Mine is a 1977 model, serial number #2309. Wozniak's Integer BASIC and a Revision 0 board (the full color palette isn't available for hi-res, no aux video pin, no "color-killer" for text mode). The switch on the power supply is a little testy so I usually have a Kensington System Saver fan attached, and one of the keys isn't as responsive as it should be, but otherwise it works perfectly! Not bad for a computer almost 30 years old!
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Any original Apple II owners here?
- Thread starter Roderick Usher
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Pretty sure the first Mac I had in my house was the old LC. Then we had an LCIII, and then a Power Mac 7100 or two... That's the extent of my Mac's.
What's that got to do with an Apple II?
I didn't have an Apple II, either. I got an Atari 800 since it had the graphics co-processor but that was a few years later.
It was a more interesting time. Hopefully, you've upgraded the thing to more than 4 KB of RAM and cassette recorder. It seemed strange having to work to get lowercase letters but even the terminals at work worked in uppercase as a default.
It's 2:13 am and I have finals starting Monday. I'm burned, cut me some slack.What's that got to do with an Apple II?
I didn't have an Apple II, either. I got an Atari 800 since it had the graphics co-processor but that was a few years later.
It was a more interesting time. Hopefully, you've upgraded the thing to more than 4 KB of RAM and cassette recorder. It seemed strange having to work to get lowercase letters but even the terminals at work worked in uppercase as a default.
My first computer was a //e, but by the time we bought it I had spent lots of time on the ][ and ][+ that my Physics prof had brought in to school... Wish I still had it, along with my old Commodore 128D.
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Funny, I had a IIe about 20 years ago, had a great time with it - and was finally reaaaally eager to change it, which I did when I got my first Mac, an LC.
However, now... I wish I still had it, for the sake of nostalgia
The beeps and noises when firing it up, the 5"1/4 floppies, the games in green and black...
...And I almost forgot the accessories: the 22lbs "Image Writer II" printer, the joystick cut out of a block of metal, the amazing 256Kb ram extension / ram drive card...
The Image Writer II was pretty impressive at the time with its 27 pins instead of the usual 9 in the print head of the Image Writer. Dot matrix printing suddenly looked less like spray painting.
It gave very good results with colour, too, when I used it with the Mac later. Took 20mn/page, though. And noisy... (I think my parents still remember a specific high-school project finished at 4am.)
There was also a 3rd-party scanner-head, designed to be fixed instead of the printer-head, to digitalize documents...
My parents supposedly still have the Apple ][+ & ][e that I had growing up somewhere in their storage.
And the Ataris rocked for that reason. In fact, I still have an 800 in service for playing games every now and again.
I'm interested in whether or not anybody has an original Apple I. I'd love to have one but would probably rather spend the money on a BMW, if I actually had the money that is.
Indeed
Yes, indeed!
I have a few Apple IIs that I can't seem to part with, my first was a ][+ in 1979. I don't have a lot of time to play with them anymore, but when I do pull them out, I love the fact that they still work. Had to replace a power supply, and the keyboard on another is shot, but I still have two working models...
If only I had the time to play Choplifter, Castle Wolfenstien, Hard Hat Mack, Gorgon, Sneakers, Star Blazer, or Sabotage (now on the iPod, interestingly).... man, those were games. (And we all had to walk 10 miles to the computer lab, uphill both ways, in hip-deep snow, not like kids today... )
I wanted to get programs these off of the 5 1/4" floppies and onto something more stable for posterity, but I never got around to it. Anybody ever done something like this?
Nice to see they still run, though..
Yes, indeed!
I have a few Apple IIs that I can't seem to part with, my first was a ][+ in 1979. I don't have a lot of time to play with them anymore, but when I do pull them out, I love the fact that they still work. Had to replace a power supply, and the keyboard on another is shot, but I still have two working models...
If only I had the time to play Choplifter, Castle Wolfenstien, Hard Hat Mack, Gorgon, Sneakers, Star Blazer, or Sabotage (now on the iPod, interestingly).... man, those were games. (And we all had to walk 10 miles to the computer lab, uphill both ways, in hip-deep snow, not like kids today... )
I wanted to get programs these off of the 5 1/4" floppies and onto something more stable for posterity, but I never got around to it. Anybody ever done something like this?
Nice to see they still run, though..
I have three; an Apple ][+ and two Apple //e models, plus an Apple "greenscreen" monochrome display, a joystick and a reasonable pile of software. And around six 5.25" floppy drives, at least two of which still work.
One thing I really miss is the game Arctic Fox, I used to play that for hours. The only game I loved more from my early youth was Shamus for the Tandy TRS-80.
One thing I really miss is the game Arctic Fox, I used to play that for hours. The only game I loved more from my early youth was Shamus for the Tandy TRS-80.
Yes, indeed!
I have a few Apple IIs that I can't seem to part with, my first was a ][+ in 1979. I don't have a lot of time to play with them anymore, but when I do pull them out, I love the fact that they still work. Had to replace a power supply, and the keyboard on another is shot, but I still have two working models...
If only I had the time to play Choplifter, Castle Wolfenstien, Hard Hat Mack, Gorgon, Sneakers, Star Blazer, or Sabotage (now on the iPod, interestingly).... man, those were games. (And we all had to walk 10 miles to the computer lab, uphill both ways, in hip-deep snow, not like kids today... )
I wanted to get programs these off of the 5 1/4" floppies and onto something more stable for posterity, but I never got around to it. Anybody ever done something like this?
Nice to see they still run, though..
Waaaw, Choplifter, I hadn't thought about that one for 20 years !!!
On the LC, there was an expansion card for using IIe software. Never got it, though.
But I think there might be some emulators for the Apple IIe around, maybe ?
Regarding the old games for Atari etc... I like it that you can buy some game-stations of sort, including a dozen of these games in the joystick itself, and plug it direclty to the tv.
However, I've seen that bringing older games back can sometimes be a disappointment...
But my dream computer was the instructor's computer - an Apple IIGS with 3.5" disk drive and hard drive running GS/OS....sweet!...
...that is, until I was introduced to the Mac.
My art teacher in elementary had a IIgs running GS/OS. I thought it was uber-cool because it was sort of like my father's SE, except in color. Really neato until I used an LC for the first time.
Aside from instaling Mame which may get you an arcade version, here's the next best thing
Apple ][e sitting upstairs, dual floppy drives and an 80 column card! Boy that was a hot machine. I still remember playing Castle Wolfenstein on that, should really dig the disks out some day
Emulation and retriving old 5-1/4" floppies
http://www.wbwip.com/a2web/a2emul.html
and lots of software has been converted to disk images:
ftp://ftp.apple.asimov.net/pub/apple_II
And you can transfer disks yourself if you still have the hardware:
http://adtpro.sourceforge.net/
And there are services that will transfer disks for you:
http://retrofloppy.com
There's a vibrant emulation community on usenet:
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.emulators.apple2
Absolutely. There's tons of resources for the Apple retro user in you. There are emulators galore:
http://www.wbwip.com/a2web/a2emul.html
and lots of software has been converted to disk images:
ftp://ftp.apple.asimov.net/pub/apple_II
And you can transfer disks yourself if you still have the hardware:
http://adtpro.sourceforge.net/
And there are services that will transfer disks for you:
http://retrofloppy.com
There's a vibrant emulation community on usenet:
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.emulators.apple2
Thank you for the links!
Thank you very much! I will definitely go take a look at those links. I was worried about all my old stuff disappearing, electron by electron....
Thank you very much! I will definitely go take a look at those links. I was worried about all my old stuff disappearing, electron by electron....
Closest I've got is a IIc. Actually, I bought it off of ebay two years ago, so does it really count?