On 18 Jul 2009, at 17:40:56 PDT, Ivan Drucker wrote:
> >> You really need a floppy >> drive to see if the thing works. > > Actually, since the II+ was designed originally to work with > cassette tapes, > this is not strictly speaking true; if you turn one on with no drive > attached, it beeps, says "APPLE ][" at the top of the screen, and > drops you > into AppleSoft Basic (which has a ] prompt), from where you can > write a > program, or load something from a tape player attached to the audio > in port > in the rear. IIe's do the same; enhanced IIe's say "Apple //e" > instead. (The > unenhanced IIe is substantially the same machine as a II+.) > > Early Apple II's (non-plus) don't even do this, actually; they > beep, fill > the screen with @'s and other random characters, and then drop you > into > machine language, which has a * prompt. > > Of course, you'll still need a floppy drive to do anything useful > with it, > unless you happen to have Apple II tapes lying around. (I happen to > be a > person who does. Getting those things to work was tough; I remember > when we > finally got a Disk ][ drive and I thought it was the greatest thing > ever. > Random access! Named files! Speed! Blew my mind.) > > Ivan. ------------------ Ahh. You refresh my poor memory. It has been 20 years since I smoked my ][+. I had forgotten about the Basic prompt and the "beep" at power on. The tape recorder was my original input- output device. I had quite a few programs on tape until I could afford the $200 or so for a floppy drive. Ken --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Vintage Macs group. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/vintagemacs.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/vintage-macs?hl=en Low End Mac RSS feed at feed://lowendmac.com/feed.xml -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
