Man finds working 30-year-old Apple IIe computer in his parents’ attic
A man from New York has found an old Apple computer thought to be 30 years old in his parents’ attic in working order.
John Pfaff, a professor at Fordham University School of Law, was shocked to discover his Apple IIe computer gathering dust in his parents’ attic, but was more surprised to find that it still worked after several decades of neglect.
This game… never got past the first level despite HOURS of (pre-internet cheating) trying.
Now w the web, I have a shot.
The music, tho. That classic Apple IIe music. pic.twitter.com/ebeXNzoCs2
— John Pfaff (@JohnFPfaff) February 17, 2019
Mr Pfaff told Twitter that he felt 10 years old again after loading up old game disks and being sent down memory lane.
“My kids thought things were insanely retro when my wife and I played NES Super Mario on the oldest’s Switch,” he said.
“Tomorrow morning their definition of retro is going to shift significantly.”
Among the video games the professor revealed are Neuromancer and Olympic Decathlon, as well as Adventureland, which resumed where he left the game as a child three decades previous.
The professor unearthed a letter written to him from his dad dating back to 1986.
“My dad passed away almost exactly a year ago,” he said. “It’s amazing to come across something so ‘ordinary’ from him.”
This is tricky, because three decades later I can’t quite remember where I left off this round of Adventureland. pic.twitter.com/Eoj7EqkHtb
— John Pfaff (@JohnFPfaff) February 17, 2019
The stash also included back-up floppy disks of his father’s, long before the days of iCloud storage many are accustomed to today.
The Apple IIe was the third model in the Apple II series of computers, introduced in 1983 before it was discontinued in November 1993. The “e” in the name stood for enhanced, marking the arrival of some features being built into the machine, as opposed to making them available as upgrades or add-ons with previous machines.
Mr Pfaff’s discovery has garnered thousands of likes on Twitter. He said he fittingly photographed the machine using a more recent Apple product, the iPhone.
