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Re: Seeking reverse-engineers - Apple II VisiCalc

On Sat, 31 Jan 2009, Michael J. Mahon wrote:


Michael Black wrote:

On Fri, 30 Jan 2009, Michael J. Mahon wrote:


nem wrote:

mcpublic <mc@media.mit.edu> wrote in news:


I'd like to get Apple II VisiCalc running in emulation.
Right now this isn't possible because of the copy protection.
(BTW the PC DOS version is available on the web, and doesn't have copy
protection).
It did originally. All versions of Visicalc except for the TRS-80 Model I release were copy-protected. 


I have three versions of the Apple II software.  I know one of them
still boots (1983?)
and have some confidence that the other two versions (1979 and 1981)
work also.
IIRC, Dan Bricklin said they took the copy-protection out of the later releases (as well as cassette support). 

On his website a few years ago, he presented the original Apple II
screenshot and the quick reference card, but said that he did not
offer the original Apple II version because the disk was copy-
protected--so he offered the PC version.

I sent him a normalized version with no "crack screen" or other
"embellishments" hoping that he would add it to his site, but
never got any response.

It would be easy to have a web Apple II emulator so that any
browser user could click on a link and run the original VisiCalc,
which IMHO would be a much more authentic experience.

I don't even remember any cassette support...I thought VisiCalc
required a DISK ][.


Maybe it's more a case of those who needed VisiCalc were the ones
who'd have a floppy drive, so nobody talked about cassettes.

I have no idea, but they say that many people rushed out
and bought Apple II's to run Visicalc, the expense being nothing
compared to what they could do with the program.

Thus I can imagine many of the people buying VisiCalc having floppy
drive(s).

The average person wasn't going to buy VisiCalc unless they had
a good reason for it.


I don't know what "average" is, but I used it for many things,
including my income taxes for about 7 years!

I find a spreadsheet about as useful as a word processor!


I've never used one, in 30 years of having computers.

But did you rush out and get VisiCalc when it first came out?  And
did you need convincing at the time?

I'm just trying to give a scenario where VisiCalc could deal with
cassettes, but so few people used that feature that decades later
people are questioning that it did have the ability to use cassettes.

An analog might be the "IBM PC" that came with a cassette interface,
but I'm not sure how many are aware of that.  You think floppy drive
when you think of that computer.  I remember people talking about
using it without a floppy drive when it came out, but that's so long
in the past that the "feature" is long forgotten.

Or, decades later, people have forgotten or even never knew that there
were home computers before the "IBM PC".  Again, it's because the previous
computers are dwarfed by the arrival of that computer, fused with many
people having arrived after that point.  It doesn't mean there weren't
small computers before IBM came along, just that few remember.

   Michael