Introduction
Updated 1 May 03

Welcome to the Apple II History! The core of information presented here was originally a series of articles printed in the early 1990's in the Metro Apple Computer Hobbyists (MACH) User Group Newsletter in Omaha, Nebraska. It was gathered from personal experience, from various Apple II periodicals and books, and from networking with other Apple II enthusiasts on the GEnie online service.

As it was being printed in the monthly MACH newsletter, I also uploaded these files to GEnie's Apple II library, and made it available for others to download. I stated that it could be used in other user group newsletters; my only stipulation was that I be mailed a copy of any newsletter in which it was printed. Shared via local BBS (bulletin board systems) and the fledgling World Wide Web on the Internet, it soon went around the United States and even around the world. I know that there were probably many instances in which the groups printing it did not send a copy to me, but I immensely appreciated (then and now) those who did take the time and postage to do so. At one time I was receiving a monthly mailing from the AUSOM user group in Australia, and from another large group in Great Britain. Furthermore, the history has been translated into French for at least one user group there, and another individual is in the process at this time of making a translation of the history for his French web site (see links).

In 1994, I was asked via e-mail by Erik Kloeppel if the History could be converted to HTML to make available as a web site on the Hypermall, a new web-hosting service in Colorado. Since I did not know how to create web pages at that time, I gave my approval, and the Apple II History became one of the early web sites on the Hypermall. Now called "foreThought.net", they have graciously continued to host this site, even in its new and updated form.

Admittedly, the Apple II History is not a perfect document. Since it was originally started as a series of articles for a small local user group newsletter, the research was limited to second and third-hand sources (via magazine articles, books, etc.) In certain circumstances where a piece of information was simply not available anywhere else, I did try to track down some of the original players involved in the Apple II's formative years, but did not try to monopolize more of their time than was necessary to answer my specific question. Because of the lack of primary sources for some of the information contained in the History, there are likely innacuracies published in the past that I have simply repeated. Over the years I have tried to correct major errors that have been pointed out to me, and I am still willing to do this if any others are identified.

The other fault I can find in the History would be that it is in places excessively detailed. For those who want this detail, the information is there; for those who don't want it, please overlook it. Additionally, some parts of the History are becoming somewhat dated in the way in which certain details are presented. I will hopefully be able to go through it and make those necessary minor corrections that help this read better to a 21st-century, Internet-savvy audience.

Creation of the Site

Putting this updated web site together has been an eclectic experience, to say the least. In the past I have done work on the site with both a Mac and a Windows computer. Since I was able to get a PowerBook in September 2002, I have abandoned my crash-prone Windows computer at work, and I no longer have to worry about synchronizing the files between work and home (I can carry the computer both places!)

The Macintosh is my platform of choice, specifically the PowerBook G4. I suppose after all of those years using an Apple II-family product I am comfortable and accustomed to working with the underdog (back then, it was the Apple II struggling against the Macintosh usurper; now it is the Macintosh struggling against the behemoth of Windows). My personal experience with Mac OS X is that it definitely is less crash-prone than my old Windows 98 machine (on which I would have to perform a clean install of Windows about twice a year or more, to fix the increasing numbers of random crashes I would begin to encounter). Keeping the History web site up to date is significantly more convenient with the portable PowerBook.

I have used Adobe's GoLive 5.0 (and now 6.0) as my major web-site organization tool. Not only does it help with most of the layout issues I've had in updating the site, but it can make linking errors difficult to miss. Also, if re-arranging directories is done, it can automatically update all of the links in the site that reference those moved files; a significant time savings. There are features of this program I know that I have not yet discovered.

Graphic Converter was used for some of the graphics-related work on the site, and I can highly recommend it as a less-expensive tool for managing picture files, especially for the graphically-challenged.

When it comes to "bang for the buck", you can't beat BBEdit Lite. It makes multiple find/replace in files, open or otherwise, quite easy, and has powerful matching and "grep" tools for those who can figure them out.

Bernie ][ The Rescue is a fabulous Apple IIgs emulator for the Mac, and I was able to use it to get some screen-shot pictures of Apple II fonts and a couple of screens (maybe more in the future). As an emulator it is surpassed only by Virtual PC; however, its quality and bullet-proof design make it in the same class as the Virtual PC.

Other tools were used to make this happen, especially CGI and Perl files to help with some of the housekeeping features of the site. I'll get around to giving them credit one of these days.

Conclusion

If you have comments about the History or the additional side-attractions that I have added over the years, please feel free to sign the guestbook. Otherwise, click here to begin reading the Apple II History.