Category: Vintage

During the snow storm last month in Washington State and it’s following cleanup, the machine that runs the Age of Reason BBS was struck down by a power surge.  The cause of the surge was apparently crews re-setting power line.   While the machine was not totally fried, the power supply is a bit loopy from it.  But this has not prevented the inevitable return of the Age of Reason BBS. Gene Buckle, the curator of the Age of Reason BBS…

  Egan Ford, creator and curator of the Apple ][ Game Server and the Apple ][  Disk Server has created mobile versions of the website.  This allows those users with iPhones to use the iOS based device to load their Apple ][ computer with games or disks directly from the Internet. The mobile version of the Apple ][ Game Server is at: http://asciiexpress.net/gameserver/mobile.html The Apple ][ Disk Server mobile version  is currently being built and will be available soon. now…

Gerard Puter has released an update of his popular Virtual ][ shareware Apple ][ Emulator for the Mac.   Virtual ][ is a complete Apple ][ emulator with features such as print to pdf and visual configuration menus with accurate card images. In the new version, gerard has included the following changes: Fixed an issue where the Mockingboard card could halt the virtual machine (this happened, for example, in Ultima IV). Corrected an issue in the “floating bus” screen rendering, thereby…

Draw On //, a graphics design tool produced by the same people who produced On Three Magazine is now available on the Apple ][ Scans website.  The program was written by Bob Consorti and comes on a single floppy disk.  The Manual is also available in PDF format and is a 118.9 MB download. You can download the program at: http://apple2scans.net/apple-iii/draw-on-3/

Have you ever wondered what Apple had in mind when it was designing new Apple IIgs machines back in the 1980’s?  Lim Thye Chen gives us a brief glimpse into some of those designs of prototypical Apple machines with a few pictures from the original Apple Design book at: http://retromaccast.ning.com/photo/photo/listForContributor?screenName=rxq26qsiiir9 While this is not the first time we have seen such wild ideas of Apple products, it is the first time we have seen a mythical Apple IIsi or a…

Brendan Robert has uploaded a new version of his JACE Apple ][ Emulator to the JACE Sourceforge page.   This release is meant to address some issues that were introduced in early versions.  Brendan Robert posted the following notes about the release on the Comp.sys.apple2 newsgroup earlier today: “1) Concurrent modification exceptions have been eradicated when you apply settings changes.  These used to kill the emulation when you used the config screen to tweak settings or change disks.  I am very…

Payton Byrd has announced a new Spring Time Retro Computer Convention for Clarksville, Tennessee in lieu of this years C4 convention.  The announement in CSA2 placed the convention at the Riverview Inn (http://www.theriverviewinn.com/rvstie/ ]) in Clarksville. According to the announcement by Payton, “It would be the last weekend of May, (25-27) and we’d have the room for 48 hours.  It’s a very nice facility in a great location near the Cumberland River and just minutes from shopping, dining and recreation…

Brendon Robert has re-worked the Apple ][ classic, Lemonade so that “It is no longer yelling”.  Lemonade was one of the original Apple ][ games included on cassette tape with the 1977 version of the original Apple ][ computer.  The original program was written all in capital letters as the Apple ][ originally did not have lower case. Lemonade is a game which is meant to teach fundamental marketing to elementary aged school children.  The basic idea is that the…

Frank Kunze has announce that he will be sending out the 3rd beta of the Eamon Deluxe 5.0 program.   He is attempting to re-work all of the original Eamon to accompany the Eamon Deluxe 5.0 system, fixing directional issues as well as eliminating unneeded items from the programs in order to make them flow better. He has recently re-formatted the SoftDisk Eamon #156, THE CURSE OF TALON by Sam Ruby.  A short writeup about that re-formatting is available on the…

Egan ford has added the entire Apple ][ collection from Virtual Apple’s website to the Apple ][ Disk Server.   The Apple Disk Server version 0.991 now has over 1500 disks that are ready to go on your Apple ][. This update was made possible by a contribution of a partial section of the Virtual Apple ][ database by Bill Martens.  You can access the Apple ][ disk server at: http://asciiexpress.net/diskserver/

Program: Shink-Fit X Category: Archiver Utility Released: Feb 02, 2012 Version: 1.0 Size: 1.4 MB Language: English Seller: Kelvin Sherlock Price: Free For many of us, the SHK or Shrinkit files have been a thorn in our sides, especially if we were on a Mac.  Now, our time in purgatory has been relieved by a nifty utility from the computer of Kelvin Sherlock, the author of GShisen.  Shrink-Fit X is a Mac OS X Application which allows users to open…

T. C. Lim has been working on a book about Pascal programming for the Apple II gs for the past several weeks, releasing preliminary versions along the way.  The book includes a number of programs his kids have developed for the Apple IIgs in Pascal, Orca Pascal, and GSoft BASIC. The book was produced with iBooks Author and is the first Apple ][ series related book to be produced specifically for iBooks 2.0.  T.C. has announced the immediate availability of…

Brutal Deluxe Software has announced the availability of their Fishhead Copier program which allows users to copy software in the GS/OS Environment. Fishhead includes a number of important advancements and features including: * Attribute preservaswtion when copying files * Batch Mode allowing removable devices and consecutive disk copying * Advanced error handling * A complete history log of all copies performed. Fished copies files in 256 byte chunks  and it’s primary function is to allow the user to archive a…

Antoine Vignau of Brutal Deluxe has posted a new software package for the Apple IIgs.  According to the posting: Brutal Deluxe Software is proud to introduce Fishhead, the Caped Copier, to the Apple II community. Fishhead is a GS/OS desktop file copier application. It offers several features which make it a powerful software for diskette and file preservation purposes: Attributes preservation — All copied files keep their original date, time and other attributes (e.g. invisible or locked) information Batch mode…

JACE or Java Apple Computer Emulator has been updated once again by Brendon Robert.  The latest version of the emulator has mouse emulation implemented.   According to the release on CSA2, “ While the implementation is still early, it does work with a number of mouse enhanced Apple ][ products.  It will not however, work with Dazzle Draw or Airheart.  Brendon is looking for help in the issue of the Resetting the Mouse Pointer as well as any insight into what…

Ewen Wannop has released an update to his Speccie’s News Acquisition Program or SNAP.  Version 1.1 features the ability to read Usenet and NNTP news on your Apple IIgs desktop as well as to post and reply to messages.  The configuration system in SNAP lets you “tailor your daily news fix.”. SNAP requires Marinetti 3.0b3 or later on the Apple IIgs.  For more information check out the Speccie website at: http://www.wannop.info/speccie/

Mike Maginnis has managed to make the Apple /// Cobol software and manuals available ont he Apple ][ Scans website.  Thanks to a loan of the materials from David Scmenck, the Apple /// collection is one item richer today.  Originally released by Apple in 1982, it sold for a whopping $500 at the time. To download the software and the manuals, check out the Apple][ scans website at: http://apple2scans.net/apple-iii/apple-iii-cobol/

The latest incarnation of the Eamon Adventurers franchise, Eamon Deluxe 5.0 has been shipped to beta testers.  Thus far, the program is only available in Win32 format, however, other formats including Mac OS X versions will be released in the coming days. Thus far, there are 20 beta testers with room for 10 more on the team. Frank Kunze, author of Eamon Deluxe has been continuing work on the system and also on the conversion of the older Eamon adventures. …

The Age of Reason BBS which runs on a real Apple //e is down at the moment.  This week, Washinton state has several back to back storms causing power outages throughout the western part of the state.  A power spike sent the machine into oblivion and in talking with Gene Buckle, the curator of the BBS, he still doesnt know exactly what is wrong with it.  Age of Reason runs on GBBS Pro, a BBS package written by Greg Schaefer…

Kevin Dady is known for his strange hacks over the years, but this one is actually useful to Apple //c Owners.  Not wanting to purchase an Apple //c joystick, Kevin set out to build himself one, using a thumb controller from an XBox controller.  The result of that and a few parts from Radio Shack is a game controller that looks every bit the modern piece of equipment except for the old 9 pint //c connector. Kevin has posted a…