Apple II
| |
| |
| 1977 Apple II shown with two Disk II floppy drives and a 1980s-era Monitor II | |
| Developer | Steve Wozniak (original lead designer) |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Apple Computer, Inc. |
| Release date | June 1977 (original Apple II) |
| Discontinued | October 1993 |
| Predecessor | Apple I |
| Successor | Apple III (intended) |
| Emulated | ✓ |
The Apple II was a family of computers produced by Apple Computer Inc. starting in June of 1977. The Apple II and related models put Apple on the map and is now considered one of their most successful product lines. The final model was discontinued in November of 1993. Steve Wozniak wanted to make a computer that was, "...small, reliable, convenient to use and inexpensive."
Emulators
[edit | edit source]| Name | Platform(s) | Latest version | Active | License | Compatibility | II | II+ | IIe | IIc | IIe Enhanced | IIe Platinum | IIGS | IIc Plus | Recommended |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PC | ||||||||||||||
| AppleWin | 
|
1.32 libretro core |
✓ | GPLv2 (Copyleft) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | |
| LinApple | 
|
git | ✓ | GPLv2 (Copyleft) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | |
| LinApple-pie |
|
git | ✓ | GPLv2 (Copyleft) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | |
| MAME |  
|
0.289 | ✓ | GPLv2 BSD-3-Clause |
✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Mednafen |
|
1.32.1 | ✓ | GPLv2 (Copyleft) | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | WIP | |
| a2m |
|
git | ✓ | Unlicense (Public domain equivalent) | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | |
| Apple2TS | 
|
git | ✓ | CC BY-SA 4.0 (Copyleft) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | |
| AppleIIjs |
|
git | ✓ | MIT (Permissive) | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | |
| BizHawk (Virtu-based) |
|
2.11.1 | ✓ | MIT GPL |
✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | |
| CLK |
|
2026-07-23 | ✓ | MIT (Permissive) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | |
| DarcNES |
|
9b0401/9b0313 | ✗ | Non-commercial | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | |
| MicroM8 |
|
1.0.0 | ✗ | MIT | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | |
| OpenEmulator |
|
1.1.1 | ✗ | GPLv2 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | |
| Virtual Apple II |
|
4.5 | ✗ | Proprietary | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | |
| Virtual II |
|
13.1.1 | ✓ | Proprietary | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ? | |
| Console | ||||||||||||||
| A2DS | 
|
2008 | ✗ | BSD-3-Clause (Permissive) | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | |
| Apple II Portable | 
|
0.1-0173 | ✗ | Proprietary | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | |
| PomDS |
|
2.0 | ✗ | Proprietary | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | |
| WiiApple | 
|
0.07 | ✗ | ? | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ? | ? | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | |
Models
[edit | edit source]The Apple II was released in June of '77 and retailed for $1298 ($6899 in 2026) and had a 6502 CPU at 1.023 MHz, 4KB of RAM, a cassette tape for storage, a 1-bit speaker, 7 expansion slots, its keyboard was only uppercase, a low-res 40x48 16-color graphics mode, and a hi-res 280x192 6-color graphics mode.
The Apple II+ was released in June of '79 and retailed for $1195 ($5305 in 2026) and had the same 6502 CPU, 16KB of RAM, the same graphics modes, speaker, expansion slots, and keyboard as the original.
The Apple IIe was released in January of '83 and had the same CPU and expansion slots as the Apple II, 64KB of RAM, had a full ASCII keyboard, it introduced the double-low-resolution graphics mode which had a resolution of 80x48 in 16-color, and a double-high-resolution of 560×192 in 16 colors.
The Apple IIc was released on April 24, 1984, and retailed for $1295 ($4016 in 2026) and had a 65C02 CPU at 1.023 MHz, 128KB of RAM, same graphics modes, speaker, as the Apple IIe, it had built-in storage, and a built-in 140KB single sided 5.25-inch floppy drive. It did not have any expansion slots.
The Apple IIe Enhanced was released in March of '85 and was an Apple IIe but with a 65C02 CPU at 1.023 MHz.
The Apple IIe Platinum was just an Apple IIe Enhanced but with a full numeric keypad and 128KB of RAM.
The Apple IIGS was released on September 15, 1986.
Unlike other products in the line that features an 8-bit CPU, Apple IIGS is equipped with a 16-bit 65C816 CPU running at 2.8 MHz.
The Apple IIc Plus was released in April of '88 and retailed for $675 ($1839 in 2026) and had a 65C02 CPU at 1MHz or 4MHz (it was user selectable for older programs), 8KB SRAM cache, same RAM, graphics modes, speaker as the Apple IIe Platinum, and a built-in 800KB double sided 3.5-inch floppy drive.
Enhancements
[edit | edit source]| Name | AppleWin | LinApple | LinApple-pie | MAME | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Hardware features and peripherals
[edit | edit source]| Name | AppleWin | LinApple | LinApple-pie | MAME |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Clones and Quirks
[edit | edit source]There are many Apple II clone computers, such as Laser 128, CEC, Bell & Howell, etc.
Some Apple II clones feature special quirks, for example, Chinese characters display in CEC. These features are seldom being supported by most of the Apple II emulators.
MAME supports some of the Apple II clones, but they are listed as independent machines and each requires its own unique ROM set.
