An Apple /// That "Just Works?"

[@NozomuYume]

Two things to do with it: 1) ADD A FAN. One of the main reasons Apple ///s were so unreliable was because Jobs insisted on having no fan, destroying components with heat -- a problem that would repeat again with the G4 Cube. 2) Get some new filter caps in to replace the RIFAs.

[@DMahalko]

There's probably some trivial way to add a fan and vent holes that some engineer snuck in there to spite Jobs.

[@lahuk1194]

Why insist on having no fan?

[@markjames8664]

Jobs really hated fans, there’s also a fanless G3 iMac

[@Toonrick12]

@@lahuk1194 Probably a noise thing if I had to guess.

[@bobweiram6321]

I got a headache when my IIgs started smoking RIFAs. I replaced them and everything was OK.

[@DanielBartholomew]

The two Apple keys were called the "open Apple" and "closed Apple" keys. You can think of them like left and right super keys. Each one could/would do different things depending on the software. On the Apple IIe they were on either side of the space bar. Why they're both clustered together on one side on the Apple III keyboard is a mystery to me. In any case, they would both need to be on the keyboard for compatibility with software that makes use of both.

[@wraithcadmus]

I guess this was something Commodore invented separately/stole. You had solid on the left and hollow on the right, I think left was used for shortcuts and right for mouse emulation? Or the other way around. Ctrl + LAmiga + RAmiga for soft reboot, etched into my brain.

[@kevinpreid]

They also chose a similar layout on the Apple IIGS keyboard (which was an ADB keyboard just like the Macintosh line eventually used); the Open-Apple key mapped to what we know in the Macintosh line as Command, and the Closed-Apple key to Option a.k.a. Alt. (And in that keyboard model, no modifier keys were duplicated on the right except for Shift.) In that case, I think it makes sense to make all the modifier keys available for left-handed use while the right hand holds a mouse. I have no info or speculation about the motivation for the Apple III design, though.

[@KarlHamilton]

​@@wraithcadmusoriginally it was a Commodore key on the left and an Amiga key on the right. The LAmiga and RAmiga keys came later.

[@DMahalko]

On the Apple IIe, IIc and IIgs, Open Apple is the same as Paddle/Joystick Button 0, and Closed Apple is Paddle/Joystick button 1. It's been a while but closed-apple may have been renamed Option on the IIgs. An Apple IIe, IIc, IIgs will run a self test if you press Ctrl - Closed Apple - Reset.

[@sergiomeyer]

Came here to say this. The good old Open Apple and Closed Apple days!

[@vwestlife]

Port A and Port B are joystick/paddle ports, and the color video output is RGB, although it also provides black & white and color composite video output on pins 11 and 12, respectively.

[@jordanhazen7761]

Besides their use for joysticks, the Port 1 / 2 DE-9 connectors had bidirectional I/O support, and could connect to an Apple Silentype thermal printer, possibly other peripherals too. The color video is TTL RGB, and so incompatible with later //GS and Macintosh monitors, despite sharing the same 15-pin connector (the Apple //c has one too, but it's not a true RGB port, and incompatible with everything). It can be adapted to CGA, though with incorrect colors, and may require a sync-separator circiut to split composite since into separate H & V sync pins, though some CGA monitors might accept combined sync on the H input, or let you get away with simply splitting it to both.

[@tarstarkusz]

@@jordanhazen7761 The GS used TTL?

[@jordanhazen7761]

@@tarstarkusz No, the GS was analog, though with NTSC timings (~15.75kHz hsync), so most Mac & PC monitors wouldn't work with it. Apple ///'s, and all optional RGB cards for earlier Apple II's I'm aware of were TTL-output.

[@needfuldoer4531]

Probably what happened was, somebody tried it, the RIFA did what RIFAs do, they took the power supply out to inspect the carnage, realized they were in over their head, and closed the machine back up.

[@Stoney3K]

This, the machine was probably found somewhere on grandma's attic, someone plugged it in who didn't know a lot about vintage computing, it went poof, and it was junked.

[@uiopuiop3472]

i hate rifa capacitors that 'god' (nickname of my local apple dealer) gives me in apple 2gs when he gets back in town (hungary)

[@oldestnerd]

Back in the 80's I wrote a program for a company using UCSD Pascal that ran on an Apple ///. Years later I rewrote the program to run on a PC using Pascal. I kept it running during Y2K and them did more work for the same company until 2016 when I retired. They were a good customer. We didn't have any serious problems with the Apple ///. We had multiple serial ports and a hard drive on it. It was fun.

[@thebonefish]

Would a smoke show be called RIFA madness?

[@fgaviator]

The Apple /// wasn't a bad machine - and not terribly unreliable. It's bad reputation was mainly a result of Apple's botched product launch. The first machines were terrible. Apple had to stop production and completely redesign the mainboard. About a year after the initial launch they recalled and replaced all machines. The new mainboards were much better and also used better IC sockets. This fixed the connection issues, which had triggered the alleged "drop the machine" fix. However, the Apple ///'s reputation never recovered from the damage that was done in the first few months.

[@BebehCookieIcecream]

Comp eng student. Just wanna say your enthusiasm is infectious and heartwarming. Awesome work

[@Dreadfultime]

Dude this channel is so fucking comfy. I'm gonna eat ice cream, get in bed and watch a couple vids I missed before the UFC starts. What this channel is lacking though is more pizza and ninja turtles.

[@matthewgatskie1287]

When I was 13 I was donated an Apple /// and two Profile hard drives so this was 1991, the /// worked, the one Profile drive did not, but my learning of Apple 2's in school was still prominent in my head so I remember making them work for a bit but the whole system overheated so bad and was so unreliable it got curbed not soon after sadly. Definitely miss it now !

[@redgek]

Wdym you'll spare us the tangents, you're literally Tech Tangents.

[@sergioaguayogarciara]

I loved your reaction of "I never thought I'd get an Apple III", specially given that it required minimal effort to get it going. It reminds me when I got an IBM 5155 (Portable Personal Computer). I bought it so cheap from an eBay seller that I was wondering if I was going to get an actual computer and not a set of bricks in a box. It also worked without any repairs, no parts required at all!.

[@georgeh6856]

My high school's superintendent secretary had an Apple III. I only saw it walking past the doorway. For some reason, I thought the monitor was attached. This is the first time I ever saw the back, insides, and monitor removed. Before I graduated high school, the same secretary got an Apple II GS. I don't know if her Apple III broke. I thought, what does a secretary need graphics and sound to write word processing documents, make up signs, etc. We only had Apple II's in our computer lab (no Macs). The II GS would have been better for us to learn on.

[@CptJistuce]

Honestly, the case being composed largely of cast metal is likely as much for aesthetics as it is for heatsinking. They were selling the Apple III as a "real" business computer, and having something heavier would make it feel more substantial.

[@thedave1771]

Also the borderline-fetish obsession with inadequate cooling was in full force.

[@CptJistuce]

@@thedave1771 As I understand it, that was Steve Jobs. He hated fans, and was in a position to make absolutely sure there weren't any. I get the impression he also hated holes in the case.

[@botterik81]

"where's the kaboom? There supposed to be an earth shattering kaboom!" :D

[@tramadol42]

The RIFA kaboom probably happened 40 years ago...

[@Nedski42YT]

Danny Kottke said that Steve Jobs was adamant that the Apple III should NOT have a fan in it, thus the whole machine would be a heatsink.

[@eddiehimself]

Cool that you managed to get hold of Todd Howard's old Apple ///

[@physalis17]

That is just wild that an Apple III for all intents and purpose worked right out of the box! Amazing find!

[@ZagnutBar]

This was amazing! Never played with an Apple ///. (My dad bought an apple ] [+ back in '79) I love how you can change the system font!! And to that 1980s "hi tech" Wargames style font. That font was the way companies communicated something was "hi tech" in the 70s and 80s. It's hilariously outdated now.

[@DMahalko]

Technically the font could have been changed on the II/II+ but you would have had to physically replace the character generator ROM, so not in the realm of normal users.

[@tarstarkusz]

Despite reading several in depth articles about the A III, I'm still lost as to what it is supposed to be. Even the ads are as clear as mud. I cannot find any good youtube videos about it either. In the end, I think it was just a cash grab.

[@kaitlyn__L]

@@tarstarkuszit was meant to be a Business Computer, but developed with minimal alterations from the Apple II. It never took off, and was discontinued shortly thereafter. A lot like the Sinclair QL in failed IBM-usurping aspirations.

[@kaitlyn__L]

Love me some early OCR (inspired) fonts.

[@ZagnutBar]

@@kaitlyn__L what's hilarious about this era of computing is how compartmentalized "business" computers were from home computing. There was this widespread idea that businesses wouldn't buy a machine that was being used to play video games, which many felt was akin to a toy. The reality was that if a computer had enough processing power to play games, it had more than enough to run "serious" business software like a word processor. So yes, the Apple /// was intended to be a "business" machine. Whatever that meant at the time.

[@gilbert1975nf]

15:40 - Wow! It's so neat to see a KDE Plasma runing in YT video for now and then!

[@stumpybear60]

The Apple /// was my first computer. It had to be repaired once. For some reason, the Profile /// controller card didn’t work in slot 3. Moved it to another slot and reconfigured SOS and it worked perfectly. The only other thing I took it in for was to have the RAM increased to 256K and to have the built in floppy speed adjusted. I used it as my primary computer for over 5 years until I bought my Commodore Amiga A2000. The Apple ][ emulation requires a boot floppy that sets up an environment where an Apple ][ Plus floppy could boot into 48K RAM mode. Apple didn’t want the /// to take away from ][ sales so they put a bunch of hardware constrictions on running Apple ][ software. You may be able to plug Apple ][ cards into a /// but there are no drivers that will make them work. Port A and B would allow joysticks to be plugged in (Apple ][ compatible) and one of the ports allowed the Silentype thermal printer to work. There was no compatible color monitor that worked with the color video output. I was able to get color on the RCA jack, though.

[@AussieBloke6502]

@stumpybear60 wrote "no compatible color monitor that worked with the color video output". Not so, the AppleColor Monitor 100 (model A9M0308) was a digital RGB monitor that could be directly driven from that display port on the rear of the Apple III. You could also run it from an Apple IIe, with an RGB card plugged into the AUX slot. Here's a pretty damn good video all about this very rare unit: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ap2ng6logtqXrKs

[@TastyBusiness]

Sick! A working Apple /// with minimal hassle! Dig it, Shelby!

[@FoxerTails]

13:00 I'm shocked Apple actually recommended people to pick up and drop it to fix RAM issues. Like sure, just grab your $4,500 - $8,000 computer and drop it hoping it fixes your issue and doesn't break anything else in the process. 💀

[@DouglasWalrath]

or that it doesn't break right through the table and crash to the floor

[@oliverer3]

​@@DouglasWalrathbetter be on the ground floor or it's going through that too!

[@jordanhazen7761]

I guess it helped that internal hard drives were never an option with this beast. Hopefully no one tried that with a ProFile still stacked on top...

[@retrozmachine1189]

Apple wasn't the only one. Some of the products I was trained to repair in the late '90s actually had picking it up and dropping it from 30cm onto a desk and checking that it still worked afterwards in the procedures.

[@karlchurch4827]

The Amiga 500 had an issue with the fat Angus socket and the fix was to remove the top cover, turn it up and hold it against your knee and apply pressure on the sides by pulling it towards you until you heard a click, if you heard a crack you went too far :)😊

[@kennethmendenhallii1598]

There is/was a podcast called "Drop /// Inches" that's all about the Apple ///, and is an enjoyable listen for people who enjoy such things.

[@Jesselovespinball]

I love how excited you get about this stuff . When I was 9 , this was cutting edge technology 😂

[@BenState]

Great video, your nerdiness is so enthusiastically delivered - its a great thing!

[@j__r0d]

I also have an A3 sitting next to me that 'just works'. It's in a very similar condition to yours and is a lot of fun!

[@wmrg1057]

Used one in grad school back in 1981. Drove me nuts as I had my own trs-80. Spent many a day teaching the other grad students how to use it and basic. Determine after that not to by Apple products

[@tseckwr3783]

I do appreciate the excitement during the process of discovery....

[@davidhunter9896]

inconceivable! glad it's working

[@ajc347h]

I have one that I got for free when I worked at tech recycling place. I have the computer, monitor and extra floppy drive. Surprisingly still works, but I baby it and need to recap at some point.

[@s3vR3x]

Highly recommend getting the reactive micro power supply, which is way smaller and more reliable.

[@TheGunnarRoxen]

I love your enthusiasm. It's great 😃

[@cjh0751]

Great to see you getting more familiar with apple computers

[@jandjrandr]

First time I've seen the Apple III presented on a channel. Would like a deeper dive into that system to get to know it better and all the differences with the Apple II+ and IIgs models.

[@mmille10]

I remember that terminal off to the right. I used those at my local library when I was a teenager, since they'd digitized their card catalog onto a mainframe. The librarians used them, too, to check out books. They had a barcode reader attachment.

[@binarydinosaurs]

I dunno about unreliable, both of mine just worked when I got them home, RIFA explosions notwithstanding. The catch with mine was that I was crashed into bringing them home from Scotland and one of them bounced around the back of the car in the impact. Lost a couple of keys but it worked fine. This was 23 years ago, the one I still have is still working and now has a Profile and a Z80 card. Love 'em.

[@GeronimoJenkins]

Merch designs are on point. Gonna have to pick up a CRT shirt.

[@michaelelsy2209]

Just loved your excitement when it worked.

[@lemagreengreen]

She's a strange beast right enough. Not really seen many people cover the Apple 3 before so this is very interesting, I didn't realize that is a huge heatsink before.

[@casstelles]

The simplest repairs are always the best repairs.

[@blackterminal]

Nice video. If i were you id get a 12v fan and have to blow into the back of the computer to keep the vintage motherboard chillaxed. I tend to try to add cooling to everything vintage these days. Heatsinks or fans or both.

[@jdmcs]

Congrats on a successful Apple /// purchase!

[@CollinBaillie]

You're not finished yet. We need to see the colour display.

[@AlejandroRodolfoMendez]

Congrats on getting it working

[@Zeem4]

This brings back bad memories. I got given one of these back in the mid 90s, complete with hard drive and monitor, but I couldn't get it to boot off the floppy disk. Due to my then-lack of experience I managed to break it completely, I think I put the RAM card in backwards by mistake. I gave up and ended up contacting another retro enthusiast and part-exchanging it for some other computers. I wonder what happened to it.

[@326787421]

My OCD wants me to come to your workshop and organise it.... One viewer here already knows.

[@hstrinzel]

So many thousand dollars for double the memory, double the CPU clock, double the overheating, and THAT'S IT? THANK YOU APPLE for making me see the hopelessness that you were in the old days. Later I bought a Toshiba T1100PLUS LAPTOP, with 10 times the memory, 4 times faster CPU, and 4 times more floppy disk space FOR LESS and switched to PC DOS. Never looked back.

[@Canthus13]

They aren't 'unreliable'. They just respond best to corporal punishment.

[@UpLateGeek]

That's pretty sick dude. Good call on checking for RIFAs! It looked like a lot of carnage, but surprisingly little collateral damage. I'd probably order in a replacement for the big cap that got hit and swap it out just in case, and give the board a general clean. Also run a cleaning disk through the floppy drive. But apart from that I'd say you're good.

[@TechTangents]

I am thinking about replacing that cap for sure, it probably experienced a very high temp jet of air in that area and will be more likely to fail there. I just wasn't expecting to get to that point of worrying about things like that so soon hah! I did clean the drive before putting in a disk though, I try to always remember to do that so I don't trash disks.

[@JFD62780]

dude. The stuff you can do with this thing! And it's the 256K model! I hope you'll eventually get a color monitor that works with this thing! This is from the same era as those dedicated HP systems! Not to mention how much like a mad scientist you sounded when this machine Just Plain Worked in the end! XD

[@freeculture]

I always had bad experience using ProDOS with the Apple //c (128k) my guess at the time was the low ram. I mean it booted fine but after a while it would slow down into a crawl. ProDOS was originally invented for this machine, then ported. But it was often better to use the good ol' DOS 3.3. My memories of it is that it was office oriented, like something that would let you run your wordprocessor or spreadsheet easily or just manage your things, inventory of disks etc. It is "text" but trying to do graphics. I guess it was meant to be used with AppleWorks and such. In those days, i only saw an Apple /// once. I remember playing that olympics game with it, but apparently most Apple ][ games would simply not work. But i imagine this was meant for office work which is a bit of a stretch where Apple was coming from. Jobs crazy, Woz smart.

[@timothyp8947]

Remember seeing the Apple /// reviewed in (the British) PCW Magazine when it was new. Have often wondered what it would really have been like - the specs in the review made it sound good, but then again almost anything would have to that teenage lad from so long ago. Not sure whether it would’ve been reviewed when I had my SoC MK14 or had progressed to my second hand VIC=20… likewise if it would’ve been contemporary with my school having its single RM 380Z or if it’d got its first BBC Micros by then.

[@paul_boddie]

The review is in Personal Computer World's May 1982 issue and is quite favourable. The strength of the system relative to something like the BBC Micro would have been the hierarchical filesystem and UCSD Pascal, although the Beeb got the former with ADFS (and network filing systems) and the latter as a matter of course. Steve Jobs, quoted in the article, may have had a reasonable point about software design being "the key to the future", presumably said through gritted teeth, but by the time the machine came out in the UK, things like the Sirius 1 were already around and rather more competitive. And the Beeb, regarded as expensive as a home system (and yet cheaper than the Apple II by quite some margin), was superior in certain respects and far cheaper to acquire (when more readily available).

[@therealcthulhu9813]

I used to be a computer works technician for goodwill. I got in box with packing material (not new in box it was obvious the previous owner kept the box and packaging and put the computer back in it once they upgraded) everything about it worked perfectly fine even the power supply was still in good condition.

[@douglashudson4706]

Oh, I totally forgot about the fancy font! Brings back some memories!

[@michaelstoliker971]

Hah, cast metal. Apple thought they were building an Atari.

[@clashblaster]

I don't know if you know this, but Twitch has ended their ban on simultaneous streaming, so you are once again allowed to stream to both KZbin and Twitch at the same time. I would be very happy if this is something you would be able to do, since I prefer the KZbin interface to the Twitch interface, and KZbin doesn't delete VODs after two months like Twitch does. I miss when you would upload VODs to your second KZbin channel, and if that was becoming a hassle, then simultaneous streaming could be a way to get your VODs on KZbin without having to upload them yourself from Twitch.

[@jimiphillips1170]

youtube.com/@techtangentslive

[@TechTangents]

I haven't mentioned it yet because I was making sure I could make it work but I am doing that very thing now on a new channel here! kzbin.info/door/fH9TtaI0Lmj656rRSZqGOw Getting VoDs automatically available on YT is a massive benefit and a big part of why I'm doing it.

[@DannysGalaxyTab]

I've put you forward to be cast in the Adam Driver biopic.

[@plushifoxed]

those rifa caps look like these "peanut butter bar" candies i used to eat when I was a kid. probably about as flaky, too.

[@bobweiram6321]

The Apple III uses Alps SKCC for standard keys, and Alps SKFF Double Action switches for the arrow ones. The SKCC is also found on the 128K, 512K, Mac Plus, and the first generation IIe with the white on brown keycaps.

[@cannabiscomet4410]

"WE DID NOTHING!" I love that feeling.

[@rzeka]

Your shirt looks like the part in Mega Man 1 where you fight a clone of yourself

[@Runco990]

I've had all sorts of Apple machines INCLUDING a LISA! (Wish I had THAT today...) But never had an Apple III. Cool to see it!

[@BaccarWozat]

Yeah, a II+ user wouldn't know about the two apple keys which first appeared on the IIe. The keys are actually paddle/joystick controller buttons repurposed on the keyboard! The II+ also didn't have all four arrow keys but the IIe does. As for the III "looking like it was made in the 1970s"-- it's using technology that goes back to 1968 and started development in 1978.

[@RudysRetroIntel]

Excellent video and addition to your collection. Would like to see you make a video on how you made the diskette for it. Thanks for sharing

[@SeanFix]

What were the two capacitors you removed from the power supply for? I'm surprised it worked with those open paths.

[@jimiphillips1170]

They were just power filtering caps.

[@BenState]

You're starting to close in on yourself there with gear! hahaha

[@jwoody8815]

Never seen an Apple III in action or being repaired, pretty interesting video. 2 thumbs up. Though im more of a PC guy. (though I had experiance with apple IIs, Macs and Gateway PCs, at the little rural school I attended.) The general unrealiablilty, overheating issues and lack of Apple II software compatibiliy were its major downfalls, the Apple II could do most of the functions of the III for alot less money. In-fact if im not mistaken pretty much every other Apple computer clear in to 600-series powered Macintoshes and could natively run apple II software for a long time, and im sure there were software packages that allowed you to run Apple II software on much newer G+ series macs and beyond.

[@MrSpacelyy]

Even it's reputation was unreliable.

[@definitelycasualpcs8789]

You found an apple iii?! I'm actually a little jealous, but then again I'm not super huge into apple besides having a couple iis for games and such... I'll leave iconic machines to folks that have a history or can better appreciate it 😅

[@angerylandbarge4352]

The Apple III, the only computer to have a case made of depleted uranium

[@DMahalko]

Following in the footsteps of the Atari 400/800..

[@Otakunopodcast]

Dunno, the Atari 400 is pretty chonky too...

[@Yesterbits]

Yeah, they were very paranoid about FCC regulations about interference. As I recall, the FCC hadn't officially weighed in on what was going to be allowable, and so Apple just made sure that they'd pass whatever the FCC required. In fact, I think the Apple III Plus itself was a response to a new FCC ruling at the time, that neverthless deemed the Apple III to cause too much interference, which was solved by redesigning the motherboard. The Apple III Plus lasted only a few months, though, before Apple pulled the plug on the whole /// line altogether.

[@AncientElectronics]

So are you the one that pulled the trigger on the Apple III at Savers?

[@AncientElectronics]

I probably circled the store three times, deciding if I should grab it. In the end, I passed but if it was you I'm glad it eventually went to a good home. Some collector dropped off their entire horde there. I grabbed a few odds and ends myself. prices were all over the place though. there was a beat-up 5170 they wanted something like $400 for while they had an Amiga 2000 and Apple IIe bundled together for $20....go figure.

[@PH96Official]

Steve Jobs smiled upon the was like "Don't worry I got you, she will work."

[@xenocide2121]

makes you wonder what the rifas were for, if they just work without them

[@gigaherz_]

Filtering, in almost every case those rifas are for filtering.

[@MagiTycho]

I was just thinking...I know next to nothing about circuit engineering, but how can you remove a component like that from a board and it still works fine?

[@gigaherz_]

@@MagiTycho the filter caps remove noise present in the power lines. class X removes noise that exists between line and neutral, while class Y removes noise that exists between line and earth.

[@DMahalko]

It's similar to a water hammer shock absorber to prevent pipes from getting damaged. When large loads turn on and off like an oven heating element it produces a noticeable "snap" on the voltage line. Also it goes both ways, because switch-mode power supplies chop tiny chunks out of the line and produce harmonic noise of their own.

[@stevethepocket]

Earl "Madman" Muntz used to just walk up to his engineers working on prototype TVs and start snipping parts off until the TV stopped working, and then say "Well I guess you have to put that last part back in" and walk away. ...There's probably a reason you never hear about anyone still owning a vintage Muntz TV.

[@ZagnutBar]

Can I ask how the thing still works safely with your having removed- and not replaced- a capacitor? (I'm not an electronics engineer). Is there a level of redundancy in the power supply to allow for the computer to still run?

[@gigaherz_]

Those capacitors are not required for the psu to function, hey exist for filtering the incoming AC before it's rectified, to remove any noise in the power wires. Look up "Class X" and "Class Y" capacitors for more details -- I'm not an electronics engineer.

[@kaitlyn__L]

@@gigaherz_it’s also about not putting noise back out on the line from the switch mode power supply. However nowadays, cheap LED bulbs put way more noise on the line than a computer PSU ever would. But back in the day, line-filtering was less common in radios or TVs. Now it’s just expected for all devices to deal with the noise themselves.

[@freeculture]

@@kaitlyn__L in the end it was to make am radios not sound awful in the other side of the house, but they would anyway crts made a mess of em'. FCC shielding thing, that make the Atari 800/400 like a tank, same year as this thing, not a coincidence no longer necessary after, people just learned not to use AM radio + something else at the same time. I guess interference could also affect a bit reception in TVs etc. Old stuff. I remember seeing patterns if the thing was too close, dot crawl, or snow noise or lines. I just kept my computer and radio and tv apart from each other and/or not use them at once.

[@kaitlyn__L]

@@freeculture in my house the TVs and the FM radios had anything ranging from extra noise to major distortions every time a motor or a switch-mode power supply was ran in the house, heh

[@ricardobornman1698]

Like the saying goes: - "Never look a gift horse in the mouth."

[@wheelmanstan]

Anyone ever see that tim and eric skit "cinco midi organizer"? Gold.

[@JeffTiberend]

Knowing that the Next Cube was made with cast magnesium, I wonder if this cast aluminum was one of Steve Jobs ideas.

[@Dorelaxen]

Now you can hack into the ENCOM mainframe!

[@tarstarkusz]

Can you do a longer video on the computer. I've read at least 5 articles in the computer media from the eighties and still have no idea what an Apple III is and what differentiates it from an Apple II and what about it that was supposed to be so good. The Apple III marketing is probably the worst marketing campaign in history. In addition to all of the articles I've read, I've seen a lot of Ads for it. Again, I have no idea what this is.

[@paul_boddie]

If you read the conclusion from Dick Pountain's Personal Computer World review (May 1982), you will get the sense that the machine is regarded as an evolution of the Apple II, tidying up and improving on it, while providing better software foundations: "The software environment around the III is more rational and sophisticated than that of its direct competitors and is also flexible enough to accommodate a lot of future hardware developments while maintaining program portability." The operating system, SOS, was trying to out-compete CP/M which was already available as CP/M-86 for machines like the Sirius 1 (PCW, February 1982). But you can argue that this was Apple trying to catch up with systems introduced since the Apple II was launched, both in hardware (more memory, better graphics) and software (more coherent architecture) terms.

[@markjreed]

I was confused; I thought the RETRY message was a READY prompt and it had actually dropped into some sort of built-in ROM BASIC. Time for new glasses. :)

[@faumnamara5181]

Awe bud your way to excited for me on a early Sunday morning. I remember excitement I think..... hhahahaha

[@AB-Prince]

I recently got around to building a harness for a thermal printer, and the controll board was acting wierd, it was and more or less the same story as this. one bad cap, that's it. it was a smoothing capacitor that was shorting 5V to ground, and causing an inductor to overheat. it'd also leaked onto the board snd caused some corrosion, but it just worked after I removed the bad cap.

[@scottDchicago]

Awesome episode!

[@mikejetzer4155]

If you were surprised to learn that there were both 128K and 256K versions, you'll be even more surprised to learn that the original version of the Apple /// came with a memory card which supported 64K, 96K, or 128K of RAM.

[@ShieTar_]

On the Apple II there is an apple key. On the Apple III there is no apple, only Zuul. I think, I read the manual translated from english to swuaheli to lovecroftian to imaginary esperanto ... so there.

[@KittyFae-]

Ahh, I see you bought it. I saw it on the Friday before 50% off day and forgot to go back for it then and saw it was gone next time i was over in that area. Awesome XD

[@rivards1]

Was this found in a Goodwill here in the Phoenix area? I thought they shipped all retro computer stuff to their online bid site now.

[@jimiphillips1170]

It was found at a Phoenix area Savers

[@rivards1]

@@jimiphillips1170 Ugh - kicking myself that I missed it. Phoenix proper, or Chandler/Mesa Tempe?

[@KittyFae-]

Scottsdale actually. I did grab a gummed up Apple II disk drive from the same place but that was the only other accessory that I found.@@rivards1

[@junker15]

Obviously your Apple III has a working power light. If the power light burns out, the ROM will keep you stuck in diagnostics because it thinks the keyboard isn't there. When it's not in emulation or funny mode, it runs SOS, which is the ancestor of ProDOS for the Apple II. The bulk of PRODOS is SOS's Block File Manager component. Business BASIC via an SOS.INTERP file was completely different to BASIC.SYSTEM in that the entire interpreter needed to be loaded in (it was essentially a better Applesoft with party tricks like invokables); BASIC.SYSTEM had ROM Applesoft to do the BASIC stuff. SOS was far ahead of its time with its memory manager that didn't see anything like it until the IIgs had it in its ROM, and having device drivers on a little 8-bit computer was a new thing, too! It's a real disappointment that Wendell Sander was forced to waste his engineers' time hobbling Apple II emulation mode. I think the Apple III would have been far more successful if it had a whole set of Apple II software to run before Apple III software was ready, and didn't need to suffer the drawbacks of emulation mode.

[@tarstarkusz]

Do all the keys work?

[@BollingHolt]

Cool score, dude!

[@easyerthanyouthink]

dont blame apple, blame jobs. also was there magic smoke from the monitors efi/rifa ? caps ?.thanks for video , what a nice find !!!!!, best check the monitor rifa caps also. Awesome dude !!! love it , so cool

[@basilp5179]

Kinda random: do you still have the Sony Qualia 005?

[@TechTangents]

Yep! Still haven't found a good mounting solution for it though.

[@ivanmaglica264]

Step One: Check if fire extinguisher works!

[@zbradbell]

Would pair nicely with a silentype printer. the controller is built in to the logic board

[@rivards1]

Apples almost always work. Ataris about 75%. Commodores will work 25% of the time. TRS-80's almost always work too, but no one cares 🙂

[@coreynewbill]

Thanks!

[@wilfredpayne433]

My Brother, you need to mount your fire extinguisher near the door. A fire could easily block your access to it in the current position, or you could trip fumble and drop it wasting precious seconds, every second you aren't using that extinguisher dramatically lowers the chances of successfully controlling or putting the fire out, also having it near the door will put you in a position to either escape easily or be able to get to the next room/fire extinguisher.... also the electrical system in our homes in America are poorly designed and usually not maintained properly, old and loose outlets cause high resistance and causes them to melt or catch fire, there are extension cords sold everywhere that aren't rated for the amount of amperage our outlets are capable of supplying before tripping the breaker, cord might handle 8 amps safely before heating up, outlet can supply 15 and up to 25 or 30 without tripping the breaker, never leave cords coiled or wrapped up while being used it will cause a runaway condition heating them up until a fire happens, don't charge your phones, tablets, laptops etc on your bed couch or anything that insulates them, lithium fires burn close to 1800 -2000 degrees, they will become more intense if you put water on it reacting exothermically, never leave portable heaters unattended, do you really think you can trust a 18 dollar heater made in a hut in a random country to not catch fire? Willing to bet not just your life but your families, anyone in the building and the fire fighters lives on the quality of that 15-30 dollar heater? It's that time of year please be careful, many families lose loved ones, suffer horrible injuries and lose their entire home with all of their possessions this time of year, I Hope You Are All Having A Great Day Or Night!

[@johnsimon8457]

That font demo is not something you’d ever see on the Apple II. Some of those fonts aren’t exactly legible, but that’s not the point! Apple iii is a lot more impressive when you consider how primitive Apple II was, except I grew up with Apple IIe and IIc which have 80 column, lower and upper case 128kb ram.

[@wheelieblind]

I have used an Apple 3... dropping it fixes it that is how bad that was.

[@movax20h]

That case is ridiculously engineered. Like cost not being a concern.

[@genjii931]

I really want an Apple /// plus for my collection.