Since we live in the era of the Mac and the iPhone , we tend to overtop the earliest , non - Mac era of Apple history — a meter when lumbering digital animal tramp the earth . As a result , many misconceptions about Apple ’s early products bear on to spread throughout the Internet unchecked . It ’s sentence to reform that with an authoritative field pathfinder to these early creatures .

At the height of Apple Computer ’s classical age , these binary dinosaur came with name like Apple I , II , and III — Roman - numeraled computing gadget systems with blood almost as ancient as the numerals themselves .

Thanks to recent fossil discoveries in the Masonite - Gypsum Shale Deposit ( also known as my garage ) , we can now paint a clean complete scientific portrayal of these early Apple - bred creatures , including information on their habitats , diets , and behavior .

Article image

Although every one of the following species is now extinct , it ’s worth taking a minute to reflect on how far today ’s Apple species have develop from their early forms .

Apple I

Era:1976 to 1977Life span:1 yearDimensions:9 by 15.5 in

Preferred Habitat : suburban garages , marshy wetlands

Diet : cyber-terrorist sweat

Article image

Trivia : Thisshort - livedspecimen , the earliest known ancestor of all Apple dinosaurs , only appear briefly in the fogy record . Its primitive form often lacked the protective eggshell that scientist believe after modernise to support its internal role from torrential Mountain Dew slop . miss such a protective envelopment , the semi - aquatic Apple I often floated in a primordial soup of hobbyist goodwill that nourished the machine through osmosis .

Apple II

Era:1977 to 1979Life span:2 yearsDimensions:4.25 by 15.25 by 17.75 inches

Preferred Habitat : Dan Bricklin ’s sign

Diet : Integer BASIC , chaparral flora

Article image

This establish model of the Apple II species , with its streamlined body , seems well adapted to freshwater aquatic environments , and yet its rubber foot made it firmly at home on a household screen background . Digital food was scarce during its amphibious reign , so the Apple II swear on manual datum entry through its keyboard or preformatted aliment streamed through its cassette user interface .

life sentence was obviously unmanageable for this early member of the Apple family , as legion specimens have been constitute filled with card - similar parasitic organisms .

Apple II Plus

Era:1979 to 1982Lifespan:3 yearsDimensions:4.25 by 15.25 by 17.75 inches

Preferred Habitat : small businesses , living room corners

Diet : amortisation tables

Article image

triviality : In thefossil record , Apple II Plus specimen often appear next to a symbiotic being bonk as the Disk II . base on written report of the Disk II ’s anatomy , this little organism seemingly fed the II Plus a regular diet of diskette - based data in central for protective covering from predators .

When partnered with the Disk II , the Apple II Plus could more easily digest VisiCalc spreadsheets , which aided its adaptation to businesslike environment .

Apple III

Era:1980 to 1983Lifespan:3 yearsDimensions:4.8 by 17.5 by 18.2 inches

Preferred Habitat : Apple warehouses

dieting : Pascal , desert vertebrates

Article image

Trivia : Little is known about the uncommon and massive Apple III , but scientists speculate that it could operate in utmost hotness environments without sick effect due to its unequalled metal rut sump base . This ingenious version to hot environment may have been responsible for for its extinction as the climate cooled in the mid-1980s .

Alternate theories propose that extensive interbreeding with the Apple IIe , which in all likelihood shared a usual ancestor with the III , may have led to the Apple III ’s complete fade from the fossil disc .

Apple IIe

Era:1983 to 1985Lifespan:2 yearsDimensions:4.25 by 15.25 by 17.75 inches

Preferred Habitat : classrooms , calculator labs

dieting : educational software , chocolate milk

Article image

The Apple IIelivedduring a time of outstanding upheaval in the digital clime . With its relatively light weight and crushed motherboard complexity , the IIe found a welcome ecological recess in educational surround , often as the toy of juvenile Homo sapiens .

subsequently forms of this svelte but hardy beast , which commonly go along the Oregon Trail , survived the mass 8 - fleck extinction of 1984 that killed over 90 percentage of the 8 - bit digital dinosaurs . Those innovative figure include the IIe Enhanced ( 1985 ) and the IIe Platinum ( 1987 ) , both of which emerged after the cockcrow of the Macintosh .

Apple III+

Era:1983 to 1984Lifespan:1 yearDimensions:4.8 by 17.5 by 18.2 inch

Preferred Habitat : dumpsters , corporate basements

dieting : strange

Article image

small beer : Ourunderstandingof the Apple III+ is limited , and is mostly based a smattering of lower physical body segments attain in a Michigan embodied sewer in 1997 . Based on all-embracing reconstructive memory , most scientist believe that the III+ was covered with a coloured coat of feathers that allowed primitive powered flight from office windows . However , its heavy inning would have prevent a gentle landing , thus explaining the many fractured and incomplete objet d’art of this simple machine discover in the fossil record .

Apple Lisa

Era:1983 to 1984Lifespan:1 yearDimensions:15.2 by 18.7 by 13.8 column inch

Preferred Habitat : Apple ’s Lisa division

Diet : graphical office environment suites , worldwide remorse

Paleontologists first discovered dodo of the Lisa , the largest of all other Apple dinosaur , incase in concrete at a landfill in Logan , Utah . That initially lead many scientist to believe that the Lisa dwelled in subterraneous habitats .

However , the late uncovering of a previously unsung tail - similar appendage , which contains a freely rotating ball , has convinced experts that the Lisa may be adirect ancestorof the first Macintosh metal money .

consequently , the Lisa is often known as the “ extremely fat Mac ” due to its size and lumber shape . Its ample weight and girth in all probability arose as an adaptation to large quantities of loose - flowing oxygen / capital in the atmosphere before the dawn of the Great Responsibility that struck Apple HQ in mid-1985 .

After that time , much smaller Apple computing machine like the Macintosh and the Apple IIc appeared on the scene and completely alter the calculate landscape , although how they train , exactly , is still a mystery .