The not-so-hidden talents of the Apple II

Author and developer David Lubar today.

TG Daily: And perhaps the fact that it was such an open book, when it presented itself to the hobbyist, that there really wasn't, at first, this repertoire of functionality. It, in effect, said, "Well, what do you want me to do?" That, I think, made it more appealing to the first generation of real computer users, who were the people who could start filling in the blanks.

DL: You were handed this lump of clay, and you [made it into] what you want, as opposed to being given a nice ceramic ashtray that only serves one or two purposes....That was the other thing: You had a monitor listing [a complete listing of the ROM-based operating system] with [the Apple II]. It came with the operating system not only listed, but documented. If you wanted to intercept keystrokes, it told you exactly what to do. It was completely documented and understandable.

On the first week of every month, we who were among the original computer geeks waited anxiously by our mailboxes not for letters from prospective loved ones, or employers, but for the latest editions of the great magazines: Byte, Compute!, and Creative Computing. David Lubar's bright, insightful, simply written reviews and features set the standard for how computing journalists would write, decades after his byline would leave these pages and emerge on the title pages of video games.