Apple IIe is Go
Just a quick post that the Apple IIe purchased from Digital Dinos is now up and running. I won an eBay auction for a homebrew Mockingboard clone, so I figured I should set up the IIe so it’ll be ready to receive that sound card.
Set-up went smoothly. I installed the Expanded 80 Column Card and the Disk Drive Controller Card in the IIe, hooked up the drives, monitor, and power, and gave it a spin.
Apple IIe Setup
I used Infocom/Westwood’s Battletech game to test both the extra memory on the 80 Column card (the game requires 128k) and to test the drives (it can use 2 drives).
My IIc in pristine shape, its case clean and non-aged. This IIe on the other hand has typical yellow-y aging on the case, and is also scuffed up and marked a bit. Yet I never had a IIc growing up, I had a IIe. I have a more immediate connection with the IIe’s size, shape and the feel of its keyboard. Using it feels more like an authentic time machine. 
Apple IIe closeup
The IIc has certain advantages:
- Its compact size means there’s a bit more deskspace when it’s occupying the computer table instead of the IIe.
- Its headphone jack is *very* handy for recording its audio output (I ran it straight into a Zoom H4 recorder). Since making 8-bit music on these computers is one of main interests, that’s a big plus for getting a clean recording. The on-its-way Mockingboard clone has some kind of ‘stereo jack’ – I’ll have to see how well that works, but even so, for non-Mockingboard audio, like RT.SYNTH, I’d have to stick a microphone somewhere near the IIe case. So for doing final recordings of Apple II audio, I may end up mostly using the IIc.
- I would need another card (a super serial card) to do disk transfers with ADTPro on the IIe. With the IIc, you just use its built-in serial port.
Nevertheless, the IIe’s greater nostalgia/personal time-machine aura means I will probably use it more, outside of the necessary audio recording and ADT uses of the IIc. And of course, the IIe’s expandability though its available card slots is a huge plus, and something that drives a large portion of the current 8-bit Apple enthusiast community. Playing with the Mockingboard should be good fun, and I *do* want to get and try out the Uther ethernet card and the CFFA card (basically a Flash card hard drive for the 8-bit Apples) at some point. For that matter, a TransWarp card is looking good to speed up some of the slow SSI strategy games I’ve been playing. 