From: sknkwrks@unlv.edu (Scott Alfter)
Subject: Re: Help! Apple IIe
Organization: Skunk Works Software Co.
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 92 23:06:40 GMT

In article <1992Aug20.093129.1@eagle.wesleyan.edu> plee@eagle.wesleyan.edu writes:
>	I recently acquired an old Apple IIe for free. To put it simply, I know
>very little - almost nothing about Apples. I need help. These are some of the
>questions that I have - any other useful info that you can think of would be
>good, too...

Always nice to see more people getting into the 8-bit Apple II world. :-)

>Can I expand my RAM? If so, How?

There are two ways...you can get an auxiliary-slot RAM card (such as
Q-RAM IIe or RamWorks III) or you can get a standard-slot RAM card
(such as the Apple II Memory Expansion Card or RamFactor).  I should
probably explain a bit about the slots...inside your IIe, you have 8
expansion slots.  The leftmost slot (the one nearest the power supply)
is the auxiliary slot.  It's a 60-pin slot.  The extra memory needed
for an 80-column display and for double Hi-Res graphics sits in this
slot; you probably already have a card in this slot with 64K.  You can
replace that card with a Q-RAM IIe for $99; that board gives you 1
megabyte.  The RamWorks III is a bit more expensive (starts somewhere
around $170-$180 for only 256K), but it's expandable to 3 megs.
Unless you plan to play really long (several minutes long) sounds with
SoftDAC, 1 meg would probably be adequate...Apple IIs aren't the
memory hogs that IBMs, Macs, and Apple IIGSes have become.

>Can I find a hardisk (??) someplace for this machine? If not, a 3.5 inch
>drive... What would I need? Where would I get it? How much will it cost?

You have several internal and external hard-drive options.  SCSI
drives are the most common; you can get a caching SCSI controller
(RamFAST) for about $150.  Apple makes a cheaper ($100) non-caching
SCSI controller as well, but the RamFAST is considerably faster.  SCSI
hard drives and tape drives are available from a number of places; you
can check Computer Shopper or almost any Mac magazine for good prices.

A more recent option in Apple II hard drives is IDE.  Non-caching IDE
controllers are now available; there's somebody in Germany who makes
them.  The controllers have a good price (considering the expense of
shipping the cards to the US) and IDE drives are quite a bit cheaper
than SCSI drives.  You would probably have to buy a hard-drive
case/power supply combo and assemble the subsystem yourself; I did
that with my SCSI drive, but it's not an experience for the timid.

3.5" floppy drives are also available.  Apple recently released a
high-density controller that allows you to read 1.44-meg and 720K
disks as well as the standard 800K disks.  I'm not sure of prices;
I've never bought a 3.5" floppy drive for any of my computers.

>What kind of software is out there? Where would be good place to find it?
>Catalogs? Mail orders? magazines? 

A fair amount of software is available on FTP sites; the best for
Apple II software are tybalt.caltech.edu and (when it gets fixed up)
apple2.archive.umich.edu.  You'll also find some stuff at
wuarchive.wustl.edu.

Forget about local dealers for commercial products.  Your only real
option is mail order.  A couple of places still deal with Apple II
software; the one I usually use is Quality Computers.  Most of their
prices are halfway decent, and it appears they'll be with the Apple II
for some time to come.

>Is it possible that they might have a database program for this? 
>Where can I get Appleworks? (I have a boot disk but no program)

QC has AppleWorks, as well as a variety of AppleWorks add-ons.  If
you're interested specifically in database software, there's also DB
Master.  A non-relational shareware version may be out on the FTP
sites.  There's also a relational version that was sold commercially;
since the publisher went out of business, I don't know if you can
still get DB Master Pro (the "Pro" identifies the relational version).

(You've seen me mention QC twice now...no, I don't work for them.
They're in Michigan and I'm in Nevada--a nice, safe distance. :-) )

  _/_   Scott Alfter                             Internet: sknkwrks@cs.unlv.edu
 / v \  Call the Skunk Works BBS today!                      Fidonet: 1:209/765
(IIe (  TEMPORARILY OFFLINE    Apple II/IBM                     GEnie: S.ALFTER
 \_^_/  Ask me about SoftDAC--digital audio for your IIe/IIc! Apple II Forever!
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2