The following tweets are from Professor John Pfaff’s Twitter feed. The author of Locked In, a book about the true causes of mass incarceration, recently found a 30-year old Apple computer in his parents’ attic! He turned it on and a message flashed on the screen asking him if he wanted to restore a saved game.

He published several posts on Twitter about his discovery, and eventually, his original post went viral. It was covered by CNN.

He also discovered a letter his father wrote him while he was at summer camp. He was 11 at the time. Clearly, this is the best part of finding the old Apple computer as Pfaff’s father died a year ago. I’ve embedded his tweets below, but first, an excerpt from that letter:

…We will save the daily cartoons from the newspaper so you can read them when you get back. I think you idea about Spiderman is correct, but we will see.

Hope that you are enjoying camp. The camp councilors that we talked with we liked. Looks like you have a busy schedule, but also one which should be fun. We are really looking forward to hearing about your adventures…”

Life is so short. That ordinary letter as Pfaff called it brought tears to my eyes. It’s easy to read between the lines and see how much he missed his boy.

Oh.
My.
God.

An Apple IIe. Sat in my parents’ attic for years. Decades.

And it works.

Put in an old game disk. Asks if I want to restore a saved game.

And finds one!

It must be 30 years old.

I’m 10 years old again. pic.twitter.com/zL7wWxOo36

— John Pfaff (@JohnFPfaff) February 17, 2019

This is tricky, because three decades later I can’t quite remember where I left off this round of Adventureland. pic.twitter.com/Eoj7EqkHtb

— John Pfaff (@JohnFPfaff) February 17, 2019

Hm. I rocked this version of One on One. Could hit a three from anywhere.

But the boxes my mom sent have no joystick!!

Will GameStop have one that fits these ports? pic.twitter.com/VQFgaAyb9G

— John Pfaff (@JohnFPfaff) February 17, 2019

My kids thought things were insanely retro when my wife and I played NES Super Mario on the oldest’s Switch.

Tomorrow morning their definition of retro is going to shift significantly. pic.twitter.com/cwpMyvCoYw

— John Pfaff (@JohnFPfaff) February 17, 2019

My dad typed up labels for all my floppies, which is really sweet to remember.

He was so thorough that he even included… who hacked the games.

(I’m the only person in my immediately family who went to law school.) pic.twitter.com/kj4m9aJh2U

— John Pfaff (@JohnFPfaff) February 17, 2019

Hacker screens!

And ASCII art!

On a 35 year old 5.25” magnetic disk from the first Reagan Administration. pic.twitter.com/2EWVrcxvLr

— John Pfaff (@JohnFPfaff) February 17, 2019

Wow. So this was an old trivia game I loved (Millionware). This screen gets to the point where it says “Say ‘Hello’ to our contestants Donna.”

And then the disk drive whirs w its little red light.

Then you get “Thank you, Donna.”

1984 computer humor. pic.twitter.com/dFnbQk7y0D

— John Pfaff (@JohnFPfaff) February 17, 2019

Of course, there is the downside. Here’s everything I wrote my senior year in high school, unreadable thanks to the absence of the necessary program disk (AppleWorks).

That, though… may be for the best. pic.twitter.com/u2XGStvWQU

— John Pfaff (@JohnFPfaff) February 17, 2019

It’s like riding a bicycle.

But need to get that 100m dash time down a bit. That was respectable in the 1980s, but not anymore. pic.twitter.com/cmnOKwBUUJ

— John Pfaff (@JohnFPfaff) February 17, 2019

This game… never got past the first level despite HOURS of (pre-internet cheating) trying.

Now w the web, I have a shot.

The music, tho. That classic Apple IIe music. pic.twitter.com/ebeXNzoCs2

— John Pfaff (@JohnFPfaff) February 17, 2019

(Anyone else think that character looks like Harry Potter?)

Just found this letter my dad typed to me in 1986, when I was 11 and at summer camp.

I REALLY WONDER what my theory abt the daily newspaper comics Spider-Man was.

My dad passed away almost exactly a year ago. It’s amazing to come across something so “ordinary” from him. pic.twitter.com/Aog3MiSnXN

— John Pfaff (@JohnFPfaff) February 17, 2019

When did you get your first computer? Do you know what became of it? What was the first video game you ever played?

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