Re: How I got interested in the Apple ][...

[magnusfalkirk <dean.phares@gmail.com>]

I'll add my two cents worth into this:

I got interested in computers back in 1980 (the 'Dark Ages'). I was in
the Air Force and had just transferred from a base in Florida to a
base in S. Calif. A friend of mine had a TRS-80 Model I Level I
computer that he showed me and it seemed interesting. He convinced me
to buy one but told me to get the Level II which had more memory. So
my first computer was a Radio Shack TRS-80 Model I Level II computer,
which had 16k of memory and a tape drive!

In 1981 a friend told me about Apple and convinced me to buy an Apple
II+, which had a disk drive and 48k (what a huge step up that amount
of memory seemed back then), of course since the computer and disk
drive cost $1500 I didn't have the money for a monitor so I had to buy
a video adapter to use my color TV as a Monitor!

In 1985 I bought an Apple IIe system (128k) which had two disk II
drives, a monochrome monitor, 8 pin dot matrix printer and a 300 baud
modem! I paid the same price for that complete setup that I had the II
+ 4 years earlier. I remember the thrill of getting online with the
modem and logging into bulletin board systems.

In 1992 I bought an Apple IIc system (640k) with a monitor from a
friend in Alaska, where the Air Force had sent me for a year. In 1995
I bought an Apple IIGS system (4MB) which had 2 3.5 drives, 2 5.25
drives and a GS RGB monitor, from another friend in an Apple User
Group in Las Vegas, NV.

I finally switched over to the Macintosh platform in 1996 starting
with a Performa 6115CD (16MB), then in 1999 a G3/300 (128MB) which
eventually died on me, in 2003 a G4/450 (512MB, which I upgrade to
640MB using memory from the dead G3) which  I gave to a friend when I
moved from Montana to Oklahoma, and as of 2005 a Mac Mini with a
G4/1.42 GHz with 512MB.

Aug of 2006 I went retro when I bought an enhanced Apple IIe system
(128K) with a color monitor, 2 5.25 Unidisk Drives and an Imagewriter
Printer for $5 at an auction. Since then I've bought an Apple IIGS
(computer, keyboard ,mouse, monitor, 2 3.5 drives and the 2 5.25
drives from the IIe) with 4MB of memory. I got all of the parts for
the GS system separately through eBay and have probably spent about
$245. I also have a IIc system (128K), which I got through eBay for
$10 and through a little experimentation have a Playstation LCD ($20
through eBay) hooked up as a monitor, making it truly more portable
than ever before.

I'm really happy to be using an Apple IIGS/IIc again. I've downloaded
a bunch of software from the web and have used ADTPro to transfer it
the Apple II's to play there again.

So as far as I'm concerned it truly is:

Apple II Forever!

Dean