Since the Apple II was a prime platform for over a decade, it's hardly surprising that thousands of games were produced for it. Although a haven for strategy, role-playing, and adventure software, the Apple II's massive game library was hardly limited to these categories. Genre-defining releases came from a full range of famous developers and publishers, including Broderbund, Electronic Arts, Infocom, Interplay, Origin, and SSI.

_{Many considered Ultima IV (1985) the height of the nine-part series, and it is one of the few games ever made that tackles tough issues such as morality and virtue in a mature manner. The impressive animated title screen is shown.}

Mystery House (1980) by On-line Systems (later, Sierra) was the first commercial text adventure with graphics. The company's later Time Zone (1982) was one of the first true epic games, spanning six double-sided disks and featuring 1500 screens to explore. Although Richard Garriott released his Akalabeth: World of Doom (1980) first, his second role-playing game, Ultima (1981), set the stage for one of the most storied franchises in gaming.

Sir-Tech's Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord (1981) set the standard for the role-playing dungeon crawl and still spawns sequels. Castle Wolfenstein (Muse, 1981) was an exciting strategy arcade adventure that featured crude, but effective speech. Broderbund's Choplifter (1982) arcade game featured a unique two-axis control scheme for independent control of the helicopter's direction and vertical movement.

_{Pinball Construction Set (1983) from Electronic Arts, shown here, not only gave players a blank canvas to build the digital pinball machine of their dreams, but, along with Music Construction Set (1983), helped to launch a whole new type of interactive software.}

Penguin Software's The Graphics Magician (1982), although not technically a game, was a popular graphics and animation-creation package that was ideal for helping to making them, improving the Apple II's cachet as a development platform. Broderbund's Lode Runner, the popular puzzle-based arcade platformer, was released in 1983, along with Electronic Arts's Music Construction Set and Pinball Construction Set.

The latter let the user create unique virtual pinball machines with drag-and-drop simplicity, and the former did the same for music composition. Also in 1983, The Learning Company produced Rocky's Boots, an award-winning example of "edutainment" software, which combined educational and instructional content with gaming.

This pattern of firsts and trendsetters continued through to the end of the 1980s, and included the first ever appearances of John Madden Football (1989) from Electronic Arts and Broderbund's action adventure, Prince of Persia (1990).