Found: Apple IIe

[ademuth93]

So my school's robotics team was rummaging through a closet of stuff that was to be thrown out, and we found an Apple IIe.

I have a couple questions:

The operating system is in the ROM, right? No need for a floppy OS or something?

Does the computer need a mouse? In my reading, it seems like it doesn't.

It only had two cards inside: the 5.25 floppy card and what I think was the RAM. Does it need anything else to operate (i.e. a video card)?

Lastly, are there any things I didn't think of that I should know??
Any sweet games for it on eBay?

Thanks!

 

[David Schmidt]

The operating system is in the ROM, right? No need for a floppy OS or something?

Correct. It has a BASIC interpreter that is available without any other startup operations like the other computers of the day. Though there are a couple of different Disk Operating Systems you can use, if you want to go that route. But they're not necessary.

Does the computer need a mouse? In my reading, it seems like it doesn't.

No.

It only had two cards inside: the 5.25 floppy card and what I think was the RAM. Does it need anything else to operate (i.e. a video card)?

No. The RCA jack on the back is composite video; it'll plug into any video-in source on a monitor.

Lastly, are there any things I didn't think of that I should know??

Try stuff out here:
http://virtualapple.org/

Any sweet games for it on eBay?

I guess that's for you to determine.

 

[bubbacaster]

So my school's robotics team was rummaging through a closet of stuff that was to be thrown out, and we found an Apple IIe.

I have a couple questions:

The operating system is in the ROM, right? No need for a floppy OS or something?

Does the computer need a mouse? In my reading, it seems like it doesn't.

It only had two cards inside: the 5.25 floppy card and what I think was the RAM. Does it need anything else to operate (i.e. a video card)?

Lastly, are there any things I didn't think of that I should know??
Any sweet games for it on eBay?

Thanks!

No, the Operating System is *not* in ROM. The ROM includes BASIC, and the System Monitor (kind of like BIOS, but with a few extra bells & whistles).

The Operating System comes on 5.25" floppy disks. The Apple IIe usually ran DOS 3.3 or ProDos as the Operating System. Disk images for these Operating Systems can be found at various places on the net, but you'll need a physical 5.25" floppy to boot from in order to read/write to floppy drives. As a general rule, many users formatted their Apple II floppies to include a copy of DOS or ProDos on each floppy. This was done as a convenience to keep from having to look around for a Master DOS disk every time you rebooted ("Now *where* did I put that damn floppy!??").

If you boot the Apple IIe without a floppy, you will get a Basic prompt, and can access the low-level monitor routines if you know how. But you will not be able to do too much with the machine unless you boot DOS or ProDOS.

The Apple II does not need a mouse.

 

[macking104]

In the 1990's, some science departments at Caltech used to use Apple IIs for controlling their lab equipment... Easy programming, lots of uses...

 

[systole]

Nice find

I still remember the day I got to bring one home for alerting the IT staff at my school to a security vulnerability on their only PC, allowing students to access faculty folders. Read up on basic programming. for instance:

10 PRINT "HELLO WORLD"
20 GOTO 10

I belive it's ctrl-c or -c to get it to stop.

As for games, try finding load runner or the original mario brothers. I still play load runner on the IIGS I keep around for gits and shiggles. Long live Mac OS 1.0. Fits on a single 3.5" floppy.

 

[MacTech68]

I'm more curious about what else may be roaming around there (considering the department it's come from).

I remember in my second year working with Apple IIs, the local clone dealer loaned us a robotic arm with an Apple II interface and software.

You could program 3 vectors and the arm would 'navigate' to that position.

I've never been able to remember the name of the device and for a school it's usefulness was limited, but it was fun to play with.

IIRC, you could program positions for each joint in a sequence and kind of make it dance to a routine.

I wonder if it's floating around down there?