w8oaj wrote:I have a newbie question for you Apple 2 folks.Welcome Alan! We have Apple2'ers (all guys as far as I can tell) from their early twenties to their sixties yakking away here on anything to do with Apple I, Apple II & clones, Apple III and even Lisa (for want of a better home). Mac stuff also makes an appearance, but usually for transferring files or linking a Mac to an Apple II. We are an exceedingly helpful bunch of blokes. comp.sys.apple2 -- general discussions about systems, software, troubleshooting problems, finding out how to do things comp.sys.apple2.marketplace -- buying, selling & giving comp.sys.apple2.programmer -- gets real down & dirty into coding: largely Applesoft & 6502 assembly language, very little for other languages (Pascal, cc65, Logo, Forth, ...) but all topics are welcome. comp.emulators.apple2 -- various programs permit an Apple II to be emulated on other systems (e.g. Virtual II for Mac, AppleWin for Windows, Oasis, Bernie II The Rescue, ....) A great resource is the Apple 2 FAQs, I strongly recommend you make their acquaintance as they will answer many of your questions. They are periodically posted to the above newsgroups by a guy called Rubywand, you can also visit his website at http://home.swbell.net/rubywand/A2FAQs1START.html Here's a link to the Apple IIe Owner's Manual: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=51954 I have hundreds of other links that I'm not going to confuse you with, but here is one of the very best to get oriented with: http://apple2history.org/ What's your setup? How did you come by it? Obviously you have a screen of some sort. I urge you to buy a 5.25" Apple disk drive + controller card on ebay. You can also buy blank floppies. Stop by for more advice when you decide to take this step. The addition of a Super Serial Card will allow you to hook your Apple II up to your PC. There are huge archives of disk images for the Apple II on the internet, which you can download, then transfer to your Apple II to write onto a real floppy. Games, programming tools, utilities, business applications, educational programs blah blah blah Good luck and have fun! Martin |