I wonder if they licensed the source of 5.0+ to someone and are still getting paid for it. If so, it’s probably something ubiquitous and critical that nobody would think of like traffic lights or water treatment plants.

That actually makes a lot of sense. Board revision was a lot more difficult back then.

I would have like to been in the meeting where they discussed putting the keyboard cable on the front of the keyboard.

About twice a week we would go to the computer lab filled with Apple IIes. Usually we had to play Number Munchers, Word Munchers, or some other game to reenforce whatever we learned in class. After we finished the game in the lesson plan, we could then play whatever educational game we wanted. Oregon Trail was a popular choice because nothing was funnier than having the game say a classmate had died or broke a leg. And the hunting and rafting mini games were the closest to arcade games.

Also keep in mind that the only exposure most of the teachers had to a computer were the mainframe terminals in the school’s office or the computer lab. MECC put together a lot of software and training for teachers. A school building out an Apple II based computer lab with a bunch of MECC software was as close to turnkey as they could get at the time. The documentation for Oregon Trail or Odell Lake gives you an idea of what it was like.

http://www.mecc.co/history/the-oregon-trail---a-157/mecc_a-157_oregon_trail.pdf

http://www.mecc.co/science/odell-lake---a-192/mecc_a-192_odell_lake.pdf

I’m in that weird group that’s between Gen-X and Millennial. I’ve seen us called Xennials or the Oregon Trail Generation.

The TelePort Gold II came in at a speedy 14.4 Kbps. It came with my Macintosh Performa.