This guy found a working 30-year-old Apple IIe in his parents’ attic

There are objects in our lives that will forever be tied to childhood: a favorite toy, for example, or the first chapter book that you read and truly connected with. 

For most of us, these items are forever lost — long ago consigned to the dustbin of Goodwill. Not so for Professor John Pfaff, who on Feb. 16 shared with the world a discovery that blasted him straight to his personal past: a working 30-year-old Apple IIe computer. 

“Oh. My. God,” he tweeted. “An Apple IIe. Sat in my parents’ attic for years. Decades. And it works.”

Sight of the computer, first released in 1983, serves up an immediate nostalgia gut punch to those old enough to remember the green-text motif that defined the era. And, fortunately for Pfaff, he was able to do much more than just think back wistfully on his early computing days. Because when Pfaff booted up the machine and put in an old game, he found that the computer was ready to play again.

“Put in an old game disk,” wrote Pfaff. “Asks if I want to restore a saved game. And finds one! It must be 30 years old. I’m 10 years old again.” 

In the ensuing tweet storm, Pfaff documents and replays the games of his youth. Clearly, this man regrets putting away his childish things all those years ago.

Luckily for him, however, those things only ended up safely stored in his parents’ attic. 

Pfaff’s discovery and subsequent Twitter thread inspired others to chime in about computers of days past, and what followed was a feel-good walk down memory lane. 

Now please excuse me while I go play some Oregon Trail.