June 2, 2006
The Apple IIe - Ah, the good old days
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Can you remember your first computer? That chunky, probably beige, hunk of metal and glass that opened up a whole new world to you.
My first computer was an Apple IIe. Waaaay before Macs were ever dreamt of and back when IBM distained to grubby its fingers in the world of personal computing. Hard drive!!! What hard drive? This state-of-the-art supersonic baby had a 64KB (extendable to a whopping 128kb) RAM, 6.25in floppy disk drive and a colour monitor — well, green and black are both colours aren’t they? Armed with the 
VisiCalc spreadsheeting program and the Zork game, this machine rocked.
Who needed GUIs and graphics? The World Wide What? These were the ‘covered wagon’ days of personal computing, pioneering stuff. We didn’t realise we had just committed ourselves to a future filled with upgrades and the ongoing quest for more power, speed and resolution. We couldn’t imagine the seductive vortex of the internet just around the corner which would change our lives for ever. We couldn’t conceive of blogging!!!!
My favourite game was a little number called Tai Pan; a pirate/trading game with those text based graphics thingys.
Many hours of my life were lost to that game. I was sad to see it go. But guess what? I found a freeware verson of it on the Internet just the other week. Now if I can just get hold of an Apple IIe….
Stumble it!
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4 Responses to “The Apple IIe - Ah, the good old days”
whoo hoo. I have two of them in a closet and a GS too. Yep we started out with the Apple IIe. I remember when dh and I were dating and he had the games where you had to type in your answers and the computer then responsed to what your next step would be. We would sit side by side laughing and playing. Now he sits at his computer, 5 feet from mine and emails me. LOL
By Tink on Jun 3, 2006
Have a look at:
http://freeware.brothersoft.com/games/strategy_and_war/taipan_for_windows_24319.html
(sorry for the long URL)
Clicking on the Primary Download link will get you the zip file for Taipan for Windows. Pretty faithful reproduction, minus the 20 minute wait for each attack in the sea battles.
By Seona on Jun 5, 2006
I remember those ones too Tink. My daughter’s introduction to computers was a program called Eliza which responded to the comments that you typed in. She was facinated by theconcept that the computer was talking to her. Oh dear, maybe that’s how she ended up with a career in IT!!
By Karen on Jun 6, 2006
*grin* Yeah, now it’s changed and I talk to the computer. I’m not as polite as Eliza was, though…
“Tell me about your spoon…”
By Seona on Jun 8, 2006