Typical "Store Bought" Various Apple II Configurations?

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Here2Learn's picture
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Typical "Store Bought" Various Apple II Configurations?

Hello. I am curious as to what a typical "store bought" system would be for the various Apple II models. If a customer bought a particular Apple II/+/c/c+/e/GS system, what did a typical system have, when purchased new, when each system was current?

For example, when my parents bought our Apple IIe in 1985, it came with:

enhanced IIe
Apple extended 80-column text card
whatever a disk card for the Duodisk is called
Duodisk
Monitor II

That sounds typical to me.

Thank you for any replies.

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Re: Typical "Store Bought" Various Apple II Configurations?

For the Apple II and II+ it was all over the place, a lot of early II's and II+'s used color TV's, however once 80 column became a must people started switching to monochrome monitor's. However the Apple IIe your parents purchased was probably the most common set up for the time. Apple IIc's either were purchased with a monochrome monitor/stand, or a color monitor/stand. Sometimes people used their TV's.

Apple IIgs's almost always were purchased with an RGB monitor and at least one 3.5 drive.

It all really depended on who's buying them and what their plans were for the computer at the time.

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Re: Typical "Store Bought" Various Apple II Configurations?

My friends and I bought bare bones 4K systems in early '78, which came with a color demo/breakout tape and paddles and paired mono cables for the cassette tape. We also bought the M&R modulators to use with color TVs, and found our own 4116 memory chips to expand memory. I purchased a Radio Shack tape recorder. One of my friends bought a bare motherboard and found his own power supply and keyboard. Other stuff like the Disk ][ and Applesoft Firmware boards came later.

regards,
Mike W.

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Re: Typical "Store Bought" Various Apple II Configurations?

The first Apple II+ I could truly call my absolute very own was of the Family System configuration.

The configuration is described here -- ftp://ftp.apple.asimov.com/pub/apple_II/documentation/misc/Apple Computer Family System Alt.pdf

Here2Learn's picture
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Re: Typical "Store Bought" Various Apple II Configurations?

WOW!! THANKS!!

ftp://ftp.apple.asimov.com/pub/apple_II/documentation/misc/Apple%20Computer%20Family%20System%20Alt.pdf

By the way, I was "Pat Ewing" on rgvac, 15 years ago, if you might remember me, Keatah.

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Re: Typical "Store Bought" Various Apple II Configurations?

I started using the Apple ][+ in JAN-1982, while in High School.. I bought My first Apple, an Apple ][e in NOV-1983.

It was a Rev-B Board, built about MAY-1983. All Apple ][e's have 64K Bytes of RAM on the Motherboard, it additionally came with the 1K Byte, 80 Column Card, A Disk ][ Controller and one Disk ][ and the Apple /// Green Screen Monitor..

This seemed like a fairly common configuration for the first Apple ][e's.

MarkO

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Re: Typical "Store Bought" Various Apple II Configurations?

I bought a new Apple II+ around 1980 or so.
It came with one Apple drive and a drive controller.
Also an RF modulator for TV.

While it came in the original box, I think it had been a demo unit.
I purchased it as 48K machine, but when I opened it at home it had a 16K board already installed.

Soon after I bought a 2nd drive (not an apple brand) and an Amdek 13" color monitor.
Also several different joysticks and controllers.
First disks ever bought were Taxman and Cranston Manor.

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Re: Typical "Store Bought" Various Apple II Configurations?

I recall seeing a Microsoft Ramcard at some gay-ass CES show (I got thrown out of it), for something like $299 to $599. And it was then I knew the Apple II was going to go places. This had nothing to do with it being mfg. by Microsoft, but that fact that I was in possession of a computer which had limitless possibilities with expansion.

Aside from the Family System kit, all my Apple 2 series paraphernalia was acquired piecemeal. A card here a disk there.. n'so on.. Mostly.

When I did get an accessory though, I got all of it. A complete Alpha Syntauri system, A complete Novation Apple-Cat II, A complete MicroModem - the first kind with the MicroCoupler.

..If that's not too contradictory..

Anyhow - In the 70's and early 80's my head was full of sci-fi nonsense. I had visions of super laser-powered co-processor cards and video rendering chips and sorts of things being put in there. Massive amounts of memory that could hold truckloads of Corvus Drives all on a magical crystal. A special board that could run every arcade game ever invented. I even tried programming AI routines into the memory array afforded me by the 16k card.

I had grown up with non-expandable Pong consoles, so the idea of plug-in circuits was a pretty novel concept.

Keep in mind I was a kid in grade school at the time. A time when we thought about tech in term of what could be done, not what couldn't.

I better stop and not go off on nostalgic tangents anymore.

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Re: Typical "Store Bought" Various Apple II Configurations?

My system had an apple green composite monitor, duodisk drive, 80 column card, and an apple joystick, no chip enhancement. There was a rumor going around at the time when my system came out about overheating. That is why the Kensington System Saver came out. With no System Saver, you could not use the computer for more than 15 minutes at a time.

About the duodisk controller... Even a disk ii controller card with the right adapter can control a duo disk.

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