How the Apple ][ Works!

[@The8BitGuy]

I just wanted to let everyone know the Commander X16 is now available for pre-order! texelec.com/product/cx16-preorder/

[@TenOfZero1]

Sweet! thank-you :-)

[@superpizzaman5562]

Hi

[@andresbravo2003]

Amazing, hope it I’ll release sometime…

[@colesgaminggames]

Ima see if i can order it

[@tonalpleeb07]

OMGOMGOMG

[@Dorelaxen]

The year I graduated high school they were replacing all the IIe systems in the computer "lab". My computer teacher was AWESOME, and she called me into her office on the last day. They were apparently just going to junk most of them, so she saved me one and gave it to me. I still have it, too, and it still works just fine. Thanks Mrs. L.

[@pepstein]

Aw, how sweet! ❤

[@ultravioletnanokitty]

reminds me of my social studies teacher in high school, mr. franca... he told me he had something for me and when i got to his office he had a macintosh tv, complete with original black keyboard and mouse. of course my brothers threw it out when i went to the hospital but i still greatly appreciate that he saw one of his students was into computers and offered an old one of his!

[@KairuHakubi]

Your parents' taxes already paid for them, it's only fair.

[@WinterInTheForest]

My first computer was the rare Bell & Howell "Darth Vader" Apple II, dressed in black. My Dad was a school principal and they junked an entire room full of these in the 90s. I got one but it's long gone. Would be worth a fortune today.

[@homg85]

I got a few of our school's Apple IIe Platinum when they scrapped them in 1999.

[@RussellBeattie]

It's been said many times before, but Woz's "annus mirabilis" from March 1975 to April 1977 when at just 26yo, he designed, implemented and launched the hardware, kernel, sound and color output as well as a BASIC interpreter (and much more) for the Apple I and II is one of history's greatest technological achievements. It was a tour de force of talent which is astounding to this day.

[@TheGreatAtario]

Woz was and is the real deal. Too bad Apple as a company departed from his ethos rather quickly.

[@jimtekkit]

@@TheGreatAtario Woz wanted the end user to be provided with full schematics and source code. Needless to say, Steve Jobs put a swift end to that.

[@I-See-In-The-Dark]

Raison detre

[@haweater1555]

Woz's wacky but ingenious implementation of color graphics at minimum hardware cost is what made the Apple stand out.

[@dennismunsie2161]

Don’t forget his masterful implementation of the Disk II controller card too. That might be his best design ever.

[@corkkyle]

Our school had Apple IIe computers. In 1982, as a freshman, I took my first computer course and got the programming "bug" quite bad. BASIC was easy - simplistic, actually. I mastered BASIC in about a week. My teacher, seeing this, gave me a 6502 Assembly Language book to keep me busy. My eyes were opened, and I was hooked! It was the most exciting time of my life. I spent a couple of weeks mastering Assembly Language, but my real education was reverse-engineering Bank Street Writer, a disk-copying program, Apple Works and a couple more "big" programs of the day. That was the start of my 40 year programming career and one of the most exciting times of my life. Thank you Woz!!!!

[@ColonelTux]

As a young adult, I bought an Apple //e in 1983. I used it primarily for my own programming projects, and I bought AppleWorks, which I used for word processing. Computer games were never my thing. I came within an inch of buying a Commodore 64, but the crisp 80 column text I could get on the Apple //e carried the day. I quickly migrated to assembly language for almost all my programming, so I retain great affection for the 6502 to this day. You can make more music than you might think on that Apple 2 speaker. I wrote a program that could play 3 part harmony, e.g., one of Bach's three part inventions. Of course, the computer is completely occupied while it plays - no spare cycles whatsoever. :)

[@bridgetgraves1032]

My first 'real' job in college back in the 80s was programming Apple II educational software. The program I was writing was for teaching geometry, and I needed to have theta, sigma, and other greek letters. We generated all the text and graphics in hi-res monochrome mode using a little assembly language subroutine and character map, and I remember designing my own characters and overwriting the bitmaps of characters I didn't need for geometry, like the $. This video doesn't mention the use of graphics sprites on the Apple II, which I needed to use in that job as well. They were truly weird little data structures useful for moving a little graphic item around on the screen. Designing a sprite was definitely a black art, involving graph paper, a lot of binary to hex fiddling, and so forth. If any of you used a program called "Perimeter, Area, and Volume" on an Apple II, I wrote it!

[@calaz4054]

Ur hot

[@LordKane773]

I did back in high school in 1998 in Calgary AB

[@theroyalcrane]

My neighbor had it. We had to use it before we could play board games at his house.

[@davidh.2377]

Just what I needed, a new 8 bit guy video

[@fyreantz2555]

No kidding.

[@tippingfallsmocker5483]

We all needed a new video

[@edwardbell8771]

It's been a day

[@keithfta789]

Ditto!

[@PhilScudella]

One a month if we are lucky , cold turkey it feels like sometimes 😢

[@finkelmana]

I remember when my dad brought home our family's first computer, at Apple IIe. I think I was 6 or 7 years old. Looking back, and thinking about it, I realize it is THAT moment that had the biggest influence on my life. Its hard to imagine, butI wouldnt be who I am today, if that moment didnt happen.

[@robbirobson7330]

so what are you today? Do you identify as computer?

[@ccricers]

@@robbirobson7330 As _a_ computer

[@finkelmana]

@@kelsormjaquan I dont know what you are talking about. I have never bought a modern Apple computer. I do have some vintage ones, but there is a good chance they are older than you are.

[@JohnMackey]

These documentary episodes are some of my favorite things on KZbin. They’re so well done!

[@nikolassels5751]

Nice to see that other musicians love these shows! In love with Asphalt Cocktail! 🎶

[@ultrametric9317]

I can't believe anyone had the patience to deal with all this! I remember learning to program the VGA card at a low level and thinking - this is insane. Little did I know! :)

[@UltimateCamaroFan]

My grade 6 teacher still used an Apple II in 2005, so cool to see the context of why they used these so long. Love these history videos!

[@bezoekers]

That's absolutely insane. The Apple II was 28 years old at the time. That's literally like using Windows 95 in 2023.

[@jovankabroz6858]

​@@bezoekers maybe they used it to show off? Either way using an 20 year old computer as a actual PC and not a legacy machine is really insane.

[@toddgreener]

Can't express how excited I was to see one of your history documentaries drop in my subscriptions! Thanks for all your hard work making computing history accessible

[@junkaholic95]

Such fond memories of using IIe's and IIGS's back in elementary school in the 90s. Playing old school Oregon Trail, making signs in Print Shop, learning how to type off of some typing program on floppy disk, and so much more. We also had several Mac's some of which even had the IIe card. This video took me right back. Thanks, David!

[@k001daddy]

As a fellow Commodore evangelist, I appreciate this series to finally get the deets on the other side. Would love to see one on the Tandy lines.

[@TheTiktok4321]

Yes, please. They had interesting character set graphics which made their users so proud.

[@MartinFarrell1972]

He did do a video on Tandy. It may have just been the pc line tho.

[@ScreaminJoeBlade]

He did a great Tandy 1000 doc. He did promise a TRS80 Coco doc back when he repainted a CoCo I. Looking forward to that if he ever does

[@quantumleaper]

I just wish Commodore had competent Management running the company other than the Stooges running it in the USA.

[@QuintusAntonious]

I had to laugh a bit at that because I went to school in the early 2000s and we were also still telling people that Apple's were more money for less computer--then the iPhone came out and a whole knew Apple vs Alternatives war began.

[@speedytech7]

These systems really did last longer than anyone would have thought in public schools. I can remember in 2002 I was in second grade and we had two Apple ][e systems in class for educational games still. Heck even through third grade, 2003, I regularly saw LC II and III systems in labs along with iMacs

[@matthewlozy1140]

Much of your content is from before my time, my family didn't get a family computer until Windows 95 was released, but I still really enjoy this. It's well done and interesting to see how far we've come.

[@LakesideGazer]

My mom bought an Apple //e with a speeddemon card, which fit in the special slot, raised the system memory to 512K and doubled the system speed. She used it for bookkeeping but I got to use it at other times. Forgetting to disable the speeddemon card when playing games was a real trip. I think I still have that thing stored somewhere. I'm sure it needs recapping by now...

[@deletingsoonbye]

The Apple IIe was my first computer. My mom and dad bought it at a flea market for 20$ in the mid to late 90s. I would spend hours soon hours tinkering with that thing. FYI man this is my favorite content of yours. I love history and Tech history absolutely hits the sweet spot.

[@LUCKO2022]

I feel sorry for you.

[@maxxdahl6062]

Apple IIe was the first one I ever used, but the c64 was the first one I ever owned.

[@Musalam]

This channel is something I look forward to watching every week, so I hope the next episode won't be delayed. When many people in Comments talk about the episode content that makes me feel I'm with my community and that connects me to the beautiful past, which gives me a beautiful feeling that the community still exists, remembers those days well. Proud to have lived during that time.

[@meowcula]

Educational market using obsolete computers for comp-sci classes is practically tradition, and I think it's actually a good thing. When I was in high school in the early 90s (I'm about your age) we were using machines from '84 that had about the same capabilities as the PET, but the point was to learn how computers worked, and being closer to the hardware as one was with these old machines was a better learning tool, in my opinion.

[@paulschlusser1085]

PR#5 (or more commonly PR#6) really does mean, printer in slot 5/6. The PR# command DOES NOT "just run the ROM" code in the specified slot, as you said. Rather it directs print output to the card in the specified slot, using the code on that card to run whatever printer the card was intended to support. However, because the very next thing that the computer does is output a newline and prompt, the redirected output is sent to whatever ROM code is in the relevant slot, which happens to be the disk book code if that slot holds a disk controller card rather than a printer. Furthermore, the exact same thing happens for IN#6 which is "input from slot 6". The next thing the BASIC does after printing the newline and prompt is go look for keyboard input - in this case, from whatever input device is in slot 6, using the ROM on that card. Once again, this will be intercepted by the disk controller card and thus both character input and output requests for a disk controller result in running the disk boot code.

[@icecreamjunkie6790]

Always a great day when The 8-Bit Guy uploads! Keep up the great work, David!

[@Okurka.]

He only uploads to keep his Patrons from unsubscribing.

[@Okurka.]

@@KeyDx7 You show up once a month?

[@Okurka.]

@@KeyDx7 You better hold your breath with your tongue so deep in David's behind.

[@Midcon77]

I love these deep dives into the history of the 8-bits I grew up with! Thanks David!

[@peteromano9356]

THIS CAN'T BE OVERSTATED ENOUGH: THANK YOU for leveling/balancing/limiting music/sound effects! 99% of creators never do this, and watching at night, it's horrible when loud spike from music comes out of no where

[@calvinhobbes7504]

I was a navy ET and bought one of these in 1978 .... I was enchanted by it .... had been reading Byte and Kilobaud for the preceding year but knew I would never be able to afford a Northstar S100 system ... so I "settled" for the Apple II plus - man, I was amazed by it. Had the "red manual" complete with handwritten notes by Woz .... after my first deployment to the western pacific, I bought a Teletype Model 33 - and used Woz' notes on how to interface it to the Apple for printing on canary paper - cheaper and cooler than the Epson MX-80! :) Thanks for the memories!

[@pkandy2]

Thank you for making these documentaries. It really puts into perspective the technology and limitations of the time. I, as a young software engineer, appreciate this inmemsely

[@oldnotobsolete.2925]

I didn't realise how long this was until you mentioned it! Very well put together and a surprising amount covered in 40 minutes.

[@haweater1555]

3:00 I myself had never personally known anyone with an Apple in my early teens, not til my later teens did I touch an Apple and Mac in a science museum. They were considered expensive, high end machines displayed and sold in business and computer stores not typically accessible by youngsters my age at the time. Radio Shack stores were everywhere with TRS80s and stocked with lots of other interesting stuff for me, but Commodore home computers prolifiated in department, toy, and hardware stores (Canadian Tire here), and the schools were equipped with PETs.

[@vladvampirelord8910]

The Apple was the high end computer. This video explains a lot. Thanks.

[@adrianjapp]

The Apple II was my first exposure to computing at school (or to be more accurate, it was initially a clone of the Apple II, the ITT 2020, with accompanying cassette deck that we could only 'look at' at the end of my 3rd year in secondary school here in the UK!). The real Apple IIs were then purchased (we had 2), with 9" monochrome Hitachi monitors, and 2 disk drives. This was my first real introduction to BASIC, which I instinctively loved.

[@miaththered]

I was literally just discussing this computer with a friend of mine in a voice chat less than an hour ago! What excellent timing!

[@Markimark151]

Apple II was the first computer I used in elementary school, we used them as our primary computers until the Macintosh SE in 1989! Our school’s computer lab replaced them with Macs! And we still had the Apple IIGS in certain classrooms until 1996! Because there were programs like the Oregon Trail and some Sierra educational games. They had the longest computer generation support for educational industry!

[@ginnrelay]

PR# does stand for print, not peripheral, because there is also the IN# command for getting input from a peripheral card. For 80-column cards and disk controllers they both happen to do the same thing, but for parallel and serial cards they redirect the output or the input to the card, respectively.

[@logiciananimal]

Almost the same thing - the //c at least does not quite redraw the screen in the same way with IN#3.(a purely cosmetic difference).

[@guidokorber2866]

Right, I was about to point out the same. Actually I used my Apple IIgs for a couple years as a EPROM burner controlled via a terminal program from my Mac II by just redirecting input on the IIgs to the serial port.

[@Woodland26]

I was about 14 when the family bought a ][ plus with 32k RAM. The plus meant it came with Applesoft ROM instead of Integer BASIC. Used a cassette tape recorder for program storage and output to the family TV with RF modulator. Over time, and spending a gradual fortune to bring the RAM to 48k, and then later on adding a 16k RAM card to slot 0 to run PASCAL (or load Integer BASIC to that space). Had a Paper Tiger dot matrix printer. Later getting a floppy disc drive was a luxury. With PASCAL also needed an 80 columns card which made word processing much easier. An entire thesis was typed using Apple ][. Having a CP/M card made it into a different beast running CP/M. Also used to program in 6502 machine language using assembler. If you ever come across a program which drew a Honda Accord (early 80 with the 4 round headlights)sideway with the letter Accord on top, that was my brother and myself's work. Drawing in the HGR2 graphics page using some maths formula plus some brute force plotting.

[@rruhland]

I was in grade school in the mid 90s and we were still using Apple IIe machines at the time. I had a windows 95 machine at home and we still had mostly Apple IIe boxes at school.

[@NSGames622]

It was used quite well into the late 90s. I had a teacher during my middle school years that kept 2 Apple II computers in their classroom. Last time I saw them being used was in 2000, before I left for middle school.

[@olik136]

nice to see that having completely obsolete hardware is a staple of schools all around the globe :) for me in Germany it was the 386 systems lurking around in the school lab for way too long...

[@ventisette.]

@@olik136did your teacher also tell you to treat the computers well, because they were “very expensive” ?😂

[@raafmaat]

@@olik136 i live in some tech savy city (Eindhoven) , here they always updated all the pcs for no real reason just because they wanted to be cunning edge i guess, but luckily at home we still kept our commodore, Amiga and a 286 or 386 hooked up in the attic, downstairs we kept kinda up to date with all the new windows versions etc, but i spent most of my time in the attic :)))) me and my dad were such nerds lol

[@raafmaat]

*commodore = commodore 64, i realize now that the amiga was also from them hehe

[@philipstephens5960]

The PR# command was intended for output…while it does cause a call to the ROM on the peripheral card, a printer card for instance would change the output “hook” to point to a small subroutine in the card’s ROM, which would then talk to the printer. The standard Apple ROM subroutine for outputting to the text display would thus be redirected to the printer. For the disk controller card, however, its ROM would initiate the boot process instead.

[@ScottDuensing]

Exactly. There's also the corresponding IN# to hook input from a card.

[@Woodland26]

@@ScottDuensing At some stage my brother was using the Graphics Tablet and it was one of those device that needed IN# (usually 2, 4 or 5).

[@SeraphimKnight]

The IIe keyboard has alps switches (same ones used on the original M0110 macintosh keyboard) so the quality difference makes sense over the original's proprietary leaf spring design. The IIe enhanced has alps clone switches by mitsumi which are also quite good. The 2c+ and 2gs have either orange or salmon alps which is absolutely godly, really great keyboard. Those switches are still very sought after now in the keyboard enthusiast circles.

[@bland9876]

"Apple systems were made to be upgradable" hahahahaha good one dude.

[@walterdebruijn7046]

Thank you for putting a lot of work in preserving all this important historic information in one great video! I really enjoyed watching it, the balance between completeness and in-depth ness of the topics to cover is perfect in my opinion.

[@dave_jones]

I recall having an Apple II in 1998 in my classroom, there was also a windows 95 pc but the apple II still got plenty of use thanks to its educational software

[@jeansimons6788]

I remember playing Oregon Trail in green screen!

[@Chris_In_Texas]

Brings back the memories for sure. I started with IIe in about 8th grade and then moved to IIc sometime in high school with the LCD panel and 800K 3.5" floppy. I made a battery system so I could run portable as well. I can remember a number of road trips in the car using the computer playing games. Then moved over to the 286 PC clone in the late 80's. 🤠👍 Sure wish I still had all that old Apple equipment, but sold it each time to be able to upgrade.

[@Megatog615]

My elementary school had a bunch of IIGS machines in its computer lab. I hope you make a whole episode on that machine.

[@skeeter197140]

My junior high school had II+ and IIe machines! I feel so old! Edit: I think now they might have been Apple II machines after watching this.

[@diegoantoniorosariopalomin9979]

He Made a video Many years ago

[@davidcarlson2481]

Great video as always! Just preordered the Commander X-16 with all the bells and whistles. Thank you for everything you’ve done David! I’ve been a long time fan now and appreciate the hard work! Also a fan of your brother’s work and would love to see more of his content as well. In fact, would love to see more Geek Bits some day when you’re all up for it. Cheers!

[@little_fluffy_clouds]

It's funny, I grew up in Turkey and we had no Apple computers there, it was just a two-way battle between ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64. Apples were too expensive and even the Mac was as rare as a unicorn to sight in Turkey in the late '80s. I haven't seen an Apple II, or an Apple Mac for that matter, until I was a teenager, at which point I was living in the UK. The irony is I would grow up to work with Macs every day in my adulthood.

[@sergiomeyer]

I was born in 1987 and there were Apple ii's in all my schools up through middle school. I saw them well into the late 90s. MacIntoshes were around too but I distinctly remember taking a typing class on an Apple ii from a cat named Paws!

[@ClassicGameSessions]

The Apple II brings back such great gaming memories. That green monochrome is so memorable. Really great to see you covering these computers!

[@Alabaster335]

The green monochrome monitor of my IIe as a kid is probably the reason why I only see in two colours as an adult now 😂

[@waterup380]

I Just wish my school let us do more with the apple ][e then just write docs for school learnig

[@slightlyevolved]

You have your green monitor. You have also now died from dysentery.

[@ironhead65]

Spy Hunter!!!

[@datacipher]

@@Alabaster335you are low class pedestrians peasants. I chose noble amber as my monitor - which I still have to this day.

[@Neo2]

hey i just wanted to say your videos inspired me to buy and restore old computers like the vic 20 and i just wanted to say thanks for the amazing videos and i wish you a happy life

[@09beckerboy]

Same, I also bought a Vic-20 because of him!

[@EvanEdwards]

I have to say that this is a departure from your documentary formats and it is well considered. This is the documentary that I did not really need, but I'm the kid who had the schematic poster up on the wall of his bedroom: I learned how computers work from that computer. This is not only correct (my nitpicks are all the tiniest of essentially irrelevant nits), but the topic choices are perfect for a world swimming in documentaries about Apple as a company or the Apple ][ from a software/business/home/school impact. You touched on all of that, but dug into the details almost all documentaries skip over. Fantastic content!

[@mattsword41]

From a UK viewer who has never seen an Apple 2 and only heard of through US centric KZbin channels, this was a great 'catch up' video! Look forward to the Apple 2gs and Apple 3 instalments!

[@AaronOfMpls]

Indeed -- I feel much the same way about the best UK videos about the BBC Micro and such. Meanwhile, my (US) elementary school was full of Apple IIe's by the time I stared kindergarten in 1987.* And my home state of Minnesota was a big reason why they were there. Look up the history of MECC -- the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium -- for more on why. I imagine most of us kids then knew MECC as authors of games like Oregon Trail and Number Munchers. But it was their making the Apple II the _de facto_ Standard School Computer for Minnesota -- and then writing _tons_ of educational software for it -- that helped it get mass-adopted by US school systems. * And many a teacher had a Mac on their own desk, for keeping track of grades and creating assignment handouts and worksheets.

[@ZILOGz80VIDEOS]

My elementary school was doing the same thing in the early 2000s with their old fleet of 68k Mac lcs, computer labs all had imacs while the teachers could use the Mac LCs in their classrooms

[@strudelninja]

The GS is what my elementary school had in the mid 90s in the computer lab that was mainly focused on typing. While I was there, the district started switching over to Windows, first putting a setup on a cart (with a TV on top) in every classroom. I assume the GSes were handed down from the high schools. Interestingly, the gifted program was located at a high school and as such we had our own lab of different Macs from what I used when I was at my elementary school, and the classrooms had a wall of Macs along with multiple Windows stations.

[@FordGTmaniac]

I remember being in 4th grade in 2004, one of our classrooms STILL had a couple of Apple IIs to that day and we played Oregon Trail on them when all of our work was done.

[@SevenCompleted]

woah damn lol my school got rid of them in 99 and I bought one for 10 dollars

[@tarstarkusz]

I had basic programming in10th grade and Pascal in 11th grade on an Apple IIe in 1985 and 1986. But there were no games in school and the computers were in computer labs which was where the classes were taught. In both years, my Computer science teacher was my math teacher.

[@RoderikvanReekum]

Was you school in North Korea? We were rocking pentium 2's in The Netherlands by then.

[@SevenCompleted]

@@RoderikvanReekum we had those too but the apple lab was more to learn typing and basic computer skills that didnt require a powerful PC.

[@FordGTmaniac]

@@RoderikvanReekum Nope, it was in the U.S. in rural Pennsylvania. Most of the computers we had were actually running Windows XP by that point, those Apple II's were the odd ones out.

[@chrismason7066]

Anither great video. I have still yet to find someone on this planet that does these types of videos and subjects better than david.

[@jimmclaren1]

I graduated from high school in 1994, your school experience with Apple computers mirrors mine. Apple ][ computers in elementary school, junior high replacement with Macintosh. Apple ][‘s were still used in random places here and there up through high school. Great video - thank you!

[@jecelassumpcaojr890]

The disk controller card did have two PROM chips, but only one was used for the software (Woz thought that 256 bytes was all anyone would need). The other was part of the hardware, implementing a finite state machine to synchronize the incoming bits.

[@ischmidt]

There's also a 2K window at $C800 that cards share via a protocol to get more ROM space. Most cards then banked that window when they had control of it so e.g. SCSI cards often had 8 or 16K of firmware on the card.

[@rager1969]

I remember the big "features" of the Apple IIe over the Apple II+ was the addition of lower case, plus they had both the ] and [ keys. The Apple II+ had just one of these keys (I forget which one), requiring the use of the CHR$() command to use the other. Oh, and I think they got rid of the Rept key, providing auto key repeat, though this was not as big a deal to us kids, nor was 80 columns.

[@outsidethewaxbox]

The //c+ actually embraced the new hardware color palette before the IIe Enhanced. Hartmutt Eslinger's frogdesign developed the "Snow White" design guidelines for the Macintosh II and the //c+ was the first non-Mac to follow those guidelines. This also includes the phasing out of stamped plating with the rainbow Apple logo with Motter Tektura typeface to the embedded jewel logo with screenprinted Garamond typeface.

[@jonc4403]

"Snow White" was the design style used for the original //c, which was the first computer to use it, before the Mac got it. The Platinum color was used for the //c+, but the IIgs was the first non-Mac to get the Platinum color.

[@pbjordi]

As a kid who grew up in the 80s and 90s, I remember very well the Apple II. They had several of these machines at my school, and it was my first experience using computers, I remember learning logo, and playing for hours games like Karateka or Prince of Persia. One year later my parents bought a Macintosh, which was our first computer at home. Thanks for the video!

[@mendosi]

It's easy to forget, so much later, that the Apple II isn't a computer, but a line of computers. So good to learn a bit more about the machines I used when I was younger.

[@jeromevenet3997]

Thank you David for this part of computer history ! The Apple II and the AMIGA are for me the most important computers in this industry and are my favorite ! I had a Apple iic after my Oric Atmos and then I went to the AMIGA. So many great moments !!!!! I still have all of them with a lot of other old 8-bits computers !!!

[@michaelelsy2209]

Those where the days when you could easily update your 🍏.

[@Bleats_Sinodai]

You know what I'd love to see in the future? How you made your Intro animations. Ever since the first one you did for the iBookGuy era, I've always been curious to how you made them, and if they actually play the audio or if you added it in post.

[@robvegas9354]

In 1986 the primary school i was at got an Apple 2E with a monitor. It was on a cart and got wheeled around to each classroom on a schedule. The idea was to teach us kids about computers but most of us ended up playing the games on it like Carmen Sandiego. I guess that was somewhat educational.

[@deejayiwan7]

As a journalist and editor, i must say that you knowledge and presentation is impeccable

[@MrLurchsThings]

I’d love to see a dedicated IIc video. Still my favourite of the Apple II machines.

[@TechTimeTraveller]

Yaaaay! And with all due respect to Woz.. definitely one has to be careful with his rememberings. He's made some.. claims. Love him though.

[@dustylife]

What was also amazing is how much functionality could be packed into that tiny 256 byte prom on the cards. Even though you could use up to 2k for the card most used a 256 byte prom because of cost. Also if you study the code on them (some were published in the manuals like the first serial cards) it's interesting to see how the software determined what slot it was in. It would call a subroutine in the monitor rom which just did a RTS. Then it would examine the return address bytes that where pushed onto the processor stack for the JSR to determine what slot it was in so that the code could properly access the correct i/o space. Not only that, the code had to be address independent, branches only no JMP etc... And in some of them if you entered the code in an offset position it was new code that would do different things. Totally amazing. BTW I just opened my Apple II plus time capsule! Super video 8-Bit guy especially the illustrations!

[@IMRROcom]

Just about chocked on my cheerios. i have those exact same Radio Shack REALISTIC cassette tapes I purchased for my computer. I still have a few in that are new and never have been opened.

[@kristianjensen753]

Thanks for taking us down memory lane. Facinating as always. I remember that we used some model of the Apple II in the middle school I attended in the mid 1980's, where we would use "Sprite Logo" to teach us some programming.

[@ScrapKing73]

My mind was blown when I learned that the Commodore 128 nearly outsold *the entire Apple II line-up*, all by itself! I understand why publishers favoured the C64 over the C128, but I’m nonetheless amazed that more C128-specific software didn’t come given that big a customer base!

[@stevethepocket]

Where did this info come from? Because I find it pretty hard to believe. Maybe if you don't count all the ones Apple gave away to schools...

[@Akira625]

It’s unfortunate that there wasn’t more native C128 software available. It’s extra RAM and support for 80 columns would have made it great for business software.

[@RedRider-esRightof]

Now there is even Stunt Car Racer for the Apple II. By a Plus-4 'expert' guy from Hungary. The homebrew scene for the 8 and 16 bit is a serious thing now. I wonder if and when the AI will be good enough to actually CODE games and utilz for these.

[@fixitalex]

May sound wierd but Apple II have a soviet compatible line of computers

[@BlackRedandDEad]

I find it funny how back in the day, Apple was the one known for easy upgrades and not deliberately making it more difficult

[@leereyno]

24:42 The game on the left is an example of the Apple IIe's Double high resolution graphics mode, which was possible using IIe with a 64k / 80 column card

[@Jaxermd]

You could see the pain in his face admitting that the Apple ][ was advanced for its day compared to the Commodore! Personal growth is a journey

[@Okurka.]

Huh? 8-bit Guy is an Apple fanboi.

[@maxxdahl6062]

Out of the box I wouldn't say advanced really, more expandable, but not really more advanced.

[@Jaxermd]

Could this be the start of an Apple series from the 8-Bit Guy? Fingers crossed!

[@EnrysonFerraz]

Almost 5 Years watching this channel and still learning a lot.. Sometimes i wish that i was born on the 60-70s... just to have a chieldhood on the 70-80s

[@timcarpenter2441]

I loved this video. So grateful. The expansion card capability really was a stand-out and for me made it feel more like a flexible tool, and the longevity of the design way beyond what one would think a 6502 device would is a testament to that. If I got one, I would probably go for a //e Platinum.

[@magnum333]

Nice to see you're still here Dave! Great video! Take care

[@machinedgod]

Loving these history episodes. Still waiting for long overdue Amiga history series!

[@pabblo1]

Much of your content is before my time, my family didn't get a computer until the early 90's with a Commodore 64 and Atari ST, and I was only born many years later, after my family had gotten a Windows XP PC, but I still really enjoy this. It's well done and interesting to see how far we've come.

[@leegoldsmith2028]

My dad bought a IIe to write his dissertation around the time I was born. I remember messing with those buttons on the upscale monitor. I’m told I also experimented with adding paper clips to innards. I’m sure dad had fun with that surgery. The machine is still around and plays a mean game of Hardball. Can’t wait to show my own kids what computing was like at the onset of pcs.

[@bb.cute.channel]

Can’t wait to see the Apple //c and Apple IIGS videos!!!! 🎉🎉🎉🎉

[@robbieburns3564]

I still have an Apple //e in my basement. I turn it on every now and then for some nostalgia gaming from my youth, even though I have a PS5. These things were tanks. It's over 40 years old now and still works like when I was a kid. Amazing machines from the early days of computers, and I'm happy I still have one.

[@PashPaw]

I used an Apple IIe in my middle school in 1997. The lab was full of them, and we played MECC games on them for that class. I was fortunate to get some of the Apple II software we used after they were retired and replaced with Macs the following year.

[@IanBetteridge]

I enjoyed this a lot! I worked at Apple in 1989 as part of IS&T (information systems and technology) and we had a “playroom” which had all the machines the company was making. That included a IIc Plus with one of those attachable LCD monitors. Although the Macs were clearly more advanced, the design on that thing was so amazing.

[@dax3m]

I'm not sure if you have time to read all the comments in your videos, but I just wanted to say thank you. Been feeling quite poorly lately - but this video really helped.

[@kenmccormack7801]

Great episode! I enjoy the history ones, I love the commodore series and wanted more like it for Atari and Apple and others. Great points on why schools bought the Apple II and when it was released vs how long it lasted.

[@Colin_Ames]

I enjoy these history lessons. While I’m too old to have experienced computers in the classroom, the Italy-based company that I joined in 1978 used the Apple for programming their PLCs, and for running various diagnostic software for the electronic gauge systems that they manufactured. It worked well for these applications.

[@Nemesa]

Knowledge + nostalgia. Congratulations! These topcis are always very interesting. Even only the keys on the keyboards are part of the computer´s History. Design - which some mordern people would call vintage, classic or even old - components, software are amazing. And yet we are, despite it has not been even half a century since Moore´s Law: it never cease to surprise us all. Thanks you for the work behind: it was very interesting and educational.Greetings from Spain! ALWAYS a pleasure to listen to, Mister 8-Bit Guy.

[@Djvids-k6b]

These new Apple products make us really appreciate what was once. I love the old macs now. Especially the HD sounds when booting up.

[@carlosjuniorfox]

Very interesting how simple and clever the color works on Apple II. As far as I understood, essentially, Apple II is monochrome only. What Wozniak did, was left a color carrier at the composite video output. He did it because he already knew that the composite video signal was monochromatic and the color was added because of a relation between the brightness of the image and the color carrier. The NTSC signal handles the color comparing the position from the certain dot at the perspective of the color carrier waveform. If the dot is at the beginning of this waveform, the displayed color will be magenta, at the end, the color will be green and with the same amount of brightness between the beginning and the end for certain color carrier waveforms, the color will be white. This technique it's amazing. It cleverly took advantage of how the NTSC color system works for having color without any computing cost, but it wasn't easy to port those applications to a PAL set because of the way PAL works.

[@cpt.loogie]

Thank you... Always love seeing these retrospectives. The Apple IIe in my Kindergarten class in 1989 was what started my love affair with computers. Definitely a cornerstone of the Personal Computer era and one of the most quintessential computers of the modern era. Love these historical retrospectives. It is so cool to look back at the systems that built the foundation for what would become (in essence) the basis for my continued existence with the level of detail that you provide. Please keep fighting the good fight!

[@PhillyFixed]

That Oregon trail splash screen on an Apple IIe brings back elementary school memories for me! Excellent video.

[@casedistorted]

I went to elementary school in the early 1990’s and we had a computer lab back then that was pretty progressive looking back. They used Macintosh computers that had all the latest games and learning games, many I never got to own growing up as a Windows 3.1 and MSDOS user, but loved playing. They also taught us programs on the Mac that allowed us to make sprites and learn how to animate, as well as watched videos on how bits and bytes worked in a computer and how programming and animation worked on them. This was all pretty advanced stuff looking back as a 1-5th grade learning how to type every Wednesday in computer lab. I still remember it fondly and always wondered what kind of Macintosh’s they must have had back in those days. They seemed to be pretty new for the time since they were color monitors with a windows like OS. Edit also the school was Frank Allis Elementary in Madison, WI

[@Couchflyer-NY]

Cheers. Great explanation from a youngster. In 1979 I used the Apple II+ to learn UCSD Pascal programming in college. I had hair once too.

[@luserdroog]

It warmed my heart to see the shot of Word Munchies. sigh

[@Zoyx]

I stayed after school to play with the school Apple II in the early 80s. My biggest accomplishment was a horse racing game written in BASIC. It had 14 "horses" to match the different low-resolution colors. My parents had a TRS-80 at home, but I had more fun with the Apple II.

[@howebrad4601]

When I was in 7th to 8th grade, 81 to 82, the school had a2 computers and the rich kids had them at home. I had a ti994a myself. Computer envy! Lol. Great video. First time I saw a IIGS in the store I was amazed for that time.