Re: New to Apple 2

[julian814@hotmail.com (Ralph Glatt)]

"triste@cox.net" <triste@cox.net> wrote in message news:<B973710A.259%triste@cox.net>...
> Hi everyone :)

Hello. ;-)

> Maybe some of you can help me out. I'm purchasing an Apple
> //e very soon but I have a bit of a problem. See, the two main reasons I
> want one are for nostalgia purposes, plus I'm very interested in "vintage"
> computers (sparked recently while helping my brother fix up an old laptop).
> The problem I'm having is that I vaguely remember using them in school, and
> would like to be refreshed on what I'm in for when I get mine. Basically all
> I remember are playing a couple games.

Yeah, that's what most people used them for. One thing you might want
to think about is what all do you want your //e to do? If it's just
going to be a game machine, you might want to consider getting a
joystick. There's also a lot of good software that makes use of a
printer, so an Imagewriter // might be a good idea as well.

> I'm probably going to sound very
> stupid next to the rest of you, but did the Apple //e even have a GUI? How
> did it work?

Yep, there was one called Mousedesk. If you want to use it, you'll
need a mouse card, mouse and the software, which should be easy to
find for download. Basically (sorry about the pun) it's like a system
software disk - you can add, delete, copy and run Prodos files.

> 
> Also, how did it boot up? Do I need a certain disk? I'm buying mine from
> eBay, and it seems to have everything it needs, but the person isn't
> specific and I don't know exactly what I need.

A lot of it depends on what you want to get out of your //e. If you're
just going to play around with it, you really won't need much - a
joystick and some extra memory to crank it up to at least 128k. A
hardcore user will most likely try to get as much as s/he can to max
it out - lots of memory, mouse stuff, accelerator, hard drive, SCSI
card, etc. These people can get a //e to do pretty much anything a Mac
user can do.

> 
> If anyone can help me out, I'll really appreciate it! Thanks for your time.
> :)

No problem! I love seeing what I can do with just my //c, and I have a
great time stretching the limits of it.


Ralph Glatt