Sunday, August 24, 2008

The Machine

Twenty-five or more years had elapsed since I last touched an Apple. (We’ll forget that unfortunate incident with a Mac.) First, I wanted to learn what had happened in the Apple ][ line over the years. Early on, I came upon a great Apple history site by Steven Weyhrich called Apple II History at http://apple2history.org/index.html. Well worth the effort.

I realized several things from reading the history:
- While the IIgs is a superior machine, I am, at this stage, more interested in a “classic” Apple ][ with built-in keyboard.
- The //e series was the best choice for me since a number of the critical features I enjoyed on my original Apple were already built-in without changing the basic function and form of the machine.
- The IIc was also out for me because it was not easily expandable although it has even more features built-in.
- Within the //e series, the final edition, the Platinum, would be a better fit as I have come to use the numeric pad a lot in the past 25 years.

Turning to the world’s garage sale, eBay, I started researching past sales for historic realizations on Apples. Some were crazy with absurd bids (while the same item was offered for less than 1% that did not sell.) Most bids for machines were reasonable with only a few bidders interested. Long story short, I picked up a Platinum IIe, two disk drives (1/2 height), and a color monitor. It all arrived safe in two boxes and then the fun started. Did I mention that I had no disks yet?

Friday, August 22, 2008

Everything Starts (Again) Somewhere

This is a journal of my rediscovery of the Apple ][.

Once upon a time back in the 1970s, I had an Apple ][ with Integer BASIC in ROM. It was a great machine and did everything I asked of it. In those days it was all new, everyday brought word of new hardware or a new technique in programming on the Apple. At 1 MHz for the CPU and 48 KB of RAM, it was the finest 8-bit machine available at the time, or since. One thing to another and I parted with the Apple in late 1980 or early 1981. Recently I stepped back into the arena and picked up an Apple IIe Platinum from a vendor on eBay.

Many things have changed since then; many more (like the fun) have not changed.

These blogs chronicle my rediscovery of the Apple, some of the adventures in finding things (both hardware and software), some of the sites I have found on the web, some of the vendors still producing items for the Apples, and some of the people I have encountered along the way.

There is a lot of catch-up as this is written somewhere along in the process so many of the early entries may not be in correct chronological order.

Comments, suggestions, references, and general what-have-you are always welcome.