I started my vintage apple journey with a Mac SE and was a good start. Later on I found a local seller of vintage apple gear that got me a //e. The unit belonged to ABC refrigeration in Seattle, LOL even had a label to call them for service. ;-)
Getting into the //e was breathtaking to say the least. I only had to hook up to a big screen tv and boot into basic. Yes I've been playing around on that now for a couple of weeks, never gets old. Recently discovered I can use my old ipod to upload games on the cassette port, unfreakin real! If I'd compare the SE to the //e I say it like having a dishwasher and a kitchen sink. No wonder these machines are still around, no moving parts to wear out, the video and cassette ports are still revelant. You also had a geek behind it all who loved to hack and play games.
I also picked up a very beaten dirty monitor II that was advertised as not working. For the price couldn't go wrong. Got it home and yes it wouldn't fire up. Left it on for awhile and recycled power and she came alive. Yes it has the "lazy capacitor syndrome" that takes 2 cycles to power up. Every now an then she crackles and pops, a couple of slaps on the side and she is good to go. My daughter says she can hear a high pitched sound coming from it but I can't hear a thing! ;-) Us old geezers, I betcha the old flyback is going out.
I also belong to the 68MLA forum but find it wholly lame when it comes to the apple ii. Folks post there but not much activity for these old beasts.
Anyway I see most of threads here are technical in nature, thought I would throw a user story in the mix. Looking at getting one of those uuuthernet cards and try browsing the text internet and telneting to a vintage bbs.
Cheers and dam glad to be here!
Gary
Thanks for the story!
Haha, I remember, when I was a kid, I could indeed hear the high pitched buzz from outside my father's office - so I knew whether the machine was switched on. Some 35 years later the very same machine is sitting in my office now - and still works perfectly. But it no longer makes any humm. Well, I guess that must be monitor which improved over the years... :-)))
cheers,
T.
I did enjoy your non technical story. I'm a recent Apple II user too.
Just watch out, the Apple IIs are addictive, and those slots mean you can find yourself buying "just one more upgrade".
Disks are the first thing to get, either real or something like the BMOW FloppyEmu. The cassette interface gets real slow real quick :-)
I've gone the "real disk" route for now. I was able to "bootstrap" my way from having no disks to a nice little library by using the DiskServer website to upload enough disks to get ADTPro up and running, and went from there.
I've also "piggybacked" off the work of others, and made myself a PC joystick to Apple joystick adapter, so I can play Loderunner properly.
I'm just using an old LCD TV with a composite in for video. It handles the picture fine on my PAL system.
Cheers!
Chesh