Ten years ago, I received an email from a gentleman named Moses Weitzman. He wanted to know if I was interested in some old Apple II manuals and other materials that he had, but wanted to get rid of. He preferred to not just throw them away, and wanted to pass them on to someone who would appreciate them. I replied that sure, I’d be glad to take them off his hands. He shipped out a box that was not very big, but had some nice items in it, including a copy of the Red Book reference manual, and also the Blue Book Applesoft Reference Manual from August 1978.

I kept this box safely on a shelf and then later in my basement, and other than being happy in my ownership of the Red Book and Blue Book, had not really paid detailed attention to the other materials in the box.

And then, during the past few months I found myself making additional edits to my History in preparation for publication (real soon now!) I went digging on the Asimov FTP site, and found a number of old manuals and other documents that had been uploaded in the past. One of them, called Apple The Personal Computer Magazine & Catalog, Volume 1, Number 2, from 1979, made mention of the Apple II Euromod and Apple II Europlus, which took me on an investigative tour of Apple’s early years in selling the Apple II outside of the United States. And I thought to myself, “I wonder what was in Volume 1, Number 1 of that magazine that Apple published back in 1979?”

In a recent email from Andreas Siegenthaler of Switzerland, he told me that Apple DOS 3.0 actually was released to the public, bugs and all, though it was promptly replaced by DOS 3.1. He mentioned to me that he had a copy of the preliminary manual that was released, as well as the printed one for DOS 3.1 that eventually came out. I replied that I thought I had one of the printed manuals in that box in the basement sent to me years ago by Mr. Weitzman. In the interim since I received his box of materials in 2003 I have learned a bit more about scanning and how to create a PDF (thanks to Preview in Mac OS X). It occurred to me that I should get my DOS manual scanned and posted.

And then, upon opening up that box again, I found that there was not a DOS 3.1 manual. Instead, it included the photocopied pages of the DOS 3 manual that shipped with the Disk II when it came out in June 1978, plus some tech notes about the Disk II and DOS that were released a month later.

Plus, there was all of this other great stuff (which can be found here):

• Appalogue, Volume 1, June/July 1982 – a catalog of Apple II software and hardware, apparently part of a planned magazine that I do not believe went beyond that single issue. It looks like this catalog was created in anticipation of Applefest ’82, and was probably distributed at that event.
• Apple II Plus registration materials – You just bought a new Apple II Plus? Here is your registration card and other miscellaneous papers.
• Apple Orchard introductory brochure, 1982 – a trifold introducing Apple Orchard to potential subscribers.
• Apple The Personal Computer Magazine & Catalog, Volume 1, Number 1, 1979 – Yes, here is that issue #1 that was not on the Asimov FTP site. This issue focused on Apples in education. It was released before the II Plus came out in mid 1979, as there is no mention of it in the list of products available from Apple. It makes mention of PAL/SECAM versions of the Apple II for the European market, essentially the Apple II Euromod before it was called a Euromod. Also featured is the Apple Graphics Tablet without its familiar color grid (the same as the original Bit Pad from Summagraphics, which Apple adapted and sold for its own use), and the Modem IIA bundle (an Apple Communications Card and a Novation CAT acoustic modem).
• Apple The Personal Computer Magazine & Catalog, Volume 1, Number 2, 1979 – This is the same magazine that can be found on the Asimov FTP site, but I think my scan has better colors than the one found there. This issue focused on business use of the Apple II (yes, Apple actually did promote the Apple II for business once upon a time). In the catalog section the Apple II Plus is mentioned, as well as the Apple II Euromod and Apple II Europlus. The Modem IIA package was now renamed as Modem IIB, but seems to be the same product (no explanation as to what is the difference). One of the accessories offered was a clock/calendar card, although I do not recall Apple ever selling its own such product for the Apple II series.
• Disk II Application Note, July 30, 1978 – As mentioned above, this is basically a list of bug fixes for the recently released Disk II and DOS 3.0/3.1.
• DOS 3 Manual (preliminary), June 1978 – The very first “manual” for Apple DOS.
• Parallel Printer Interface Card manual, 1978 – It was this manual that I had, not the book one for DOS. Includes source code for the firmware on the card.
• Special Delivery Software catalog, Fall 1980 – Catalog of software written by third-party developers and offered via national distribution through Apple’s own software arm. Something like the Mac App store, but 33 years ago, and without downloadable automatic updates.
• Special Delivery Software, Spring 1981 – An update to the previous catalog. Interestingly, it mentioned Apple III software also, but I don’t think I found anything in the catalog that was for the Apple III.
• Super Disk Copy III manual – This was not a product from Apple, but rather from Sensible Software. Written by Charles Hartley, it was primarily a more robust set of disk utilities than those offered by Apple’s FID program, even to the point of being able to recover some information from damaged disks.
• What Is Apple Pascal? brochure, 1979 – An introductory trifold brochure about Pascal and its benefits.

So, this past weekend I went nuts with the scanner, and got all of these scanned in (other than the Red Book and Blue Book, which had already been done in the past).  I have packaged them together into the Weiztman Collection, available in the Files section of this web site at this link. The “heaviest” files are the two magazines, each 100-120 MB in size, and the “lightest” is the Disk II Application Notes, at 3.7 MB.

(I’m open to suggestions on how to fix page one of the Parallel Printer Card manual; I had a version with the sticker that says “Mo” removed (digitally), but when I tried to put it back into the PDF with the tools I have to use (Preview on my Mac) it is a different size than all of the other pages.)

2 Comments on “Scanapalooza!”

1. Where can they be downloaded?

   Reply

   • Sorry, forgot to include the link. It is in the post now, just above the list.

     Reply

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