From a Bit Player to a Mobile Force, Apple's Gaming Legacy Under
Steve JobsS  Popularly regarded as a distant runner-up to the
Windows PC, Apple nonetheless played key and even dominant roles
in shaping the history of video games over the past 35 years,
emerging from an utterly marginalized brand in home computer
gaming to a force almost unilaterally shaping the course of
mobile gaming today.  The company's founder, Steve Jobs, died
today. Prior to the first Macintosh in 1984, and until about
1986, Apple was a mainstream platform for purposes of games
publishing. If you are older than 30, one of the most celebrated
memories of gaming's early years, dying of dysentery on the
Oregon Trail, likely occurred on an Apple II in a middle school
media center. Then, after the early 1980s console gaming crash,
publishers such as Parker Bros., Activision and Electronic Arts
sought refuge in home computers, and regularly included versions
for Apple's DOS-based computers alongside Commodore and IBM
ports.  Apple's shift to