Apple IIc: Watching This Apple II Computer Boot Up Makes You Think It’s 1984

The Apple IIc computer – the cutting-edge technology of 1984.

When it was first introduced to the world, the jaws of most consumers and critics likely dropped – especially when you consider the competition (or lack thereof) that Apple was up against at the time.

More than 30 years later, though, the old computer is viewed as more of a fossil within the Technology Era. It essentially provided a historic footprint that technology lovers and followers can review occasionally when they are feeling somewhat nostalgic.

Quinn Dunki more than likely experienced a big taste of that nostalgia, according to TechCrunch, when she found an Apple IIc computer buried among a pile of stored belongings in her parent’s basement.

She opened up about the experience in great detail on her official website as one of her “BlondiHacks.”

“Over the holidays, I took the rare opportunity to dig through the stockpile of childhood belongings in my parents’ basement. Thanks as always, mom and dad, for judiciously moving that stuff from house to house and storing it carefully all these years. I had two singular preservation goals- My Apple IIgs motherboard, and my 5¼” floppy disks.”

Quinn referred to the Apple II computer as the Apple IIgs model. However, quite a few people that commented on the TechCrunch article confirmed that it was actually the Apple IIc model instead.

The Apple IIc was the fourth model of the Apple II computer series; it was first released in April of 1984. On the other hand, the Apple IIgs was actually an upgraded version of the system.

Released in September of 1986, more than two years after the Apple IIc, the Apple IIgs was known as the fifth and most impressive model of the Apple II computer collection.

Quinn’s Apple II computer set-up did not come with a floppy disk drive, which is what she needed in order to reuse her 5-and-a-half-inch floppy disk collection.

Therefore, she did exactly what many other consumers do when an Apple product or accessory is not available: she used a compatible device from another brand. According to her article, she relied on the V-Tech “Laser” brand of Apple II compatible devices. She used a drive that was brought on-board to supplement Laser’s version of the Apple IIc and it apparently worked out just fine.

As she took pictures of the various components found within the Apple IIc computer, Quinn apparently took all of her readers on a trip down Memory Lane. She took close-up shots of the motherboard and other components, focusing on the overall quality that was used to design those parts in contrast to the way that they are designed today.

“This is the glory days of through-hole electronics, right here. Single-layer board! Jumpers and DIPs and headers, oh my. You could have repaired any part of this board with stuff on the shelf at Radio Shack. Back when Radio Shack sold radio stuff. Back when Radio Shack existed.”

After her thorough inspection and cleaning process, Quinn moved forward with trying to bring the Apple IIc computer back to life by verifying the speed – the final step before testing the system with actual floppy disks. To accomplish this task, she used an Apple II utility known as Copy II Plus – a program that she found as a disk image within the Asimov archive.

Before long, everything was in place for her to move forward with booting up the Apple IIc computer successfully. By recording the overall experience, she was able to take each video viewer along for the ride back. Watching this video will definitely satisfy any nostalgic cravings of 1980s technology that you might have, but it also serves as a solid refresher course on just how far technology has come in the past 30 years.

[Image Credit: AP Photo/Sal Veder]