Apple II

The Apple II was the first "mass-market" personal computer. Based around a 6502 processor and up to 64k of RAM, it was one of the first computers to offer built-in color graphics on a TV. Thanks largely to applications like VisiCalc and later&AppleWorks, it and it's progeny continued to sell well up until the early 1990s, at which point John Sculley finally killed the line after years of no advertising.

The computers in this line are the Apple II, the Apple //e, Apple //c, Apple //gs, and the Apple III, and finally the Apple IIgs.

The Apple II was a stunning computer, for its day. It had a relatively huge ROM, with lots of utility subroutines, a BIOS of sorts, and (get this) a full, commented source code listing in the manual. The Apple II also had device drivers in ROM on the plug-in cards, so you could actually plug in anything and use it immediately, and an astoundingly inexpensive floppy

Er, we forgot the Apple ][+! The original Apple ][ and the later Apple //e were distinctly different from the -plus. This computer was a work of art unequalled today, mostly because of the impossibility these days of selling a computer with its entire innards (complete schematic of the mainboard, BIOS listout and full memory map/ROM map) in a 4x8 ringbound pamphlet called Inside the Apple ][. Wow. I learned to hack assembly on mine over one Cheetos and Coke-laden week in junior high in order to write a one-bit audio digitizer using the RCA-jack cassette data port. My only source of info was this one book. Worked, too.

Thanks much to xunker for the edification on proper Apple nomenclature!

-- Point of anal-ness. Spelling and Typefacing of the Apple Line.

Being an '0ld sk00l' Apple 2'er, I feel I must jump in here and give a little cheat-sheet on the correct way to spell the various models of the ][.

• Apple ][
  
  Used whenever refering to the first Apple ][ released and also, more frequently, used when talking about the entire line. I.E., an Apple ][ series machine.
  
  
• Apple ][+
  
  Correct spelling for the 'Apple Two Plus'. It is not using the later double-slash convetion of the later models.
  
  
• Apple //e
  
  The 'Apple Two Ee'. Most people get this right.
  
  
• Apple //c
  
  The 'Apple Two See'. Again, most people get it right.
  
  
• Apple IIgs
  
  The 'official' way Apple Internally spells it, with two capital 'I's instead of '][' or '//', and with lower case 'gs' (which is not required -- upper case is acceptable).
  
  
• Apple //c+
  
  The 'Apple Two See Plus'. Same convetion as the //c.
  
  
• Apple III
  
  Not really a member if the Apple ][ Series, included nonetheless. Apple was very liberal about spelling this one; they allowed for either three captial 'I's to be used, or the more Atari-ish ']I[' to be used as well.

Since E2 has a shortcomming when it comes to doing ['s and ]'s, you must 'escape' then (as it were) using the HTML codes of [ for the '[' and ] for the '].

It's also worth noting that there is a rare, European variant of the II+ called the 'Apple II Europlus' (although 'II' was spelled with square brackets).

Apart from a PAL modulator (instead of the original NTSC modulator) and a different sticker, it was identical to the II+.

This is a boring fact. But it is a fact.