February 15, 1997: The Tiger is Unleashed…For the Apple II?

Hardcore Apple fans remember Friday, April 30, 2005 as the day that Tiger was released. Of course, that release party was for OS 10.4, code named ”Tiger.” Surprisingly, it wasn't the first release of a tiger for Apple.

That honor goes to a mass produced Apple IIe compatible machine. The computer was a 128k machine, featured a PS/2 port (a first), sported a tiny form factor and RCA sound and video jacks. In another first for the Apple II, the computer could also accept cartridges. Performance was a bit weak as the chip that powered the computer was a slow 1MHZ 65C02 chip.

The Apple IIe compatible was never a huge seller, despite the rock bottom price of $149.99. The reason for the slow sales seems obvious in retrospect. The computer was the Tiger Learning Computer, was sold as a toy and wasn't introduced until February 15, 1997. On the bright side, it did come with six cartridges.