The article (below) shows some early pictures of the Apple 1 prototype, which was sold at the world’s first computer store, the Byte Shop, located in Mountain View, California. I never had an Apple 1, and I lusted for an Apple ][ computer. I finally obtained an Apple //c and then an Apple IIgs, but by then the Macintosh was the preferred Apple computer. It was a good run.
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A lot of people dont realize but IBM made a personal computer before the Apple I, the IBM 5100:
http://oldcomputers.net/ibm5100.html
At its base price of $8k it could have sold if RAM and 2 floppy drives were include in the price. But with full RAM and floppys included the price went up to $25k !!
Here are some other personal computers of the late 70s that all have much higher specs than the Apple II or TRS-80:
Sol-20 1976
http://oldcomputers.net/sol-20.html
NorthStar Horizon 1977
http://oldcomputers.net/northstar-horizon.html
Rockwell AIM-65 1977
http://oldcomputers.net/AIM-65.html
Ohio Scientific 1978
http://oldcomputers.net/osi-600.html
Heathkit H8 1977
http://oldcomputers.net/heathkit-h8.html
did you ever come across any of these computers Dan?
Comment by BradC — November 24, 2012 @ 11:42 pm
Not seen any of them in person, but I sure read about them! A guy I knew in the San Diego Computer Society had a Northstar, but I never saw it in person. Cool stuff!
Comment by admin — November 24, 2012 @ 11:48 pm
I am really fascinated by computer history so Id like to get some questions out of the way so I dont have to wait for you to bring up the topic again.
-What do you think of the Apple IIc as far as programming? Was integer BASIC bad? Was it good for assembly programming?
-The Apple II came out in 1986, how did that compare to the Mac and PC hardware of that time? Was the graphics good?
-Since you went to UCSD, did you ever use the UCSD Pascal? I heard that was an entire OS and that its version of Pascal was dynamically typed.
-Did you know anyone who built their own computers by buying the circuit board and then adding all the peripherals? I heard the mobo for the Apple II could even be bought by itself.
Comment by BradC — November 25, 2012 @ 3:08 pm
It was okay. I didn’t have an Apple II system long enough to do extensive programming, though I had many friends who did. They used BASIC at first, then went to assembly. I programmed the GS some in assembly.
I think you mean Apple IIGS. Its graphics and sound were very good. It had the Ensonic sound chip. Very nice. But no one was developing software for it. All the developers were told by Apple that the future was the Macintosh.
BTW, I had to borrow money from the bank to get my Apple IIGS. I squeezed two books out of it, which was good. But I told the bank that I only needed the money for a few months. They said, “Whatever.” But, man, were they pissed when I paid off the loan early, no interest. HA! Better: I ended up selling the IIgs for about half of what I bought it. That’s never happened before or since.
I never took a single programming course, ever. I was, however, telling my friends how to program, which was odd. Had I picked up on the fact that I naturally took to programming, it might have changed my destiny. Fortunately it didn’t.
I knew some oldtimers who bought Heathkit computers, which required full assembly. I don’t know anyone who had an Apple I.
The built-it-yourself thing was primarily in the 1970s. By the time I bought my first computer in 1982, they pretty much came fully assembled. Well, I mean, you could buy and install components, but you weren’t soldering anything.
Comment by admin — November 25, 2012 @ 3:17 pm