Apple IIc - International Versions

International Versions

Like the Apple IIe before it, the Apple IIc keyboard differed depending on what region of the world it was sold in. Sometimes the differences were very minor, such as extra local language characters and symbols printed on certain keycaps (e.g. French accented characters on Canadian IIc such as “á,” “é,” “ç,” etc., or the British Pound “£” symbol on the UK IIc) while other times the layout and shape of keys greatly differed (e.g. European IIc). In order to access the local character set, the “Keyboard” switch above the keyboard was depressed, which would instantly switch text video from the US character set to the local set. The DVORAK keyboard layout was not available on international IIcs—the feature had been intended to switch between international keyboards; the DVORAK layout was merely added to give the switch a function on US IIcs. In some countries these localized IIcs also supported 50 Hz PAL video and the different 220/240-volt power of that region by means of a different external power supply — this was a very simple change, since the IIc had an internal 12-volt power converter. The international versions replaced any English wording printed on the case (specifically the “keyboard” toggle switch, “Power” and “Disk Use” drive activity labels) with graphical icon symbols that could be universally understood.