Since the world is singing the praises of the late Steve Jobs, I thought I would share my earliest Apple memories.
It was probably 1981. I was in the sixth grade when my friend first mentioned his Apple computer. I had no idea what a computer actually was nor what it did or looked like. When he described this “computer” I visualized an arcade game like Pac-Man where you stood while you used it. It wasn’t until the following year when I saw my first Apple computer at school. We played with Logo and drew pictures by typing code and I still have no idea what was the benefit. It was around that time that we bought one at home.
I believe that Apple ][e cost $2400. I remember splitting the cost three ways between my brother, my parents and I. We had some bar mitzvah cash we were looking to spend.
My Apple ][e introduced me to programming. It was always fun when I walked past one on display in a department store and typed the following code then walked away. Sometimes I typed bad words too.
10 PRINT "TREVOR IS THE GREATEST"
20 GOTO 10
END
RUN
TREVOR IS THE GREATEST
TREVOR IS THE GREATEST
TREVOR IS THE GREATEST
TREVOR IS THE GREATEST
TREVOR IS THE GREATEST
My Apple ][e was fun for its walkthrough games like Kabul Spy and action games like Lode Runner or Karetaka (I recommend you watch the Karateka video. It’s good times).
Incidentally, I also remember when Apple introduced the Lisa. I like a girl named Lisa in 1983 so it was funny.
By 1990, I was in university and Apple’s Bank Street Writer word processor wasn’t cutting it. I despised all those MSDOS back-slashes so the new Mac Classic which was about half the price of the previous Macs was a no brainer for me. I believe I paid $1600 for that one. I pulled it out of storage last year just to show it to my son, now 13. It was fun showing him that old Mac.
It didn’t know Steve Jobs but he was responsible for making some neat stuff and some pretty nice memories. My son has an iPod Touch now but I doubt it will give him the same great memories that I had with my first Apple product.
