“The Apple II wasn’t the first personal computer, or the most advanced one, or even the best-selling model of its age. But, in many ways, it was The Machine That Changed Everything. On all four of our criteria–innovation, impact, industrial design and intangibles–it was such a huge winner that it ended up as our Greatest PC of All Time,” PC World reports.
“Born out of the Home Brew Computer Club by Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs’s tiny Apple Computer in 1977, the Apple II was the company’s second PC, but it boasted more than its share of firsts: it was the first colour PC (you could even use it with a television), the first to be easily expandable by users and the first to run the VisiCalc spreadsheet–proving that these new boxes had a place in business,” PC World reports.
PC World reports., “But, perhaps its greatest innovation was its design. Jobs wanted the machine to look at home on people’s desktops, so he insisted that the Apple II have a sleek look, as opposed to the sheet-metal-and-exposed-wire appearance of most other early PCs. The machine’s coolness factor–an Apple trademark to this day–was as important to its long-term success as Wozniak’s inventive engineering was.”
Full article here.
i LOVE basic. Jobs said HE liked it. Why is something people liked NOT COME WITH EVERY Apple computer? BTW the Apple II was called a pc, and it is isn’t it?
You young whipper-snappers with your fancy keyboards
and mice. Punchcards and paddle switches is the way to go!
My back hurts. I’m going to catch a quick nap and then go to bed.
zzzzzzzzzzzgraphitecardreaderszzzzzzzzzztrash80szzzzzzzzzzsewithan8mhzclock
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzlongdistanceBBScallat1200baudzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzasciiporn
zzzzzzzzzzz . . . . oops, sorry. I snore.
Thorin, actually most of the people I knew called them bat switches (the early ones looked a bit like bat wings).
And punch cards? Those came long after I started.
Keyboards? How about the early teletype machines with the circular cylendar keys.
Are any of you really old enough to use computers yet?
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A not too well known aspect of the Apple ][ was its ability to be overclocked. Pump up the oscillator, run the rails at 12V rather than 5V and cool it a LOT and you could quadruple the clock rate. Did that with a few. They ran for months before frying.
Karateka
I forgot about that one Ray. That was good a good one as well.
It’s available for the Palm.
shadowself: “Are any of you really old enough to use computers yet?”
My 80 year old mother-in-law is. She worked on the Hollerith machines at Bletchly Park. She uses an eMac now.
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My first computer – Apple IIgs
I used it for something like eight years as my primary home computer. As long as word processing, email, some light “spreadsheeting” and some games were all I needed, it was all I needed. And it was fun using an Apple II. Once the web grew in prominence, I bought a used Mac IIci and then a used Power Mac 8100av because graphical capability became too important. But I’ve never used a single computer as my main computer for eight years since then, and I doubt I ever will again.
Better late than never, MDN. You should read your tips section more frequently.
10 HOME
20 ?”KARATEKA RULES!!!!”
30 GOTO 20
My first rig was an Apple //e with 128k, duo drives, super serial card, Image Writer II (loud!), etc.
Karateka, Taipan, Conan, Marble Madness, Chivalry, Catle Wolfentsien (Halt!) were just a few of my favorites.
Ampar, ascii porn! I got a “centerfold” once in a Countlegger distro. Or maybe it was a Necromonicon. I can’t remember which. Anyway, you had to stand four feet away from the print out just to see what the hell it was! LOL!
Those were the days when computing was really exciting. Dialing up BBS’s, downloading cracked games and text files. It seemed like a brand new world with endless possibilities. That’s the thing about pc’s that sucks to me. Everything is so damn homoginized. Back then I could go down the street to my buddy’s house and fool with his Amiga 1000 or the next house down and fool around with his C-64 (this kid had the best C-64 setup I’d ever seen! He had a vocalizer box!) Lot’s of choices, lots of great stuff to see and learn.
Speaking of LodeRunner, the version I have for my Mac 512k still runs in Classic. Talk about clean code.
And my mom, (Old enought to be a gramma but us kids never figured out the breeding thing) was working on a Wang in the seventies….
Hold your tounges.