Author: A.P.P.L.E.

PunyInform, the adventure game programming library by Fredrik Ramsberg has been updated. PunyInform 5.6 allows users to create Z-Machine compatible programs, allowing them to be easily ported to multiple platforms. This latest release of Puny Inform includes a slew of updates, fixes, and new functionality included in the release. Information lated to the latest version includes the following: Repository: johanberntsson/PunyInform · Tag: v5_6 · Commit: 7edfd4a · Released by: fredrikr Important to note when upgrading: Changes in functionality: Optimizations: Bugfixes: The library and full source code is…

A revamp of the Apple II Disk II Analog board and the Motor Control board have been in the works for the past several years. Now that work has come to fruition and the new ReAnalog and Motor Control boards are available through Chris Torrence’s CT6502.ORG website. About the boards The ReAnalog Card is a recreation of the original Apple Disk ][ Analog card from 1978, using modern components and a printed circuit board. This allows the sensitive magnetic signal…

The latest version of Kelvin Sherlocks Ample front end for the MAME emulator has been released. Ample version 0.268 includes additional front end support for the Retro Mac Platforms including the Mac IIfx, Quadra 900 and the Quadra 950. The Ample front end also includes the complete MAME 0.268 emulation system. Some additional changes in the base MAME emulator includes changes to the Apple IIgs driver as specified below:The Apple IIgs driver now supports host integration with a custom ATINIT…

The full release of the Version 1.4 chain of the Apple II Desktop graphical interface for the Apple II computer has been released. Joshua Bell, the curator of the Apple II Desktop project has been adding features and fixing issues with the project at a high rate of speed over the past several months. Thus, the latest version, Apple II Desktop 1.4, includes a slew of new advances and changes in the operation of the interface including the following items:…

R&R Auctions has announced the release of a pre-production Apple II Motherboard (REV1) for auction on their site as part of their “Steve Jobs and the Apple Computer Revolution” auctions lot. The Motherboard auction started at $500 but is expected to draw bids of over $5,000. It is currently unknown what the actual source of the board is, however, internal speculation is that this is one of the rate Apple II boards which were part of the famed Tony Diaz…

About 15 years ago, Eric Shephard had a grand idea for advancing the Apple IIgs. The idea was to revolutionize the Apple IIGS computer allowing it to communicate seamlessly with other computers. Well that dream has finally been realized. Stephen Heumann announced during his Kansasfest 2024 presentation the initial public release of the new SMB FST for GS/OS 6.0x, now allowing the sharing of Apple IIgs Files, file types and the associated resource forks. SMB FST for GS/OS Version 1.0…

From our friend Jeremy Rand over at Rand-emonium Software: This is a new desk accessory for the Apple IIgs which solves Wordle puzzles for you. Rather than being the game, this can be used to solve the puzzle for you by telling you the best guesses (hopefully). It will give you its first guess of a five letter word. Then, you should click on each letter to set each to the correct colour: Note that if the letter appears multiple…

A collaboration between Stefan Wessels and the venerable Brutal Deluxe Software has produced a new version of the 1982 arcade game, Time Pilot, for the Apple IIgs. The original release of the program did not include audio and had a few minor glitches which were worked through both in real time and offline. The new version of the program now includes the fully qualified Audio and also fixes a glitch associated with the 1940’s level Bomber which was lagging when…

Joshua Bell has announced the the latest pre-release of the Apple II Desktop, version 1.4 Beta 2, a Graphical User Interface operating system for the Apple II. This release marks a significant milestone in enhancing the user experience for Apple II enthusiasts, offering a range of new features, bug fixes, and improvements. As always, it is essential to use beta software with caution, as it is still in the testing phase. Try It Now To experience the latest features of…

Brandon Robert has announced a major update to the JACE Apple II Emulator for Java. JACE 3.0 requires user to have Java version 17 installed and will emulate the Apple II with the following addon and peripheral specifications: According to the author, JACE is a mature cycle-accurate emulation of an Apple //e computer. The full library of software for that series is 100% compatible with this emulator, as well as many popular hardware add-ons. Some of the other features of…

For those users still running their retro macs, this is another return to normalcy for you. Weatherbot is an app specifically made for users running Macs with Mac OS 7 – 10.11 (El Capitan) which will provide the 7 day forecast to your desktop. Some of the Features include: There are three versions of the app: One for the 68K Mac, the PPC and the Intel based machines up to Mac OS X 10.11. System requirements for the Weatherbot app…

The Ample graphical interface for Mac OS X has been updated. Ample 59 with its retro Apple II, Apple II clone and Retro Mac series primary focus, has been updated to include the items included in the MAME 0.267 emulation system. The Ample interface has been updated recently to also include Atari, Tandy, Dragon and Oric computer platforms. Ample 59 can be downloaded from the Ample Github page at:https://github.com/ksherlock/ample

MacEffects has announced that that the BOOTi Hard Drive card for the Apple II computer is once again available through the MacEffects website. BOOTi is a Hard Drive emulator card which simulates a block device on the Apple II. MacEffects is best know in the Apple and Macintosh communities for their clear cases and special replacement keyboards. For more information or to purchase the BOOTi card, check out the MacEffects website at:https://maceffects.com/products/maceffects-booti-hard-drive-emulator-for-apple-ii-series

Ciderpress II, the command line based version of the Ciderpress App for Windows has been updated to version 1.02. Included in this release are the following changes: The full Installation instructions for the App can be found on the GitHub page at: https://github.com/fadden/CiderPress2/blob/main/Install.md The following Installation instructions are a brief version for those already familiar with the system: There are pre-built binaries for 32-bit Windows, 64-bit Windows, 64-bit Mac OS, and 64-bit Linux. Downloads with _fd are framework-dependent, meaning you…

From Stefan Wessels: Back in 2021 I started making a version of Time Pilot for the Apple IIgs. This was after I loved Jeremy Rands’ BuGS game. I got to the point where I had to make the AI and then I got sidetracked. Finally, I have now made the Apple IIgs version so it can be released. The gameplay is done, but it has no audio or icon. I will post about that in the #appleiigs channel, but the long and…

Ralle Pa, creator of a number of Apple II products that are currently for sale, has announced that he has created a new Apple II Disk II controller card. According to Ralle: I finished a new project today. A2DISK2 – my version of the Apple2 DISK2 controller. Two versions actually. One with 2x 256-byte proms and another with 2x EPROMs. The former are really hard to come by and few people can program them. The latter should be easier to…

Joshua Bell has announced the immediate availability of the latest version of the Apple II Desktop project. Apple II Desktop is a graphical user interface platform for the Apple II series computers and includes an array of utilities and programming languages built into the platform. The first beta release in the version 1.4 chain comes with a slew of updates including the following items: DeskTop Disk Copy Desk Accessories Apple II Desktop can be downloaded from the Apple II Desktop…

Disk Jockey is an app for creating and analyzing disk images for retro computing platform emulators as well as actual hardware, including the Apple II, Amiga and Atari ST. The add will run on the following Mac OS platforms: It also runs natively on Intel and Apple Silicon machines and will run offline. Changes in Disk Jockey version 3.4 include the following items: You can download the latest version of Disk Jockey as well as older versions at:https://diskjockey.onegeekarmy.eu/

From Jesse Blue: New features: Fixes: Download via Marketplace or from here https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=dagenbrock.vscode-merlin-assembler 

Colin Leroy Mira has released STP, a new FTP client package for the Apple IIc. According to the release notes published by Colin: New release of my #AppleII things!STP, my FTP client, is now much more usable. It gets search, is ported to non-enhanced Apple II, and more importantly can now transfer floppy images (.po and .dsk) to a floppy, in the same way that ADTPro does.This means that if you make yourself an STP floppy (with ADTPro), you won’t…