The 8-bit Apple II is the core of the family. Woz designed the original in 1976, Apple shipped the II in 1977, and the line kept going — II Plus, IIe, Platinum IIe, IIc, IIc Plus — until the last IIe ended production in October 1993. Sixteen and a half years on store shelves, which is still a record for a personal computer model.

It matters because VisiCalc shipped on it in October 1979 and single-handedly moved the personal computer out of hobbyist rooms and into offices. Dan Bricklin's spreadsheet was Apple II-only for a long time. Every subsequent business-machine purchase chain started there.

The models, briefly:

• Apple II (1977) — the original. Up to 48 KB RAM, cassette storage, Integer BASIC in ROM. Rare and expensive now.
• Apple II Plus (1979) — Applesoft BASIC in ROM, 48 KB standard, the first really successful model.
• Apple IIe (1983) — Enhanced keyboard with all the keys you'd expect, 64 KB RAM standard, 80-column card support. The one you want for everyday use.
• Apple IIe Platinum (1987) — silver case, numeric keypad, numeric keypad, same internals as the enhanced IIe.
• Apple IIc (1984) — the "portable" (it's luggable, not portable). Built-in 5.25" drive, no internal expansion slots, PSU brick on the floor.
• Apple IIc Plus (1988) — final 8-bit model. Built-in 3.5" drive, accelerated to about 4 MHz.

What the community works on:

• 6502 and 65C02 assembly with Merlin, cc65, and Lisa. The assembly culture here is strong — more active than most other 8-bit platforms in 2026.
• Applesoft BASIC for quick work. Still the language most Apple II people first learned.
• ProDOS and DOS 3.3 — the two main disk operating systems. ProDOS 2.4.2 (the community-maintained update) runs fine on every 8-bit model.
• Games — Wizardry, Ultima I-V, Bard's Tale, Karateka, Prince of Persia, Archon, Lode Runner. A huge catalog. The 2026 homebrew scene is smaller than the C64's but ships a handful of new titles a year.
• Modern storage — CFFA3000, Floppy Emu, and BOOTI are the main options. CFFA3000 plugs into a slot and gives you every disk image on a CompactFlash card; Floppy Emu acts as a real drive for machines without expansion slots.

Prices in 2026: an enhanced IIe with a disk drive and monitor runs $150–400 for a tested setup. IIc with PSU and monitor runs similar. IIc Plus is rarer and a bit more. Watch for yellowed plastic from decades of UV — retrobrighting works but it's labor.

Emulate with AppleWin, Virtual II, or MAME. The Apple II forum handles both the 8-bit and IIgs discussion.