Our mission is to serve as a reference point for Apple II software, hardware and the like. It is not intended to be another Apple II history site, but more targeted toward reference materials such as hardware configuration, compatibility guides, repair tips, hardware hacks and mods, and related sub-topics. MediaWiki has been chosen as the presentation platform for it’s strong support base and expansive options. Some parts of the Apple2.info online reference are open to community participation, with the first being the csa2 usenet faq. Interested in helping out or supporting the site with donations or time editing? Find out more here -> A2wiki:Site_support

I put the finishing touches on some updates and upgrades, mostly behind the scenes, but some content has been modified and clarified as well. The MediaWiki installation was updated recently, and the themed font display has been changed fully to CSS3′s @font-face instead of using the hardcoded graphic generator. This is much friendlier to mobile devices, search engines and most important of all, the web server loads.

These changes have been applied to both the A2-Reference Wiki and the WordPress content. As always, if you have any suggestions for new additions, both expanding on whats here already and things you might like to see, drop a line using the contact form.

We’re working on an Apple II Registry database where you’ll be able to submit your hardware details, and we’ll have have an optional live map showing where the submissions come from if you so desire to contribute your general location too! More will be posted about this later..

Not trying to steal any thunder, I think Ben Heckendorn’s portable IIgs definitely raises the bar. No questions there. But.. if there had been an Engadget in the days of GWB’s loosing election for a second term, I think I would have been there with it. It’s really hard to believe it’s been that long. But the first portable IIgs I built using an Otrona luggable CP/M machine as the case made it’s debut at the Apple Expo East, at The Castle Expo Center, Boston, on Oct 2nd, 1992. Just weeks before the national elections. What made that event memorable was in the very same hotel that the Apple Expo was based out of, was right across the street from some high level Republican convention in Boston the same week and the hotel was busy giving all our rooms out to higher paying reporters and the like. GWB was on site while the Apple Expo East was going on. The SS was all over the rooftops, we were looking out a window from the 8th floor when our phone rang, “Close the Window”, they said. Diz and Burger Bill were in the room with us. We decided to walk to China Town, and while making our way through the protesters that had gathered at the base of the two hotels, we all started chanting “Apple II Forever!”. Why not, everyone else there had a cause and since national TV was near, why not. A few of us even had some signs. When we opened the window, a portion of the crowd was singing, “Na-na na-na.. hey-hey.. good-bye ..” and “six more weeks! six more weeks!” But anyway, as I prepared the day and evening before my flight from Carlsbad, CA to LAX and then to BOS, I was doing final preparation on the Apple IIgs Portable, tweaking the amber monitor just ever so much to get the perfect picture. My flight from Carlsbad was a very short one, the IIgs fit just perfectly on the belt and they were definitely curious.. of course, it was carry-on. At LAX I had about a 3 hour wait for the flight east. I practiced the now modern day activity of seeking out a spot near an electrical outlet. It wasn’t hard back then. Hardly anyone travelled with anything that needed plugging in.. except me. I had been known to sit on the floor in a terminal during long layovers with an entire IIgs system plugged in.

Anyhow, there I am sitting with the IIgs Portable, I’m playing the IIgs version of Ultima I on it… a massive crowd goes past and I hear this voice, “hey, thats Burger Bill’s Ultima I for the IIgs!” and see a hand waiving from the crowd..

At the Expo, the Macintosh version of Lemmings was released, and they were there at the Expo with it. I had appropriated some of their marketing materials and positioned them at my Apple II booth with added captions, “port us to the IIgs”, and the like. I still have those items, and at one time I presented some of them to the Brutal Deluxe folks some years later during one of their visits to California.

This post was about the IIgs portable, and without further ado, here are some of my images from back then. Sorry for the “quality”. these were great in 1993 and 1995 when they were done. The Original Portable Apple IIgs – www.apple2.org/AppleIIgsPortables.html

A general section on the Mockingboard has been added to the Apple II Information Wiki, Mockingboard as well as some disk images have been made available at apple2.info/downloads

Apple IIgs RGB Monitor schematics are available in US Letter sized sheets, sorry, it’s all I have. Some time ago these were input in Autocad and printed to tabloid sheets. The electronic versions have long disappeared. The first of three sheets is a single US Letter page and the second two are presented as two US letter sheets to make up one tabloid sheet. The PDFs are readable on screen and print well. apple2.info/downloads

The Original csa2 (comp.sys.apple2) usenet FAQ is available via wikimarkup and is an ongoing community project.  Interested in helping out? Check out apple2.info/wiki for information on how to get involved!

The Apple II Web Reference, originally located at apple2.org has been updated and converted to wiki markup. The A2 Web Reference is an Apple II hardware compatibility matrix for such things as disk drives, memory cards, SCSI cards, monitors, etc. 

This ProDOS 8 Technical Reference is viewable as an inline complete document, (may not work with some browsers) or as individual chapters.

ProDOS 8 P8_Tech_Ref_Inline Technical Reference – COMPLETE DOCUMENT

or single chapters: P8_Tech_Ref