The Apple II Age
“…a magisterial historical past and a present to all curious technophiles.“
–Claire L. Evans, writer of Broad Band: The Untold Story of the Ladies Who Made the Web
“…a rare achievement in pc historical past…”
–Joanne McNeil, writer of Lurking: How a Individual Grew to become a Consumer
“…the monochrome inexperienced glow of the CRT is rendered prismatic by means of Nooney’s rigorous scholarship, painstaking archival analysis, and all the time bracing and genuine prose.“
–Matthew Kirschenbaum, writer of Observe Modifications: A Literary Historical past of Phrase Processing
An engrossing origin story for the non-public pc—displaying how the Apple II’s software program helped a machine transcend from hobbyists’ plaything to important residence equipment.
Skip the iPhone, the iPod, and the Macintosh. If you wish to perceive how Apple Inc. grew to become an business behemoth, look no additional than the 1977 Apple II. Designed by the good engineer Steve Wozniak and hustled into {the marketplace} by his Apple cofounder Steve Jobs, the Apple II grew to become one of the outstanding private computer systems of this dawning business.
The Apple II was a flexible piece of {hardware}, however its most compelling story isn’t discovered within the feat of its engineering, the personalities of Apple’s founders, or the way in which it set the stage for the corporate’s multi-billion-dollar future. As an alternative, as historian Laine Nooney exhibits, what made the Apple II iconic was its software program. In software program, we uncover the fabric causes individuals purchased computer systems. To not hack, however to play. To not code, however to calculate. To not program, however to print. The story of non-public computing in the USA just isn’t concerning the evolution of hackers—it’s concerning the rise of on a regular basis customers.
Recounting a constellation of software program creation tales, Nooney gives a brand new understanding of how the hobbyists’ microcomputers of the Nineteen Seventies grew to become the non-public pc we all know right this moment. From iconic software program merchandise like VisiCalc and The Print Store to historic video games like Thriller Home and Snooper Troops to long-forgotten disk-cracking utilities, The Apple II Age gives an unprecedented have a look at the individuals, the business, and the cash that constructed the microcomputing milieu—and why a lot of it converged across the pioneering Apple II.
