An Apple news website is inevitably going to look forward to the future. But that doesn’t mean we can’t take a second to appreciate Apple past.
Over the weekend, a New York law professor and author warmed geeky hearts on Twitter after discovering his old family Apple IIe — in working order. In an excited flurry of tweets, John Pfaff shared screenshots of some iconic Apple II programs. And even got a tweet from Neuromancer author (and Mac fan) William Gibson for good measure.
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It’s like riding a bicycle.
But need to get that 100m dash time down a bit. That was respectable in the 1980s, but not anymore. pic.twitter.com/cmnOKwBUUJ
— John Pfaff (@JohnFPfaff) February 17, 2019
“Oh. My. God,” Pfaff wrote in the first of what became an incredibly endearing thread to follow. “An Apple IIe. Sat in my parents’ attic for years. Decades. And it works. Put in an old game disk. Asks if I want to restore a saved game. And finds one! It must be 30 years old. I’m 10 years old again.”
Subsequent posts included references to Adventureland, the classic text adventure game launched in 1978. “This is tricky, because three decades later I can’t quite remember where I left off this round of Adventureland,” Pfaff mused after the game tried to pick up his old save.
Going back to the past
Wow. So this was an old trivia game I loved (Millionware). This screen gets to the point where it says “Say ‘Hello’ to our contestants Donna.”
And then the disk drive whirs w its little red light.
Then you get “Thank you, Donna.”
1984 computer humor. pic.twitter.com/dFnbQk7y0D
— John Pfaff (@JohnFPfaff) February 17, 2019
He also, touchingly, found an old letter written to him on camp by his dad. At one point, sci-fi writer William Gibson tweeted him after Pfaff mentioned the Apple II version of Gibson’s book Neuormancer.
“My kids thought things were insanely retro when my wife and I played NES Super Mario on the oldest’s Switch,” Pfaff concluded. “Tomorrow morning their definition of retro is going to shift significantly.”
If you remember the glory days of the Apple IIe, the whole thread is worth reading through. Even if you’re not old enough to remember it, it’s a fun joyful look back at the technology which shaped our childhoods. Who knows: Maybe it’ll even inspire you to go digging around in your own parents’ attic looking for the computer you had when you were a kid.
What was your first family computer? Let us know in the comments below.
