Inside the Apple IIe

In response to my October 26, 2008 post, Rob said, “Am I correct in assuming that your Platinum //e came with a "SoftCard" or clone? Did it come with any other unique hardware like a clock? (for us old timers, clocks were a neat thing)”

The short answer is, “no.” The IIe came with a Super Serial Card, an 80-column 64k RAM card, and a floppy disk controller card (with two working half-height floppy drives.)

I did find an original Microsoft SoftCard at a garage sale. The seller warned me that it would not fit any modern computer and that I would need an older PC-XT or Versa Local Bus to use the card. I thanked him for the information, handed him my $5, and took the change. I set the switches, plugged it in, and it ran the flawlessly.

Along the way, I also picked up a parallel printer card that works well with a Brother laser printer in default Epson FX mode.

Therefore, the inside of the Apple IIe looks like this:

• 0 — 80-column, 64k RAM card
  
• 1 — Parallel Printer Card
  
• 2 — Super Serial Card
  
• 3 — (empty)
  
• 4 — Microsoft SoftCard
  
• 5 — (empty)
  
• 6 — Floppy Drive Controller
  
• 7 — MicroDrive IDE/CF Card
  

By default, the system boots into ProDOS on the MicroDrive. When I want to use CP/M, DOS 3.3, or Apple UCSD Pascal I put the disks in the floppy drives and reboot there.

I am still mucking around with DOS.MASTER and have yet to get it to work. Thankfully, the recent supply of 5.25” disks allows me to run the other systems until I either get DOS.MASTER to run right or give up on it entirely.

Keyboards & Mice

Work, that four-letter word, has intruded again on the pleasures of life. My thanks to those of you that commented, I appreciate it.

As I mentioned earlier, I have an Apple IIe Platinum – the one with the keyboard and numeric pad built into the case. One of the problems for me was adjusting to the new keyboard arrangement after years of using a PC keyboard. (Some of this goes away by changing to the GS, but that is another story.) Even on the PC side I am a bit of a throwback since I use an Avant Stellar keyboard by Creative Vision Technologies, Inc. It has the function keys on the left with F11 and F12 on a separate top row and 12 programmable Special Function (SF1 – SF12) keys along the top. It is a great keyboard that allows me to type for hours without fatigue or strain.

The IIe keyboard is great, just different. I am past the period where I have to watch my fingers as they type although for some of the control escape Apple functions still give me pause. I do not feel a strong need for a mouse (yet) as most tasks I perform are text related and even in Windows on the PC I am keyboard centric and use the mouse very slightly. Since both hands normally stay on the keyboard, it takes a conscious effort to stop, use the mouse, and return to the keyboard. Perhaps as I start moving over some graphics and games I will find more need for a mouse.