Apple IIc – first impressions

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THE BACKGROUND:

I’ve had Apple computers since I bought my Apple II in the first half of 1978. Within a year I had a job as a programmer for Systems Enginering Laboratories, and my interest in personal computers dissipated significantly. In early 1984, my home computer was upgraded to a 128K mac with imagewriter. Since then, I’ve been using macs as my primary personal machines.

It was only in 2004, when I pulled my original Apple II down from that attic in order to make a shutter tester, that I became interested again in the original Apple II line. Because my computer interests moved in other directions, I had little experience with the Apple II line since about 1980. Until recently, I never had any particular interest in the Apple IIc. It seems that it might be useful as a portable machine, especially since so many modern TVs have composite video inputs.

Well a few months ago, I was given a IIc without power supply. Since then, I’ve been very busy with the Brain Board and Mimeo 1 work and haven’t had time to cobble the power supply together. Well this morning I found a few hours and finally was able to bring this baby up.

First challenge was the power supply. Apple specs 1.2 AMPs DC at 15 volts. I have a Radio Shack (realistic) bench power supply rated at 1 AMP, with variable output, up to 25 volts, DC. I figured that since the power supply could be turned up to 25 volts that maybe it would source the 1.2 AMPs at 15 volts. After wiring the connector, I connected it up. The computer made a beep but then shut itself down. After several attempts, I realized the power supply couldn’t hack it and was shutting itself down. OK, now I’m looking for a wall wart with something close to the correct parameters. The first one that looked close, was rated at 1.2 AMPs at 12 volts DC. Now this same wall wart wasn’t hefty enough for the DISK II-USB project, so I was skeptical, but decided to give it try. I hooked it up with a voltmeter on the DC outputs so I could see how much the voltage sagged when the disk drive was turned on. To my surprise, this wall wart seemed to be able to handle the IIc, at least without anything external plugged in. It did sag down to around 11 volts at times, but I think the internal power supply will accept anything down to 9 volts. Ok, so now I have an Apple IIc powered up, what are my initial impressions.

Apple IIc test set up

THE REVIEW:

  • First of all, the IIc’s disk drive is quieter than what I’m used to. It’s not silent, but certainly much quieter than the old Disk IIs.
  • The keyboard really isn’t that good. Maybe mine is old and out of shape but the keys seem clunky to me.
  • I run a lot of old integer basic programs and use firmware cards instead of language cards in my II and II plus machines. This isn’t really a knock on the IIc, I just have to make sure I boot with a disk that has integer basic on the drive. Same problem exists with the IIe, which is pretty much the same machine, only with slots.
  • It would have been nice, if they could have squeezed one expansion slot into this form factor.
  • For some Brain Board compatibility tests, I had to open up the machine to borrow the 65C02 processor. Though it is not hard to get into, there are some rather fragile tabs that help hold the case together. Be careful, if you decide to open this unit up.
  • I haven’t checked composite video compatibility with any digital monitors, but I’ll have to check that out before I actually try taking it somewhere.

    • Summary…Other than the clunky keyboard, I think that this is a cool machine and I may actually end up dragging it along on a trip in the future.