The Birth of The Octagon Theory, Part 3

Being a foreigner in early-to-mid 1980s Japan was fun but not always easy. It was almost impossible to get a credit card issued from a Japanese bank. Same with a loan. That is unless you had someone co-sign the loan documents for you. Well that's where my girlfriend (now wife) came in. She co-signed the legal papers for that 300,000 yen just like that. Which means she'd have to pay back the loan if I didn't. Now It didn't take any convincing on my part at all. Here she was, having known me for only two years, and she fully trusted me to pay off that two-year, 300,000 loan, and not leave her in the lurch.

As for me, I fully intended to pay back that loan but I was wondering if I should really get the loan and buy that Apple. I mean, learning how to use, fix, and/or program computers could very well be way over my head. Didn't you have to be a mathematical genius to do that? I hated math and stopped paying attention to my math teachers from about the 6th grade in elementary school. Not to mention the possibility that after a few months I could completely lose interest in the Apple like I did with my childhood toys and put it away in the closet never to be used again. 300,000 yen was an expensive price then (and still is) to pay to learn such a lesson about one's self.

I decided to get the Apple.

My girlfriend and I went back to Falcom, filled out the loan papers, waited for the approval, and came back about a week later to pick up my new (used) 48K of RAM-1Mhz 6502 Motorolla CPU-able to display eight colors- Apple II+, with a 5.25" floppy drive.

We drove home, got out the Apple manuals and set the Apple up on a small wooden lawn table, connected it to my 2nd-hand TV and fired it up. Having read the manual I knew enough to put the floppy disc that I'd also bought into the drive and restart the Apple so it'd read in and execute the program on that floppy.

Did I mention that the floppy I'd bought was a game. I mean, what is a computer without at least one game, right? That game was Microwave ( video ).

My wife and I played that game over and over, for weeks. We loved that game and it was the 1st of many to follow.

Anyway the very 1st night with my new (used) Apple II turned into a party, but little did I know that this was one toy that would NEVER see the inside of a closet. And little did my girlfriend know that her vote of confidence in me was going to turn out to be such a good investment.