website/content/museum/act-apricot-f1.md

---
title: ACT Apricot F1
categories:
- Computers
types:
- Professional Computer
origins:
- United Kingdom
years:
- '1984'
cpus:
- Intel 8086
params:
  name: Apricot F1
  image: /media/museum/photos/act_apricot-f1_1.jpg
  company: /companies/act
  company_name: ACT
  specs:
  - label: NAME
    value: Apricot F1
  - label: MANUFACTURER
    value: ACT
  - label: TYPE
    value: Professional Computer
  - label: ORIGIN
    value: United Kingdom
  - label: YEAR
    value: '1984'
  - label: END OF PRODUCTION
    value: '1986'
  - label: KEYBOARD
    value: Infrared membrane keyboard, 92 keys, 10 function keys
  - label: CPU
    value: Intel 8086
  - label: SPEED
    value: 4,77 Mhz
  - label: CO-PROCESSOR
    value: Z80 CTC counter timer, and a Z80 SIO (Serial I/O controller)
  - label: RAM
    value: from 256 Kb to 758 Kb
  - label: ROM
    value: 32 Kb,
  - label: TEXT MODES
    value: 80 x 24
  - label: GRAPHIC MODES
    value: 640 x 200 and 640 x 256 with 4 colors, 320 x 256 with 16 colors
  - label: COLORS
    value: '16'
  - label: SOUND
    value: Beeper
  - label: SIZE / WEIGHT
    value: 42 x 22 x 16 cm / 5,6 kg
  - label: I/O PORTS
    value: RGB and Composite video outputs, RS232c, Centronics, Expansion bus, Internal connector for optional RF modulator
  - label: BUILT IN MEDIA
    value: |-
      3.5'' disk-drive, double sided, 720k\
      RAM disk feature through BIOS
  - label: OS
    value: MS DOS 2.11 (Concurrent DOS, CP/M 86 in option)
  - label: POWER SUPPLY
    value: Internal PSU
  - label: PERIPHERALS
    value: 10Mb hard-drive, external disk-drive, infrared trackball, RF modulator for TV output
  - label: PRICE
    value: |-
      F1E : £795 (UK, November 1984)\
      F1 : £995 (UK, November 1984)
  tabs:
  - photos
  - adverts
  - hardware
  - emulators
  - links
  - docs
  photos:
  - title: 'MONOCHROME VERSION #1'
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: /media/museum/photos/act_apricot-f1_2.jpg
  - title: 'MONOCHROME VERSION #2'
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: /media/museum/photos/act_apricotf1_system_1.jpg
  - title: F1 ACCESSORIES
    subtitle: ''
    text: Here is an external disk-drive and the infrared trackball.
    image: /media/museum/photos/act_apricot-f1_3.jpg
  - title: MAIN UNIT
    subtitle: ''
    text: The shape of the system is quite original, narrow and very deep with a tilted surface at the back.
    image: /media/museum/photos/act_apricot-f1_uc_1.jpg
  - title: KEYBOARD CLOSE-UP
    subtitle: ''
    text: Like many compatible computer manufacturers of the time, ACT offered an innovative keyboard design quite different from that of IBM.
    image: /media/museum/photos/act_apricotf1_keyboard_1.jpg
  - title: 'KEYBOARD #2'
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      Four keyboard switches can be used for:\
      \- System reset\
      \- Repeat rate adjustment\
      \- Time setting\
      \- Keyboard lock
    image: /media/museum/photos/act_apricotf1_keyboard_2.jpg
  - title: BACK
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      **(1)** Serial RS-232C DB25 connector\
      **(2)** Video RGB output DB9 connector\
      **(3)** Composite video output RCA jack\
      **(4)** Monitor power supply plug\
      **(5)** Parallel printer connector\
      **(6)** Mains plug and switch
    image: /media/museum/photos/act_apricotf1_back_1.jpg
  - title: INSIDE F1
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      The Apricot F1 is right in the tradition of other ACT models : sober, robust and well-conceived. But as soon as it came out, it was reproached for being a bit slow compared to 6 or 8 Mhz systems. The F1 is however an appealing machine which was of help to many small and medium companies which chose it as their first business computer.

      Note the case of the infra-red receiver, close to the FDD unit, which receives data from the cordless keyboard and mouse.
    image: /media/museum/photos/act_apricotf1_uncovered_1.jpg
  - title: INSIDE RECEIVER MODULE
    subtitle: ''
    text: The infra-red receiver uses an optical lens allowing it to receive data from various angles. This module can also recognise one keyboard from many others permitting several F1s to be used in the same room.
    image: /media/museum/photos/act_apricotf1_lensmodule_1.jpg
  - title: F1 MOTHERBOARD
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      **(1)** Expansion connector. Can receive a memory expansion. Unfortunately, there is only one. Another identical expansion connector faces outward, intended for interface boards dedicated to external peripherals control.\
      **(2)** Floppy disc drive connector\
      **(3)** FDD power connectors\
      **(4)** 256 KB RAM memory area - 32 x Nec 4164 memory chips\
      **(5)** Power supply connector\
      **(6)** Parallel printer connector\
      **(7)** Composite video RCA plug\
      **(8)** Colour RGB video out DB9 connector\
      **(9)** Serial RS-232C DB25 connector
    image: /media/museum/photos/act_apricotf1_motherboard_1.jpg
  - title: PROCESSOR CLOSE-UP
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      The 8086 processor here is a (nice) Fujitsu ceramic version.

      Note also:

      **(1)** Various motherboard tasks are handled by Zilog chips. Here a Z80 CTC counter timer, and a Z80 SIO (Serial I/O controller)\
      **(2)** BIOS and self-diagnostic ROM chips (16 KB x 2)\
      **(3)** Western Digital floppy disc controller chip
    image: /media/museum/photos/act_apricotf1_cpu_1.jpg
  - title: F1 MANUALS & SOFTWARES
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      Alongside these introduction handbooks, much professional software was provided with the Apricot :

      \- **SuperWriter**, a word processing package less advanced than WordStar, the program it was modelled on.\
      \- **SuperPlanner**, an electronic agenda with address book and a light database\
      \- **SuperCalc**, the best spreadsheet of the time.
    image: /media/museum/photos/s_apricotf1_manuals.jpg
  adverts:
  - title: U.K. PRICE LIST
    subtitle: ''
    text: Dealer price list - August 1986
    image: /media/museum/pubs/act_apricotf1_pricelist_1.jpg
  hardware:
  - title: SPECIAL F1
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      This special version of the F1 was developed by a french company based in Bordeaux, Cirel Systèmes, a subsidiary of Télésystèmes.

      It's a basic F1 with an external case placed under the main unit. This box includes a Videotex graphic board, a modem and special software for Minitel emulation, data server and file transfer. The phone is linked to a contact directory which can be dialled automatically. The price of this system was 18500fr (pre-tax) (France, december 1985)
    image: /media/museum/hardware/act_apricot-f1_4.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: APRICOT F1 TECHNICAL REFERENCE MANUAL
    url: http://www.actapricot.org/support/
    cover: /media/museum/docs/couvs/act_apricot-f1_technical-reference-manual.jpg
    text: |-
      [**APRICOT F1 TECHNICAL REFERENCE MANUAL**](http://www.actapricot.org/support/)written by ACT

       compiled/archived by Jonathan Marsters\
       type of document : PDF\
       source : [www.actapricot.org](http://www.actapricot.org)
  - 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)
  comments:
  - author: Triphazard (UK)
    date: Thursday 1st January 2009
    text: |-
      Whoa... Are there really so few owners/fans of this great machine? My own has a single 3.5" slot, no HD, 9" green screen and I broke the fibre optic cable for the IR keyboard. I couldn''t afford the IR trackball while it was available but I added 512K to the default 256K on board.

      I also managed to get copies of SuperCalc 3, DBase II and Friday!, a database program created using DBII. I still giggle at the MS Windows 1.0 vouchers it came with. (This machine recalculated the most basic spreadsheet with figures scrolling along for several seconds, like those cliche ''80s movies.)

      However, at the time it was about a year ahead of IBM''s PCs. They still had 5.25" floppies, 64K RAM, 8088 chips and locked-in servicing.

      I can $ a single disk to launch MSDOS 2.0, SCalc/SWriter and all the data I have. It will all run from a RAM disk and batch save my data back to disk before shutting down.

      Computers today don''t seem to do anything any faster than before. Graphics look great but we still sit and wonder what to do next...
  - author: Boomtown 45 (United States)
    date: Friday 7th June 2019
    text: I acquired an Apricot F1 system$monitor, computer, trackball, and infrared keyboard$today at an estate here in New Mexico. Monitor''s startup screenshot shows a system date of "18/07/1985". Does anyone know if there''s someone here in the US who''s interested in a vintage system from the UK? I''m thinking it would be cost prohibitive to ship it to England.
  - author: Robin England (UK)
    date: Sunday 14th October 2018
    text: Hi Matt, I am an enthusiastic collector of the Apricot F-series machines and would be interested in any Apricot stuff you have. I don''t run a computer museum but I collect and restore vintage machines. Let me know if you want to discuss further. Cheers, Robin
  - author: Matter
    date: Thursday 9th August 2018
    text: |-
      My old man helped develop apricot computers, from the 80’s until there demise. I have inherited multiple examples of most the computers they made including, hardware, software, literature, and many one of prototypes that he developed, etc\
      They need a good home, that respects and understands them\
      Thanks Matt
  - author: Matt (Birmingham)
    date: Thursday 9th August 2018
    text: Apricot computers available for real enthusiast
  - author: Doekman (Groningen, The Netherlands)
    date: Wednesday 2nd May 2018
    text: My neighbour had one of these. I remembered it had a great design, and the graphics where impressive. She got this computer via some home computer programme of her employer, Johnson Controls. That explains I never saw the computer elsewhere.
  - author: Dan
    date: Tuesday 21st November 2017
    text: I took one of these F1 computers to Yemen, and wrote a multi-currency book-keeping program in Turbo Pascal. It was a great computer, complete with four colours! My kids enjoyed simple games as well. I am not sure what happened to the computer. I am sure it is gone, now that the war had destroyed most things.
  - author: Nosher (Bradford, UK)
    date: Saturday 22nd July 2017
    text: I used the Apricot F1 in an educational environment. Use of the machine could survive loss or breakage of the IR pipe but it was possible to pick up your keyboard and reboot your neighbour''s machine. Other machines did not have this issue. Use of the Apricots came to an abrupt end when $ing a 3M diskette instantly decapitated the drive head rendering the machine useless. Other machines did not have this fatal flaw. There didn''t appear to be much different about 3M diskettes but the metal shutter contacted the lightly suspended disk head and ripped it out of position.
  - author: Jimbob (Scotland)
    date: Thursday 6th October 2016
    text: |-
      I remember my Dad giving me a side by side demonstration of an F1 beside an IBM of the same vintage.\
      The F1 wiped the floor with the IBM in loading or copying from floppy discs and the wireless keyboard was a revelation to a young kid.\
      Wonder how much further forward we''d be if innovative companies like Apricot had survived rather than Apple or IBM.
  - author: Chris (NJ)
    date: Monday 7th September 2015
    text: I have a line on one of these systems in the UK, but being I''m in the US, I''d like to acquire one here if at all possible, reasons are clear. Please contact me if you have one - dreyfusshudson at yahoo dot com. Many thanks.
  - author: Dylan Smith (United Kingdom)
    date: Tuesday 21st October 2014
    text: We had one at our school. It was very nicely made and came with a small but good quality colour screen, and a pretty innovative design. I remember rigging up a serial cable and bodging together some code to transfer images from a friend''s Amiga 500 to the Apricot. However, it was hugely let down by being one of those "yes it runs MS-DOS but no it''s not IBM compatible" machines which made it more or less pointless. MS-DOS even back in the day was awful and the only reason for running it would be IBM compatibility
  - author: John Moore (New Zealand)
    date: Wednesday 1st January 2014
    text: I purchased an F1e back in 1985 for NZ$2700 ! By today''s standards that''d get you something really flash. This had just one 315k disk drive (not 320k like the rest of the world). I could never figure out for the life of me why ACT did not make all their computers IBM compatible. They would have possibly been still in business, as (as as been pointed out) their computers were quite innovative, especially since they were one of the first to use 3.5in floppie disks. I can also remember buying my first lot of "single sided" disks .. NZ$80 for10! I still have the original activity disks that came with the computer. I did find the keyboard a bit strange as the key tops kept on wearing out, so I stuck laminated characters over the top of each key! Other than that the computer worked fine with 256k of RAM. The fact it also came with it''s own version of GWBASIC made it interesting, along with Super Writer, Super Calc and Super Planner. It also came with a communications programme to
      connect to an IBM compatible machine (with limited success). My son and I wrote literally hundreds of programmes in BASIC. A few I eventually (using the comms package) converted to Turbo Basic and a .exe file. Apart from the Bios problems I loved it. See also Apricot PC.
  - author: John Moore (New Zealand)
    date: Wednesday 1st January 2014
    text: I purchased an F1e back in 1985 for NZ$2700 ! By today''s standards that''d get you something really flash. This had just one 315k disk drive (not 320k like the rest of the world). I could never figure out for the life of me why ACT did not make all their computers IBM compatible. They would have possibly been still in business, as (as as been pointed out) their computers were quite innovative, especially since they were one of the first to use 3.5in floppie disks. I can also remember buying my first lot of "single sided" disks .. NZ$80 for10! I still have the original activity disks that came with the computer. I did find the keyboard a bit strange as the key tops kept on wearing out, so I stuck laminated characters over the top of each key! Other than that the computer worked fine with 256k of RAM. The fact it also came with it''s own version of GWBASIC made it interesting, along with Super Writer, Super Calc and Super Planner. It also came with a communications programme to
      connect to an IBM compatible machine (with limited success). My son and I wrote literally hundreds of programmes in BASIC. A few I eventually (using the comms package) converted to Turbo Basic and a .exe file. Apart from the Bios problems I loved it. See also Apricot PC.
  - author: Chris (USA)
    date: Tuesday 19th February 2013
    text: I want one.
  - author: RC Ellis (USA)
    date: Saturday 25th February 2012
    text: |-
      I had the F1 - as a DOS compatible it was fine. The machine I bought came with an early version of Microsoft Word for DOS - which worked well.

      I managed to find a connector on the motherboard which allowed me to add a second 720 3.5" floppy - had to put it in a separate box, but it worked.

      The monitor finally failed and I was able to connect a Radio Shack CGA monitor.

      I was also able to run Turbo Pascal 3.0 on it. And as a CS teacher that was wonderful.\
      It was very stylish overall, and I got good use out of it for several years.
  - author: Andrew Fison (usa)
    date: Friday 8th April 2011
    text: I remember doing my college accounts courses on these, our computer room had about 20 of these in there, also one advantage of the infra-red keyboards was you could pull the batteries out of the one in front of the screen and stand behind your mate typing on another keyboard while he wonders where all the strange calcs came from
  - author: Ian Chard (Oxford, UK)
    date: Wednesday 23rd August 2006
    text: I spend a depressing few weeks writing a small database on one of these things in the late 80s. It was a monochrome monitor, and the phosphor lag time was \*huge\* -- you could still read text several seconds after clearing the screen!
  - author: Newtony (Belgium)
    date: Tuesday 12th February 2002
    text: |-
      Hi everyone,

      I began collecting old computers about three years ago, mostly IBM-compatibles. I also have five Apricot F1 computers. They were in pretty bad shape but I should be able to get at least one in complete working order. However I don't have any software for them and I can't get them to work with regular MS or PC-Dos, probably because the BIOS is not 100% IBM-compatible. Is there anyone here who can get me working copies of the F1 software such as Activity ? I really want these machines to work, so any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
  related:
  - /museum/act-apricot-f2-f10
  - /museum/act-apricot-pc
  - /museum/act-apricot-portable
  - /museum/act-apricot-xen
  - /museum/act-apricot-xi
  oc_id: 495
  source:
    url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230603213917/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=495
    date: '2023-06-03'
---

After the launch of the Apricot PC, largely inspired by the Victor S1 which sold well in the UK, ACT developed another computer, the Apricot F1. This new system was marketed equally as a business system and as a home-computer (with its TV video output for example).

The design of the F1 is quite innovative with its original shape and infrared keyboard. The main unit is much more deep than large, and the straight line of the whole system was quite stylish for the time.

There was no lead or cord between the keyboard and the main unit. All the communication was made through infrared signals. This is quite useful if you want to work from your sofa, four meters away from the main unit but you also must be sure that there is no obstacle between the keyboard and the infrared receivers located on the front of the main unit.

The Apricot F1 was however originally shipped with a plastic light-pipe that could be connected between the keyboard and CPU so that obstacles would not block the signal. Another drawback was that the keyboard had to be constantly powered with batteries!\
This infrared feature is quite rare and the F1 is one of the only computers to be equiped with it, alongside the [ACT Apricot Portable](/museum/act-apricot-portable/) and [Exelvision EXL-100](/museum/exelvision-exl-100/) and a few others...

Just above the quite comprehensive membrane keyboard are four small round buttons used to set the date and time of the internal clock, to change the rate of the keys auto-repeat feature, to lock the keyboard and to reset the computer.

Even if the F1 used an 8086 it wasn’t really IBM PC compatible (though minor changes could make it BIOS compatible). The MS-DOS 2.11 used by the system is an Apricot modified version of the "real" MS-DOS.

The Apricot F1 was delivered with a nice icon-based graphical interface called "Activity" along with quality bundled sotfware for graphics, communication, wordprocessing and system tools. The same infra-red mouseball pointing device used with the Apricot Portable was available for the F1.

As the F1 was not IBM PC compatible and not particularly cheap, it didn't have great success outside its native country (UK). A slightly less expensive version was also released, labelled **F1e**. It was the same machine but the 720 KB floppy drive was replaced by a single sided 320 KB version. This version was about 300 Euros cheaper than the normal version.