2007-06-06-pr6.md (1812B)
1 +++ 2 title = "PR#6" 3 date = "2007-06-06T00:00:00Z" 4 slug = "pr6" 5 tags = ["Retro"] 6 +++ 7 8 According to [Slashdot][slashdot_article], this month the [Apple 9 II][wiki_appleii] turns 30. It was in production for 18 of those 30 years, 10 which likely makes it the longest-selling personal computer of all time. It was 11 the computer I wrote my first program on, and spent countless hours banging in 12 and editing code from _Compute_ magazine—including page after page of raw hex 13 code when a program included graphics. 14 15 In tribute, I ran a Google search on PR\#6 to see what turned up. For those who 16 don't know or don't remember, PR\#6 was the command that kicked off the 17 bootloader code for slot 6, the drive controller. The search turned up two 18 relevant links: an [Apple TechTip][techtip] on a simple copy-protection scheme, 19 and a fantastic [blog entry][appleii_boot] that covers a bit about the Apple 20 \]\['s boot process, which brings back a lot of memories of old Shugart drives, 21 including the terrifying sound of a track 0 seek – a process wherein the drive 22 head was moved across the disk very quickly until it physically couldn't go any 23 further, resulting in a loud alarm-like buzz from the drive when it hit the 24 limit of its reach. 25 26 Anyway, in celebration of the Apple \]\['s 30th birthday, I recommend grabbing 27 your nearest [emulator][emulator], and banging in a `call -151` for old time's 28 sake. 29 30 {{< figure src="/post/2007-06-06-happy_birthday.png" 31 alt="AppleSoft BASIC program" >}} 32 33 [wiki_appleii]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_II 34 [slashdot_article]: http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/06/06/0028246 35 [techtip]: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=197&coll=ap 36 [appleii_boot]: http://diveintomark.org/archives/2006/08/22/c600g 37 [emulator]: https://www.scullinsteel.com/apple2/#dos33master