by Scott Running Bear » Mon Jun 02, 2014 3:06 pm
That was funny! Today's kids just don't know how much fun these old dinosaurs can be. I have seven IIe's ranging from the early 'Revision A' model of 1982-83, some 'Revision B' 2064 models pre and post enhancement and two 2128's of 'Revision B' and the late 'Revision A' model. I have a blast with them. I also have a Canadian made Microcom Apple II+ clone. I like it because it has a built-in numeric keypad. My next acquisition will be either an Apple IIc or a Vtech Laser 128. Some years ago my nephew, he was twelve then, thirty-one now, wanted to play a text adventure game I had written. It had and still has the somewhat exciting title of 'Hell House', like 'Mystery House' on super steroids. It makes 'Moonmist' and 'Zork' look like a walk in the park. It was written on a II+ I had picked up cheap. I never marketed it because it's virtually unwinnable. A player can win but the chances are remote. I can't win it and I wrote the darn thing albeit many years ago. Anyway, he wanted to take a crack at it. He had never used my computer before. It was an early 'Revision B' IIe from 1983 and I still have it. So I put the disk in one of the drives for him and told him to punch it up. So he typed in the game title and presses 'RETURN'. ?SYNTAX ERROR. The neighbors heard that 'WHAT!!' over the noise of their stereos. I had to show him how to get the program started. Simply type in 'RUN HELL HOUSE,S6,D2'. I had several drives connected to two cards. You know what? He thought that was too much work. Today he's trying to deal with the aggravation that Windows 8 is giving him and he thinks it's too much work also. The more things change the more they stay the same.