Replica 1 plus Users Manual They knew they had a great product and that the average person could have a computer on their kitchen table. Woz quickly worked on a BAIC for the Apple 1 but it still lacked a means of storage. Shortly after the Apple 1’s release, Woz designed a cassette interface simply named the ACI (Apple Cassette Interface). This interface allowed the user to store programs onto an audio tape using simple 1 and 2Kh signals to store the data. While the new interface was being designed and BASIC was being written, the end of the Apple 1 was already near. Woz was already working on the next version of his design.
While many people thought the Apple II was the same as the Apple 1 with just more features, the Apple II was a completely new design from scratch. This new design could do color and using processor accessible RAM; you could do graphics and more. While this was all being designed, the Apple 1 was still being made and sold. BAIC was finally released and that gave the Apple 1 a high level language for people to program in. This BAIC was not only written for the Apple 1, but it was also written for the Apple II at the same time. As a matter of fact, if you look at a disassembly of the Apple 1 BAISC you will see some commands built in that are impossible to perform, such as COLOR.
There was no color graphics on the Apple 1, only text. As soon as the Apple II was release, Jobs wanted to get rid of all the Apple 1 computers. He offered deals, like half off an Apple II with the trade in of your old Apple 1. He so wanted to get rid of the Apple 1, that rumor has it, he even gave some Apple II’s for even exchanges. Some he handed to engineers and programmers at Apple to use, others he chopped up with a band saw. So, while there were 200 boards made from the board house, not all were assembled and many were destroyed on the exchange program. Today, approximately 50 Apple 1’s are known to exist making it one of the most sought after vintage computers.
Some auctions have fetched upwards of $50,000 for an Apple 1 but the average selling price is around $150,000. Figure 2: Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak shown with an Apple 1 computer in 1976 © Briel Computers 2014 page 7