Slashdot Mirror
The Apple II At 30
turnitover sends us to eWEEK for an appreciation of the Apple II on the 30th anniversary of its shipping. An overview of the history of the Apple II puts it in context. A nice tidbit: how important the floppy drive was to sales. The article quotes Sellam Ismail, the proprietor of VintageTech, which maintains archives of computers, documents, and software: "You could think of the Apple II's importance on two levels — the Woz level and the Steve Jobs level." The former refers to its allure to hackers, and the latter to its appliance-like polish, a first for its time, There is also an interview with Woz, who says, "[A]t the start there were no computers in the home — we had to make the word computer compatible with homes."
I got an Apple ][+ with 48k back in 1981. I had a chance to use a couple of computers before then, but this was the first one I spent any real time with. I taught myself to program on it and it sparked my life long interest in computer graphics and game development (which I attempt to do professionally today). I have the awesome manuals that came with it to thank. That's the way to do a computer right. And now it makes me feel very, very old. I wish I still had that particular computer, I should have never given it away. I still have an Apple IIe, two Apple //c's, and a Laser 128. What Woz did with Apple is the most inspiring and amazing thing. What an engineer!
+0 Meh
The face of computer business has changed. It is all about patents and copyright now... not providing a good product to the consumer.
"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
The face of computer business has changed. It is all about patents and copyright now... not providing a good product to the consumer.
Yup. Companies like MS & Apple seem to prefer buying out other companies & suing competitors rather than actually innovating.
We need some engineers like Woz back in positions of importance again....
There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
The BEST thing about starting with the Apple ][ was the manuals. They explained clearly and with examples how to use the computer and write BASIC programs. Nothing since has been as comprehensive, or easy to use.
There are so many layers and problems which todays desktop make difficult, and were easy back then. A much better introduction to computers couldn't be had.
In 1977, Apple Computer included the schematics for all of the motherboard and CPU design for the Apple ][.
In 1935 your Grandad's Hallicrafters shortwave set came with a schematic. In 1965 your Dad's RCA Color TV did not. What begins as the private preserve of the technical hobbyist becomes domesticated and mass market.
The BEST thing about starting with the Apple ][ was the manuals. They explained clearly and with examples how to use the computer and write BASIC programs. Nothing since has been as comprehensive, or easy to use.
Totally agree. I actually keep a set of Apple ][c manuals around on my bookshelf, as an example/reminder of what good technical writing (and illustrating!) is.
The authors of those manuals managed to take a subject that was completely and utterly foreign to many of their readers, and make it comprehensible, un-intimidating, even a little fun to read. They didn't assume that the reader knew much going in, but they didn't treat them as a mental incompetent, either.
Modern computer manuals are burned toast to the early Apple manuals' filet mignon. They may serve the same essential function, but the old Apple ones did it so much more pleasantly.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
The value of the floppy drive is best appreciated by those of us who spent hours typing in code only to entrust it to that gambling device which was the cassette tape drive, or to face the reality of having no storage device at all. I remember leaving my trusty Commodore 64 on for a few days straight before I got my tape drive.
Strange things are afoot at the Circle-K.
Check out this fascinating time line for an overview of when each model was being produced, along with some computer industry milestones for context. The site has in depth history on the whole story.
Versions of the Apple II were still going strong when Linux and Windows 3.1 were released.
Retirement finally came shortly before Windows 95, but by that time software emulation had become more convenient.
SLM
main() {1;}
My first real computer (not to count my very dear hex-codes programmable calculator, though at that time I did not know it was hex codes, just some numbers and first couple letters, in 4th or 5th grade :) ) was a Bulgarian clone of Apple ][. Yes, with (equally pirated) p-code system written in that strange unknown place called UCSD, had something to do with mythical California... I still do not understand how did they fit p-code interpreter, compiler, libraries (including graphics), editor and file browser runnable on 32K and loadable from a 5" floppy (it was not 360K, more like 128K, right?)... Eat THAT, JVM! :)
;) ).
Moscow, 1984, I think... (Hmm, interesting year...
Paul B.
Elite is certainly one of the great classic games, but in terms of 3D graphics the Apple II had already seen 1984's Stellar 7 (a clone of Atari's 1980 vector arcade game Battlezone) and even raycasting 3D (a la Wolfenstein 3D) in 1982's Wayout.
I'd have to say the most beautiful Apple II game was 1987's Airheart by Dan (Choplifter) Gorlin. This masterpiece was later ported to the Atari ST and Amiga as Typhoon Thompson. Airheart took 3 years to write, and probably defines the limit of what a standard 8-bit Apple II can do.
Note that currently no Apple II emulator emulates NTSC decoding, which is critical to authentic looking double hires graphics.
SLM
main() {1;}
I've read the book "On the Edge", about Commodore. The author (usually via quotes) bashes early Apple.
First, it claims that Apple greatly exaggerated sales figures. Apple was a distant 3rd in sales behind Commodore PET and TRS-80's until VisiCalc (first spreadsheet) arrived, which was written for Apple because the PET and TRS's were booked in the development shop. It was not chosen for technical reasons, but because it wasn't being used at the time.
Altough Apple beat PET on floppies, the floppy was so expensive that it didn't help Apple's sales volume much. Plus, PET had more stuff in ROM such that one didn't need external programs as much. Commodore was able to produce ROM much cheaper than Apple could get because they owned a major ROM company. (PET sold better in Europe than the US, so US'ers don't remember PETs as much. Still, it sold more than Apple until 1980 or 81.)
And, the Commodore-64 eventually beat the daylights out of Apple II as far as sales volume. It probably had far more impact on consumers than Apple. Apple exaggerates the power, influence, and abilities of the Apple II. The only thing that saved Apple as a company from the PC clones was they lucked into desktop publishing with the Mac. Had the Commodore Amiga captured that niche, Apple would perhaps be dead instead of Commodore now.
The book did give praise for Apple's clever marketers, but not its machines.
Table-ized A.I.
Seriously. Re-release it as a kit for kids to learn computers on. I remember getting a 'computer kit' from Radio shack as a kid that was basically a bunch of resistors and transistors and wires. (the 150 in 1 from here - http://musepat.club.fr/sfair.htm ) An Apple II would be a nice modern equivalent....
~ a low user id is no indication I have a clue what I'm talking about.
CALL -151
;)
F666G
BRUN
PEEK (-16336)
PEEK (-16384)
CALL 768
PR#3
PDL(0)
POKE -16302,0
CALL 62454
CHR$(13)CHR$(4)
CHUGGA CHUGGA