My Apple IIe a.k.a. Epiac

My first encounter with personal computers was in 1984.  It happened while I visited a close friend at his Petroterminal de Panamá, S.A. office in Panama City.  Behind his desk, on a credenza, sat a machine that looked like a TV set with a  typing machine keyboard in front.  It was an IBM PC. Full of curiosity I asked my friend Carlos if it was a word processor.  “No,” he replied, “it’s a personal computer.”

At that particular moment, he had a Balance Sheet on the screen powered by Lotus 1-2-3. During the eighties, Lotus was the big kid on the block for serious number crunchers.

Carlos explained how his computer helped him with his financial work.  He was Petroterminales de Panamá, S.A. Finance Director and numbers were his playing puppys all day long, besides long and boring meetings of course.

After playing with Lotus for about half an hour, and listening to my friend about the features of his computer, I knew I had to have one.  Obsessed with the idea of buying a personal computer, I went to Computerland early the next morning to quote for prices.  An IBM PC had a price tag of $10,000 and an Apple IIe sold for $3,600.  Yep, personal computers had steep prices back then.

I decided to buy the Apple IIe. Next door was a Citibank branch and that was my obligatory next stop.  In less than forty-five minutes a personal loan for $3,600 was approved and three days later, I was a proud owner of a brand new personal computer.  I can’t remember being happier than the day I brought my Apple IIe home.  It was like having the Holy Grail in my hands.

Since I couldn’t run Lotus 1-2-3 on my Apple, I purchased Multiplan from Micosoft which served my needs perfectly.  At that time I was working for a sugar mill at Aguadulce as a Comptroller and numbers were my working  bread and butter.   During the next three years I was constantly upgrading my machine.  I wanted my computer to walk on water and it did many times.

Some of the accessories I purchased were:  an accelerator board, a dot matrix printer, a number keypad, a side fan and  a 65C02 enhanced processor.  As my favorite mascot, my computer had a name—Epiac—after the mainframe Eniac.

As far as software was concerned, I purchased a personal finance program called, “Dollars & Sense”, “AppleWorks” (word processor, data base and spreadsheet applications integrated in one tightly-coded software), and several PFS applications such as; PFS Word, PFS File, and PFS Chart.  They were small and simple applications, but got the job done.  No nonsense.

After four years, my Apple IIe lost steam and I sold it to a good friend, Mireya at a bargain price.  Probably you already met her if you have been reading my recent posts.  I included several photographs of her a couple of days ago.  She had two kids, and a small personal computer loaded with productivity software, was a good learning tool for them.  Dálida and Rafael–the names of Mireya’s children—were excited to have their own personal computer. Wow!

As the calendar pages passed, I completely forgot  about Epiac.  That is, until three days ago, when Mireya phoned to ask  if I was interested in my old Apple IIe. She was cleaning her closet and had found the computer, and having no need for it, was ready to turn it over to the garbage collectors.  I shouted, “No!  I’ll take her as a collectible item!”

My beloved mascot was returned yesterday afternoon.  It was dirty, rusty and scratched.  But other than that, it looked like the Hope diamond.  I spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning her as much as I could and then took a couple of pictures to share  them with you today.  I have plans to donate it to a nearby technological university —Universidad Tecnológica de Panamá—for their nascent computer museum.  I’m sure they can fix it and bring her up to her former glory.

My dear readers, this is Epiac my darling mascot for many years.  It was more faithful and loyal than a dog, kitten or horse put together.  Here we go.

Photograph of the Apple IIe personal computer system together with the number keypad, two floppy disk players and the monitor. Behind the number keypad is Microsoft Multiplan electronic spreadsheet. (Credit: Omar Upegui R.)

Photograph of the Apple number keypad. It looks almost new, since the kids never used it. (Credit: Omar Upegui R.)

Photograph of Apple ImageWriter dot matrix printer. Although supplanted in the high-end market by the LaserWriter and in the low-end market by the StyleWriter, the ImageWriter remained a popular printer for printing forms or producing banners. (Credit: Omar Upegui R.)

Apple had planned to retire the Apple II series after the introduction of the Apple III in 1980, however, after that machine turned out to be a disastrous failure, management decided the further continuation of the Apple II was in the company’s best interest. So, after three and a half years at a stand-still, came the introduction of a new Apple II model—the Apple IIe (codenamed “Diana” and “Super II“).

The Apple IIe was released in January 1983, the successor to the Apple II Plus. Some of the hardware and software features of the Apple III were borrowed in the design of the Apple IIe. The culmination of these changes led to increased sales and greater market share of both home and small business use.  And now you know the rest of the story.  Good Day.