Re: What is the quintessential Apple II?

["Michael J. Mahon" <mjmahon@aol.com>]

Tempest wrote:

> Personally I think it's the Enhanced IIe.  Not only is it capable of
> running all the software out there (including the IIe only games), but
> it looks great with a DuoDisk and AppleColor Composite Monitor on top
> of it.  Of course I'm a little biased since the IIe was my first Apple
> II (I still run my original system to this day).

Using compatibility as a criterion is dangerous, since emulators can
do that too.  ;-)  And, of course, the IIgs, whose only connection with
Woz is that "signature" edition, also mostly meets the "compatibility"
requirement, even though its native software is the opposite of the
Woz esthetic ("running light without overbyte").

> I never liked the way the II+ looked.  Maybe it's that big ugly power
> light on the keyboard?  I also never liked the Platinum IIe since it
> didn't match the other Apple II peripherals (it always looked "funny"
> to me).

To look fine, it requires either platinum peripherals or
nondiscriminating color vision.  ;-)

There's no doubt that the Enhanced //e (of which the Platinum is one
type) is the most useful of the 8-bit (real) Apple II's, but it is only
a derivative of the actual Woz implementation.

-michael

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