It's been over 40 years since the introduction of the Apple IIe, Apple's most popular home computer of the 1980s. Does it still hold up today? (electric sounds) Before we get to the system itself, I should probably give a brief background... The origins of the Apple IIe date back to the original Apple II. Released in June of 1977, the Apple II was Apple's first mass-produced home computer, and helped kickstart the home computer revolution, alongside the Commodore PET and the Radio Shack TRS-80. It was also a huge step-up from its predecessor, the Apple I— the II not only had a built-in keyboard, power supply, and enclosure, but also had a feature that other computers at the time lacked: Color. This made the Apple II one of the more advanced machines of the time, and it would take a few years before their competitors would catch up. However, it also came at a rather high price, making the Apple II the most expensive computer of the trinity. Despite sluggish sales upon release, the Apple II would go on to be a success (particularly with schools and businesses), and would also launch the careers of some well-known programmers, including Ken Williams, Richard Garriott, and John Romero. By 1979, nearly 50,000 units had been sold, with the system making its way outside the US, particularly in Europe and Japan. That same year, the Apple II received a Plus model, which brought in some upgrades, and was sold at a slightly lowered price. Bell & Howell even got into the mix, selling a special version of the II Plus in a snazzy black enclosure, exclusively to the education market. The Apple II was also one of the first home computers to spawn clones, most notably from Franklin Computer, whom Apple infamously sued over copyright infringement. Despite plans to discontinue it in favor of the ill-fated Apple III, the Apple II continued to run strong, with nearly 3/4 of a million units sold by the end of 1982. This takes us to the third model, which originally started development in 1980 under the codename "Diana" (and later "Super II"). It was officially introduced as the Apple IIe on January 19th, 1983 at a starting price of $1,395 USD. The "e" stood for Enhanced, giving the system its full name: Apple II Enhanced. It was introduced alongside the infamous Apple Lisa, which despite being the first commercially-released computer with a graphical user interface, sold for the equivalent of 7 Apple IIe's. (You can probably tell which one did better.) Design-wise, the IIe looked similar to its predecessors— It came in a durable plastic beige case, that was made to look more like a home appliance, something that Apple products in later years would follow. The enclosure is largely based on the original Apple II case designed by Jerry Manock, who would later go on to help co-design the original Macintosh. The front of the system is about as basic as you can get, starting with the keyboard. The Apple IIe had a revised 63 key keyboard, 11 keys more than the previous models— the most notable additions were the Delete and Tab keys, two Apple modifier keys, the up and down arrow keys, and a Caps lock key, just to name a few. The keys are also colored gray instead of dark brown, like the previous models. The giant white power light from the previous models was also replaced with a generic green LED. On the top of the system is the Apple IIe nameplate, with the "IIe" being separated from the Apple logo. The back of the system consists of a single RCA composite video jack, two audio jacks for input and output, a 9-pin DE-9 joystick port, and the power supply. Through the video jack, the Apple II could natively support displays or TV monitors, however it was possible to use the system with a regular television set using an RF modulator, which was sold separately. The video jack also had a common issue, where it sometimes makes a loose connection. This is primarily due to how the video jack was soldered to the board, but thankfully there are permanent fixes to the issue. The joystick port on the IIe is the same connector used in the Commodore and Atari systems of the time, only this one is genderbent. So now let's look at the inside: Accessing the internals was as simple as removing the lid from the top, giving the user full access to all of the system's components without the need for tools. The Apple IIe was the most expansive system for the time, with a total of 8 internal slots for a wide range of expansion. 7 of them are located on the back, where the user could install a wide variety of peripheral cards. In the previous Apple II models, there were 5 V-shaped slot openings on the back, whereas the IIe has 12 different-sized openings, each with thumb-screw holes to accommodate for interface cards with various connectors. Below the main slots is an "auxiliary" slot, used for special expansion cards. The Apple IIe used a revised logic board, which had far less components compared to the previous models, thanks to manufacturing cost reductions, as well as the use of multiple custom ASIC chips, which combined multiple functions from discrete ICs into a single chip. There's also other internal connectors, such as this 11-pin connector to hook up an external numeric keypad, as well as a 16-pin DIP socket, used primarily for backwards compatibility with older controllers and paddles. The power supply is a switched-mode PSU originally designed by Rod Holt, which generated less heat compared to the linear PSUs used in their competition. However (like the older models), it was subject to an issue with one of the filter capacitors, manufactured by RIFA. Thankfully mine was already replaced before I purchased this unit, but it's always important to double-check before knowing what you're getting into. Finally, you've got the speaker near the front of the system, located below the keyboard. The original Apple II hardware was designed by Steve Wozniak, one of the co-founders of Apple, as well as an open architecture advocate, and understandably so. All of the chips on the Apple IIe's motherboard are socketed, which made them easily replaceable without the need of soldering tools— these included the CPU, the custom chips, the ROMs, and even the memory. With only a few tools needed, pretty much every single part in this machine is replaceable— a far cry compared to the Apple products of today. Specs-wise, the Apple IIe came with a standard 6502 processor, clocked at around 1 MHz, used on pretty much every home computer at the time. The IIe also came with 64 KB of built-in memory, an upgrade from the standard 16 to 48K the Apple II Plus offered. The memory could be expanded through the use of the auxiliary slot, such as this extended 80-column card, which doubled the RAM to 128 KB. The Apple IIe also supported bank-switchable memory through this slot— a feature borrowed from the Apple III. As for graphics, the system supported multiple modes: You've got your standard text mode, which supported 40 columns by 24 rows of monochrome characters, as well as support for 80 columns of text through an expansion card as mentioned earlier. There were also two graphics modes for color: A "low" resolution of 40 x 48 pixels with up to 16 colors, and a "high" resolution of 280 x 192 pixels with up to 6 colors. However, thanks to the new memory features and the use of an extended 80-column card, the Apple IIe could support an additional 2 graphics modes, each doubling the horizontal resolution, with support of up to 16 colors for both modes. This made the Apple IIe one of the most graphically capable Apple computers of that era, until it was surpassed by the IIgs a few years later. However, much like the other retro computers of the time, the higher the resolution and colors, the more memory it ate up, due to the video RAM sharing with the main RAM. When it came to sound, the Apple II only had 1 voice through the built-in mono speaker. However, it was technically possible to emulate multiple voices using some programming trickery. As for storage, the Apple IIe had two options: The first were cassette tapes through the built-in cassette interface. Initially, they were the only option, until the introduction of the "Disk II" in 1978. The Disk II (also designed by Woz) allowed the user to save and load programs on a 5.25-inch floppy disk, with up to 140 KB of storage on a single-sided disk. (It was also possible to double its capacity by cutting out a second write-protect notch, using tools such as a "disk notcher", thus turning it into a double-sided disk.) Operating the Disk II required the use of a controller card, which could support up to two drives. Finally, the Apple IIe weighed 11.5 pounds (or 5.2 kilograms), and measured in at around 4.25 inches high, 15.25 inches wide, and 18 inches long. So now we come to the software: All Apple II computers shipped with a programming language in ROM, called the Beginner's All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code, or BASIC for short. The original Apple II came with Integer BASIC, originally designed by Steve Wozniak for the Apple I. With the introduction of the Disk II however, users could load up Applesoft BASIC, a licensed variation of Microsoft BASIC, the most popular of the BASIC interpreters. Unlike Integer BASIC, Applesoft supported floating point instructions, albeit at a performance cost when it came to compiling programs. Despite this, Applesoft BASIC would be pre-loaded onto every Apple II system going forward, beginning with the Plus model. But back to the IIe: Upon startup, the user is greeted with a single beep, along with the standard Apple II splash screen. If there was a disk drive connected, the user would hear a knocking sound following the beep. Now the reason for that was primarily due to technical limitations— you see, Apple II disk drives lacked a sensor, which would've figured out where the read head was. So to get around this, the computer would send a command to back the read head per track 40 times whenever it's powered on or reset, so it's always guaranteed that the read head is at the first track. From there, the drive would continue to spin endlessly until the user typed Control+Reset, which would take them straight into BASIC. Restarting the machine was as simple as typing in Control+Open Apple+Reset, which would take the user back to the splash screen, while the computer attempts to load from the disk drive once again. The IIe also had a hardware self-test built-in, which could be activated by pressing Control+both Apple keys+Reset. It could also be activated by holding down both Apple keys while flipping the power switch, or by disconnecting the keyboard, which will automatically trigger the hardware self-test in an endless loop. By default, the hardware test plays sound through the speaker, which could be disabled by pressing Control+Closed Apple+Reset or by holding down the Closed Apple key while flipping the switch. Anyways, back to BASIC: One notable change compared to the previous models was the implementation of a full ASCII character set, which made it possible to input and display lowercase letters, a feature (once again) borrowed from the Apple III. The repeat function was also now automatic, so you could just hold any key down and it repeats the same character continuously, instead of having to use the "Repeat" key found in the previous models. The cursor could be moved around using the ESC key, followed by the arrow keys. (Previously, you had to use the I, J, K, and M keys on the II Plus, and the A, B, C, and D keys on the original II.) The ESC routine could also be used to clear parts of the screen, such as ESC+@ to clear the entire screen. So now let's take a brief look at what it's like to program in BASIC— on an original Apple IIe, you'll need to have Caps Lock turned on, since programming in BASIC required uppercase letters at the time. Also, if you make a mistake, don't bother using the Delete key, because it won't work on the Apple IIe. Instead, you have to use the left arrow key to back up and then re-type. I'll start with a very basic program— many tech enthusiasts are probably familiar with these lines of code: 10 PRINT, 20 GOTO 10, RUN. These lines essentially repeat the same phrase over and over until the user terminates it. These lines of code are so popular, they've made their way into pop culture. But BASIC is more than just print commands— it was a way for beginners to learn how to program on computers, and this was a standard practice back in the day. People (particularly students) could start making their own programs right out-of-the-box, run them, and be proud that they learned something new. Most BASIC programs were usually written in 40-column text mode, but it was possible to write BASIC programs in 80 columns using the aforementioned expansion card. This was possible by typing in "PR#3", which activates the 80-column card in the auxiliary slot. From there, you could switch between the two modes, using ESC+4 and ESC+8 respectively. With the rise of BASIC, came books: One of the most popular was BASIC Computer Games in the late 70s, notable for being the first computer book to sell over a million copies. In this book, users would type in code from the pages and play all sorts of games, such as Hangman, Guess, Rock Paper Scissors, Synonym, and Tic Tac Toe. But as mentioned before, the Apple II had different graphics modes, and Applesoft BASIC made it possible to create graphics very easily just by using a few specialized commands. To activate the low-res graphics, you'd simply type in GR. Notice the text area has been reduced to 3 columns at the bottom, and there's also green and purple colors surrounding the text. The rest of the picture is a 40 x 40 pixel grid. From there, you could use commands such as COLOR, PLOT, HLIN, and VLIN, to create graphics that would've not been possible on other computers... ...at least without having to buy an expansion device of some kind. To activate the high-res graphics, you'd simply type in HGR. In this mode, the regular graphics commands have been replaced with HCOLOR and HPLOT, and are often used for things like drawing graphs or creating a Moire pattern, just to name a few. And like I said earlier, it was possible to use both graphics modes in 80 columns. It involved using a POKE command, and then activating said graphics modes like before. To switch back to the regular text mode, you'd simply type in TEXT at the prompt. Now of course once you've finished your program, you'd want to save them— this is where cassette tapes come in. Yes, back then, program data was stored on compact cassettes, the same ones you would put your music on. The way this was done was by connecting two audio cables from the tape recorder's mic and headphone jacks, to the audio in and out jacks on the Apple II respectively. From there, you could start saving programs by putting in a blank cassette tape, pressing the record button on the tape recorder, typing in SAVE on the computer, and then waiting until the program was saved. So now if you wanted to access your program later, you'd simply type in LOAD on the computer, and playback the tape from where the data starts, with the volume maxed out on the tape recorder. And for those curious, here's what the data sounds like coming out of the speaker. (high-pitched noise) (more high-pitched noises) (brief silence) Now if you were storing multiple programs on one tape, you'd have to keep track of where they are in the cassette— some tape recorders had a counter built-in, so the user could keep track of what revolution number they need to start at in order to load the other program. Sure, this process was a bit complicated, but it was the most inexpensive option for storing multiple BASIC programs at the time. Now I don't have any original cassette games to demonstrate with my Apple IIe system, however there is a modern solution to loading "cassette" games, using a service called the Apple Game Server, which allows one to play Apple II games from their phone or computer. All that's needed is an audio cable going from the computer's cassette out jack to a smartphone, and then picking the game of choice. On the computer, the user would run the LOAD command like before, and then playback the WAV file on the phone with the volume maxed out. From there, you just let the computer do its thing, and voilà! Using the Apple Game Server, I'm able to play some classic arcade games, such as Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Pac-Man clone Jawbreaker, Dig Dug, Burger Time, Frogger, Mario Bros., and everyone's favorite puzzle game, Tetris. Now even though tapes were inexpensive and technically had more storage, they were also rather slow and pretty unreliable, even back then. This is where disks come in handy— many pieces of commercial software for the system were issued on disk, and for good reason: They were not only faster to load, but also more reliable than using compact tapes. I'll demonstrate a few popular disk-based software, starting with Apple DOS. This was Apple's first disk operating system, released alongside the Disk II— Apple DOS 3.3 was the version that was initially bundled with the IIe. Here the user could list files, format disks, and save and load BASIC programs directly to and from a floppy. The user could also switch between Integer and Applesoft BASIC, using the INT and FP commands respectively. Other operating systems were also available, such as ProDOS, which supported larger volumes, including hard disks and 3.5" floppies. It's also possible to run CP/M, through a Z80 processor card. Later on, the Apple II got its own graphical operating system, such as Apple II DeskTop, which offered a Macintosh-like interface. (Unfortunately, I don't have a mouse or joystick to work with, so I'm not able to do much with it at the moment.) There was also productivity software, such as the word processor, Apple Writer II. Initially, the Apple II wasn't made for productivity software in mind, but after VisiCalc (the first spreadsheet application) gained immense popularity among businesses, the Apple II suddenly became a business machine, resulting in a huge increase in sales. But to heck with business productivity, how about business simulation instead? Lemonade Stand was one of the most popular simulation games of the early 80s, and it was all written in BASIC. But to heck with business simulation, how about some educational games? Number Munchers is a fun little math game developed by the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (or MECC). Now I'm more familiar with the PC version of the game, however I've actually never played the Apple II version, which was the first released. MECC also developed The Oregon Trail, quite possibly the most well-known educational game ever made— is there anything else that can be said about this classic? Then you've got the arcade games, such as the Broderbund classic Lode Runner, which was also released first on the Apple II, among other platforms. And how can I not forget about PETSCII Robots? This is a more recent game developed by The 8-Bit Guy, and is also available on a wide variety of platforms. Unlike the other examples I showed, PETSCII Robots is the only Apple II game I physically own. The rest were written onto blank disks using the Apple Disk Server, a sister service to the Apple Game Server. Overall, the Apple IIe delivered many great improvements over its predecessor, and is no wonder why it's considered the most popular model of the Apple II family. The IIe was widely used in schools, where students could learn how to program or learn about western history, among other things. And despite the introduction of the Macintosh in 1984, the Apple II line continued to sell well. So what happened to the Apple IIe afterwards? In March of 1985, Apple introduced an enhanced version of the IIe, also known as the Apple II Enhanced...Enhanced. (Eh, Apple IIe² would've sounded better.) These systems are usually identified with an "Enhanced" sticker above the power light, but that's just the icing on the cake. The most notable hardware change was swapping the 6502 CPU with a 65C02, essentially making the IIe more compatible with its compact sibling, the Apple IIc, and (to some extent) the II Plus. It also replaced the original ROMs with newer versions from the IIc, which fixed numerous bugs, added new graphics characters, and it was now possible to write BASIC programs in lowercase. Finally, the splash screen text was changed to match the format used on the IIc. The enhanced version was made available as either a standalone unit or as an upgrade to existing Apple IIe owners, where all they needed to do was replace the CPU and ROM chips. When the Apple IIgs was released a year later, users had the option to upgrade their IIe with IIgs hardware, although very few actually took advantage of it. The final revision of the IIe came in January of 1987: It was mostly a cosmetic change, with a new Platinum enclosure, and the keyboard was updated to match the layout of the IIgs, most notably the addition of a built-in numeric keypad. The number of chips on the logic board were also further reduced, and the extended 80-column card was now factory-installed, giving the system 128 KB of RAM standard, with support for double high-resolution graphics right out-of-the-box. But sadly, all great things must come to an end... In October of 1990, Apple introduced the first inexpensive desktop Macs, which marked the first nail in the coffin for the Apple II. The second nail in the coffin came the introduction of the Apple IIe Card in March of the following year, which essentially allowed a compatible Macintosh to run Apple II software. By 1993, the Apple II was on its way out— the IIgs had already been discontinued, which left the Apple IIe as the last of the bunch. With nearly 6 million units sold across the entire line, the Apple II was officially discontinued, after production on the IIe ended in November of 1993. In the end, the Apple IIe lasted for nearly 11 years on the market, making it not only Apple's longest-selling computer, but also their second longest-selling product overall, only beaten out by the ImageWriter II. The Apple IIe Card would last for another one and a half years on the market, before it too was discontinued in May of 1995, putting an end to the Apple II platform once and for all. Despite its end, the Apple II is still beloved by many retro computer enthusiasts, and continues to live on in many forms, most notably in emulation. I got my Apple IIe at my very first trip to Vintage Computer Festival Midwest back in 2021— I think it's a great retro computer to tinker around with, especially when it comes to learning how to write programs and playing games. If you have the chance, I would suggest picking one up— just make sure you check the power supply while you're at it. But let's face the facts: Although the Apple IIe was a successful home computer during the 80s, its popularity was no match for one of its biggest competitors— That's right... IBM. (quack sound) Okay okay, you got me—it's Commodore. (End theme) (TV static) [Mac Classic] So, what did you do back in the day? [Apple IIe] Back in my day, we used to code our own programs. [Mac Classic] Well, that sounds boring. (TV static) (End theme) [Sage] Okay okay, one more. (startup beep, followed by disk drive knocking sounds) That never gets old.
