Apple II
- For emulators, see Apple II emulators.
The Apple II (often stylized as "Apple ][", with brackets) is a series of computers produced by Apple from 1977 to 1993.
Unlike the Apple I, which was just a limited circuit board on a wooden box made for hobbyists, the Apple II was a full-blown computer made for both personal and business use. It was a member of the "1977 trinity" - the first commercially successful personal computers, which also included the TRS-80 and the Commodore PET. While not immediately a major hit due to its high price, it was ultimately the longest-lived and most popular of them, due to being very expandable and well-built.
Due to its popularity and longevity, the Apple II received a lot of business and educational software, many of which are still used today or served as inspiration for the more modern software (such as the popular Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet program, which is more or less the base for Microsoft's Office Excel). Of course, it also received a lot of games, being the birthplace of the holy triad of Western RPG series (Ultima, Wizardry and Might & Magic), as well as the very first Prince of Persia.
If you're going for real hardware, look into the IIGS, which introduced modern Mac-like features like a mouse-driven graphical interface, and is required for the most technically demanding games.
The list
[edit | edit source]| Cover | Title | Genre | Description | Screenshot |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Akalabeth: World of Doom | RPG | Akalabeth is the spiritual predecessor to the Ultima series crated by Lord British. By modern standards, it is as bare-bones as an RPG can be, but nonetheless enjoyable for what it is. There are just four quests in the game and they're all “go kill x.” Once you've done the quests you become a knight after killing the Balrog. There's little story beyond this. Food is a bitch and gremlins are more powerful than balrogs. Lizard Man spell is OP as fuck, though so it really breaks the game. There is no music in the Apple II version and repetitive MIDIs in the DOS version. | 
|
|
Arkanoid II: Revenge of DOH (GS) |
Paddle | Excellent conversion of the classic paddle game from the arcades. | 
|
|
Might And Magic (I and II) |
RPG | The long-running classic RPG series began on the Apple II. | 
|
|
Out Of This World (GS) |
Action-adventure | An accident with a particle accelerator teleports a scientist to an alien world where everything is deadly. Essentially the same as the many other ports of this game, which is excellent and seriously challenging. | 
|
|
Prince of Persia | Action-adventure | The Vizier kidnapped the princess and tossed you into the dungeon, now you must race against the clock to escape and stop the Vizier's plans. This is the original version of the game and still very much playable. | 
|
|
The (New) Oregon Trail | Edutainment | The year is 1848, and you lead a group of settlers from Missouri to Oregon. This is often called a killer app for the Apple II: kids who played it in school would badger their parents for their own system to play at home. Now this was not the first version of The Oregon Trail (the title should make it obvious), which was originally a text game for school mainframes back in the 1970s. And it was not even the first port to the Apple II: the 1980 version was still mostly text-based, with very limited graphics. But this is the one that everyone remembers, the completely reworked and vastly improved 1985 remake. | 
|
|
Thexder (GS) |
Platformer | A transforming robot/jet must destroy hordes of enemy robots because of reasons. Using your laser actually depletes your own life, but killing your enemies refills it. A very widely ported game at the time; the regular II version is painfully simplified, but the GS-specific port looks pretty good and its music is particularly nice thanks to the machine's Ensoniq sound chip. | 
|
|
Wolfenstein 3D (GS) |
FPS | Now hold on a second, how the hell did they get a cutting edge 1992 game to run acceptably on 1986 hardware? This is, hands down, the most impressive game on the II. Get it here. The tale of its development is also quite interesting, read it here. | 
|
Videos
[edit | edit source]External links
[edit | edit source]- Virtual Apple II - emulated Apple II games in your browser
- Asimov's Apple II FTP archives
| Second Generation | ||
| Consoles | Emerson Arcadia 2001 - Atari 2600 - Atari 5200 - Epoch Cassette Vision - ColecoVision - Fairchild Channel F - Mattel Intellivision - Magnavox Odyssey² - Bally Professional Arcade - Sega SG-1000 - RCA Studio II - Interton VC 4000 - Milton Bradley Vectrex | |
| Handhelds | Entex Adventure Vision - Nintendo Game & Watch - Milton Bradley Microvision | |
| Computers | Apple I - Apple II - Apple III - Atari 8-bit - Acorn BBC Micro - Commodore PET - Tandy TRS-80 - Tandy TRS-80 CoCo | |