Even back in 1983, Apple was on top of their game.
The Apple IIe was the third model from Apple's personal computers. The "e" signified the enhanced version of the second model very much how the iPhone's "s" acts as a similar marker.
Discontinued in 1993, the IIe was the last of the line to be produced by Apple and has the distinction for being the longest-lived model in the history of the company.
No more was this evident than when a professor discovered his abandoned IIe up in his parents' attic. Over thirty years later, he was pleased to find it was still in excellent condition, and the bonus takeaway was an unexpected moment to connect with his father who passed away a year ago.
Fordham University law professor John Pfaff instantly reverted back to his childhood when he reunited with his Apple IIe.
The memory of his gaming progress was a bit iffy. Fair enough. It's been three decades!
His kids are about to discover the true definition of retro.
Remember floppy discs? No?
They acted as data storage in the form of a magnetic disc in a square, plastic enclosure and were used to transfer information and create backups before hard discs became affordable by the mid-90s. (The price of an 80MB storage hard disc with a controller cost thousands of dollars during the 80s.)
So if you were born yesterday, this is what a floppy disc looks like.
Isn't it rad?
Some things are better left in the past.
Can he hack his way back into cyberspace with this classic game based on the cyberpunk novel written by William Gibson?
His dad was an excellent archivist.
What a beautiful way to serendipitously connect with his late father.
Not only were Gen Xers familiar with the antiquated system, they became nostalgic after reading the thread and were moved by Pfaff's relationship with his dad.
We've come so far and maybe a little too fast. With the world spinning out of control, let's put on the breaks and reboot.