Episode 11: Fort Stanford, b/w Phase III: Dr. Melvin Astrahan

We’re back for Episode 11. This time, we talk about really very small advances in booting a /// from a flash drive, the Cursor /// joystick and the history of The Keyboard Company, and a visit to the Stanford archives of Apple materials to get the real scoop on EMI/RFI emissions and the timeline of the /// plus. After that, another talk from the 1987 Phase III conference, this one by Dr. Melvin Astrahan, author of Draw On /// and the Mr. Sandman game, talking about the graphical abilities of the Apple ///.

The trip to the Stanford archives yielded two interesting Apple ///-related documents. More about these on apple2scans.net (link will be retroactively inserted here when it’s ready over there), but here are the documents themselves:

• Apple /// plus beta testing (Nov 15, 1982)
• Preliminary RFI testing on Apple III computer (Jun 24, 1980)

Links of Interest:

• Michael Muller’s History of The Keyboard Company, on Wendell Sander’s apple1notes site
• Mike Willegal’s page on early Apple keyboards
• SDFloppy II
• RetroConnector cable for connecting /// and SDFloppy II
• RetroConnector keyboard interface for Apple //e
• Archive guide to the Stanford Apple collection
• Draw On ///