Apple's original tablet

The first Apple I ever used had one of these. It was my freshman year in high school (1981) and my technical drawing teacher, Mr. Berube, had one in the class. When we finished assignments, we could use it.

Can't tell you how cool it was to draw shapes on the tablet and see them show up on screen. I recall it had both a freehand mode and a "shapes" mode, I think.

Isn't this the same model that Roberta Williams used to make the original Sierra On-line games? I don't think those games would have been possible without it... and look at the company it spawned.

My favorite gadget for my Apple ][+ was the Gibson Labs Light Pen:

http://bit.ly/7rXh45

You'd draw right on the screen and it was only about half as much as the Graphics Tablet! $350.00

1979?!! I can't begin to imagine how expensive that tablet must have been...

Dave, I'd say "kludge" is a poorly-chosen word for something that was really a spectacular piece of tech in its day. It's not as if there was any better at the time.

Cool, but not as cool as the Koala Pad I had for my Apple IIe back in '85.

Looks like you could play a kickin' game of Minesweeper with it...

Damn! I shouldn't have bought that wacom bamboo!

Still nicer looking than most stuff Dell makes now....