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Exceptionally rare “Preliminary Apple BASIC Users Manual,” 14 pages, 8.5 x 11, issued by the Apple Computer Company in October 1976. Among the six essential components required to assemble a complete Apple-1 'garage-era' system, the manual originates from the inventory of Itty Bitty Machine Company, an early microcomputer retailer that sold a small number of Apple-1 computers during the late 1970s. Produced shortly after Apple introduced Integer BASIC for the Apple-1, this scarce preliminary manual documents the language before publication of Apple's more familiar production manuals. Unlike Apple's other two 1976 manuals, which were professionally typeset and offset printed, this preliminary edition was produced in-house, making it the only homemade manual issued during Apple's formative garage era. It begins with an introduction to BASIC syntax and operation before covering variables, expressions, commands, program control, input and output, arrays, functions, and subroutines, concluding with a concise programming reference. In very good to fine condition, with edge toning, and the last page detached but present.
Accompanied by a signed five-page provenance statement from original owner Peter Zelchenko, who acquired and used the manual while working at Itty Bitty Machine Co., one of the nation's first retail computer stores and among the first four dealers to sell the Apple-1. As a teenage employee in late 1976, Zelchenko demonstrated Apple-1 systems, taught BASIC to customers, and retained this manual in his personal collection for nearly fifty years. Also included is a Winter 1977 Itty Bitty Machine Co. sales catalog featuring Apple II specifications, pricing, and BASIC information alongside advertisements for IMSAI, Cromemco, Centronics, ICOM, and other early microcomputer hardware and peripherals, as well as a Gamma Enterprises parts brochure produced by Zelchenko and two classmates before joining Itty Bitty, documenting his early involvement in the Chicago-area microcomputer hobbyist community.
Issued in October 1976, this 'Preliminary Apple BASIC Users Manual' documents the introduction of Apple BASIC, the programming language that transformed the Apple-1 from a machine requiring technical expertise into a practical personal computer capable of running user-written programs. Superseded in early 1977 by revised documentation bearing Apple's familiar rainbow logo, this Newton-logo manual is not only the earliest incarnation of Apple's BASIC documentation but also one of the rarest surviving products from the company's garage era, with only approximately a dozen examples presently documented.
