Apple IIgs

Apr 23 2012

New Apple ][ Series Users Guide to be Published

David Finnigan of the Apple and Macintosh centric site, Mac Gui City has been working hard on a new users guide for the Apple ][ series computers.  the new guide with some 600 plus pages and 12 chapters will include information about 6 different Apple ][ series computers and their setup.

As for a release date on the new book, according to a recent post in CSA2, david says "The first complete draft (meaning that every section of the book was complete) was made early last week. It's currently being poured over by a team of leading Apple II experts. There are 12 chapters and nearly as many appendices. My hopeful guess is that the review will take at least 3 weeks. "

The new Apple ][ Users Guide will be the first Apple ][ series specific book published in nearly twenty years and aims to better educate this generation of Apple ][ users and hobbyists.  For more information about the book, you can check out The New Apple ][ Users Guide web page at:

http://macgui.com/newa2guide/

By admin • Apple //c, Apple IIgs, Apple ][, Vintage • 0 • Tags: , , , ,

Mar 28 2012

8/16: The Journal of Apple II Programming Now Online

Mike Maginnis, the curator of the Apple II scans website has posted 7 of the 9 issues of  8/16: The Journal of Apple II Programming. The Journal was produced by Ross W. Lambert and became 8/16-Central in 1990 when the publication was sold to Tom Weishaar.

You can download the currently available scanned issues from the Apple II scans  website at:

http://apple2scans.net/2012/03/25/816-the-journal-of-apple-ii-programming/

By admin • Apple //c, Apple IIgs, Apple ][, Documentation, Magazines, Vintage • 0 • Tags: , , ,

Mar 11 2012

New Review of Apple IIgs Game The Immortal

Brian Picchi has posted a new video review of the Will Harvey produced Apple ][ Game, The Immortal.  The Immortal was a glossy graphical adventure that was produced in 1990 by Electronic Arts.  Brian takes you through an entire level of play in the 12.5 minute video and talks about some of the nifty tricks within the game including resurrecting a dead player.   See the video below or on YouTube at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mELSlynnKrk

You can also play the game online at Virtual Apple at:

http://www.virtualapple.org/immortaldisk.html

Video of Brian’s Review:

By admin • Apple IIgs, Games, Software, Vintage • 0 • Tags: , , , ,

Mar 11 2012

R&D Automation to Produce 2nd Run of CFFA3000 Cards

R&D Automation announced in a blog posting last week that they will be producing a new run of the CFFA3000 cards for the Apple ][.  The CFFA3000 is a card which allows the Apple ][ to use Compact Flash Cards and USB Thumb Drives for hard drive storage of disk images.  According to the R&D Automation website, "We are now in the process of getting final quotes on parts for run #2 of the CFFA3000. We hope to be placing orders for the parts this week or next. We have not made a final decision on the run size yet, but we are looking at quantities of 400 and 500. The price of the next run will likely stay the same at US$149.95. It should be available in summer of 2012.

We are also adding support for image file directories to the firmware and making a lot of optimization to speed up all disk operations. Time permitting we will also be looking into DMA support, but there is still much work to do before we have something to test.“

The previous run of cards sold out in a matter of days after the much anticipated update was released.  The specifications of the new card are as follows:

  • A CompactFlash / USB flash drive interface for Apple II family of computers
  • Support 1 to 13 partitions under ProDOS and GS/OS, and 2 virtual floppy drives
  • Virtual Floppy image support allows the use of almost any non-copy-protected floppy disk image, including .dsk, .2mg, and .nib files. Note: .nib files of protected floppies will not work with the CFFA3000
  • Allows storage of thousands of floppy and smartport disk images
  • User configurable partition count
  • Boot from either device and any partition
  • Allow booting from Dos3.3, Pascal, CPM, Contiki, ProDOS or GS/OS directly from the Interface card (for a floppy-less system)
  • Configurable as a CFFA smart port controller (i.e. a mass storage device) or as a floppy controller, or both. When configured as both, requires 2 slots in your Apple II, one for the physical card, and one for the virtual floppy controller.
  • Hardware supports DMA, although v1.0 software does not currently support DMA. Future support is planned, but not guaranteed.

To order a CFFA3000 Card, you will need to email Rich Dreher, the proprietor of R&D Automation using the “email me” link on his sales webpage at:

http://shop.dreher.net/

By admin • Apple IIgs, Apple ][, Disk Storage, Hardware, Vintage • 1 • Tags: , , , ,

Mar 8 2012

SoundSmith for the Apple IIgs Available Online

The Creator of the Apple IIgs program SoundSmith and the Apple IIgs game LaserForce, Huibert Aalbers has added his Apple IIgs based programs to his website.  SoundSmith was one of the premier music programs of the Apple IIgs years and allowed game music to be written quickly and eloquently.

inspired by what he had heard on an Amiga system of the time and knowing the capabilities of the Apple IIgs, the non-musician Huibert set out to write a program that was a slick and easy to use program that performed well.  On his website, Huibert says “Music was not really something I was really interested in but I had to learn quickly in order to write the player. You have no idea how many times I had to listen to distorted versions of Cambodia before it finally played back correctly”

Huibert has graciously made available all of the original program and documentation on his website for free, easy download.  The program itself is available in 2mg and shk formats.  You can download the program from the website at:

http://www.huibert-aalbers.com/AppleIIgs/soundsmith.html

His Apple IIgs page also contains the original LaserForce as well as his 100,000 copy selling Jigsaw! Game which was published by Britannica. You can download these treasures for free and find more information about went into them here:

http://www.huibert-aalbers.com/AppleIIgs/Apple2gs.html

By billm • Apple IIgs, Apps, Software, Sound Utilities, Vintage • 0 • Tags: , , , , ,

Mar 7 2012

Ideas for Wasteland Kickstarter Project Posted

Brian Fargo has posted some ideas about what he thinks the Kick Starter rewards will look like when he posts the project later this week.  The re-start of the famed Apple ][ based franchise came earlier last month when Bran decided to try and make the project completely funded by a Kick Starter project.  Ideas include statues within the game dedicated to the upper level donors as well as a private party hosted by Brian and Alan Pavlish in honer of the donor.

Wasteland was one of the most popular Apple II games and inXile is attempting to revive the franchise in a manner that is more community driven and community funded.  Brian has laid out all of the levels and each progressive level includes the rewards for the previous level.

You can read the entire layout being proposed at:

http://wasteland.inxile-entertainment.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=114

By admin • Apple IIgs, Apple ][, Apps, Games, Software, Vintage • 0 • Tags: , , , ,

Mar 7 2012

Shink-Fit X Now Available for Older Machines

Kelvin Sherlock’s Shrink-Fit X, the application which allows for ShrinkIt files to be manipulated on Mac OS X, is now available in a Universal Binary for Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5.   The binary is downloadable from his new website at:

http://osx.ksherlock.com/

Or you can download the file directly at:

http://osx.ksherlock.com/Shrink-Fit-X-10.4.zip

By admin • Apple IIgs, Apple ][, Apps, Software, Vintage • 1 • Tags: ,

Feb 23 2012

A Look Back At Cortland (Apple IIgs)

Former Apple Employee Karl Grabe has given us a look into what went into the Apple IIgs when it was still known as Cortland.  Karl was the lead engineer of the Rom Diagnostics team assigned to the Cortland / Vegas project.  The project eventually became the Apple IIgs computer.   Some great old photos provide a nice nostalgia trip down Apple IIgs Memory lane.

Also included on the website are a number of photos of some vintage goodies which were only available to Apple employees of the 1980′s and 199o’s.  To check out the photos, go to Karl’s new website at:

http://tek4um.com/Apple%20Cork%20Cupertino%20Arhive/

By admin • Apple IIgs, Vintage • 0 • Tags: , , ,

Feb 21 2012

Apple ][ Documentation Project Reaches 10GB Milestone

The Apple ][ Documentation Project which was started by Marc Ressl, author of the Apple][GO emulator for cell phones and Java based systems, has reached a milestone  not thought of in the 1980's.  With disk sizes measured in kilo bytes and hard disk images in megabytes, the project has been accumulating documentation and software over the past several years and has finally reached the 10gb plateau.  In spite of it's large size, this is in no way the end of the project or as large as it will be as there are still thousands of items yet to be documented in the directory.

The Apple ][ Documentation Project has sections with Books, Hardware Schematics, Software, and a Variety of Apple II series computers and peripherals, complete with all of the software and board designs, photos and schematics.

You can reach the Apple ][ Documentation Project website at:

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mressl/a2dp/

By admin • Apple //c, Apple IIgs, Apple ][, Vintage • 0 • Tags: , , ,

Feb 17 2012

ActiveGS Emulator Upgraded to Version 3.5.772

The FreeToolsAssociation has released the latest version of the ActiveGS Emulator.  Version 3.5.772 was released to address a keyboard issue and caps lock issue that was introduced in the previous release with Mac based users.

ActiveGS is a plugin and stand alone app which is used as the primary emulator at Virtual Apple ][.  You can download the latest version of the App through the browser when playing games at Virtual Apple or by goping to the ActiveGS Support page at:

http://activegs.freetoolsassociation.com/

By billm • Apple IIgs, Apple ][, Apps, Plugins, Software, Vintage • 0 • Tags: , , , , ,

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