Enhancing The Enhanced
The "e" in Apple IIe stands for enhanced, as this model, released in 1983, featured several improvements over its predecessor, the Apple II+. These included more RAM as standard, support for lowercase letters, simplified expandability for additional memory and 80-character display.
In 1985, the enhanced Apple IIe was released, differing from its immediate predecessor by a slightly modified processor (65C02 instead of 6502) and three new ROM chips. This model also offered (except on the very first motherboards) additional graphics modes with higher resolution and an expanded color palette. This made the IIe somewhat more compatible with the "portable" Apple IIc, for example, by introducing new graphical symbols that allowed for the creation of text-based graphical user interfaces. Several ROM routines were also corrected or improved.
At the 37th Retro Computer Meeting of Lower Saxony on November 15, 2025, I finally had the time to upgrade my IIe into an enhanced IIe by replacing the CPU and installing new, freshly burned EPROMs! The best part is that when using the German character set, the machine no longer starts with APPLE ÜÄ (in English it still started with APPLE ][), but with the much more stylish Apple //e! :)
Addendum
Actually, such a pimped-out //e should now also support the new DHGR graphics mode. But oh dear—the Apple II DeskTop still didn't look very convincing... The reason was a missing jumper on the 80-column card. After installing one, the DeskTop ran flawlessly in DHGR mode.
