Games - Apple IIc

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The Apple IIc, the fourth model in the Apple II line of personal computers, was Apple Computer's first endeavor to produce a portable computer. The end result was a "luggable" 7½ pound notebook sized version of the Apple II which could be easily be transported from place to place. The "c" in the name stood for "compact", referring to the fact it was essentially a complete Apple II computer setup (minus display and power supply) squeezed into a small notebook sized housing. While sporting a built-in floppy drive and new rear peripheral expansion ports, it lacked the internal expansion slots and direct motherboard access of earlier Apple II's, making it a closed system. However that was the intended direction for this model--a more appliance like machine, ready to use out of the box, requiring no technical know-how or experience to hook up and therefore attractive to first time users.

History

The Apple IIc was released in April 1984, during an Apple held event called "Apple II Forever". The new machine was proclaimed as proof of Apple's long term commitment to the Apple II series and its users, an assurance the company's older technology would not be forsaken or dropped with the recent introduction of the Macintosh. While essentially an Apple IIe computer in a smaller case, it was not a successor, but rather a portable version to complement it. One Apple II machine would be sold for users who required the expandability of slots, and another for those wanting the simplicity of a plug and play machine with portability in mind.

The machine introduced Apple's Snow White design language, notable for its elegant case styling and a sleek modern look which soon became the standard for most Apple equipment and computers, and continuing for nearly a decade after. The origin of term comes from the Apple IIc's unique pure snow white coloring, the only Apple made computer produced in this color (other machines were typically beige or light grey). While relatively light weight and compact in design, the Apple IIc was not a true portable in design as it lacked a built-in battery and display.

Codenames for the machine while under development included: Lollie, ET, Yoda, Teddy, VLC, IIb, IIp.

Overview of features

Improving the IIe

Technically the Apple IIc was the Apple IIe computer in a smaller case, retaining the same set of features. Building on the design, it did manage to offer a few minor improvement without affecting compatibility. First it utilized the CMOS based 65C02 microprocessor (instead of a plain 6502) which added 27 new processor instructions and drew less power. The new ROM firmware allowed Applesoft BASIC to recognize lowercase characters, work better with an 80 columns display and fixed several bugs from the IIe ROM. In terms of video, the text display added 32 unique character symbols called "Mousetext" which, when placed side by side, could display simplistic looking icons, windows and menus to recreate a graphical user interface completely out of text, similar in concept to IBM ANSI. Note: A year later the Apple IIe would benefit from these improvements in the form of a four chip upgrade called the Enhanced IIe.

Built-in cards and ports

The equivalent of five slot cards were built-in and integrated into the Apple IIc motherboard. These included: An Extended 80 Columns Card, two Apple Super Serial Cards, a Mouse Card and a floppy drive controller card. For starters this meant the Apple IIc had 128K RAM, 80 columns text and Double-Hi-Resolution graphics built-in and available right out of the box, unlike its older sibling the Apple IIe. It also meant less of a need for slots as the most popular peripheral add-on cards were already built-in, ready for devices to be plugged into the rear ports of the machine. The built-in cards were mapped to phantom slots so software from slot-based Apple II models would know where to find them (i.e. mouse to virtual slot 4, serial cards to slot 1 and 2, floppy to slot 6, and so on). Of interest is the entire Apple Disk II Card, used for controlling floppy drives, had been shrunk down into a single chip called the "IWM" which stood for Integrated Wozniak Machine.

In the rear of the machine were its expansion ports, mostly for providing access to its built-in cards. The standard DE9 joystick connector doubled as a mouse interface, compatible with the same mice used by the Lisa and early Macintosh computers. Two serial ports were provided primarily to support a printer and modem, a floppy port connector supported a single external 5.25 drive (and later "intelligent" devices such as 3.5 drives and hardisks). A Video Expansion port provided rudimentary signals for add-on adapters but alone could not directly generate a video signal (Apple produced a LCD display and an RF-modulator for this port; the latter shipped with early IIc's). A port connector tied into an internal 12 volt power converter for attaching batteries; this is where the infamous external powersupply (dubbed "brick on a leash" by users) that was included plugged in. The same composite video port found on earlier Apple II models remained present, however gone were the cassette ports and internal DIP-16 game port.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Apple IIc ]

Games - Apple IIc

History

Overview of features

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