Apple-1 History?

From: "Dave Dunfield" <dave06a at dunfield.com> Hi guys, I've been having an esclating correspondance with a chap named "Murray Balascak" (anyone know him?) - who contacted me regarding his displeasure with my mention of the Apple-1 on the Apple-II page of my site - here is what I have posted as part of my introdiuction to the Apple-II: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In 1976, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs formed the Apple Computer Company, and built a home computer they called the "Apple 1" in their garage. Although it required the users to provide their own cabinet, power supply, keyboard and video monitor, it didn't require a separate terminal, and a simple BASIC interpreter could be loaded with an optional cassette interface. Although it required a fairly technical user to complete the system and make it usable, about 200 Apple 1s were sold in the first year. The following year (1977), Apple refined the design, providing a keyboard and power supply and packaging the machine in a attractive low-profile plastic cabinet with simple connections for the video monitor and tape storage. Now - anyone who could plug two connectors together could use this computer. The result, called "Apple 2" was one of the most successful early personal computers, and sold many thousands of units. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In Mr. Balascaks first correspondance, he stated that the KIM-1 was a far better machine than the Apple-1, asked if I had succumbed to "the relentless revisionism of the brand zealots?", and demanded that I "correct the above reference to show the machine's irrelevance". In his second correspondance, he stated that I am spreading "Apple propaganda", again stated that the KIM-1 was better, sold in higher quantities and cheaper (I still do not know what the KIM-1 has to do with an Apple-II page). In his third correspondance he acqused me of "posting lies and being worse than useless by corrupting history into fiction". Again, he stated that the KIM-1 was a far better machine and much cheaper. In his last email, he indicated that he believes I am responsable for the degradation of the internet and the reason that it cannot be trusted as a source of information. I don't know where this is coming from - I believe my reference to the Apple-1 is accurate considering it's brevity - Apple was formed in 1976 and operated out of Jobs basement. The Apple-1 was sold through the homebrew computer club as well as a few of stores, and although I do not have confirmed numbers of sales, I believe it was around 200 units. It was never my intention to make a page about the Apple-1 (I don't have one, and I only feature systems on my site which are in my collection)... I believe at some point someone asked why I didn't mention the Apple-1 so I added this one paragraph as part of the Apple-II history. I have no other references to the Apple-1 (at least that I can recall) on my site. In all of my responses to him, I indicated that I am unwilling to change the site based on the hearsay of one individual, especially when that person has an apparent (in my opinion based on correspondance received) bias for or against the material being questioned, however I would be happy to revise the site in response to any documented facts/evidence he can provide that the material I have is incorrect. All I have received in return is statements about how much better the KIM-1 was (I make no such comparisons on my site), how expensive the Apple-1 and Apple-II were (I post no such prices on my site), and rants about a website that apparently lists Woz as the "inventor of the single-board computer" (I make no such claim on my site). I should probably just ignore it - but the fact that I have been accused of lying and deliberatly posting misinformation is disturbing to me ... So - I throw it to the list - As a background statement showing that Apple existed and sold a predecessor in small volumes for a time before the Apple-II ... Is my posting above non-factual? If so, in what way, and can you provide supporting documentation? Please keep in mind that I do not wish to post a page about the Apple-1, only a single paragraph as a way of introducing the guys who built the Apple-2. Regards, Dave -- dave06a (at) Dave Dunfield dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com com Collector of vintage computing equipment: http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/index.html ------------------------------