Author: A.P.P.L.E.
Gerard Putter has released the latest version of the Virtual II Apple II Emulator for Mac OS. The latest version, 10.6.5, includes some cool upgrades for the free version of the program as well as for the base emulator. What’s new in version 10.6.5 Twenty years ago I started the Virtual ][ project! Because of this anniversary, I include a free upgrade for all users with a limited license; from now on this license includes the full matrix printer emulation. If…
The BASIC 10-Liner Programming contest began today. For this year’s contest, the following are the rules laid out for the contest: Legal systems: All 8-bit computer systems Authorized BASIC dialects: All line orientated BASIC dialects are allowed with a restriction in the category “PUR-80” Since the jurors can not have the original hardware of all approved systems available, the system must be emulatable. The authors provide a recommendation for an emulator and briefly describe how to start the game. Additionally,…
Marc Golembeck has announced the latest version of the DOLORES programming library for AppleSoft. DOLORES is a library of Applesoft based double low resolution graphics mode ampersand routines. Version 12.2 of the DOLORES library includes a host of new features including: &STORE NUM,WIDTH,HEIGHT,MASKCOLOR: push sprite NUM (1..16) to language card buffer. Sprite DATA has to be stored (POKEd) in the area $9500-$95FF (256 pixels maximum) line per line in a row. &VAL NUM: set Pixel mask to color NUM (0..15). If NUM = 16 then pixel masking is…
David Kinder has announced the latest release of the Inform 6 Compiler for Interactive Fiction. Inform 6.36 includes a bunch of newly added features and bug fixes including the following: Features added The algorithm used to apply abbreviations for Z-code has been replaced with a more efficient dynamic programming algorithm, based on the paper by R.A. Wagner “Common phrases and minimum-space text storage”, Communications of the ACM, 16 (3) (1973). Inform has been refactored to use dynamic memory allocation rather…
Identify ][, the Hardware identification software by Marc Golembeck has been updated. Version 2.0 and the subsequent 2.02 include a host of new features with version 2.02 being a bug fix release. According to the website, : BugFix: The Saturn Card detection code lead to an unwanted “flying” disk write on Disk II controllers and connected drives to it. Hence booting the tool from floppy disk lead to a destruction of a disk track and leaving the disk partially unreadable and…
MountIt for the Apple IIgs has been updated. MountIt Version 1.5 was released by Brutal Deluxe Software and according to their website: Mount your disk image files files directly under GS/OS, just like another volume. MountIt 1.5 is a new Permanent Init File devoted to handling different disk image files (.DSK, .PO and .2MG) of any size (from 32KB to the maximum RAM available), only ProDOS based. Up to sixteen volumes can be added to the system. MountIt mounts volumes…
The Apple II Desktop Project has been updated. Version 1.2 alpha 41 has been released with a complete separation of individual language version floppy sets. These languages include English, Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese. Some of the changes and fixes included in this update are: GeneralConsistently clear text screen when exiting apps. #621File Pickers:Enable Apple+letter selection for lowercase filenames. #615Allow type-down selection when holding Apple key. #610Don’t require exact match for Apple+letter selection. #609Allow Shift to reverse device order, when detectable. #605Make scrollbar position correctly…
From Kent Dickey, curator of the KEGS Apple IIgs Emulator has announced an update for Mac OS and Linux. KEGS v1.16 has been released with the following changes: – Better cursor focus tracking, less likely to have an invisible cursor when KEGS is no longer the active window.– F5 now toggles the status display at the bottom on/off. This state can be saved in config.kegs.– Added Dynapro image support–mount a host directory as a…
James Savage and John Leake have released the 599th episode of their RetroMacCast podcast. Join them as they talk about their eBay Finds: American Girl desk and Mac, icon trash bag, and Apple Game Team jacket. John gets his RaSCSI working, and news includes 3D printed Apple logo and iMac found on Twitter. To listen to the latest episode or any of their back episodes, check out RetroMacCast at:https://retromaccast.libsyn.com/rmc-episode-599-rascsi
The Applesauce Floppy Disk Controller client software has been updated to version 1.59. New and Improved DIsk Image Format Support Now supports loading KryoFlux Raw image files. While loading it also recognizes 5.25″ double-density disks that were improperly imaged at 360rpm and will automatically time-shift them to 300rpm to correct them. Opening IMD (ImageDisk) files is now supported. Exporting IMD files also has several improvements. Improved support for SCP (SuperCard Pro) disk images. Improved support for DFI (DiscFerret) disk images….
While most people think of the Apple-1 as a novelty of the past, there are people like Claudio Parmigiani who are taking the machine to points never realized when it was in its heyday. Claudio has managed to get his Apple-1 to not only play SID Tunes but also to run a simulated graphics sprite collision screen on a simulated Commodore-64 Screen, all from the venerable Apple-1.
The Lawless Legends development team has released a new playable demo of their game. The game which has been under development for a number of years is currently at a game version 0.95 but has progressed in leaps and bounds over the past year or so. The Lawless Legends development team includes long time Apple II programming legends such as Rebecca Heineman, Martin Haye, Brenden Robert, David Schmenk as well as legendary D&D designer Jennell Jaquays and famed documenter Andrew…
The Applesauce Floppy Disk Controller Client Software has been updated. John Morris has added a number of new items to the latest release, version 1.58, including the following: Fast Imager Improvements The save file name has now been separated into 2 parts. The first is the product name as before, and the second part can optionally be used for a disk number or other identification. What benefit does this have? Well, if you choose to create enclosing folders then the…
Andy McFadden has released an update to the CiderPress Disk Management Utility for Windows. The release addresses a bug which occurred with scaling in the Windows environment. CiderPress is a Windows based program and allows users to create and manage Apple II digital file archives and disk images. This update, CiderPress Version 4.4.1-d1 is designed to run on Widows 7 and newer. You can download the latest release as well as all source code from the CiderPress Github Releases page…
The Virtual II Apple II Emulator for MacOS has been updated. Virtual II Version 10.6 includes a slew of user requested additions to the emulator including the following items: Improved the unshrink feature. The extracted files are assigned the metadata stored in the archive: ProDOS file type, aux type, file creation date, as well as file modification date. Support for disk images with 13 tracks per sector (file extension .d13). Note that these disk images can be mounted, but any…
itty-bitty-vtty is a vt100 emulator for the Apple IIgs developed by Kelvin Sherlock which provides an operating system free, accurate vt100 emulation. itty-bitty-vtty uses the modem port at 9600 baud and the standard 8-N-1 transfer settings, which is also the MAME Emulator defaults for those who wish to use it in coordination with the MAME Emulator. itty-bitty-vtty is based on the vt100 standards set forth in the vt100 online User Guide. According to the Github page for the itty-bitty-vtty vt 100…
Kelvin Sherlock has updated his Ample front end for the MAME emulator. Ample is a Apple Centric front end for Mame with emphasis on Apple II Series and Retro Macintosh related emulation. Version 0.239 brings the Ample front end in line with the latest release of MAME and adds a new section to the interface for the Franklin line of computers including the Franklin Ace 100, 500, 1000 and 2200. There are also some improvements to the Apple SCSI CD-ROM…
The Apple II Desktop Project has released the latest version of the Apple II Desktop software. The Apple II Desktop Project is run by Joshua Bell and started its life as MouseDesk by Version Soft. Apple Computer licensed the software and released it, at first as MouseDesk 2.0, then rebranded Apple II DeskTop as the initial system software for the Apple IIgsbefore 16-bit GS/OS replaced it. It still functions on 8-bit Apples, including the Apple IIe, Apple IIc, Apple IIc Plus, Apple IIe Option Card…
Terence Boldt has been a busy man lately with his fixes to the ProDOS ROM-Drive Card. He has created a version 3.0 or the card and is currently finalizing the firmware of it, with changes and fixes coming in the past few days. The ProDOS ROM-Drive card is a solid state 1mb card for the Apple II series computer which studied the entire drive into an EPROM. This card will boot ProDOS and BASIC in a blazingly fast 1.5 seconds…
We just wanted to take this moment to express our gratitude to our members, our readers and our staff for making 2021 a wonderful year and say “Merry Christmas” to one and all. We pray that it is a joyous time for you and yours.
