the front. The front panels are slightly different. The famous infrared trackball is also pictured here. image: /media/museum/photos/act_apricot-f2-f10_1.jpg adverts: - title: FRENCH ADVERT subtitle: '' text: |- "Thank you boss !" The ad incite employees to ask their boss to buy these Apricot systems...clever. image: /media/museum/pubs/act_apricot-f2_pub_1.jpg emulators: - title: 'APE Plus : Apricot Emulator' url: http://www.ansible.demon.co.uk/ai/ape.html platform: MS DOS text: Commercial emulator that emulates PC/Xi/Xen, the \`F' Series, and the Apricot FP Portable - title: QDAE url: http://www.seasip.info/Unix/QDAE/ platform: Multiplatform text: QDAE is a Quick and Dirty Apricot Emulator for Linux, Windows and MacOS X. This version emulates the Apricot F1; it may support other F-series Apricots as well. links: - title: ACT Apricot computers support page url: http://www.actapricot.org/home/ text: Useful infos. Some links might be outdated - title: ACT Apricot Computers Yahoo Group url: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/actapricot/ text: Discussion list for the ACT Apricot computers. docs: - title: USER PROMPT APRICOT GUIDE ISSUE 1 url: http://www.actapricot.org/support/ cover: /media/museum/docs/couvs/act_apricot-user-prompt_1.jpg text: |- [**USER PROMPT APRICOT GUIDE ISSUE 1**](http://www.actapricot.org/support/)written by UserPrompt Guides  compiled/archived by Jonathan Marsters\  type of document : PDF\  source : [www.actapricot.org](http://www.actapricot.org) - title: USER PROMPT APRICOT GUIDE ISSUE 2 url: http://www.actapricot.org/support/ cover: /media/museum/docs/couvs/act_apricot-user-prompt_2.jpg text: |- [**USER PROMPT APRICOT GUIDE ISSUE 2**](http://www.actapricot.org/support/)written by UserPrompt Guides  compiled/archived by Jonathan Marsters\  type of document : PDF\  source : [www.actapricot.org](http://www.actapricot.org) related: - /museum/act-apricot-f1 - /museum/act-apricot-pc - /museum/act-apricot-portable - /museum/act-apricot-xen - /museum/act-apricot-xi oc_id: 493 source: url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230127144325/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=493 date: '2023-01-27' --- Unlike the [Apricot F1](/museum/act-apricot-f1/) which was a kind of bridge between the home-computing and the professional markets, the F2 and the F10 were clearly marketed as business machines. They were quite similar to the F1, but included an extra expansion slot, more memory and larger storage capacity : two disk-drives for the F2 and one disk-drive and a 10MB hard-disk for the F10. Like the F1, the F2 and F10 had an infra-red interface for the keyboard and the mouse/trackball (the same infra-red mouseball pointing device used with the Apricot Portable). This interesting feature was not very convenient because you had to ensure that there was no object blocking the signals between the keyboard/mouse and the computer, and you also had to power the keyboard with batteries! However, the systems originally shipped with a plastic light-pipe that could be connected between the keyboard and CPU so that obstacles would not block the signal. The F2/F10 were quite similar in shape to the F1. The same narrow, very deep and stylish case. The F10 had the same disk front-panel as the F1 but a different arrangement of the LED indicators (power, caps, disk, stop), infra-red sensors and logo. The F2 had different shaped disk-drives but identical LEDs, logo and infra-red sensors as the F1. The F2 and the F10 use an Apricot-modified version of MS-DOS, so they were not really IBM compatible. They were provided with a nice graphical and iconized interface called **Activity**. Integrated were a desktop, and software including a wordprocessor, communication, painting and Basic. They were also sold with GEM Write, GEM Paint and the GEM desktop. These systems were quite expensive and not really IBM PC compatible, so they were not a great success, even in the UK, their native country. Initially, there were not even compatible with the F1. A new ROM had to be developed for the F1 !