Re: What is the quintessential Apple II?

["mdj" <mdj.mdj@gmail.com>]

N.N. Thayer wrote:

> Discuss!  It's a fun exploratory question if nothing else, I'm sure we
> all have different criteria.

I'd say the platinum IIe, since it still 'feels' like an Apple II,
looks sensational (at least mine with its matching AppleDisk 5.25,
Superdrive, and Apple SCSI enclosure does) and has IMHO the finest
keyboard of all the Apple II's which to me makes it the most 'usable'
;-)

Despite the larger chipcount, I prefer the earlier IIe motherboard,
since it doesn't have that evil RF suppression hack which messes with
the gameport.

I always felt the hardware improvements over the original machine were
modest, and in keeping with the spirit of the Apple II. The built in
80-column hardware works well, and the auxiliary memory + double res
graphics modes feel like very natural extensions.

The IIe also has the least number of things I dislike. In fact the only
thing I really dislike was the decision to mess with the memory bank
switches on reset. For me, it impaired the machines usability while
developing, and should only have been employed for the warm-boot cycle.
Another nice to have would have been allowing the disk controller
firmware to timeout and pass control to the next slot - not a IIe
specific thing admittedly, but the UniDisk/AppleDisk controller card
wasn't really used for any other machine so it counts, just.

I must point out that I dislike the unenhanced IIe. When the IIc came
along it bought about massive improvements to the firmware, and when
the IIe was updated to match it, it really did feel like the series had
reached its pinnacle.

Must have expansions for me are a RamWorks card, accelerator, and some
form of mass storage device. I also can't do without the mouse card,
but not for the mouse - for the VBL interrupt, and you can have my RGB
output when you pry my cold dead hands off it. I keep the superdrive
plugged in as 1.44mb compatibility makes shipping data back and
forwards easy. Unfortunately, my PC and IIe are too far apart to easily
use the Workstation card, which I used to love, as it allows networked
volumes (Asimov at your fingertips!)

If I had to pick a second favorite, it would be the (original) IIc. It
can do all the things I like doing with my IIe, and I've always admired
the compact engineering.

But it's all subjective. Whichever you prefer probably depends on which
Apple II 'era' you had the most exposure to, which for me was the
128k(+) enhanced IIe/IIc. I do however think it's difficult to argue
that the enhanced firmware isn't a substantial improvement over what we
had with the II+

Matt