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

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.

The latest version of the PinyInform Library has been released. Punyform 3.3 includes host of changes and bug fixes including the following items: Changes in functionality: Implemented ChooseObjects entry point routine. Added a ‘score’ verb for games with no score, which just prints a message saying there is no score in this game. Added an example of how to add random comments to a game (howto/comments.inf). Changed so that NPCs can’t use wildcards, such as “take all” (This was deemed…

For those of us who grew up with arcade games in the 1970’s, there were a few games which stuck out. Night Driver would be one such game. There have been many versions over the years, but now thanks to Apple hobbyist Ian Schmidt, the game has come to the Apple IIgs! Complete with artwork from the Fatdog Projects, creators of the monthly Apple IIgs art disks, the game comes with three track modes: Novice, Expert and Pro. Ian has…

Tom Harte has released an updated version of his Clock Signal multi-platform emulator for Mac OS X. The 19 December update includes a new section of code specifically allowing Clock Signal to emulate the Commodore Amiga. As Tom specifies in his release notes for the update, this release is a “low-Quality” emulator of the Commodore Amiga and he plans on updating it again soon with some better code. Currently the Clock Signal Emulator has a number of emulators including the…