Sadly, the collaboration ended between Jeri and the folks who produced
the DTV ended very badly, I believe a suit was filed. As such, I don't
think there's a future with that IP.
There is another core that could be used (I have it saved here locally
somewhere), but I think I agree, an Apple II would be easier to deal
with. As well, the article (one of them) notes the group is trying to
update an existing Apple-II like design alrayd in production, so there
are some other factors at play.
Jim