Re: My rev-zero Apple II lives again!

[mjmahon@aol.com (Michael J. Mahon)]

Tim Meighan got the ball rolling with:

>Back in February I decided to try to get my first computer working
>again - a revision zero Apple II (serial # 4704) that I bought NEW in
>1978 for $1200.00.  I've always held onto it for sentimental reasons,
>even though it has been totally broken for at least 18 years.
>
>This is the computer I learned 6502 assembly on, and that prepped me
>for a long and happy career in software development - a career I'm
>still enjoying today.

My first _home_ computer was a borrowed KIM-1, in 1977, which I
used to write an interrupt-driven music player, with cassette I/O--
great fun!

(My "first of all" computer was an IBM 1620 in 1962--or was it
1961?--but though it was a "sign up for personal use" machine,
it was certainly not a "home" machine!)

My first _owned_ personal computer was an Apple ][+, bought from
Computerland in Austin, TX, in late December 1980, for $1195.
It was just 16KB, with no peripherals except a cassette recorder
and a 10" color TV for a monitor.

They carried the TI 99/4, the Atari 800, and the Apple II.

I evaluated them all for BASIC speed, expandability, and
physical and intellectual accessibility.  The Apple II won
hands down.

I had a ball with that system, writing Applesoft and M/L programs,
playing with graphics, and sound recording and playback (1-bit).
I wrote a simple Space War-type of graphic game using shapes
and the game paddles.

Before one month was up, I had spent $60 buying another 32KB
of DRAM chips to expand it to 48KB.  (The dealer would have
happily sold me a 48KB system for only $300 more!)

In late May 1981, I had an opportunity to develop some software
for someone else, and rented a disk drive for a month to do it.
The speed and versatility of DOS was great, but I couldn't see
spending $500 for a disk and controller of my own.

I continued to use cassettes for program storage and retrieval
until mid-1983, when a group buy by my Bay-area company's
Apple user group allowed me to add two Shugart disk drives
(converted by hand for Apple compatibility) and a clone controller
for about $235--now that was a deal I could go for!  I remember
I had to pay $15 apiece for the two disk drive cases.

A ProWriter printer (C. Itoh 8510B) came next, and a home-built
Videx card, 16KB card, and Softcard copy.  CP/M forced me to
get a Hayes modem, since bulletin boards were the easiest,
cheapest way to get the sea of freeware CP/M software to an
Apple.

Around 1984, That led me to Applelink, Personal Edition, or, as
we know it today, AOL.  I also used Compuserve and GEnie for
a while, but Applelink stuck.

As you can see, the empty slots of my Apple ][+ were beginning
to fill up.  ;-)  When I built the Videx card, I bought an EPROM
burner, so I could fiddle the 6845's video parameters for myself.

Next came a Mockingboard, bought from Call-A.P.P.L.E., and
a Wildcard II.  I never played games much, but I found the
ability to break into a running program with NMI and then
restart it to be intriguing.

I added a UDC card and one, later two, Laser 3.5" disks in the
1985 timeframe, and a gameport clock-calendar of my own
devising in 1986.  I later sold a bunch of these to others who
found $80-$100 a little steep for the correct time.  If I remember
correctly, my price was about $25.

All this time I was enjoying my system, writing simulation
programs, data collection for my house's heating system,
and system utilities--my first major effort, when still using
a cassette-based system, was a Shape Table Editor!  ;-)

In 1986, at the behest of an Apple-group friend, I started
using an Apple //e.  It was a bare //e main board screwed
to a piece of plywood--he called it an "Apple on a stick".
A year later, I bought a system which consisted of a real
Apple //e board in a clone //e case for about $600 worth
of  gameport clocks.

Since then, my original ][+ has been stored safely, awaiting
a time when I really need a ][+ instead of a //e.  There have
only been a few such times in the last 18 years.  It's all
still working, with its lower-case adapter and its under-board
shift-key modification.

I have since acquired a lot of other ][+ and //e machines,
as well as several IIgs systems and, recently, an Apple III
(thanks, Sheldon ;-), but I expect that my original ][+ will
be around until it becomes a problem for my estate.  ;-)

It is, after all, the only Apple-made Apple II product that I
ever bought at retail!

-michael

Check out amazing quality sound for 8-bit Apples on my
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