1990-1995

1990

• Motorola introduces 68040 processor.^[1]
• IBM introduces the PS/1.^[2]
• Commodore introduces the Amiga 3000 ($3300).^[3]
• ARPANET, the first data network, is shut down.^[4]

1990 January

Call-A.P.P.L.E. ceases publication.^[5]

1990 March

Apple II High Speed SCSI card introduced.^[6]

Macintosh IIfx introduced.^[7]

Mac System 6.0.5 released, with further improvements and support for the new Mac IIfx.^[8]

1990 May

Vitesse releases the Quickie hand scanner for the Apple IIe and IIGS.

Microsoft Windows 3.0 released.^[9]

1990 June

BASIC.SYSTEM v1.4.1

1990 July

Second A2-Central Summer Conference (KansasFest).

1990 August

ProDOS 8 v1.9

Apple buys back Claris Corporation as a wholly-owned subsidiary.^[10]

1990 September

GS+ begins publication.

1990 October

Macintosh Classic, Macintosh LC, and Macintosh IIsi introduced. The Mac Classic replaces the Mac Plus and Mac SE.^[11]

The Apple IIGS Buyer’s Guide ceases publication.^[12]

1990 December

Apple IIGS System Software v5.0.3. It fixes some bugs and speeds up the ImageWriter driver. However, there were problems with this driver under low memory situations, so it was not widely distributed.^[13]

Apple IIc Plus and ImageWriter LQ discontinued.

Zip Technologies releases the Zip GS cards to accelerate the Apple IIGS.^[14]

1990 Apple II Achievement Awards held at AppleFest in Long Beach, California.^[15]

1991

1991 January

Apple introduces HyperCard IIGS.^[16]

1991 February

Apple IIGS System Software v5.0.4 released.

America Online adds a client for MS-DOS users, in addition to its existing Apple II and Macintosh customers.

1991 March

Apple IIe card (for Macintosh LC) released ($199).^[17]

Westcode introduces InWords, which allows text digitized with the Quickie hand-scanner to be turned into text files.

1991 May

Apple StyleWriter ($599) and Apple Personal LaserWriter LS ($1299) released. At the time of the announcement, neither can work on the Apple II or IIGS.

Mac System 7.0 released, the first major rewrite of the Mac operating system. It intoduced features such as the ability to use an “alias”, as well as TrueType fonts, file sharing, and QuickTime video software.^[18]

1991 June

AppleCD SC Plus, faster than the original CD-ROM drive, released ($799).

1991 July

Third A2-Central Summer Conference (KansasFest).

Apple IIGS System Software v6.0 announced.

(Hardcore) Computist ceases publication.

1991 August

The first availability, by FTP, of software needed to use the Internet with CERN’s Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). This lays the foundation for the World Wide Web.^[19]

1991 September

Apple’s first User Group Television live satellite broadcast. A new Apple IIGS is almost announced, but the project is killed by Apple management at the last minute.

1991 October

Microsoft Windows 3.0 with multimedia released.^[20]

1991 November

SuperDrive interface card for Apple II released. It can use 1.4 MB capacity 3.5 disks on an Apple IIe or IIGS, making it possible (when translation software is made available) to read and write even MS-DOS disks.

1992

1992 February

Beagle Bros ships BeagleWorks, its Macintosh integrated software package.^[21]

1992 March

Apple IIGS System Software v6.0 released. It includes a driver to allow the Apple StyleWriter printer to be used on the IIGS.

1992 April

1991 Apple II Achievement Awards presented.

GEnieLamp A2 begins publication.

Econ Technologies introduces their Pegasus line of internal hard drives.

Microsoft Windows 3.1 released.^[22]

1992 May

Seven Hills Software releases Express, a software-based print spooler for the Apple IIGS.

The A2 Roundtable on GEnie announces its Lost Classics project, coordinated by sysop Tim Tobin, which has the object of locating and re-releasing older Apple II software that has disappeared from the marketplace.

JEM Software announces Ultra 4.0, an upgrade to the UltraMacros language for AppleWorks 3.0.

Scholastic Microzine ceases publication.

MODZap 0.6 and soniqTracker 0.3 MOD music players released for IIGS, starting a friendly rivalry between the two programmers, each trying to top each other.

1992 July

Fourth A2Central Summer Conference (KansasFest); it celebrated the 15th anniversary of the release of the Apple II.

Apple IIGS System Software v6.0.1 announced.

Nibble ceases publication.

1992 August

Paul Lutus agrees to allow Apple Writer v2.1 and GraFORTH to be released as freeware.

Earliest mention in the GEnie A2 Roundtables of work being done on an Apple IIe emulator designed to run on 386 or 486 PCs.

Mac System 7.1 released, intoducing a separate Fonts folder, and computer-specific system “enablers”.^[23] (Note: The Apple IIGS System Software had a Fonts folder since GS/OS was introduced in 1988).

1992 October

Beagle Bros ends business, as sales of their Mac integraged software package, BeagleWorks, are insufficient to keep the company afloat.^[24] WordPerfect Corp. purchases BeagleWorks, planning to rename it WordPerfect Works. They also hire former Beagle Bros president Mark Simonsen and programmer Mark Munz to work for them.

1992 December

Apple IIGS discontinued.

1993

1993 January

America Online adds a client for Windows users.

1993 February

GEnieLamp A2Pro begins publication.

1993 March

Randy Brant begins working on TheWorks 4.0, code-named “Quadriga”, designed to be an add-on patcher program for AppleWorks 3.0 for Quality Computers. (This later becomes AppleWorks 4.)

II Alive begins publication.

1993 April

Digisoft Innovations releases Twilight II, an updated and enhanced version of their original shareware GS/OS screen blanker.

Econ Technologies begins shipping the SoundMeister, a new IIGS stereo and sound digitizer card.

1993 May

inCider/A+ ceases publication.

1993 June

A2-Central discontinues its paper edition, switching to a disk-only newsletter.

System 6.0.1 released for the IIGS, and System 4.0.2 released for 8-bit Apple II’s.

John Sculley steps down as CEO of Apple, later leaving the company altogether.

Randy Brandt announces the Quadriga project to patch AppleWorks into an enhanced version.

Apple Assembly Line now available in a digital form, exclusively on GEnie.

Westcode begins shipment of HardPressed, their disk compression software.

1993 July

Fifth A2-Central Summer Conference (KansasFest).

inCider/A+ ceases publication.

Shareware Solutions II begins publication.

1993 August

Quality Computers announces that it has obtained the rights to publish updates to AppleWorks and AppleWorks GS from Claris.

Apple releases the first version of its Newton personal digital assistant (PDA).

Microsoft Windows NT 3.5 released.^[25]

1993 October

Mac System 7 Pro (7.1.1) released, introducing features that previously had to be separately installed (QuickTime, PowerTalk, and AppleScript).^[26]

1993 November

Apple IIe discontinued. The only Apple II still being manufactured is the IIe card for the Macintosh LC series.

DiskQuest software introduced by Sequential Systems, making several commercial CD-ROM products readable by Apple II computers.

AppleWorks 4 released by Quality Computers.

Bob Consorti releases BOS (“Bob’s Operating System”) as a replacement and enhancement for SOS (“Sophisticated Operating System”) on the Apple III.

1994

1994 February

Apple changes the status of HyperCard IIGS to be the same as System Software, in that it is available from qualified sources for the cost of a download or the cost of the disk media.

1994 March

Mac System 7.1.2 released, the first version of the Mac operating system to support the new PowerPC-based Macintosh computers.^[27]

Applied Engineering, a popular source of hardware add-ons for the Apple II series, goes out of business.

1994 May

The Bluedisk controller made by ///SHH Systeme is available. It allows reading and writing from MS-DOS disk drives, and was offered in a bundle with MS-DOS Utilities by Peter Watson.

Sequential Systems ships the long-awaited Second Sight card, which allows a IIGS to display video on a standard VGA monitor.

Commodore International, Ltd, the maker of the PET, VIC-20, Commodore 64, Commodore 128, and Amiga computers, announces that it is voluntarily going out of business and into liquidation.

1994 June

The Apple II SuperDrive interface card and the SuperDrive are discontinued.

HyperCard IIGS is made available through user groups for free (disks only; the manuals sell out quickly).

1994 July

Sixth A2-Central Summer Converence (now named ICONference, and open to platforms other than the Apple II).

AppleWorks 5, code-named “Narnia”, is announced by Randy Brandt.

Quality Computers announces it has to cancel plans to update AppleWorks GS, due to multiple problems with the source code and the significant cost required to fix it.

Jim Nitchals releases an early version of STM (Stop The Madness), an Apple II Plus emulator for any Mac running System 7.

Gary Kildall, author of the CP/M operating system for 8080-based personal computers dies at the age of 52.^[28]

1994 August

First beta version of Michael O’Brien’s AppleWin Apple IIe emulator for Windows 3.1 and Windows 95.

1994 September

Compute! ceases publication.

1994 November

America Online discontinues its Apple II service, effectively locking these users out (since it required proprietary software to access the service).

AppleWorks 5 released by Quality Computers

1994 December

Vitesse announces they expected to ship Wolfenstein 3D for the IIGS by late in the month, selling it for $39.95. However, it does not actually appear for over three years.

1995

1995 January

The Apple Blossom begins publication.

Mac System 7.5 released. It was the first operating system installable from either floppy disks or a CD-ROM, and included Apple Guide (a help system), and at startup displayed a progress bar and the “Welcome to Macintosh” logo.^[29]

1995 February

A2-Central ceases publication. ICON (Resource Central) closes its doors, ceasing publication of its several disk magazines, due to financial constraints.

1995 March

1. ^[1]Smarte, Gene, and Reinhardt, Andrew. “15 Years Of Bits, Bytes, And Other Great Moments”, Byte, Sep 1990: 369-400.↩
2. ^[2]Smarte, Gene, and Reinhardt, Andrew. “15 Years Of Bits, Bytes, And Other Great Moments”, Byte, Sep 1990: 369-400.↩
3. ^[3]Smarte, Gene, and Reinhardt, Andrew. “15 Years Of Bits, Bytes, And Other Great Moments”, Byte, Sep 1990: 369-400.↩
4. ^[4]—–. “1990”. History Of The Internet, http://www.nic.funet.fi/index/FUNET/history/internet/en/. (Dec 2002).↩
5. ^[5]Doms, Dennis. “Farewell, Old Friend”, Open-Apple, Jan 1990: 5.89.↩
6. ^[6]—–. “Apple and Apple II History”, The Apple II Guide, Fall 1990: 9-16.↩
7. ^[7]—–. “Apple and Apple II History”, The Apple II Guide, Fall 1990: 9-16.↩
8. ^[8]Shull, Matthew. 2002. “System 6.0 -> Mac OS 7.6 History”. Matthew’s Macintosh Page. (link obsolete)↩
9. ^[9]Lessard, Daniel. 2002. “Microsoft Windows”. pcbiography, http://www.pcbiography.net/↩
10. ^[10]Doms, Dennis. “Apple acquires Claris”, Open-Apple, Aug 1990: 6.50.↩
11. ^[11]Doms, Dennis. “The Ides Of October”, A2-Central, Dec 1990: 6.81-6.82.↩
12. ^[12]Weyhrich, Steven. “And Another One Bites The Dust”, M.A.C.H. News, Dec 1990: 3.↩
13. ^[13]Doms, Dennis. “Miscellanea”, Open-Apple, Dec 1990: 6.84.↩
14. ^[14]Doms, Dennis. “Miscellanea”, Open-Apple, Dec 1990: 6.84.↩
15. ^[15]Doms, Dennis. “The envelope, please”, Open-Apple, Jan 1991: 6.90-6.93.↩
16. ^[16]Doms, Dennis. “AppleFest Long Beach”, A2-Central, Jan 1991: 6.89-6.90.↩
17. ^[17]Doms, Dennis. “The Apple II as Mac peripheral”, Open-Apple, Jul 1991: 7.43-7.44.↩
18. ^[18]Shull, Matthew. 2002. “System 6.0 -> Mac OS 7.6 History”. Matthew’s Macintosh Page. (link obsolete)↩
19. ^[19]—–. “A Little History of the World Wide Web”. W3C: World Wide Web Consortium. http://www.w3.org/History.html (Nov 2001)↩
20. ^[20]Lessard, Daniel. 2002. “Microsoft Windows”. pcbiography, http://www.pcbiography.net/↩
21. ^[21]Weyhrich, Steven. “Beagle Bros Puts Apple II Phone Support On Hold”, A2 News Digest, Mar 1992.↩
22. ^[22]Lessard, Daniel. 2002. “Microsoft Windows”. pcbiography, http://www.pcbiography.net/↩
23. ^[23]Shull, Matthew. 2002. “System 6.0 -> Mac OS 7.6 History”. Matthew’s Macintosh Page. (link obsolete)↩
24. ^[24]—–. “Morgan Davis Interview”, GEnie Lamp, Nov 1992.↩
25. ^[25]Lessard, Daniel. 2002. “Microsoft Windows”. pcbiography, http://www.pcbiography.net/↩
26. ^[26]Shull, Matthew. 2002. “System 6.0 -> Mac OS 7.6 History”. Matthew’s Macintosh Page. (link obsolete)↩
27. ^[27]Shull, Matthew. 2002. “System 6.0 -> Mac OS 7.6 History”. Matthew’s Macintosh Page. (link obsolete)↩
28. ^[28]—–. “Designer of CP/M Dies”, New York Times, 7/13/94: C17.↩
29. ^[29]Shull, Matthew. 2002. “System 6.0 -> Mac OS 7.6 History”. Matthew’s Macintosh Page. (link obsolete)↩
30. ^[30]Shull, Matthew. 2002. “System 6.0 -> Mac OS 7.6 History”. Matthew’s Macintosh Page. (link obsolete)↩
31. ^[31]Rokitski, Peter. Email, Feb 2001.↩
32. ^[32]—–. 2002. “Computer History: History of Microsoft Windows”. Computer Hope, http://www.computerhope.com/history/windows.htm.↩