Compiled and written by Steven Weyhrich
(C) Copyright 1991, Zonker Software
 

Csa2 FAQs resource file: R020V5HIST.HTML

The comp.sys.apple2 Usenet newsgroup Apple II FAQs
originate from the II Computing Apple II site. 1997 ...

Note: To facilitate easier reading, the extensive footnote
references have been removed from this document.
 
 
 
 

INFORMATION AND COMMUNITY

     From the earliest days that AppleII user groups have sprung up, there have been newsletters shared within (and often between) these groups, providing hints and tips on how to make the best use of this computer.  Some of these user groups eventually turned their newsletters into nationally distributed publications, sharing the information on even a wider scale.  Nationally distributed magazines that dealt with computers began to run regular columns and special articles that dealt with the AppleII, while other magazines began with the purpose of serving the AppleII community exclusively.  This segment of the History will take a look at some of the publications that have grown (and sometimes failed) during the age of the AppleII.  I will be concentrating on those that were either exclusive to the AppleII or that dealt heavily with it.
 

Micro (1977-1985)

     Micro began with the October/November 1977 issue, and covered the 6502 microprocessor (and later the 6809) in all the various computers that used it, including the KIM-1, the AIM-65, the C1P, Commodore's PET, the Ohio Scientific, the Atari 800, and, of course, the AppleII.  It was an excellent source for machine level code for the 6502, eventually including more and more articles that applied specifically to the AppleII.  Many general-purpose machine language articles appeared in its pages, such as "Improved nth Precision" (code optimization for the 6502), "Precision Programming", and "Computer Assisted Translation Of Programs From 6502 to 6809".  They also carried do-it-yourself hardware articles, such as "C1P To Epson MX-80 Printer Interface", "PET/CBM IEEE 448 To Parallel Printer Interface", and "AppleII Digital Storage Oscilloscope".

     Micro tended to use each issue for a particular theme, starting out with articles that concentrated on a particular brand of computer per issue, and later expanding to topics that applied to several computers (such as printers, games, and languages).  The articles presented were usually technical in nature and could be very useful for the advanced Apple programmer.

     One feature that was unique to this magazine was the "Micro 6502 Bibliography", which presented a reference to many different computer publications and the topics these magazines covered that were specifically important to programming the 6502.  Also, the magazine's cover was unique, giving the impression of looking out from the inside of a computer monitor, over the keyboard to the room beyond.  Graphics on the screen would be reversed, since it was supposed to be a reverse view.
 

Call-A.P.P.L.E. (1978-1989)

     This magazine began in February 1978 as a newsletter for a newly formed AppleII user group in Seattle, Washington.  This group, which called itself the Apple Pugetsound Program Library Exchange (A.P.P.L.E.) was begun by several early AppleII owners in the area.  They began a newsletter, Call-A.P.P.L.E., and under the leadership of its founder and editor, Val J. Golding, it grew to become a full magazine by 1979, and its boundaries spread well beyond the Seattle area.  As pioneers in the era of AppleII exploration and expansion, the group's members and magazine subscribers discovered and published many hints, tips, and programming techniques necessary to the early AppleII community. Their major thrust, as with user groups today, came from assisting members in getting their systems to work.  This covered anything from establishing communication between a computer and the newest low-cost printer, to the nuts and bolts of adding memory chips to get a full 48K.  Call-A.P.P.L.E. also informed its readers with reviews of new software and programming languages, and entertained them with short Integer BASIC and Applesoft programs that did strange or unexpected things (in a recurring feature entitled, "So What Did You Expect?") They also served their members by scheduling guest speakers for the group meetings, and printing a summary of the meeting in the magazine.  Their early speakers included notables such as Mike Scott (president of Apple Computer), Randy Wigginton, and Steve Wozniak.

     By 1980, Call-A.P.P.L.E. had become a full magazine published on slick paper, and it carried advertising by some of the new software and hardware companies.  Their articles became more complex, dealing with topics such as "Moving DOS 3.3 To The Language Card", and "Applesoft Internal Structure", as well as various hardware or construction articles.

     The year 1984 saw many changes for Call-A.P.P.L.E.  The front cover had previously been white, with the title logo at the top, followed by a list of major articles.  Beginning with the January issue, the cover was now graced with color artwork, and a subtitle was included under the logo: "The World's Largest Apple User Group".  In April, Val Golding stepped down as editor, handing that position over to Kathryn Halgrimson Suther.  She had been working with him on production of the magazine since he hired her back in 1980, and was best qualified for the position.  And finally, in September 1984 the membership voted to change their organization to a co-operative, officially named A.P.P.L.E. Co-op, to help improve their efficiency and allow them, under Washington state law, to continue expanding services in as inexpensive a manner as possible. Previously selling software written primarily by members, they now began to carry outside software and hardware items considered useful to their members.

     A.P.P.L.E. also advanced the cause of providing useful technical information to AppleII (and Lisa and Macintosh) programmers by helping with the formation of APDA (Apple Programmers And Developers Association) in September of 1987.  Through a membership in this Apple-sponsored group, a programmer could obtain up-to-date tech notes and preliminary material directly from Apple, to aid in the refinement of his project.  (Apple later took APDA back under its own control in December 1988).

     Another change for the magazine occurred beginning in June 1988.  The cover artwork was toned down, and the thrust of Call-A.P.P.L.E. changed as it become more of a technical journal than the "hint and tip" magazine it had originally been.  Again the cover listed the major features for that issue, but in a smaller typeface than in the old days.  Articles were now much more complex, consistent with the increase in complexity found in the new AppleIIGS.  This was also reflected in the subtitle now found under the logo on the front cover: "The Magazine For The Advanced AppleIIGS And AppleII User".  Topics covered included a series by Mike Westerfield about "Programming On The GS With APW" (he was the author of the ORCA/M assembler used in the official Apple Programmer's Workshop on the IIGS), "NDAs 101" and "NDAs 102" (Tim Swihart writing about writing New Desk Accessories), and "A Powerful Graphics And Sound Trio" (utilities to allow use of super hi-res graphics and GS sound from Applesoft BASIC).

     Even more significant in 1988 was the change in the name of the sponsoring group.  In her monthly editorial in December of that year, Kathryn Suther wrote, "Sorry, Val, but the Co-op is undergoing a name change.  Apple Computer, Inc., doesn't seem to appreciate the word Apple in our name with or without the periods.  Rather than having to license the name back from them, we opted to change the name of the co-op to TechAlliance, a computer cooperative." (Fortunately, they were not apparently required by Apple to change the title of the magazine).  The members felt that this name more accurately reflected what the organization was doing; support, technical journals, and access to products and information.  They also laid plans for a journal aimed at Macintosh programmers, called "MacTech Quarterly".

     With declining AppleII sales in the late 1980's, it was becoming harder for TechAlliance to put out the type of magazine they wanted as a monthly publication.  Part way through 1989, the decision was made to switch to a quarterly printing schedule to allow it to stay in print.  However, with the ninth issue of that year they had to announce that they were ceasing publication.  With the passing of Call-A.P.P.L.E. came the passing of an era. Val Golding wrote to A2-Central's Tom Weishaar about it:  "The 12-year illumination of Call-A.P.P.L.E.'s guiding light is about to be extinguished. The next issue will be the last.  'Call' was my baby and I loved it very much, even these last several years when I didn't play a direct role.  It is, after all, like a death in the family."  He went on to mention that he believed that their research into Applesoft internals and the use of its ampersand command made it possible for the appearance of more advanced programs earlier than would have been possible otherwise.  He included a copy of his guest editorial from that final issue, reprinted in the pages of A2-Central in January 1990:
 

The Editor Bytes Back
Val J. Golding, editor emeritus
Full Circle

     Perhaps I've lived in a private dream world all this time, where visions of ampersand faeries were real and 16K of RAM sufficed.  My 1978 world where, still wrapped in swaddling clothes, the infant Call-A.P.P.L.E., with wise men guiding, exploded upon the technological night sky--its contagious fountain of knowledge spreading like a Washington wildfire, a depth and rugged determination to share never before and never again to be seen.

     Volume 12, number Nine; there will be no Volume 13.  Words I thought would never be written blur my vision and scar the moist paper with ugly burn marks. "Our last issue".  A doorway to another dimension has closed after 12 years.

     It would take pages to list our accomplishments and firsts, more still for our failures.  But we stood proud while others perished.  And so it will be in the future, the Alliance remains to serve its members.

     None of it would have been possible without those brilliant pioneering researchers and authors, far too numerous to even consider thanking individually.  Virtually every Apple author writing today appeared first in these pages.  It isn't fair, however, to leave without at least expressing my gratitude to and admiration for Kathryn Halgrimson Suther, without whom we would not have survived thus far.  I love you, Ms. K.

     Still everything is O.K.  I wouldn't have missed it for anything.  "The moving finger, having writ, moves on..."
 

Softside (1978-unknown)

     Softside was a magazine about software that began in October 1978.  Edited by Mark Pelczarski, who was also an AppleII game author and publisher, it had a format similar to the early issues of "Nibble", but was not limited to the AppleII computer.  It had articles and program listings to enter and try out. One problem readers had was with the listings; they were a copy of the printout from a dot matrix printer.  The dot matrix printers of the time were not as legible as they are now and by the time it was photographed and put into the magazine, it had become a bit illegible.  One reader commented, "After a short while of typing, you felt like you needed some of the 'coke bottle bottom' eye glasses!"
 

Apple Assembly Line (1980-1988)

     This was something more than a newsletter, but not quite a magazine.  It was edited and printed by Bob Sander-Cederlof, author of the SC-Assembler, and was written initially for support of that product.  It included information about how to write assembly language routines for various projects, and one of Sander-Cederlof's favorite pastimes was finding ways to squeeze the most code into the fewest bytes possible.  Often he would take sections of code from Apple's system software, disassemble it, and point out how it could have been coded more tightly or efficiently.  He also included various products that he or others had written that were useful for other programmers, including a package of extensions for Applesoft that allowed 18 digit precision math functions.
 

Nibble (1980-1992)

     Begun in his living room in January 1980 by Mike Harvey, Nibble survived longer than most AppleII magazines.  His original advertisement for the magazine stated:
 

NIBBLE is an unusual Newsletter for AppleII owners.  Each Issue will follow a major theme...such as:

     * DATA BASE MANAGEMENT
     * PROGRAMS FOR THE HOME
     * TEXT PROCESSING
     * COMPUTING FOR KIDS
     * SMALL BUSINESS JOBS
     * GAMES AND GRAPHICS
     * PRACTICAL PASCAL
     * etc.

Significant programs will be in each issue, surrounded by articles which show how to USE the programming ideas in your OWN programs.

Examples of Upcoming Articles...

     * Building A Numeric Keypad
     * Home Credit Card Management
     * LORES Shape Writing
     * Designing Games That Last
     * Arcade Shooting Gallery
     * Random #'s in Assy. Lang.
     * HIRES Weaving Design

And many many more.  NIBBLE will literally "Nibble Away" at the mysteries of the AppleII to help Beginning and Advanced Programmers, Small Businessmen, and the Whole Family enjoy and USE the Apple MORE!

It costs a paltry $15.00 for 8 Issues!  It will invite and publish user ideas and programs.  DON'T WAIT!  Send your check or money order right now, to receive the January issue!  Mail to:

     S.P.A.R.C.
     P.O. Box  [number missing]
     Lincoln, Mass. 01773

Software Publishing And Research Co.
 

     Mike worked carefully to make sure that he was not under the pressure of banks or investors, and so worked out of his own savings, running the company on a "pay as you go" basis.  He printed enough of the first issue, 42 pages long in black and white, to mail to the few who responded to his ad, and the rest were sent free of charge to Apple dealers to make them aware of Nibble's existence. Their initial schedule was for eight issues per year, which was what he could afford to put out.  By mid 1981 the magazine had grown to the point where Harvey could quit his regular job (president of a subsidiary of Exxon Enterprises) and work full-time as publisher of Nibble.

     His editorials over the years covered many topics that were helpful for small businesses, giving advice that would help them survive in good times and bad.  He certainly took his own advice; although Nibble expanded to the point where it went to a monthly schedule (around 1984) and was printed as a square-bound magazine, it had to reduce by 1990 back to a center-stapled format with fewer pages.  Eventually its newsstand distribution also had to be curtailed, and in the end it was available only by subscription.

     Nibble's articles covered a wide array of topics, from simple Applesoft and Integer BASIC programs, to complex assembly language applications, BASIC extensions, and games.  In its prime it also included a popular series called "Disassembly Lines", by contributing editor Sandy Mossberg, M.D.  In his series, Mossberg taught some of the tricks and techniques of assembly language by taking parts of DOS 3.3, and later BASIC.SYSTEM and PRODOS, and "disassembling" them into readable assembly source code.  This provided some insight into reasons why Apple's system programs worked the way they did, and made it possible to either modify them to fix bugs, or to incorporate the  programming techniques in other projects.  Mossberg later went on to delve into the AppleIIGS toolbox (built-in ROM routines).

     Nibble was a good place to learn how to write programs.  Their published listings were well commented, and the tricks used by the programmers who wrote their articles were available for all to see and learn.  Along with the various utilities they published were games (some that were very complicated, with long tables of hex bytes to enter).  They also included in later issues reviews of various commercial software products, and always made available disks containing all of the programs from a single issue of the magazine, for those who didn't want to enter by hand the programs.

     In April 1985 a section was added to the magazine called "Nibble Mac", to cover topics of interest to Macintosh users.  Later in 1985 this was split out and a separate publication (short-lived) with the same title was printed to concentrate on the Macintosh users.  Nibble also helped establish the concept of copyright protection on program listings printed in magazines.  This was important to Nibble, as they sold disks of their old programs to save readers the trouble of typing in by hand the long listings.

     With decreasing sales, a decision was made in 1991 to no longer supply Nibble to newsstand vendors and continue the magazine on a subscription-only basis.  The market for AppleII programming-oriented magazines continued to decline, and the July 1992 issue announced itself as the last one.  The balance of subscriptions were filled out through A2-Central.
 

Peelings II (1980-unknown)

     Started around August 1980, this magazine was devoted entirely to AppleII software reviews.
 

Softalk (1980-1984)

     Softalk... ah, this one was special.  Of all the magazines that have dealt with the AppleII since its release in 1977, none have been quite like Softalk. Their first issue in September 1980 was 32 pages, including the cover which featured Darth Vader with the title, "Apple Helps The Empire Strike Back".  This first issue opened with the following introductory remark.  I reproduce it in its entirety here, because it highlights what I feel is the ideal in a computer magazine, and because the last two paragraphs are still very applicable today:
 

     Welcome to Softalk.  Whether you're a hobbyist or a businessperson, a programmer or a nonprogrammer, Softalk is designed for you, because each of you has chosen Apple for your computer; and so did we.

     Softalk is a feature magazine, intended to pique the curiosity and intrigue the intellect of everyone who owns an Apple.  In Softalk, you'll find articles about people who own and use Apples, some of them famous, some merely ingenious. You'll find articles about issues--those most pertinent within the microcomputer industry, such as piracy, and those the microcomputer is helping to solve, such as unemployment among the handicapped.

     Softalk's regular columns will strive to keep you up with what's new in software and hardware and what's new in the companies that make software and hardware.  We'll also try to keep you informed of how the computer is making news, both in the United States and abroad, both seriously and lightly.

     Softalk is not a programming magazine.  Beginning in October, our programming columns will be intended as tutorials, offering running courses on how to program.  Although we believe that those of you who are seriously involved in programming will enjoy Softalk, for your programming applications we recommend that you seek out the excellent programming articles and tips in such magazines as Apple Orchard, Micro, Call-A.P.P.L.E., Creative Computing, and the many other fine magazines that address themselves to this aspect of computing.

     Fun is another feature of Softalk.  There will be puzzles, games, contests. The prizes won't be huge, but they will be fun.  This month, you'll find a contest on page 2; later in the magazine lurks another puzzler.

     We encourage you to patronize our advertisers.  Those advertisers make it possible for you to receive Softalk.  And, further, we hope you'll support your local computer store.  A healthy retail sector is crucial to our industry on every level; it is to all our benefits to help our retailers prosper.

     I hope you share my enthusiasm for Apple and for the remarkable microcomputer industry, because, when you share it, you'll find yourself looking forward to the fast-coming future with excitement and optimistic anticipation. If Softalk serves only to instill such a positive enthusiasm in you, it will be well worthwhile.
 

     Oddly enough, Softalk owed its beginning to a television game show.  Margot Tommervik was a contestant on "Password", and with part of her winnings she purchased an AppleII computer.  She was fascinated with the machine and what it allowed her to do.  When a local computer store offered a prize for the first person to solve On-Line's Mystery House adventure, she dove into it headlong and had it solved in twenty-four hours.  Later that year, she came across a publishing house that was trying to produce a magazine about software and wanted a partner.  With the rest of her "Password" winnings, Margot and her husband Al agreed to do the magazine if they were allowed to determine its course and retain management control.  It would be as much a magazine for AppleII enthusiasts to enjoy as a platform for software publishers to display their wares.  Although it had the modest beginning of only 32 pages printed on newsprint stock, within a year there were over one hundred advertising pages in each issue.  It was an ideal arrangement:  The readers got a magazine that was specifically about their computer, and the software and hardware companies got a magazine with widespread distribution that could showcase their products to those readers.

     Part of the uniqueness of Softalk was due to the way it did business. Although it was a magazine that was available by mail or in computer stores (as were other computer magazines of the day), this one offered every AppleII owner a free six month subscription as a trial!  One only had to provide the serial number on the bottom of the computer, and you were in the club.  And it felt like a club, almost a family, of fellow AppleII (and later, AppleIII, Lisa, and Macintosh) enthusiasts.  This unusual method of providing a magazine lasted even until the final issue.

     Softalk carved its niche among the other AppleII magazines of the time by providing a variety of articles not available anywhere else.  Whereas Nibble was best known for its games and utilities, Call-A.P.P.L.E. for its technical information, and Apple Orchard for its focus on beginners and Apple user groups, Softalk concentrated on the Apple computer industry.  This included information about Apple Computer, Inc., as well as the many companies that provided software or hardware for the AppleII.  A monthly series called "Exec" (taken after the DOS 3.3 disk command), profiled a company that made hardware or software for the AppleII, and gave some of the background about its products.  They carried reviews of many new releases each month, and provided news on a continuing basis about the companies making those products.  They also developed a monthly best-seller list for AppleII and III software, and used not the sales figures provided by the companies who marketed the programs, but rather the actual sales figures from the software and computer stores that sold them.  Their reason for doing it this way was to get a more accurate picture of what was selling, not just what was shipping.

     As time went by, Softalk expanded its coverage to include columns that dealt with specific programming areas on the AppleII, but chose to do so in a tutorial fashion, as they promised in their introduction article.  Roger Wagner started in October 1980 with a column called "Assembly Lines" that taught 6502 assembly language (he says that what he knew about 6502 assembly was only about one month ahead of what the readers were learning); Doug Carlston instructed users in the art of BASIC programming in "All About Applesoft"; Mark Pelczarski expounded on hi-res graphics techniques in "Graphically Speaking"; Taylor Pohlman (an Apple employee) wrote about the AppleIII in "The Third Basic"; Jim Merritt (who also worked for Apple) championed Pascal in "The Pascal Path"; Greg Tibbetts delved into Apple CP/M in "Softcard Symposium"; and Bert Kersey and Tom Weishaar deciphered DOS 3.3 and ProDOS in "DOSTalk".  Other regular features included "Fastalk" (an annotated listing and description of current and classic software), "Marketalk News" (product release announcements) and "Marketalk Reviews" (detailed product reviews), "Tradetalk" (Apple industry news), "Hardtalk" (hardware projects or information), "Storytalk" (fiction, primarily computer related), and eventually a column called "Backtalk", which was a look back at older issues of Softalk itself (this began on the third anniversary of the magazine).  One unusual column, called "Open Discussion", was quite similar to the interaction on today's online information services.  They printed letters from readers that ranged from comments on previous articles to questions such as "How do I get Apple Writer to work with my printer?"  Rather than directly answering each question, Softalk often left it to readers to send in replies with help.  In its last year, Softalk did begin a column called "If Then Maybe", which actually took some of those technical questions and used some of its consulting writers (the "Softalk Sages") to answer them.

     Each month there was a new contest, usually involving a puzzle of some sort that might or might not require the use of a computer to help solve it.  The winners of the previous month's contests were awarded a credit towards $100 worth of products advertised in Softalk.  The puzzles were creative and unique. One issue asked to have various shapes in a later part of the magazine identified (some that were obvious, such as a computer monitor, some less so, such as a hand phasor from Star Trek).  Another contest consisted of only lists of five character scrambled words; no clues, no instructions, no direction.  One month had a crossword puzzle with very obtuse clues.  One November issue featured tiny little "hi-res" turkeys scattered throughout the magazine; the goal was to correctly count all of them.  Some of the contests even allowed those entering to be creative; one asked entrants to write a short paragraph that might illustrate the use of an Apple computer by a fictional or non-fictional historical figure (an example being Emperor Nero playing an adventure game in which he is trying to figure out the correct commands to get it to allow him to burn down Rome).  In the case of multiple entries with correct answers, the winner of the monthly contests was selected with a random-number generator.  Even if you didn't enter the contests, they were fun to read and ponder, and some of the winning entries (when creative writing was involved) were great.

     Softalk suddenly disappeared after the August 1984 issue was mailed.  There was no announcement, nothing that had indicated that this was going to happen, and with its disappearance the "Golden Age" of the Apple also passed.  (By this time Softalk Publishing also had two other magazines, "Softalk For The IBM PC" and "St. Mac", for the Macintosh).  This ending could have been predicted by the way in which the magazine had gotten smaller and smaller in size over the previous few months, but its ending was still somewhat of a shock to the readers.  One reader was reported to have said that if he had known that they were having financial problems he would have taken up a collection!

     What led to the demise of Softalk?  Several factors likely played a role. One was the explosion in the number of magazines for and about computers between 1981 and 1983.  Each new magazine that appeared was yet another place where a vendor needed to consider putting advertising dollars, and for some small companies it was simply not affordable to put ads in all of them.  Another factor that figured in was the introduction of the IBM PC, and the sudden need for companies to produce versions of their programs that would run on that computer.  When the recession of 1982-84 arrived, the computer market began to loose steam, and small single-product companies either had to associate with larger ones or go out of business.  Lower consumer spending on computer hardware and software hurt the market further, and the necessary advertising dollars were simply not available, and Softalk became, unfortunately, one of the casualties.

     Perhaps the major factor that contributed to this was that Softalk did not have any large publishing company backing it up; it was owned and operated by the Tommerviks, and they didn't have the cash cushion that would allow them to pay expenses during time of slow advertising revenue. Perhaps if a major publisher had taken an interest, Softalk would still be around today.

     In its prime (December 1983), Softalk was over 400 pages long, but by its final issue in August 1984 it had shrunk down to only 128 pages.  Although a next issue was in the works (according to the "previews" section in the table of contents), it never made it to the printer.  Remaining subscriptions were filled out by inCider magazine, but sadly, the magic was gone.
 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 

Computist (1981-Present)

     This magazine began originally back in 1981 with the name "HardCore Computing".  A flier mailed out during 1982 gave this description of the magazine: "HARDCORE COMPUTING, a small magazine in Tacoma, Washington, warns pirates about the latest technology that companies are using against them. HARDCORE is a magazine dedicated to the Apple-user.  There are a lot of computer magazines, but HARDCORE prints the information that other magazines refuse to print, information vital to you as a computer user."

     By 1983 it was split into two separate publications:  "HARDCORE Computist" (devoted to "kracking"; see below), and "CORE" (devoted to general AppleII topics).  CORE was to have been published four times a year, but was dropped after only a few issues.  The first issues of CORE, during 1983, covered graphics, utilities, and games.  The third quarterly issue was to have been about databases, but the games topic was substituted and the database topic never appeared in print.

     For the first four issues, the name "HARDCORE" dominated the title page. Beginning with issue #5, "Hardcore" appeared in smaller type, with "COMPUTIST" taking over a dominating position on the cover.  By issue #27, the name "Hardcore" was dropped completely from the cover.  Although it began as a glossy format magazine, this was discontinued with issue #45 in 1987, and with issue #66 in 1989 they changed to a tabloid format.  The publishers claim that one reason for the name change to simply "Computist" stemmed from a complaint sent in by a young subscriber whose mother was throwing out the magazine before he got it, because she thought it contained pornographic materials!

     "Computist" was, admittedly, in the business of teaching users how to "strip".  But this did not refer to X-rated topics, but the ability to strip the copy-protection from commercial software.  This technique, known as "kracking", was a popular pastime for some software hackers of the day.  Using powerful programs such as Locksmith and Copy II Plus, Computist gave specifics on how to make a disk work as easily as a standard Apple DOS disk. The combination of ProDOS and un-protected commercial programs took much of the wind out of Computist's sails, since the special help needed to copy disks was no longer necessary.  There were, of course, those who used the techniques printed in Computist to "pirate" programs (duplicate and distribute protected software), but many used it to standardize the modified DOS so that the programs could be used with RAM disks, large floppies, and hard disks.

     Though it is still being printed, "Computist" is much different than it was in its early days.  It is no longer AppleII-specific, and has expanded to also cover the Macintosh and IBM.  Its publishing schedule has also become rather irregular.  Each new subscription still comes with a tutorial by Wes Felty on disk de-protection and the use of a program called "Super IOB".
 

A+ (1983-1989)

     Ziff-Davis, who published other computer magazines such as Creative Computing, began publishing A+ in January 1983.  This new AppleII magazine carried primarily hardware and software reviews and consumer-oriented articles. It was somewhat similar to today's inCider/A+ in terms of being a general interest AppleII magazine as opposed to the programming slant of Nibble (A+ had virtually no type-in programs).  During the time that both A+ and inCider were being published there continued a friendly rivalry between the two.

     One of the features unique to A+ was a column called "Product All-Stars", a classified-style listing of the current popular software and hardware similar to the old "Fastalk" column in Softalk magazine.

     During the latter part of A+'s publishing run, Gary Little became its editor.  He had previously written books about the AppleIIe, IIc, IIGS, and their disk operating systems, and so was very qualified to know the computer and its uses.  He replaced Lisa Raleigh, who left to take a job with Apple Computer. Not long after, and just prior to the magazine's merger with inCider, Gary Little also was hired away by Apple.  It was felt by some subscribers that Little's short stint with A+ significantly improved the magazine, and they were saddened to see him go.

     When Creative Computing had ceased publication in 1985, subscribers found their remaining issues were switched over to A+ Magazine by Ziff-Davis.  In 1989, the publisher chose to discontinue A+, and allowed it to merge with inCider magazine.
 

inCider (1983-Present)

     This magazine was originally begun by Wayne Green, who had been involved in technical magazines for many years.  As mentioned above, it was not a programming magazine, though it carried columns that answered reader's questions about programming as well as other AppleII questions.  The main direction that it has seemed to take over the years was in helping advertise available software and hardware, and carry articles that helped AppleII users learn to use the software they owned.  These columns included "AppleWorks In Action" by Ruth Witkin; "Press Room" by Cynthia Field (which detailed ways to do desktop publishing with Print Shop, Publish-It!, AppleWorks GS, and GraphicWriter); "Bridging The Gap" by Gregg Keizer (discussing ways to help the AppleII and Macintosh work peaceably together); "AppleIIGS Basics" by Joe Abernathy (highlighting programming on the IIGS); and "Apple Clinic" (questions and answers about using AppleII's).

     In 1989 inCider merged with A+ Magazine, as mentioned above, and in December 1990 the editors chose to broaden their audience by adding coverage of the Macintosh computer to their AppleII features.  This was a highly unpopular move with many AppleII loyalists, who had already had quite enough of Apple Computer telling them to "move up" to a Mac.  "Polluting" their AppleII publication with this better-loved younger sibling infuriated many, and they vowed to let their subscriptions expire.  However, at this point in time there were few national AppleII-specific publications remaining, and no others that appeared on the magazine racks at large newsstands (since Nibble had gone to subscription-only distribution).  Apparently inCider's distributing company, A+ Publishing, felt that they couldn't survive without making some attempt to broaden their customer base, and they chose this as what they felt was their best defense in a shrinking market.  For several months afterward, the magazine got just a little bit smaller in size, eventually going from a square-bound back to a stapled format.  This shrinkage stabilized in early to mid 1992, and by late that year, inCider/A+ was still in business.
 

Apple IIGS Buyer's Guide (1985-1990)

     This magazine began originally under the name, "The AppleII Review" in the fall of 1985.  After about five issues the name was changed to "The AppleIIGS Buyers Guide".  The changed magazine began in the Fall of 1987, and it ceased publication in the Fall of 1990.  It was published in a high gloss format, and over half of each issue was devoted to a listing of available IIGS software/hardware.
 

II Computing (1985-1987)

     This magazine published from October/November 1985 until February/March 1987.  Trying to appeal to a variety of readers from beginners to experienced AppleII users, it printed program listings (including at one time listings made for the Cauzin strip reader), reviews, and general articles.  It covered items in more depth than inCider, but less than Call-A.P.P.L.E. or Nibble, offering a combination of both type-in programs and general articles.  It had available a companion disk available containing the programs in the magazine.
 

Open-Apple / A2-Central (1985-Present)

     As mentioned above, Tom Weishaar was a writer of Softalk's "DOSTalk" column beginning in April 1983, after Bert Kersey retired from the position.  He continued with it until Softalk went bankrupt after the August 1984 issue.  An AppleII user since 1980, and author of two programs sold by Beagle Bros (Frame-Up, a graphics slide-show displayer, and ProntoDOS, an enhanced version of DOS 3.3), Weishaar had previous experience with writing newsletters from his days with the Commodity News Service in Kansas City.  After Softalk folded, he realized that there was still a market for a technical publication for the AppleII that also could be helpful for the beginning user.  In January 1985 he began with a newsletter he called Open-Apple, which continued where "DOSTalk" left off.  The initial issue (Volume 1, No. 0) included reader's letters (some left over from DOSTalk, but some intentionally phony, with return addresses like the Okefenokee Swamp), information about Applesoft and Logo, and one response to a reader asking how to create a disk that would boot without DOS 3.3.  At $24 for a monthly eight page newsletter, its subscribing cost was as much as full-sized magazines of the day.  However, Open-Apple did not carry any advertising, and the amount of useful information printed each month made it worth the expense.

     As the newsletter has matured over the years, the coverage of Logo has disappeared, and Applesoft has dwindled as well, reflecting changes in reader interests.  During the late 1980's, coverage of AppleWorks was heavy, and nearly every issue would contain some way to patch the program to customize it for a certain function.  Coverage of the IIGS was also prominent, and Weishaar has had to find a balance between articles that dealt with the new technology without ignoring the sizeable number of readers who still owned the older 8-bit AppleII's.

     In December 1988, the name of the newsletter was changed to A2-Central. Several reasons were given for the change.  One was similar to the reason given by A.P.P.L.E. for changing its name to TechAlliance; Apple Computer was in the habit of threatening legal infringement against those who used "their" name without permission (or at least licensing it).  Another was to indicate philosophically what was the purpose of the magazine:  To be the center of the AppleII universe, and a central source of information and programming resources. Earlier in the year, Weishaar had also agreed to be the manager of the AppleII roundtables on the online service GEnie.  This extended the information available to him for his publication, as well as the ability for more prompt exchange of information for his readers.  In fact, there was a great similarity between the conversations that took place on GEnie, in the reader questions section of A2-Central, and the old "Open Discussion" part of Softalk magazine. New users could ask "how do I get XYZ program to run with my ABC printer?", and experienced users could help them, either online or in a letter written to A2-Central.

     Because the newsletter included international readers as well, and these people had difficulty in getting their hands on certain AppleII-related products or books, a catalog was added to the A2-Central line-up in early 1989.  This initially carried books, but quickly expanded to include software and hardware. February 1989 also saw the first of A2 On Disk, which included a textfile of the current month's newsletter, as well as an assortment of the latest shareware and freeware programs for the AppleII.  At times it also contained textfiles with useful information (such as updates to the official AppleII tech notes).

     September 1989 saw a change in editors for A2-Central.  After nearly five years of working constantly on it, Weishaar turned over the reins for the month-to-month work to Dennis Doms, and moved himself to the position of publisher.  There was little change in the content or style of the newsletter (since Weishaar was still running the show), but it freed him to recover from the burnout of meeting a monthly deadline, and to work more on managing the company itself.  One of the new items that appeared in December 1989 was a disk-based publication called Stack-Central (later changed to Studio City). What was unique about this bi-monthly product was that it was based on HyperStudio, the graphics, sound, and text manipulation program from Roger Wagner Publishing. As such, it could be read in a "non-linear" fashion; that is, you didn't have to start at the beginning and read through until you got to the end.  You could jump from one topic to another, or thread through topics in a fashion that could not be duplicated in a printed publication.

     More new disk-based products appeared from A2-Central in 1990.  August 1990 saw the start of TimeOut-Central, devoted to AppleWorks and the TimeOut series of enhancements distributed by Beagle Bros.  It was also a bi-monthly publication, and was originally edited by Richard Marchiafava, who had previously written a column called "AppleWorks Advisor" for user-group newsletters.  In March 1991 the editorship was transferred to Randy Brandt, the Beagle Bros programmer who had written many of the TimeOut applications, as well as several for his own small software company.

     8/16-Central, specializing in programming for both 8-bit AppleII's and the IIGS, began in December 1990.  It was a continuation of a short-lived magazine called 8/16, published by Ross Lambert's Ariel Publishing Co., which itself was preceded by several separate newsletters that specialized in Applesoft or assembly language or other programming for the AppleII series.  8/16-Central was a monthly disk, but didn't keep enough subscribers to stay afloat.  In October 1991 it was discontinued, and the remaining subscriptions were folded over into GS+ Magazine.

     Hyperbole began in March 1991.  It was also a HyperStudio-based disk publication, but its focus was not on making HyperStudio stacks, but on actually using the program to produce a literary form that had never been done before. It consisted of poetry, art, and sounds, combined together in a way that could not be presented in printed form.  For example, one series of stories that appeared early on in Hyperbole involved a medieval theme, with the story told from various points of view, depending on which picture was selected on the "door" that introduced the story.  To get the entire story required going back to the main door and selecting a different picture.  Sound and graphics were also integrated into articles that appeared in this disk-magazine.

     Finally, Script-Central began in June 1991.  This was similar to Stack-Central, but was dedicated to HyperCard IIGS.  It featured some animated sequences that introduced it, and the user could select the articles to read by pointing to doors in the Stack-Central "building" on the screen, and follow hallways to other articles (sort of like combining a magazine and a video game).

     A2-Central itself has undergone few changes in its life.  Its focus has shifted slightly to keeping abreast of the newest changes in the AppleII world (in terms of products and events that affect that computer), where previously it spent a lot of time talking about various specific products (such as AppleWorks, HyperStudio, etc.)  The spin-off disk publications that were started have filled the niche needed to continue user-support of those AppleII products.  The editorship has changed a couple of further times as well; Jan Jennings briefly took the place of Dennis Doms as editor in November 1991, before going to work for Softdisk.  Ellen Rosenberg began editorship after that, and made the change of accepting feature articles from outside authors for the first time since A2-Central began publication.  The newsletter, catalog, and all the disk publications continue today under the corporate umbrella of Resource-Central, Inc., which also has sponsored annual summer conferences since 1989.  These conferences have brought together some of the top AppleII developers in the country for two days of classes and workshops on many topics.  Held in Kansas City in July or August, it has been nicknamed "Kansasfest", since it contains AppleFest-like activities.

     Weishaar's interest in and dedication to the AppleII has been much appreciated; he was chosen s a recipient of the AppleII Individual Achievement Aware for 1991.  His philosophy was summed up in a statement made in a printing of the A2-Central catalog in the Fall of 1990, where he wrote: "The significant thing about the AppleII has always been the community of people that has sprung up around the machine, teaching other people how to use it, designing hard and software for it, exposing its inner flesh to the light of day, and using it to manage businesses, run church groups, educate children, and turn out prosperous and happy human beings."
 

Compute!

     "Compute!" was a hybrid magazine that catered primarily to the Commodore 64 computer.  It would usually feature games that had versions written for several different computers, including the AppleII.  In the late 1980's it began having special issues dedicated to some of the different platforms featured in the main magazine, and there were a few issues called "Apple Applications" for the AppleII.
 

Apple Orchard

     Apple Orchard was published by the International Apple Corp for about several years.  It was aimed primarily at user groups, and was billed as a user's group user's group.  Contents of early issues were a compendium of articles from various user group newsletters.
 

GS+ (1989-Present)

     In the late 1970's, Steven Disbrow entered the world of microcomputers with his purchase of a TRS-80 ModelI, complete with cassette storage and 4K of memory.  To learn more about his computer and what it could do, he picked up a newsstand magazine called "80-Micro" (published by Wayne Green, who had also started Byte and inCider magazines).  He enjoyed the humor that the editors of that publication included, and the fun they showed one could have with a computer.  Active also in the local TRS user's group, he originally disdained AppleII's and those who used them.  However, in 1984 he found that he needed the ability to communicate with a mainframe computer in order to do some schoolwork. After looking into the cost of upgrading his TRS-80 to be able to do this, he found that it would actually cost him less to buy the newly released AppleIIc with a 300 baud modem (and at that time, a new IIc went for about $1300), so he crossed enemy lines and entered the Apple camp.

     As he got more familiar with his IIc, his interest in that computer and the upcoming 16-bit IIGS also increased.  While learning more about it from Apple magazines at the newsstand, he noticed that many of the publications that dealt with the Atari ST included a disk with each issue.  Disbrow went so far as to contact several of the AppleII magazines that were in print at the time to see if they had any interest in a companion disk, but he did not find any interest. After purchasing his AppleIIGS, he saw that there still was no combination magazine and disk for this computer, and decided to start one himself.

     When Disbrow started his magazine in September 1989, he chose to make it exclusively for the AppleIIGS, and so named it "GS+".  Published bi-monthly, the byline on the cover of each issue reminded subscribers of what made his magazine unique:  "The First AppleIIGS Magazine + Disk Publication!"  He recalled the humor and fun that he had always seen in 80-Micro, and determined to make his magazine fun in a similar way.  Disbrow felt that this was especially important, considering the generally negative attitude that was prevalent among AppleII users at the time, as they saw less and less active support from Apple for their computer.  Still in print at the time of this writing, GS+ concentrates on news, software and hardware reviews, published programs and utilities for the IIGS (some with source code), and interviews with people who are involved with the IIGS.
 

SoftDisk (Sep 1981-Present) / Softdisk GS (Nov 1988-Present)

     One of the survivors in the AppleII magazine world is also unusual in terms of the type of publication that it is.  Rather than using the traditional paper and ink medium, Softdisk came on the scene as one of the first magazines distributed in only a machine-readable form.  Back in 1981, Jim Mangham, a programmer at LSU Medical Center in Shreveport, Louisiana, felt that the time was ripe for an AppleII disk-based magazine.  It would have the advantage of providing ready-to-run programs that did not have to be typed in, yet could still be listed and modified by the "reader" if desired.  Mangham's idea was not unique in the computer world as a whole; "CLOAD" for the TRS-80 began as a magazine on cassette as far back as 1978, and other paper publications offered companion disks as an extra, containing programs from a specific issue.  But no one had yet put a whole magazine on disk for the AppleII, and Mangham decided to fill that gap.

     Originally, he planned to call it "The Harbinger Magazette", and after getting a preliminary first issue prepared, he called Al Tommervik of Softalk magazine to discuss advertising.  Tommervik thought it was a great idea, and not only did he want to advertise it, but asked to be a partner in the venture.  He suggested that they change the name to "Softdisk" (since it would be, in essence, a Softalk publication).  By the time Mangham was ready to mail out his first issue, he had fifty subscribers.  Since he needed a minimum of two hundred pieces to qualify for a bulk postage rate, his father found one hundred and fifty disks appear in his mailbox that month.

     To create his new "magazette",  Mangham chose to use double-sided disks that were pre-notched on both edges, to ensure that both sides would be useable. (Recall that the Disk II drive could only use one side of the disk, and so it was common to conserve money and use the other side by cutting a notch on edge of the disk opposite the factory one and flipping the disk over).  These double-sided disks were expensive, costing him three dollars apiece, and so he set up the subscriptions to require return of the previous issue in order to get the next one (it was left up to the reader to make his own copies to keep). When the disk was returned with the five dollars for the next issue, the reader could also use a simple text editor on the disk to return any "letters to the editor" he might have, commenting on the previous issue's contents or asking other questions.  This return disk could also be used for submitting programs, pictures, or articles for use in future issues of Softdisk.  Some of the subscribers that became prolific contributors of material even ended up _working_ at Softdisk!

     Softalk magazine provided free advertising for Softdisk, and the subscriber base gradually grew.  Some of the revenue for the magazine came from subscription payments, and some came through advertising.  Ads for Softdisk were sold by the disk sector, and provided an advertiser a unique opportunity; he could give a potential customer a chance to actually _see_ how the program he was selling looked.  Some of the ads could be animated (usually using the text screen to use less disk space), and were actually entertaining.  This was most prominent in the ads Softdisk had for their own products; by 1983 they had begun a line of software called "Rich And Famous" (which they said was what the authors wanted to become).  Consisting of programs written by regular Softdisk contributors, these disks sold for $9.95 apiece, and a $4 royalty on each disk went to the author.  The disks offered various types of games, including hi-res graphics adventures and card games, office-based utility software, general AppleII utilities, and disks of music (in Electric Duet format).

     Each issue of Softdisk had a "cover", which consisted of a hi-res picture and the issue number.  These eventually were created to look just like the Softalk logo, except the globe in the upper right corner was animated.  Starting in August 1983, Softdisk expanded to two double-sided disks, and the two-way subscriptions now requested that only one of the two had to be returned. One-way subscriptions were also available by now, for those who didn't want to bother having to return the disks.  By January 1984 (issue #27), Softdisk became available through retail stores (primarily computer stores, but later also through bookstores) at the price of $12.95 per issue.  They also began putting out a disk magazine called "Loadstar" for the Commodore 64 computer in June 1984, at a price of $9.95 (since it was a single disk per issue it cost less).

     As mentioned earlier, Softalk magazine folded after its August 1984 issue, leaving the future of Softdisk somewhat in doubt.  In return for some benefits that Softalk had provided (free full-page ads, space in their booth at computer shows, and permission to include some programs from the magazine on Softdisk), it had part-ownership in Softdisk.  Since Softalk was now bankrupt, the possibility existed that Softdisk would be absorbed into the liquidation of assets.  To avoid this outcome and to ensure the future of the magazine, Softdisk purchased back its shares from Softalk's creditors (at a price probably higher than what they were worth) and continued on their own.  Although a few ads were placed in remaining AppleII magazines after that, Softdisk continued primarily on word-of-mouth referrals (which didn't increase circulation by much).  Sales of some side items (primarily blank disks) helped keep the company going during this difficult time.

     In May 1985, the two-way disk subscriptions were discontinued, and Al Tommervik started a brief tenure as editor-in-chief.  He helped develop a more professional appearance for the magazine (and for Loadstar), through higher quality graphics and cover design.  When Greg Malone began as editor-in-chief in late 1985, he continued the improvements by starting a graphics-based presentation in favor of the older text-based method they had used from the beginning.

     Softdisk, Inc. added a disk magazine in 1986 for the IBM PC, called "Big Blue Disk". At this time Softdisk magazine itself began including re-releases of older commercial software whose publishers were willing to inexpensively release publishing rights; they also began to publish some newer shareware programs. The first series of "reprints" were games previously released by Polarware/Penguin Software.

     By 1987, Softdisk began again advertising itself in magazines, a practice that has been continued up to the present time.  This began a large expansion in circulation for the Softdisk magazette and their other disk publications.

     Later that year saw the changeover from the older DOS 3.3 operating system exclusively to ProDOS (beginning with issue #73).  This issue also saw the start of a more attractive graphic user interface that supported use of a mouse (as well as the keyboard), and had pulldown menus and animated graphics.  Within the next year or so, retail distribution of their publications was discontinued (booksellers were not leaving the products on the shelf long enough to allow them to sell) and distribution returned exclusively to a subscription basis.

     In November 1988, the first issue of Softdisk GS was released, supporting the standard IIGS desktop interface standards.  This publication has maintained a high quality standard and has done well.  At the time of this writing, Softdisk, Inc. continues to put out the following monthly disk magazines: Softdisk for 8-bit AppleII's; Softdisk GS for the IIGS; On Disk Monthly (formerly Big Blue Disk) for the IBM PC; Gamer's Edge, also for the IBM PC; and Diskworld for the Macintosh.  Loadstar for the Commodore 64/128 is still available, but only on a quarterly basis.
 

Foreign Apple II Magazines

     The AppleII not only got press in the United States, but has also been on the newsstands in Europe in various forms, though most are no longer being published.  One that began as "Windfall" (later changing its name to "Apple User") was the biggest magazine for some time.  "Peeker" was published in Germany, and carried articles similar to those found in Nibble.  In the Netherlands there are still a few hobbyist magazines that cater to the AppleII crowd, including "Klokhuis" (which means "Apple-Core"), "Pro-2" and "Het AppleDossier".

     In Britain there was at one time a magazine called "Orchard Computing", published by a company named Argus Specialist Publications.  Some of the issues were primarily reprints from Nibble, but they also accepted articles from local readers.
 

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REACH OUT AND BYTE SOMEONE

     Since the earliest days that it was available, there have been those who have found ways to communicate using their computers with other AppleII's users over the phone lines.  Although some inexpensive imaginative methods have been employed (such as A.P.P.L.E.'s "Apple Box" that used the cassette port to send and receive programs via the phone line), the release of the DC Hayes MicromodemII in about 1979 made it possible for a new type of computing. Although there were those who wanted to use their AppleII as a home terminal for access to a school or business mainframe from home, many users created their own small systems that could be called from elsewhere.  These "bulletin board systems" consisted of a single computer that was always waiting to answer the phone.  When it rang, the computer would answer the phone and establish two-way communication via the modem.  A program running on this computer would then allow the calling computer to do various things, such as reading messages left by other users, to posting messages for others to read.  As these systems became more sophisticated, it became possible to send and receive programs or other data files on these BBS's, play games, and participate in online surveys.  The system operator ("sysop") was responsible for maintaining the software and the message databases, often leaving his computer on for 24 hours a day to be available for callers.

     The success of these small, local systems encouraged the larger, mainframe-based systems to expand and offer services to non-business users during off-peak hours.  They figured that since the equipment was idle during that time anyway, they might as well have someone use it and earn them some extra money.  Most of the major online services that started in the late 1970's are still in business, in one form or another, and others have entered the game since then.  Competition has increased, the number of users accessing these national systems has grown, the number of features offered has also gone up, and the cost of online communication has dropped.

     The ability to transfer files from one AppleII to another has evolved over time.  Initially, an Applesoft or Integer BASIC program might be "downloaded" (sent from the BBS to the calling computer) by simply doing a "LIST" of it. That was fine, unless the program had some machine language parts added on. Then, the bytes of that assembly code had to be sent as hex digit pairs (i.e., 20 00 BF 65 10 03 04, etc.), since anything shared between the computers had to be in printable ASCII codes.  With the noise possible on some telephone connections, this could result in a single character becoming garbled now and then, resulting in a program that wouldn't run because of the error that was introduced. Various programs for the AppleII were devised over time to make this more efficient, including some that used the method of encoding the hex bytes (digit pairs) into single printable ASCII codes that were then decoded on the receiving end into a usable program.

     Eventually, AppleII BBS programs (and the terminal programs that were used to call those BBS's) began to use the "XMODEM" standard devised in 1982 by Ward Christensen to more efficiently and accurately send such files over a phone line.  As Apple software became more sophisticated, and as the files to send became larger and larger (particularly with the introduction of the IIGS), protocols were established to allow more than one file to be sent in a single transmission.  The first major protocol that was agreed upon among the major online services was the Binary II protocol.  Designed in 1986 by Gary Little, this allowed a standard method of grouping files that could work for any of the disk formats available on the AppleII.  In 1988, Andy Nicholas designed a more comprehensive method of not only putting several files into a single file (usually called an "archive"), but also compressing those files to save time and space when transmitting them between computers.  He called this protocol "NuFX" (NuFile eXchange), and implemented it and the data compression in a program called ShrinkIt (and later GS-ShrinkIt) that he released as "freeware" (that is, he did not charge for the use and distribution of his program).  The NuFX protocol was adopted by Apple Computer as the official protocol for file transmission for the AppleII, and Nicholas later went to work at Apple after his graduation from the college that he was attending when he designed the protocol.
 

NATIONAL ONLINE SERVICES

     Since there are far too many local systems to discuss in even a passing manner here, let's take a look at the various nationally available systems and their history as it applies to the AppleII.
 

Internet (1970's-Present)

     The United States Department of Defense began a computer network in the late 1960's called ARPAnet (Advanced Research Project Agency Network) to facilitate communication between widely scattered universities and research centers.  To make it possible to have real-time intercommunications, electronic mail, and the ability to exchange files and other important information, they developed a set of standards to make it possible to carry out these functions. The effort was very successful, and eventually the university research groups wanted to use it for everything, not just Department of Defense work. Eventually it was opened up to non-Defense projects (with restrictions to prevent commercial ventures) and it was called Internet.  To gain access to Internet required a computer "node" (usually through a university).  Although the term "Internet" is often used to refer to all of these computer networks, there are at least three major ones that are linked together at most sites: Internet, Bitnet, and Usenet.  Internet is most commonly used to send electronic mail and messages.

     With the widespread penetration of Internet across the country, there have developed many different groups and forums, including ones that were specific to the AppleII.  Since Internet was already in existence when the AppleII was released, and long before any home users with modems created single-user bulletin board systems, it probably represents the first online "service" available for the AppleII.  The original newsgroup was called "comp.sys.apple", and in 1990 its name was changed to "comp.sys.apple2" to distinguish it from newsgroups that were dedicated to the Macintosh.  Through Internet addresses, AppleII users can even communicate directly with employees of Apple who have accounts on the net.
 

The Source (1979-1989)

     The Source began in 1979 and lasted until 1989.  For much of its life, it was owned by Reader's Digest.  It was accessible through Telenet or Tymnet nodes; that is, through computers in a locality that act as gateways to many other online computer services across the country.  (Often there is an additional fee for using the Telenet or Tymnet node, in addition to the charges for the specific service being accessed).  The Source had many services available online, including over twenty financial and business services, access to several national and international news services, and computer-specific news features.  An online encyclopedia, shopping, interactive games, and airline reservations were also available.  One feature unique to The Source was the capability to create "scripts" that the mainframe kept track of (rather than being on the user's local terminal program disk).  These scripts could be used to quickly move to certain areas and perform repetitive functions (such as scanning and reading electronic mail, and checking for new files in the library).

     The AppleII had a presence on The Source from its earliest days, but the APPLESIG was updated in 1987, and Joseph Kohn (who currently writes articles for inCider/A+ and works with the Big Red Computer Club) was the chief sysop.  He operated the APPLESIG from May 1987 until The Source closed down.

     Kohn worked to make APPLESIG a major information source for AppleII users. Registered with Apple as a user group, they had expert advice available, as well as a large library of articles and software.  The online charges were lower for APPLESIG, which also made it attractive for users.  As with other online services, a bulletin board section was also maintained for ongoing discussions between users about various topics of interest.  They also had an online presence maintained by "The AppleIIGS Buyer's Guide", and were allowed to reprint articles from "MicroTimes" and "A+" magazines.

     According to Kohn, one thing that likely contributed to the demise of The Source was their insistence on a $10 monthly minimum charge, long after other national online services had either eliminated or significantly lowered such charges.  Another problem that he identified was that their system was not as easy to use as some other services (although former users feel that the Source's library search protocol was better than any other).  The Source was bought out by CompuServe, and its subscribers merged with that service in 1989.
 

CompuServe (1979-Present)

     This service originally began as "Compu-Serv" in 1969 as an in-house computer processing center for Golden United Life Insurance Co.  During the next ten years they expanded their offerings to business users, and by 1972 had over four hundred accounts across the country.  In 1977 the name was officially changed to "CompuServe Incorporated", and by 1979 they were ready to begin offering service to computer hobbyists.  Their new service was called MicroNET, and it started on July 1, 1979 after two months of testing with the 1,200 members of the Midwest Affiliation of Computer Clubs.  Items available online were bulletin boards, databases, and games.  Soon after they started this, an AppleII special interest group was begun.  It gave itself the name "MAUG" (for "MicroNetted Apple User Group").

     In 1980, CompuServe merged with H&R Block, and changed their personal computer service name from MicroNET to CompuServe Information Service.  They have continued to expand their services and capabilities through the years, and are widely available across the country.

     Each user on CompuServe is assigned an eight or nine digit ID code, divided into five digits, a comma, and then the other three or four digits.  For example, a user's code might be 76543,4321.  When directing electronic mail to a specific user, it is necessary to use that ID code so the system knows exactly which Joe Smith you want to receive your message.

     The bulletin board and message sections on CompuServe are divided up into Forums, usually dedicated to a specific service.  The MAUG section covers more than one forum, since the volume of message traffic is too large to manage in a single forum.  Messages within a forum are organized under major subject, and then under minor subjects.  Each message is assigned a number, and the various messages are linked together into "threads".  For instance, user #1 asks a question about a brand of modem.  User #2 links his answer to that message and answers the original question.  User #3 also answers the question, but adds a comment about terminal programs.  User #4 picks up on that comment, and adds his views about the terminal program that he likes, without mentioning anything about the modem question that user #1 asked.  And on it goes.  Eventually, the topic will probably die out, to be restarted later by someone else when it is necessary.  The message thread can be followed when reading these posts, or you could simply read all the messages sequentially by their message number.  A sequential scan would read all messages about all topics, whether the messages were connected or not.  Following the thread pursues one conversation; following all of the messages pursues all conversations that are going on.

     One problem that can occur with this type of system depends on the volume of message traffic.  The software that CompuServe uses will assign a new number to each new message, but when the total number of messages has passed a certain point, the first messages will be deleted.  If the range of messages when signing on Monday runs from 15000 to 17000, by Tuesday it may run from 15500 to 17500 (and the first 500 messages from 15000 to 15499 have disappeared).  If there are any especially useful conversations going on, the Sysop (system operator) for that forum may choose to save the messages and their threads into a file in the library for access in the future by those who were not involved in the conversations when they were going on.

     Each forum on CompuServe has the capability of supporting live conferences, where many users can be present at the same time and hold live interactive conversations (as opposed to the bulletin board conversations where you must post a message, and then log on later to see if there has been a reply to it).

     The MAUG libraries hold programs that have been uploaded for years; some are from the early part of the 1980's (if you can wait for the file scan to get back that far).  Of course, there are also many files that are new, and they are added daily by the active people there.

     As with the other major online systems, there are many other services available online besides the MAUG forums, including news services, online shopping, games, and much more.
 

Delphi (1982-Present)

     In 1982 the General Videotex Corporation began an online service called Delphi (probably named after the oracle of ancient Greek mythology).  They have not been a major player in the competition for customers between national online services, but neither have they succumbed to financial pressure and passed away. Like The Source, they are accessible through Telenet and Tymnet.  They have had an AppleII SIG (Special Interest Group) since around 1985.  Erik Kloeppel has been head Sysop for that SIG for the past several years.

     In January 1992, General Videotex purchased the BIX online service operated by Byte magazine in an effort to enlarge Delphi and increase its market share.
 

GEnie (1985-Present)

     GEnie is owned and operated by General Electric, and the name stands for "General Electric Network for Information Exchange".  It has been in business since 1985, and, like other online systems, offers many different services to its subscribers, including news, an online encyclopedia, online shopping, games, financial information, and areas of interest to users of various brands of computers.

     Where CompuServe's sections are called Forums, GEnie calls their sections Roundtables (or RTs for short).  Each RT is divided up into a bulletin board, library, and conference rooms (called "Real Time Conferences", or RTC's).  The bulletin board is divided up into a number of categories, and each category consists of a number of topics.  Each topic then has individual messages that (hopefully) deal with that topic.  Unlike CompuServe, messages will not disappear from a topic until the Sysop decides to delete them (and this does not occur until the number of messages either get too large to be manageable, or they become old and outdated).  If a topic contains messages that are particularly helpful (such as information about the use of a common computer utility program), the messages may stay up for years.  If it becomes necessary to purge old messages, they may be placed into the library so they are still available for reading in the future.

     As for user ID's, GEnie decided to use a combination of letters and other symbols to give each user a unique name, instead of the number system CompuServe employs.  A new user is typically assigned a user name that consists of their first initial, a period, and their last name.  If there is another user with the same user name at that point, a number is added.  For instance, Joe Smith would be given the name J.SMITH; if there already are three Joe Smith's on the system, then this name would be changed to J.SMITH4 to tell him apart from the other ones.  A user may ask for a different name (for a price) if the one assigned to him or her is not satisfactory.  These tend to be as varied as vanity license plates on automobiles.  If J.SMITH4 owns a restaurant, he may ask GEnie to give him a name such as EAT.AT.JOES instead of his original name.

     GEnie started supporting the AppleII computer on October 27th, 1985, about five days prior to its going public.  Kent Fillmore was the first Apple Information Manager, and the first Sysop was Cathy Christiansen.  Fillmore started the "America Apple RoundTable" (AART), for the Apple ][ and /// Computers, as well as the A2PRO RT (AppleII Programmers) with Michael Fischer (MFISCHER), A+ Magazine RT with Maggie Canon (A.PLUS), the Apple/Mac User Group RT with Leonard Reed (BIBLIA), the ProTree RT with Bob Garth (PROTREE), and the GEnie Sysop's private RoundTable.

     Fillmore left GEnie in October 1987 and Tom Weishaar took over some of those RTs.  Fillmore later returned to GEnie in June 1992 to become the Product Manager for Computing RoundTables/ChatLines.

     To stay competitive with older and sometimes larger information services, GEnie has usually kept its online costs below those of the other systems.  The association with Tom Weishaar and his newsletter, "A2-Central" (originally "Open-Apple"), has been beneficial for both.  GEnie's 100,000th member in March 1988 was an AppleII user that joined because of a special offer through Open-Apple.  And Weishaar has been able to keep more direct contact with AppleII users, from both those who work professionally with the II to those who use their AppleII's for special purposes only.
 

AppleLink-Personal Edition / America Online (1988-Present)

     Beginning in May 1988, Apple Computer contracted with Quantum Computer Services to start a consumer version of its AppleLink network.  Apple's original network, in operation since 1985, had been used primarily for communication functions within Apple Computer and its various sites across the country, as well as a source of technical support for certified Apple developers.  When their new consumer service, AppleLink-Personal Edition (ALPE) was introduced, they changed the name of the original network to AppleLink-Industrial Edition. Apple's hope was to use ALPE as a method of providing better support to its customers.

     AppleLink-Personal Edition was unique for an online computer service in its use of a custom terminal program.  Rather than requiring the user, (possibly a novice) to spend a lot of time in learning how to use a terminal program, a modem, and ALPE, Quantum and Apple designed a special program that handled all the communications details, including the sign-on password.  Each time that the user signed-off from ALPE, a new, randomly selected password was selected and saved on the ALPE disk for the next time.  ALPE was aware of this password, and so the chances of someone breaking in on another user's account and using time (and money!) was nearly eliminated.

     The ALPE terminal program was intuitive, as was the use of the Macintosh (and AppleIIGS) desktop interface.  Icons (pictures of desired functions) were selected with the mouse or cursor (depending on how you had it configured). Making the call and logging in were handled by the terminal program, transparently to the user.  When the connection was made, a choice between Apple-specific services and ALPE general services was available.  The general section was directed to entertainment, business services, online shopping, and general education.  There was also a place for playing online games, alone or with other users.  An "auditorium" could be used for members to attend conferences with special guests, allowing direct questions and answers with the guests.

     The Apple Community section was the part most important to the dedicated AppleII (or Macintosh) user.  Here direct contact with Apple Computer, Inc. was available (through the "Headquarters" icon), as well as other hardware and software vendors.  Apple product announcements and information about products in testing could be found here, as well as direct access to Apple engineers and developers.  There were Forums (special interest groups) for various aspects of Apple computing, Apple University (with courses on productivity, programming, and specialized software applications), and Software (library of available programs for downloading).

     In 1990, AppleLink-Personal Edition was modified to connect with the services Quantum provided for other home computers, and the name was changed to America Online.  It was still slightly less expensive than the other major online services, and because of the icon-based terminal software, still the easiest to use for the beginner.
 

     The main benefit for an AppleII user on a large, online service such as those described above is the availability of many experienced users that can provide prompt, timely answers to questions or problems.  Some hardware and software companies maintain an online presence, to allow immediate feedback for their customers with technical problems.  There are also many files in the libraries on these services, providing software at low cost, some quite professionally written.  Apple Computer has also allowed most of these services to act as official "user groups", and so have availability of official technical notes and file type description notes for the AppleII series.
 

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     We've come a long way, in this review of the events in the life of the AppleII computer and those who have helped shape and direct its course.  My Flux Capacitor card has just about exhausted its capacity for, er, fluxing, and I've run into a wall that did not stop Marty McFly in his time-travelling adventures: The future.  Although I could create any future I wish to in my own fertile imagination, the events yet to come are no more clear to me than to anyone else who wants to try their hand at prognostication.  But one word does come to mind: Renaissance.  Webster's Dictionary defines it as "a movement or period of vigorous artistic and intellectual activity; rebirth, revival".  I believe this word accurately reflects the current level of activity in the AppleII world outside of Apple, Inc.  In order to take a look at why I believe this to be true, and at what might be in store for this computer, let's start by reviewing in brief what we've already covered.
 

OVERVIEW OF APPLE II HISTORY (THE BIG PICTURE)

     Back when Apple Computer, Inc. got its start, it was just one small part of the rapidly growing field of consumer-oriented uses of the new microprocessor technology.  It was not the first computer available for home use, and some might argue that it was not the best for its time, either.  But it did have an openness in design that made it possible (for those who were excited about exploring the digital unknown) to "boldly go where no one has gone before". Unbeknownst to these early AppleII enthusiasts, their computer did not necessarily have the same affection in the hearts of those who ran Apple Computer at the time.

     The problems at Apple Computer in the two years after the release of the AppleII were not particularly unique to that company.  They were suffering from the growth pains that can happen to any company that suddenly finds itself with a blockbuster product on its hands.  There is a sudden influx of cash (which is a heady experience in itself), a demand for greater levels of production for the product, and the problems associated with trying to meet that demand.  These difficulties were part of what bogged down MITS, maker of the Altair 8800, when demand for their computer far surpassed all their expectations.

     It has become somewhat of an expectation in the minds of the American consumer that if a company has a product that is sold in a store, advertised in national magazines, and is professionally designed, that it must then be a "big company".  When you as a consumer are dealing with this mythical large company, you expect that they have managers and employees who know exactly what is going on at all times, have a clear business plan for the future, and are firmly in control of all aspects of the product.  When the consumer becomes strongly attached to that product (develops a "brand loyalty" of sorts), sometimes that loyalty artificially inflates the abilities of the company that made it, and of its employees, to a status of expectations that no one can really meet.  A business-oriented purchaser of an AppleII just might have had his confidence shaken a bit if he had known, for instance, that one of the first activities of the founders and early employees of Apple when they moved out of Jobs' garage and into a real office was to play games with the office telephones.  Was this sort of behavior an indication that the AppleII was a piece of junk?  Not at all; but it does highlight one problem that could not be quickly overcome at the time, and that is the one of maturity and experience.

     Steve Wozniak was brilliant in his design of the AppleII; Steve Jobs was outstanding in his insistence on a quality appearance for the finished product; and all the others that made contributions in terms of hardware and software for this first all-in-one home computer did a top-notch job as well.  But without the experienced help that Apple's founders got from Mike Markkula and Mike Scott, the company would likely have drowned in its own success.  Starting a business with a successful product is not that hard; what is difficult is maintaining that business after it gets going.  Not only do you have the problems of meeting growing consumer demand, but in the case of a technologically complex device like a computer, you have more mundane things to do.  You have to do customer support involving items that were clearly spelled out in manual (which the owner likely did not read), as well as for problems that could not be anticipated in advance.  And as more computers are sold, there are more people that may need technical assistance.  This was not something that only Apple had trouble with; every small company that began to sell microcomputers had these same problems.  Although Apple could well have done things better, the help provided by those Apple executives who were experienced in business helped them survive the first few years.

     The next hurdle that Apple had to overcome was what they should do for an encore.  Sure, the AppleII was a success, and the introduction of the DiskII drive together with solid application software like VisiCalc ensured that they would do well for a while.  But up to this time in the microcomputer industry, no other machine had survived much beyond two to three years.  At that point in the typical life of a computer, it has usually been surpassed by more advanced technology that does more for the same or lower cost.  If Apple were satisfied to be a single-product company, that would be fine; but the people running the company wanted it to survive and flourish.  Consequently, the push was begun to establish both short term and long term goals for future products.  In the short term, the AppleIII was designed to be a stop-gap machine until their long term goals could be achieved.  It was unthinkable that the AppleII could possibly last much beyond six to twelve more months, and so they put considerable effort into creating something they thought would be better than an AppleII, something that would be more suitable for a business type of environment.  As has been discussed before, this new computer was built with the capability of running AppleII software, so customers would have something they could do with it until an adequate supply of AppleIII-specific software became available.  But the problems of growth pains and inadequate quality control killed the AppleIII, in spite of Apple's best efforts to overcome their false start.  Meanwhile, the AppleII Plus continued to grow by leaps and bounds, ignoring the expectations of those within the company.

     Apple's long-term goal was to get a radically new computer platform designed and into production, something that would be as much ahead of the AppleII and III as those computers were ahead of what came before them.  The Lisa project (and later the Macintosh) were what executives at Apple really believed would be the future of the company.  Certainly, with all the power and ease of use that these computers would promise, why would anyone want to still own an AppleII, or anything else?  In actuality, it was probably the failure of the AppleIII and the continued successful growth of the AppleII that made a major contribution to the slow start the Lisa and Macintosh had.  Combined with that factor was the very high cost of the Lisa, and the limited capability of the first Macs (with only 128K of RAM, there wasn't much you could do before you ran out of memory).

     All this time, the AppleII had developed its own perpetual motion machine that not even Apple's neglect could halt.  More AppleII computers in the home, school, and workplace meant more available customers for the fledgling software industry that provided fuel for these machines to run.  And a software company, though also liable for the technical support issues that affected hardware manufacturers, was extremely easy to start out of a living room.  Just write a program, package it, put a few ads in magazines, and wait for the orders to come pouring in.  Though few did as well as VisiCalc, the growth of that company is an example of the potential that software authors could achieve, given the right circumstances.

     Champions of the AppleII within the company still managed to upgrade the product when they were given enough leeway.  The AppleIIe and IIc, with better graphics and expanded memory were products of this type of advancement.  Those computers did not go very far in covering new territory; in fact, the major justification in the minds of Apple executives was that miniaturization made it less expensive to produce a machine that worked only incrementally better than the original AppleII, primarily adding features that most people were adding to the II Plus (upper/lowercase display and keyboard, and extra memory). Eventually, they allowed a true advancement in the form of the AppleIIGS, which held ties to the past by being compatible with old software and some hardware, and to the future by providing a whole new level of graphics, sound, and memory expansion capability.  Whereas the AppleIIe was not necessarily a better computer than the first AppleII or the original IBM PC, the AppleIIGS was clearly a considerable step forward.  Unfortunately, the IIGS was hindered from the start, not necessarily by blatantly obstructive efforts within the company, but more from the lack of corporate interest that had plagued the AppleII line since the AppleIII had first been conceived.  By the time the IIGS came to be, Apple's corporate mindset (the beliefs that many in the company held as absolute truth) was that the Macintosh and its descendants definitely were the true future of the company.  Consequently, it was difficult to get anyone to commit to making a realistic effort to promote and advertise the IIGS for the purposes where it would be best suited.  There appeared to be a paranoia that a successful AppleII of any kind would cause Mac sales to suffer.  Taken out of the active upgrade-support-upgrade loop, the IIGS made most of its advancements through the less-tangible system software development that was done for it. When the IIGS was first released, it was not much more able to do modern "desktop" computing (the graphic user interface) than was the first 128K Macintosh; it was primarily a larger, fancier IIe.  But with the maturing of its system software, and active work by outside developers, the IIGS eventually has come into its own with a solid, mature operating system, and the ability to do many of the tasks for which people are buying other computers (not necessarily Macintosh).

     By mid-1992 there was a further decrease in the amount of energy allocated within Apple for enhancements to the IIGS.  It was decided to change the AppleII Business Unit (the section within Apple that concentrated on that computer) into a "Continuing Engineering Unit".  The purpose of this group would be to maintain support and make small improvements for the existing AppleII and IIGS user base, but not to undertake any other major projects for either platform.  Although the AppleIIe and IIGS are still being produced and sold at the time of this writing, it seems only a matter of time before their sales drop below the level where Apple can justify continuing to offer them.
 

SO WHO IS TO BLAME?

     Let's take a look at the various major personalities at Apple that have had a major role in events there over the past fifteen years, and see how they affected the current state of affairs in regards to the AppleII.  Now, bear in mind that what I write here is not a result of time spent personally talking with these people; they have already had others interview them many times over the years about the same topics, and what they have wanted to say has likely been said.  Here I will summarize what has been written about them, and attempt to draw some conclusions.  Obviously, once I leave the Kingdom Of Factual Reporting and enter the Land Of Commentary, there is a chance that the judgements I may make are not valid.  I don't have an axe to grind against anyone, and it is not my intention to place blame squarely with any one person. Like any large company, Apple Computer is a collection of many different people's opinions, attitudes, and prejudices.  The sentiments you could get from talking to one person may be entirely different from those heard in talking with another.  With that disclaimer out of the way, let's begin.

     First of all, consider Steve Jobs.  In the eyes of many AppleII users, he is the quintessential villain, obstructing AppleII progress at every turn in favor of his baby, the Mac.  Many things have been written about Jobs over the years, discussing his temperament and lack of love towards the AppleII.  If accurate, these impressions could be summarized by saying that it appears Jobs was primarily a visionary, and was enamored of making Apple Computer a success and a Fortune 500 company (which he did, in the shortest period of time in business history).  He was also a big fan of the newest, the best, and the most interesting technology available; the older stuff was just a yawn after it was released (this includes even the Mac, which eventually lost its shine for him as he wanted Apple to build something even better).  He had an enthusiasm for the projects that looked like a good hack (this is what attracted him to Wozniak in the first place), and seemed to disdain anyone that did not wholeheartedly share his zeal.  His problems tended to stem from the same things that gave him his strength:  The single-mindedness of purpose was obnoxious to someone who was interested in upgrading older technology, like the AppleII (why waste the time working with something old like that when you could be spending your time working with something new and exciting like Macintosh?)  His excitement about a pet project also tended to cause him to give out details about new projects when they should best be kept secret.  Undoubtedly, Jobs played a strong role in the development of the mindset at Apple that the AppleII was "okay", but it was not something to waste much of your time with.  In this way of thinking, it was much better to be doing the "right thing" and to work with the AppleIII or Lisa or Macintosh team.

     What about Steve Wozniak?  Although very good in the technical department of hardware and software design, he was not of a temperament to participate in office politics.  Although he may have disagreed with the ways in which Jobs or others at Apple ran things, he did not have the business experience that let him feel qualified to counter their decisions with sufficient force to get things done his way.  He just wanted to design and build things, and so he tended to work at that which he did best.  When he had his opportunity, he left the company for a sabbatical in 1981, and then later returned to work on whatever else happened to interest him.  But since he was involved in of the initial work on the AppleIIGS, he has not done much at Apple to champion the cause of the AppleII.

     John Sculley, the former vice-president of PepsiCo that Jobs brought in to run the company after the departure of Mike Markkula, has little better a reputation with the AppleII community than does Steve Jobs.  This may be because of his position at the head of the company that has been practicing passive euthanasia on the AppleII for years, or perhaps because people have gotten the idea that he likes to tell them what they want to hear, but does not make any substantial efforts to carry the AppleII forward.  On the plus side, Sculley appears to be practical and a good businessman.  He is clearly able to take advantage of the opportunities presented to him, and to promote what he feels to be best for the company.  He started out at Apple with little experience in the technical areas that would be best suited for such a company, and had his rough times in trying to find his place.  He was considerably influenced by Jobs during his early months at Apple, and this likely extended to the lack of enthusiasm towards the AppleII.  Even after he realized the need to pull rank and to exclude Jobs from any influential role at Apple, it not because he repented and wanted to champion the AppleII, but rather because Apple needed stability at the helm.

     As a company, Apple has felt that its business goals needed to be in a direction that did not put a great emphasis on the AppleII or IIGS computer.  As the rest of the world advanced, digitally speaking, so also Apple needed to advance; it needed to make better, more capable, and more powerful computers for less money.  The contention (whether true or not) was that the AppleII simply did not have the "horsepower" to handle the higher powered applications that computer users of the late 1980's and early 1990's demanded.  As future advances are made in available technology, this will mean that even machines like the most advanced Macintosh II will eventually be surpassed by a newer generation platform (possibly the PowerPC project that Apple and IBM are jointly working on through their Kaleida company).  But as progress continues, Apple has also learned that it cannot abandon its established user base, destroying the investment that people have made in a computer by making it obsolete.

     If nothing else, the vocal complaints made over the years by the AppleII community have taught them that lesson.  Chris Espinosa, one of Apple's employees from the early days, was quoted in the March 9th, 1992 issue of InfoWorld as saying, "We're not going to do to the Macintosh what we did to the AppleII." At the time of this writing, the Mac has achieved a degree of acceptance in the business marketplace, and this credibility would be hurt badly if they began to ignore the Mac in favor of yet another, more exciting computer.

     One factor that has contributed significantly over the years to the apparent inconsistency over the way that Apple has handled much of what it does (not just the AppleII) is the frequency of change within the company.  This change leads to different people with different ideas taking over projects that were begun by others.  Tom Weishaar has said on more than one occasion, "[There is] this vision of Apple as an organism with a brain... that's [not] a correct metaphor.  Like any large organization, what it does is based on politics, and how many votes there are; [also,] the employees turn over every three years."

     Apple has undergone many reorganizations since it started business, as it has had to handle its phenomenal growth.  Usually those changes took place in response to things not going well (such as with the AppleIII), but sometimes it was done in an attempt to streamline operations and make things run more smoothly. A consequence of this change has been that as old people leave and new ones take their places, there is a natural desire to modify things that the old crew was doing.  Thus we have events like:

   o Apple allowing the Apple Pugetsound Program Library Exchange to form the Apple Programmers and Developers Association (Apple allowing A.P.P.L.E. to form APDA, if you prefer the short version), and then taking it back from them several years later.
   o Apple spinning off their application software division (AppleWorks and Mac products) to a separate company, Claris (with the purpose of being less competitive as a computer manufacturer with third-party software developers), and then later buying back Claris to bring it back under corporate control.
 

WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN DONE DIFFERENTLY?

     Second-guessing events of the past is easy; we see what was done, and can say with presumed authority, "Well, if I had been running things, I would have done it like this!"  At the time these decisions were made (or not made, as the case may be), the correct path to the future was still as muddy as it is today. Nevertheless, if I can make some idealistic statements, these are my thoughts on "what might have been."

     ACCEPTANCE.  Apple should have simply accepted the desire of the public for the AppleII computer, and responded by promoting it actively.  This could have been done along with its promotions of the AppleIII, and later the Mac.  When the AppleIIe was riding the high tide of popularity in December 1984, Apple should have capitalized on that, and redoubled the advertising for that computer.  Increased sales and profit would still have been good for the company, whether or not it came from Macintosh sales.

     REALISM.  Apple should have been realistic instead of religiously idealistic.  Job's visionary approach to Macintosh as a product that would change the world was clearly not reflected in its early sales.  A company lives on its sales, regardless of whether or not what it is selling happens to fit with its current philosophy.  The attitude should not be one that insists to the customer that this is what you want to buy, but to provide him with available choices and see what sells.  If the Macintosh was going to be as "insanely great" as Jobs and the rest of the Mac team believed, it would eventually pick up steam and start selling, without having to ignore the already-successful AppleII.

     ENHANCEMENT.  The products sold by Apple should have been upgraded according to the success they showed.  As Macintosh sales began to increase, advancing the machine to a larger memory size and more capabilities is perfectly reasonable.  In the same way, the AppleII should have had opportunities given to it in proportion to the income it produced for the company.  For example, at one time a notebook-sized AppleII (or IIGS) could have done extremely well, especially if it had been bundled with good general purpose software like AppleWorks.  The IIc and IIc Plus were good starts, but things stopped there. The IBM clone market has shown that there is a place for a notebook-sized computer with lots of memory, built-in hard disks, and color LCD screens.  A flat screen monitor could have been available for the AppleII as far back as 1985, had Apple been interested in developing it.

     OUTSIDE EXPANSION.  Even if Apple chose not to upgrade the AppleII themselves, the technology could have been licensed to someone else who was interested in pushing the machine to the limit.  Even if these licensed AppleII products competed a bit with the Mac, it would also be competing with computers made by other companies.  Furthermore, the larger the market share, the more people are aware of your product, which can stimulate future sales.  And after all, license fees paid for use of AppleII technology would still generate income, with little effort on Apple's part.

     ACTIVE RUMOR CONTROL.  For years the rumors have been flying on a fairly regular cycle that claim that the AppleII has been or will be shortly discontinued.  When a political candidate has something untrue said about him, he makes a quick and decisive effort to counter that gossip; it can be very damaging to his current image and future credibility if he lets it go unchallenged.  Instead of making it very clear that the AppleII was not being terminated, Apple seemed to usually ignore such statements.  Since a lack of denial is often taken as confirmation, this has led to many AppleII users and developers leaving this computer and going on to something else, often the IBM PC and clones.  Decreased developers means less new and upgraded software, which prompts current users to also move to a different computer, leading to smaller sales of existing software, which starts the whole cycle over.  Even "authorized" Apple dealers have been known to spout off that same old tired rumor, because they heard it from "someone in the company who knows".  Official announcements from the company that strongly denied any discontinuation of the AppleII might have helped stop that cycle.
 

WHERE DOES THE APPLE II STAND TODAY: THE BAD NEWS

     EDUCATION.  Although the AppleII continues to have the largest installed user base of any computer in schools below the college level, it is rapidly being overtaken by the onslaught of less expensive MS-DOS clones.  On top of this, Apple has given up on its strong support of the AppleII at the school level in the same way it has done so at the consumer level.  Apple encourages schools to purchase Macintosh computers when they want to add to or replace their existing machines.  This is demonstrated by Apple in their ads; one example that appeared in inCider/A+ during 1991 showed two students in a computer lab.  One was sitting in front of an AppleIIe, and the other was at a Macintosh LC.  The Mac LC had an attractive color screen with graphics, where the AppleIIe had a pitiful-looking black and white 40-column text menu displayed.  If you were looking at which computer to buy, which one would you choose?  (Notice that although the Macintosh LC is now one of the best selling Apple computers to educational institutions, the best selling peripheral for the Mac LC is the AppleIIe card).

     DECLINING SUPPORT.  The AppleII support market, both hardware and software is not dead, but neither is it robust and thriving.  Companies making products that work with the AppleII are often finding it difficult to continue in business without making unpopular decisions.  With flat or falling sales, they have had to either expand their coverage to other computer platforms, or face possible failure as a company.

     One example of this change is Applied Engineering.  For years they were prolific producers of hardware add-ons for the AppleII and IIGS, and often they had a large percentage of the total advertising pages in AppleII magazines. Their early ads touted AE as AppleII experts, "because that's all we do".  Not only has AE begun making and selling peripherals for the Macintosh line, but they have also made the unpopular decision to begin providing technical for their AppleII line through a 900-number toll phone line.  At the time of this writing, Macintosh users are not required to pay charges over and above long distance just to get technical support.

     Beagle Bros, also a long time AppleII supporter in the software arena, has also taken flack, but perhaps more unjustly than Applied Engineering.  They worked hard during 1991 in developing an integrated software product (BeagleWorks) for the Macintosh, and temporarily scaled back their AppleII support during the last days prior to the release of that new product.  The reason?  AppleII products simply were not selling at a rate high enough to meet overhead.  In Beagle's defense, they have not just left their AppleII user base dangling.  Not only have they released many of their older software products to online services for free distribution (rather than just letting them disappear), but they have also turned over further sales and development for the AppleII market to Quality Computers.  Quality, already a well-established AppleII mail-order company, has begun releasing new products under the Beagle name, ensuring that they will continue to be available and upgraded.

     MAGAZINES ARE FALTERING.  Unlike the old days when there were several magazines that catered to the AppleII market, there are just two glossy publications left:  inCider/A+, and GS+ Magazine.  The latter is available only by subscription (you won't find it on the newsstand), and the former has been slowing shrinking in size, due to decreased advertising revenues and problems that some vendors are having in paying for the space they've already purchased. Newsletter-style publications like A2-Central and the National AppleWorks User Group are surviving, but they do not depend on advertising revenue to continue publication.

     APPLE DEALER APATHY.  Many of Apple's authorized dealers have picked up on Apple's corporate indifference to any advancement of the AppleII, and are themselves ignoring it.  There are exceptions, but the general rule is that an Apple Dealer is not knowledgeable about the AppleIIe or IIGS and will not likely offer the IIGS as a solution for customer seeking a computer for a particular need.  Some of this also has to do with the bottom line:  The markup (profit margin) for an AppleIIe or IIGS is not as high as it can be with a Macintosh product, so there is less financial incentive to move those older products.  In some cases, there is even a decreased technical knowledge about the AppleII by the very dealers that are supposed to be able to repair them.

     READ MY LIPS: NO NEW CPU'S.  A planned upgrade to the AppleIIGS that was to be announced at or soon after the 1991 KansasFest was killed at the last minute. This change, which admittedly would not have been a major upgrade, would have still provided in a bundled form many of the features that customers buying a IIGS need in order to get anything useful done (beyond simple IIe emulation). The improved IIGS was to have more memory, a hard drive (built-in, as is done on many MS-DOS machines these days), and possibly a built-in SuperDrive (which is capable of reading 3.5 inch MS-DOS disks).  No reason for the cancellation was ever given; since it was never officially announced, the new IIGS CPU never officially existed anyway.  ("We do not comment on unannounced products" is the established party line).  The only public announcement Apple has made was that there would not be any new AppleII released beyond the IIe card for the Mac LC.
 

WHERE DOES THE APPLE II STAND TODAY: THE GOOD NEWS

     With all this going against it, what possible good could there be to say about the current state of affairs regarding the AppleIIe and IIGS computer? Surprisingly, there are several things.

     APPLE II SUPPORT CONTINUES.  Although Apple has indicated that we should not expect to see any new AppleII CPU's released, they have also promised that they would continue to support the existing AppleII user base with hardware and software upgrades that will keep these computers useful.  Products they have released that show they've kept this promise include:

   o GS/OS System 6.0, which offers many features similar to Macintosh's System 7 package, as well as providing tighter compatibility between the ROM 01 and ROM 03 IIGS computer.  The AppleII Continuing Engineering Unit has even gone so far as to announce System 6.0.1 for late 1992 or early 1993, coinciding with the planned release of the AppleII Ethernet card.  This system update will include bug fixes, support for the Ethernet card, and possibly an MS-DOS FST, making it possible to read (and later an update to write) files from MS-DOS disks using a IIGS.

   o ProDOS 8 v2.0.1, which offers AppleIIe and IIc users the capability of attaching large disk devices (such as hard drives with more than two partitions) to a card in a single slot.

   o HyperCard IIGS v1.1, an upgrade that includes more of the features found in the latest Mac version of HyperCard.

   o SuperDrive Card, a hardware add-on the makes it possible to use the higher-density (1.44 MB) 3.5 disks on the IIe and IIGS, and (if the proper conversion software becomes available) access to MS-DOS disks.

   o Video Overlay Card, making possible multimedia computing on the IIGS that combines standard video signals with computer compatible video signals.

   o Ethernet Card (release date mentioned above), which will make it possible to attach an AppleII to this non-Apple version of a networking environment.
 

     A DEDICATED CORE OF THIRD PARTY SUPPORTERS.  There are still many small individual programmers and hardware hackers who are devoted to the AppleII. They enjoy using this computer platform, and want to make new technology and programming techniques available for other AppleII users.  They continue to provide products that larger companies (who must have large returns on their development investment) cannot afford to produce for the AppleII.  The risk is that small one- or two-man companies may not be able to grow enough to ensure long-term support for their products.  Also, some of the smaller companies cannot afford to work full-time on the AppleII and must have a "real" job to support their part-time activities.

     Companies and/or products that fit into this category include:

   o Procyon, which has come out with a Unix-like multitasking environment for the IIGS called GNO/ME.  (Multitasking means that the computer is doing two things at once.  "Unix" is a multitasking environment that has been in use on mainframes for years).

   o JEM Software, Kingwood Micro Software, and Beagle Bros/Quality Computers all produce AppleWorks enhancements and add-ons.

   o Seven Hills Software has several high quality IIGS products for the serious user, including a desktop publishing package, a font editor, disk utilities, drivers to make use of high quality output printers, and more.

   o Vitesse, Inc. offers a GS/OS-based package of hard disk management utilities, as well as a IIGS printer driver for the better printers.

   o Resource Central, a publisher, provides news, products, and technical support for the AppleII family, as well as helping sponsor continued technical education events ("KansasFest") each year.  The AppleII support that comes directly from Apple through APDA (the Apple Programmers and Developers Association) has now been turned over to Resource Central.

   o plus many more that I don't have room to mention here.
 

     USER GROUPS.  Just as in the beginning of the AppleII era, these groups still exist to provide the support for AppleII users that Apple and their authorized dealers cannot (or will not) provide.  They give a sense of community and comradry that can keep a new user (or semi-experienced user) from abandoning the II in frustration, with the oft-mistaken notion that the grass will be greener on the MS-DOS or Mac side.  Apple recognizes this and does provide many resources for Apple User Groups (but still tends to give much of its attention to the Mac side of things).

     A NEW ERA OF SOFTWARE QUALITY.  Since there are no longer a large number of companies writing software for the AppleII series, we have come full circle.  In the early days, most of the available software came from amateur authors, and the best of it was distributed by fledgling software companies through computer stores and magazine advertising.  Today, much newer software, especially for the AppleIIGS, is coming from the same source:  Amateur authors.  Instead of being sold through stores or ads, much of this comes via online services through the Shareware method, or via mail-order houses.  Some companies, like Quality Computers, are also directing sales of the best programs, becoming a blend of software publisher and distributor.  Although the days of becoming a millionaire through selling a blockbuster AppleII program have probably passed forever, it is still possible to do fairly well as an author.

     A LARGE LIBRARY OF AVAILABLE SOFTWARE.  The AppleII has fifteen years of software available, and much of the best of the old programs are available for bargain prices via private sales, or free for downloading from online services.
 

WHAT SHOULD WE DO NOW?

     If it is true that the sun is slowly setting on the age of AppleII computing, is there any point in hanging on any longer?  Yes, indeed!  First of all, if you own an AppleII computer, you have a platform that is extremely mature and well known.  Unlike the IBM clones, who are evolving so fast that software cannot keep up with them, the 6502, 65c02, and 65816 have been around in one form or another for a long time.  People who write software for the AppleII or IIGS know exactly how to make it do what they want it to do, and they can do it well.  The AppleIIGS, though released back in 1986, is just now coming into its full maturity, and some very high quality software is being released for it.  This software can make it possible to use hardware (such as large capacity hard disks, optical scanners, tape drives, touch windows, and much more) that has been made "respectable" in the IBM or Mac world, and is now available for reasonable prices to work on an AppleII.  The disadvantage faced by the IBM user is that mature 386 software will never exist; the 486 and its descendants will be the center of attention before that can happen.  The 486 will likely suffer the same fate.  Software on those machines simply cannot keep up with hardware when it changes so rapidly.  The stale "growth" of the IIGS may actually have been to its advantage!

     So then, how do you handle the feelings of envy you may get from scanning through the magazine racks, viewing all the lovely things you can buy for one of those computers?  How is it possible to not be angry at Apple for what "they've" done to your favorite computer?  Here are some suggestions:

     TAKE THINGS LESS SERIOUSLY.  After all, IT'S JUST A COMPUTER.  People who got very upset with Chevrolet for discontinuing their classic Chevelle Malibu had far too much of an emotional investment in the car.  A computer, like a car, will not love you back, no matter how much time and devotion you put into it. If you view it as a tool, then do what a carpenter does:  He continues to use his hammer, saw, and screwdrivers for as long as they remain useful to him.  He does not go out each year and buy the next model of hammer, just because it has a few more features than the old one did.

     Furthermore, make a decision to not let yourself become upset with Apple or with Apple dealers who are not interested in promoting the AppleII or IIGS. From their point of view, they are trying to make a living.  As mentioned above, they don't have much of a profit margin on the AppleII, and they have to pay the rent, their employees, and feed their kids.  Apple could possibly change this by dropping dealer cost for the IIGS, but that would drop Apple's profit margin, and make them even less interested in continuing to produce the IIe or IIGS. Resolve to emotionally divorce yourself from Apple and what it will or will not do.  Time has shown that we can't make them change their attitudes, so why get ulcers over it?

     LOWER YOUR EXPECTATIONS.  This sounds rather defeatist, but it has a positive reason.  If you don't expect anything new from Apple or Apple dealers, you won't be disappointed when your expectations are correct (that is, when nothing happens).  Even if they never release another piece of hardware or system software for the AppleII or IIGS, they have provided us with tools that can be used for years to keep our hardware and software investment useful.

     IGNORE THE RUMORS, both those about Apple releasing a new version of the AppleII (they have publicly said that this will not happen), and those about it being discontinued.  Since the early 1980's there have been repeated rumors that the AppleII was just about to be killed, and it has never yet come to pass. Undoubtedly, it will happen some day.  But even if the announcement were made this week, would that really have an effect on what you do with your computer? If you are using it for word processing, or desktop publishing, or home finances, and it still works, is the End Of The AppleII really that big a deal? There are still a large number of people in this country that are using AppleII Plus computers on a daily basis, because that is all the computer they have found that they need.  They are not suffering because they cannot run a desktop publishing program like Publish-It! or GraphicWriter, or a font enhancer like Pointless; it is just not much of a priority with them.  Dean Esmay, chief sysop on GEnie's A2 Roundtable, put it well when he stated the following:  "The bandits in the AppleII division have always done their best to bring the machine to its ultimate limits and past them, despite the idiot marketing and the high corporate officials, [whose actions] those guys couldn't do anything about. They've given us all they could to take the machine to its furthest abilities. If the higher ups decide to drop it now that's not going to change much of anything for any of us.  Look at the AppleIII.  That thing sold barely 100,000 units before being discontinued and there are still people using it, still companies out there supporting it.  Up to [1989 or so] there were people still writing software for it, and at that time the machine had been discontinued for at least five years.  And with only 100,000 or so ever sold!  There are at least fifteen times that many IIGS systems, and at least thirty times that many IIe/IIc systems, not even counting the clones.  And a lot more software already available." The IIe, IIc, and IIGS should be useful for a long time yet.

     Now, if you are a major computer game aficionado, it may bother you that there are no longer a large number of games being released for the AppleII or IIGS.  There are still some new games being released for the IIGS, and the quality seems to be better than ever.  If that is not enough for you, though, perhaps you would be happier with a Ninetendo (oops!  I mean the Super Ninetendo, which is incompatible with cartridges for the old Ninetendo.  No, wait; the Ultra Ninetendo, with 32 bit graphics and seventeen joystick modes and...).  Just remember, any game machine or computer will be obsoleted someday by the next advancement in home entertainment.

     FIND AND HELP NEW USERS.  Another area where local AppleII user groups can meet a need is in the growing number of people who are new owners of used AppleII equipment.  Because there are many who have jumped the AppleII ship for the MS-DOS or Mac world, there are quite a few AppleII, II Plus, IIe, IIc, and IIGS computers that appear on the used market at bargain prices.  The prices on these used computers are often low enough that an interested person can justify buying one just to try it out ($200 compared to $1200 makes it as affordable as a VCR).  If it was interested in providing such a service, an AppleII user group could place small ads (perhaps in the classified sections of a newspaper or home shopper circular) to tell any new AppleII owners in the community that knowledgeable people are available to help them.

     If they felt so inclined, user groups could even act as buying and selling coordinators for used AppleII hardware and software.  This could make it easier both for those trying to sell used equipment, as well as for those looking to buy such equipment.  This would require a higher level of volunteer time in these groups, but has the potential of stimulating a growth of membership.
 

CONCLUSION: ENJOY YOURSELF!

     The current era of AppleII computing has the potential of being as exciting as the original days, when every new program was a discovery in learning more about the machine.  As a community, AppleII users need to determine the direction of their own future, since Apple Computer, Inc. will not likely be putting much energy into that area.  In 1977, the major sources of hardware and software were not from computer stores or Apple itself, but rather from the users.  In a sense, that is also true today.  The days of making a million dollars writing software for this machine are probably long past, but there are still many hackers out there who can write new and useful programs that will maintain our hardware investment.  These authors can distribute their products as shareware through major online services, or possibly as a commercial program through one of the few remaining AppleII software distributors (such as Quality Computers), or through one of the small companies mentioned above that continue to actively support the II.  Users of the AppleII can help maintain the flow of AppleII-related products by buying what they use (instead of making illegal copies), and by paying the shareware fees for what they download from online services.

     We have the unique opportunity to actually direct and mold the future of the AppleII ourselves.  Decide how you want to participate, and have fun with your computer!

     AppleII Forever?

     Well, nothing lasts forever... but it can last as long as we want it to!
 
 

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Appendices A-C follow
 
 
 

Formatting by Ground Apple II FAQs site, 1999