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Endless possibilities. The owners manual came with schematics in case you wanted to wire it up to just about anything. Compute magazine published software in

Endless possibilities. The owners manual came with schematics in case you wanted to wire it up to just about anything. Compute magazine published software in the magazine, and you'd have to sit there for hours typing code into the console, but at the end you've have software that someone else designed. If you had a modem you could dial a bbs and talk to people or trade games. Copying games and software was trival which allowed all sorts of things to flourish. I even had a point and click mouse for mine and had purchased a module that would do speech to text, albeit very rudimentary. Apple IIs were popular but largely limited to proprietary products. Commodore was built around the idea that the computer is just a processor for something larger.. whatever you wanted to build, and not limited to software.

jackhack 7y ago
>Apple IIs were popular but largely limited to proprietary products. Could you please expand on this thought? I'm genuinely curious as to what you mean by proprietary. I cut my teeth on an Apple ][ with integer BASIC one would load from a tape. (Later, a ][+ with built-in Applesoft Basic and a floppy drive.) I'm puzzled what you mean when you refer to proprietary prouducts. I had an Epson dot-matrix printer, a 110/300 baud Hayes modem, and later AppleCat modem (1200 baud, full duplex, oh yeah!), a time/calendar card. A few different no-name joysticks, etc. The Apple ][s expansion bus slots actively encouraged aftermarket support. Anyone could create a peripherial. Software came from magazines, commericial sellers (back of Nibble or Popular Computing magazines), shareware, my own imagination, BBS downloads, etc. I think in more ways than not, the experience with the Apple ][ was in common with Commodore 64/128 users. The industry was blossoming, and competing by offering wildly different solutions with a common core.
- panzagl 7y ago
  Didn't Apple IIs require a monitor vs a TV? The Apple joysticks were also different from the 9 pin Atari/C64 ones. But they weren't 'proprietary' as much as 'differnet and more expensive'.
  - reaperducer 7y ago
    Not just the joysticks. A useful Apple ][ system was double or triple the cost of a similarly capable C-64. Apples were great machines, but because of their timing and price they were considered business machines. At least until IBM changed the world.
  - DerekL 7y ago
    You could use an RF modulator and connect it to a TV, but it wasn't included with the system.

jackhack 7y ago

>Apple IIs were popular but largely limited to proprietary products. Could you please expand on this thought? I'm genuinely curious as to what you mean by proprietary. I cut my teeth on an Apple ][ with integer BASIC one would load from a tape. (Later, a ][+ with built-in Applesoft Basic and a floppy drive.) I'm puzzled what you mean when you refer to proprietary prouducts. I had an Epson dot-matrix printer, a 110/300 baud Hayes modem, and later AppleCat modem (1200 baud, full duplex, oh yeah!), a time/calendar card. A few different no-name joysticks, etc. The Apple ][s expansion bus slots actively encouraged aftermarket support. Anyone could create a peripherial. Software came from magazines, commericial sellers (back of Nibble or Popular Computing magazines), shareware, my own imagination, BBS downloads, etc. I think in more ways than not, the experience with the Apple ][ was in common with Commodore 64/128 users. The industry was blossoming, and competing by offering wildly different solutions with a common core.

panzagl 7y ago
Didn't Apple IIs require a monitor vs a TV? The Apple joysticks were also different from the 9 pin Atari/C64 ones. But they weren't 'proprietary' as much as 'differnet and more expensive'.
- reaperducer 7y ago
  Not just the joysticks. A useful Apple ][ system was double or triple the cost of a similarly capable C-64. Apples were great machines, but because of their timing and price they were considered business machines. At least until IBM changed the world.
- DerekL 7y ago
  You could use an RF modulator and connect it to a TV, but it wasn't included with the system.