Re: A Christmas Rescue

[phoenyx <quazar@dcnet2000.com>]

Bill wrote:

> Walking my dog the other day, I happened to notice a neighbor putting
> what looked like computer gear on the curb for the approaching
> sanitation workers to pick up.  Naturally curious about computer
> stuff, it turned out to be an Apple //c and monitor!
> Well, i had never worked with a //c so I had the neighbor fend off the
> trash guys till i could bring up the car and take the Apple home.
> After replacing the RCA video cable, It Worked! WooHoo!
>

The //c is an excellent computer. In reality, it is a hybrid Apple2. It
has several of the hardware popular cards for the IIe built in. For
instance, the slot 3 80 column video. Slot 1 serial printer and slot 2
for serial communications. The original model only supported the
5.25 floppy drives, but later on, Apple upgraded the firmware to
support 3.5 or smartport drives. There were a couple of hard drives
available eventually, but they were very high priced. There was
also a memory expansion card, IMHO the best update available.


> There's one disk in it, Apple Presents An Introduction/Apple at Play.
>

This disk is one of the original set supplied with the computer. Most
were simple demonstrations for other software. There was also a //c
utility disk and a simple BASIC demo which would let you enter
Applesoft mode quite easily.

> Fortune has brought me this fully functioning piece of computing
> history and for some reason think it's my responsibility to do
> something useful with it.
>
> I see there are some Apple // sites out there with lots of educational
> software for sale, and i've sent off for some system disks;  my
> question is will current mac modems work with this unit?  are there
> comm or tcp/ip programs readily available that work on the //c?
> printers? will any apple printer work?
>

The //c excelled at the educational level because of it's ease of use.
Many teachers preferred it for younger students because of this, and
the fact it was a closed system.

Early //c's had problems with modems higher than 1200 baud. Later
revisions would support speeds up to 9600 baud. I never had much
luck with 14.4 modems though. Serial connections are about all you
can get, there is no TCP software or hardware support.

Hope you enjoy the //c. I've had 14+ years of fun and education from
mine.

Phoenyx