You mention that you don't have any games for your Apple II. If you go the used game route and want to get the full experience be sure to check out Wizardry and Zork!
Will do! Someone also just turned me onto this site: https://asciiexpress.net/diskserver/ where you can connect your laptop or phone's headphone jack with a 3.5mm audio cable to the Apple II cassette-in port, and just play the audio files to transfer over games and other software. This is the magic I was hoping for.
I've done this recently - It really does work (playing audio from a cellphone); if you run into any problems I recommend the slower file versions and maybe retry a few times in case of interference/noise on the cable.
EDIT: I also had a similar smoky experience with the original CRT (maybe a bit less safe to repair), luckily my modern TV could connect directly by composite.
Although with exactly zero disks, it's only somewhat useful. Bootstrapping it is fun though; it's got a ramdisk feature you might be able to use for some disks, though?
If you're still looking for disks, be sure to get Double Sided Double Density. High density disks will not work well in an Apple II. If the disks are unlabeled, look for hubrings; if they've got hubrings, they're more likely double density.
I had hundreds of (mostly pirated) games for my II and Lode Runner was my favorite. Also, Karateka, Pinball Construction Set, and Zaxxon. May as well add Choplifter, the original Ultima, Wizardry, and Castle Wolfenstein.
