Apple III

Apple III-tan
Character Information
Common Names	Apple III-tan
Other Names	Apple ///, Sara
Human Name(s)	Sara Appletree
Faction	Wanderer Class, formerly from the Apple Family
Lineage	Pre-Macintosh
Appearance
Height	163 cm (5'4")
Hair Color	red-brown with blonde streaks
Eye Color	red
Design
First Appearance	Mar 2009
Technical Information
System Personified	Apple III and III Plus(hardware), SOS (software)
Developer(s)	Apple Inc.
Debut	1980
Latest release	1983 (Apple III Plus)

Technical details

The Apple III was released as a more advanced (and much more expensive) successor to the Apple II designed for business users. It ran a new version of BASIC and a new operating system called SOS (Sophisticated Operating System) while retaining backwards compatibility. The Apple III's release included much fanfare but is still regarded as Apple's first and biggest flop ever for its high price, few software titles, limited degree of backwards compatibility, and poor design. The internal clock quickly failed, and due to a near lack of ventilation and no fan, the circuits of the Apple III overheated and warped. A revised Apple III was released in 1983 that fixed the design flaws, but even that wasn't enough to save its reputation.

Apple III's SOS had some influence though: It influenced the design of Apple II's ProDOS and the Macintosh's Hierarchical File System.

Character details

General

Apple III-tan is represented as a woman with light red eyes, long dark red hair with three blonde streaks, and metal decorations on her hair and outfit. She closely resembles an older, taller Apple II-tan; she has the same hairstyle but wears her hair untied, and shorter; her outfits black and green, the inverse of Apple II's white and red.

Her black jumpsuit is based off the DHARMA uniform from Lost, and is decorated with an Apple /// name badge. Over her uniform she wears a dark green skirt and a beige hooded cloak, which she wears up when around relatives; she doesn't want them to know her true identity, still feeling like a disgrace.

She is overall stoic, wise and a cool big sis-type, but still struggles with pyromania and bursts of anger; she used to be very hot-headed. She is highly fond of "Lost", referencing the use of Apple IIIs in the show, and lives with a few of her loyal followers on a remote island. On the island she lives, she built an observatory to do research, strive to save the world, and redeem herself.

She is Apple II-tan's immediate sister, and a half-sister to Lisa-tan and the Classic Mac-tans, as elements of the Apple III's OS influenced the Lisa and Classic Mac OSes.

Family and Relationships

Apple II

She admired Apple II-tan, though she did at times feel jealous over Apple I-tan spending more time with II-tan than her. She may never have actually been II-tan's successor, given the much higher price and specialized role of the Apple III compared to the II. Instead may have been intended to be her older sister's equal, but was still tasked with the challenge of following up on II-tan's success, and felt like a failure, especially feeling like she failed II-tan when she didn't succeed.

Her feeling like she failed II-tan, and wasn't worthy of being in her presence again was part of why she refused to go to the Binteeji Renmei for a long time.

Lisa

Apple III-tan and Lisa-tan were generally antagonistic towards each other, but she still briefly served as a tutor to Lisa-tan.

Macintosh System 1

She was the only of the Mac-tans that Apple III-tan knew until recently. While still at the Apple Family, she was a tutor to System 1-tan, but was emotionally distant from her.

SAGE

She greatly admires SAGE-tan, first knowing about her early in life. At that time, SAGE was still in service, and a young Apple III-tan was amazed by her power, and sacrifices she made to try and save the world. When Apple III-tan became a wanderer, she strived to be like SAGE, but wasn't aware of the fate that already befell her. Apple III-tan never thought that she'd meet her role model, but after more than 20 years as a wanderer, she did. While excited to finally meet her, she was at the same time sad over what happened to her, and wants to help SAGE make friends.

GENIAC

How they met isn't fully detailed or explained yet, but Apple III-tan being friends with GENIAC-tan, who is also one of SAGE-tan's friends, has been incorporated into OSC fanon. She can empathize with GENIAC-tan's abandonment and long periods of loneliness endured, and likes that GENIAC-tan isn't judgmental. It's because of their friendship that Apple III-tan became willing to visit the Binteeji Renmei.

History and background

In her very early life, Apple III-tan was a very proud young girl but was distant towards her family except for her mother, Apple I-tan and was deeply saddened over her death. Although Apple III-tan remained proud and arrogant, it was this event that led to her later mental breakdowns. After her introduction party in 1980, she showed severe signs of mental instability, bad temper, and pyromania that worsened. She improved herself and overcame her problems by 1983 when she went to reintroduce herself to the people, but it was too late; her reputation was already ruined, and she went mad, and later left the family in shame. She was around to teach Lisa-tan, and Macintosh System 1-tan, but was antagonistic towards both of them (mainly Lisa), and was distant from her family. She left in 1984.

One day early in her life as a wanderer, Apple III-tan, along with some of her remaining followers, encountered a remote island where she built an observatory she inhabits to this day.

Even as a wanderer, Apple III-tan still knew what was going on with her family, and was proud of Apple II-tan and GS/OS-tan for keeping up their work ethic, but didn't think very fondly of Lisa-tan or the Mac-tans for several years. She disliked that the Mac-tans were pampered divas back then, even though they were still nice and had a similar work ethic as Apple II-tan's, and was especially ashamed by their shortsightedness just before and during the OS Wars.

But when she heard of when the Mac-tans took matters into their own hands instead of waiting on a successor to do the job for them (the ill-fated Copland and Taligent), she was impressed. Amazed to read about the Macs uniting their remaining forces after heavy losses, serving on the front lines to defend the last of their territory, then going on to rebuild their society and culture, she has been proud of them and her whole family since then.

However she feels that she can never return home because of past experiences, and ashamed that she wasn't there for her family when they needed her most. She knows that she cannot just return home as if nothing happened.

See also:

• Apple III Chaos: Apple's First Failure