Following the first release of an 8-bits Apple II implementation of Shufflepuck in late April, a second release is now available with a few bugfixes, and more importantly, a two-players mode.
This release is available from the project’s homepage.
Got a null-modem serial cable and two Apple II computers? Lucky you: you will be able to play against your friends and family. Just plug in your cable and click on the phone next to DC3, the robot bartender.
The two-players mode requires two computers, because sharing a screen would have been… punishing for the player in the back! And the connection between those two computers is a serial cable, a solution chosen for three reasons: its large availability, its existence across the entire Apple II line including the //c, and the historical accuracy.
This solution comes with drawbacks, like the cable “building”. Apple II computers always had non-DB-9 serial ports. Only the Super Serial Cards had a DB-25 connector, which was standard at the time; the Apple //c had a DIN-5, and the //c+ and IIgs had Mini-DIN-8 connectors. And in 1990, TIA-574 standardized the DB-9 format for serial communications. This means most of us with serial cables for our computers have whatever-to-DB-9 null modem cables, and it is not that common to have a cable with both ends fitting an Apple II serial card. Hence, the easiest setup is to plug three null-modems together. As two of them cancel each other, this is a solution that works. During testing, your author used a DB-25 to DB-9 on the Apple IIe end, a DB-9 to DB-9 in the middle, and a DB-9 to DIN-5 on the Apple //c end.
The result is surprisingly satisfying (even though I am probably partial to it), and I hope some of you will enjoy playing with friends or kids. My kids enjoy it and it fills me with joy – they usually couldn’t care less about whatever happens on the //c’s screen!
