Questions tagged [apple-ii]
For questions about the Apple II series of personal computers, and related software and hardware. For questions about Apple hardware in general, use the tag "apple"; for questions about the IIGS in particular, use the tag "apple-iigs".
1
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2answers
93 views
Why did the Apple //e behave in certain unfriendly ways?
When I began high school in 1987 all the computers in the lab were Apple //e desktop computers. So I have a question that has haunted me:
The disks were floppy disks, often the Verbatim brand, to ...
3
votes
3answers
157 views
Is there any tool to convert .DSK to mp3 file?
I was looking into the Apple II disk server (See below for background information) and curious if there is a tool that can actually convert .DSK image to .MP3 file, as the underlying c2t only supports ...
5
votes
2answers
140 views
What combinations of modifier keys can you detect on an Apple II?
Apple II computers other than the IIgs (which uses ADB) have a hardwired keyboard combined with the paddle/joystick ports for input. What combinations of modifier keys can you detect? I know that the ...
4
votes
4answers
982 views
Why does this Apple //e drops into system monitor when booting?
I recently purchased an Apple //e online as well as a BMOW Floppy Emu in order to emulate some disk images. After working with it successfully for awhile, this monitor consistently appeared in lieu of ...
10
votes
3answers
799 views
Did Apple bundle a specific monitor with the Apple II+ for schools?
Sometime in 1980 (or maybe 1981) my school district purchased its first batch of Apple II+ computers. I remember vividly they had absolutely no idea what to do with them, and so the machines were ...
20
votes
1answer
2k views
Why was it possible to cause an Apple //e to shut down with SHIFT and paddle button 2?
Looking at the MAME driver for the Apple //e, I noticed an interesting comment:
NOTE: On real IIe and IIe enhanced h/w, pressing SHIFT and paddle button 2 will short out the power supply and cause ...
9
votes
1answer
255 views
How did the Zip Chip and RocketChip accelerators work for the Apple II?
Though there is already a similar question on the site, this one is more specific to these chips and their technical implementation.
There were two accelerators for the Apple II series that were drop-...
6
votes
1answer
162 views
Why does the Apple IIgs FPI chip buffer the A14 address signal to the ROM?
In the Apple IIgs computer, the address and data buses of the 65C816 CPU connect directly to the onboard ROM, except for A14, which, according to the schematic, is routed through the FPI ASIC. There's ...
9
votes
1answer
545 views
Why wasn't the Z6 version of the Infocom Z-machine ported to the IIgs?
Infocom ported their Z-machine to nearly every viable platform in the 70s and 80s. Zork runs on around 18 different 8/16 bit platforms using earlier versions of the Z-machine. Why was Z6 the graphical ...
5
votes
2answers
360 views
Why did the Apple IIc perform badly in the market?
The Apple IIc was a compact version of the Apple II that eschewed internal expansion slots in favor of having the popular expansion options already built in, and saving cost and weight. Apple expected ...
5
votes
2answers
102 views
Does the Apple IIgs FPI assert /CROMSEL for *write* accesses to the extended ROM space?
The FPI (fast processor interface) ASIC in the Apple IIgs generates the /CROMSEL chip-select signal, which is used to select a ROM in the memory expansion slot. Obviously the /CROMSEL signal must be ...
3
votes
1answer
129 views
How much RAM did the first version of Oregon Trail on the Apple II require?
The later iterations of the series could have hundreds of kilobytes of RAM, but the original Apple II had 4K in the minimum configuration and 48K maximum (the latter using 16kbit chips which were ...
4
votes
0answers
130 views
What would happen if the DHR jumper was enabled on a Rev A Apple //e?
The Apple //e originally did not support Double HiRes graphics (DHR). The engineers realized they could double their hires and lores X resolution shortly after the introduction of the machine, so the ...
2
votes
1answer
132 views
How to transfer file from one disk to another in Apple //e (Applewin)
For the nostalgia, I'm going through Apple Pascal - A Hands-on Approach using AppleWin.
There are four disks, pascal0 through pascal3, and for some reason pascal0 is missing a file called SYSTEM....
12
votes
1answer
722 views
Was the Spartan by Mimic Systems a real product?
I was flipping through an old copy of RUN magazine and came across an advertisement for a product called "The Spartan" produced by Mimic Systems. I had forgotten about this product completely, but I ...
21
votes
2answers
427 views
Why did Apple remove booting from external drives in later IIc ROM versions?
Apple II computers don't come with DOS in ROM, but rather need to boot from a floppy disk to make the disk drives usable. The IIc was the first Apple II that came with a built-in disk drive, so ...
2
votes
1answer
173 views
A game where you could sell body parts for cash
Ages ago I played a scifi game on the Apple IIgs where you could sell body parts for cash. The game involved travel between planets and selling parts of yourself was a last ditch option to raise money ...
3
votes
2answers
216 views
Why not make more use of the video generation logic?
The Apple II is famously built around its video generator. Conveniently, addresses are generated which scan all of the video memory and somehow spits the contents onto the screen.
Its occurred to me ...
44
votes
13answers
15k views
How was it back then in 1984, when the Apple II had color, and the new Macintosh didn't?
I imagine it being a huge downgrade for some, not to have color on the Macintosh. Macintosh games were black and white in the beginning, while Apple II had color.
I'm especially interested in ...
17
votes
2answers
2k views
Why did the original Apple //e have two sets of inverse video characters?
According to Apple II Technical notes Mouse #6, updated January 1989,
In unenhanced Apple IIe computers, the alternate character set contained two sets of inverse uppercase characters. In the ...
6
votes
2answers
489 views
Did any Apple II games use a “timing resistor”?
A science-lab program for the Apple II (I forget the name) had a board that plugged into the joystick port and included a "timing resistor". While I don't know what the program actually did with the ...
3
votes
1answer
289 views
Why did SAM on the Apple II use its own DAC?
From the comments on this question, the SAM on the Apple II seemed to use some proprietary hardware to produce the waveform. (I am not counting the option to produce a horrendous 1-bit PWM using the ...
39
votes
3answers
4k views
How did Apple ][ basic programs protect against listing?
I seem to recall from my high-school days that certain Apple ][ programs protected themselves from being listed and therefore modified.
If you tried to do it, the machine would simply reboot.
How ...
16
votes
1answer
2k views
How do accelerators and CPU cards work on the Apple II?
An Amiga 1200 exposes the entire CPU bus on the expansion port, so that an accelerator only needs to assert BR which causes the onboard CPU to stop all computation and electrically disconnect from the ...
4
votes
1answer
202 views
Why did PAL Apple //e motherboards have the AUX slot inline with Slot 3 instead of near the power supply?
The Apple II architecture supported 7 memory-mapped expansion cards which could be optionally installed towards the rear of the motherboard in individual expansion card connectors. On the Apple //e, ...
6
votes
1answer
405 views
Trying to identify an Apple II space trading game
I'm trying to identify a game I remember from my first exposure to computers (the Apple II at secondary school back in the late '70s).
I remember two games I really enjoyed, the first a Star-Trek-...
13
votes
2answers
3k views
1980s game with a guy with an axe on a flying disc
I'm trying to identify a game I remember from the 1980s. The game was shown from a bird's-eye viewpoint (or maybe isometric?), on Apple IIe, IIRC.
You controlled a guy with an axe, who was ...
10
votes
1answer
765 views
Help identify old Apple game from 80s (Apple II, Apple IIGS)
I am trying to remember the name of a game I played on Apple II or Apple IIGS.
From what I can remember, the beginning of the game you are looking for your lost uncle or something. You to another ...
5
votes
1answer
292 views
Recent article about using Apple II for security purposes
I'm looking for the article for a project. It is fairly recent, may have been a news article, or a blog. It in turn might have referenced a scholarly paper.
Anyway, the gist of the article was that ...
5
votes
2answers
448 views
Is there any benefit of using an Apple Language Card in an Apple IIe?
From what I understand, the original Apple Language Card was basically a RAM expansion card for the Apple II and Apple II+. This expansion increased the on-board RAM by 16K. Normally, if you needed ...
3
votes
2answers
318 views
Labor input for manufacture of early personal computers
In the early days of personal computers, manufacturing was not as automated as it later became, and a factory would often consist of people sitting at tables placing components by hand.
I'm ...
35
votes
7answers
8k views
How did Apple fail to tap the business and scientific markets?
Currently reading an excellent book called Blue Magic: The People, Power and Politics Behind the IBM Personal Computer, which is just what it says on the tin; highly recommended to anyone who wants to ...
8
votes
3answers
679 views
How specific was the Apple II floppy disk controller?
One of Wozniak's greatest inventions was the Apple II floppy disk controller, which allowed Apple to avoid going the Atari/Commodore route of making each disk drive a computer in its own right; ...
10
votes
4answers
2k views
What are the rules for Applesoft BASIC formatting for code?
What are the rules for Applesoft BASIC formatting for code? I've been doing some BASIC coding and noticed that:
10 input "some question?"; name$
Will be reformatted as:
10 INPUT "some question?";...
5
votes
1answer
312 views
1980's ROM used which exp(n) algorithm?
In 1980's ROM (Apple IIe, Commodore 64, VIC-20, ...) which algorithm is used to compute exp(x), and where do the coefficients below come from? (Chebyshev, Remez, Pade, ...)
.byte $71,$34,$58,$3E,$...
2
votes
1answer
152 views
Turn off Apple IIe sound
Is there a way to disable sound output on the Apple IIe from Applesoft Basic? Can't seem to find this in any of the documentation or online.
Update: Found this
From http://www.calormen.com/jsbasic/...
4
votes
0answers
224 views
Cost of Apple II switching power supply
Apple went to the trouble of designing a switching power supply at a time when they were still quite new and not widely used for consumer electronics, perhaps because Steve Jobs liked the aesthetics ...
9
votes
4answers
622 views
Columns of text in early microcomputers
As discussed in some previous questions here, 80-column text was established by IBM as the standard for business computing as early as the sixties, but monitors capable of displaying that resolution ...
3
votes
1answer
273 views
Contiki on Apple IIe without Uthernet card
Can I run Contiki on my Apple IIe without an Uthernet card? For example, I was thinking that I could run my Raspberry Pi to emulate a network card through the serial port as a null modem. Any ...
8
votes
2answers
478 views
How did the Microprofessor II have space for a Chinese font in the ROM?
There's an Apple II clone from Taiwan which apparently forgoes the text mode and just has a graphics mode because it's simpler that way to render Chinese writing.
It had a 16K ROM, of which 12K is a ...
3
votes
2answers
340 views
What's the fastest Apple II (sans accelerator card)?
The candidates are:
Apple IIgs, with its 2.8 MHz 65816 CPU, running in 65C02 "emulation mode"
Apple //c+, with 4.0 MHz 65C02, but overclocked to 8.0 MHz
Laser 128EX with 3.6 MHz 65C02
I want to know ...
5
votes
2answers
198 views
How can you reset the behavior of ONERR in AppleSoft BASIC?
In an Applesoft BASIC program you can use the standard MS-BASIC ONERR statement to perform error trapping. For example:
10 ONERR GOTO 100
20 POKE 0, 400 : REM INVALID VALUE WILL CAUSE ERROR
30 END
...
34
votes
4answers
7k views
What determines the color of every 8th pixel on the Apple II?
On the Apple II there's an interesting way to add a little color to the bitmap, since the high bit select the palette used for the three-and-a-half pixels represented by the byte. Like this:
0: Black,...
6
votes
3answers
553 views
Practical uses for Applied Engineering 65C816 replacement for IIe?
Applied Engineering produced many advanced and unusual add-on devices for the Apple II product line. One of these was a 65C816 CPU card for the Apple IIe, which replaced the processor with a daughter ...
9
votes
2answers
538 views
Is all 100% of a 64k Apple II memory usable?
Are there any areas of the 64k RAM which are permanently unusable by anything, whether by the built-in monitor ROM or user programs?
Looking at $C000-C0FF, this is the "softswitch" area, and as far ...
6
votes
2answers
231 views
In Applesoft BASIC, does combining statements into a single line speed up execution?
In Applesoft BASIC, does combining statements into a single line speed up execution?
For example, would this:
10 PRINT "HELLO WORLD" : FOR I = 1 TO 100 : PRINT I : NEXT I
Run faster than this:
10 ...
4
votes
2answers
162 views
How to test an Orange Micro Grappler+ card?
Are there some tests that can be done to verify the operation of an Orange Micro Grappler+ printer interface card (1982) in an Apple //e? I've searched around the web and the paper manuals for ...
8
votes
2answers
714 views
How did the Address Decode for Apple II Expansion Cards Work?
How did the Apple II decode the addresses for the expansion cards?
From The Apple Story:
Alan Baum helped a lot. I already had some address decoders on the
board that decoded every 16th and ...
7
votes
1answer
608 views
Apple II bus: IRQ and DMA priority
One of the weirdest misfeatures of the Apple II - and perhaps the dumbest thing Woz ever designed - is the vestigial priority system for IRQ and DMA on the Apple II expansion bus.
Each slot has four ...
1
vote
1answer
278 views
Apple II Plus modifier key doesn’t work
I received my Apple II Plus today from eBay. I powered up my computer without adding anything into it (it didn’t came with any card either). It started up in the ROM Applesoft BASIC just fine. However,...
