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

The A.P.P.L.E. Website is run by the Apple Pugetsound Program Library Exchange Users Group and is open to all Apple and Macintosh fans and their friends.

Steve’s Archives has new Location

The Steve Jobs archives, created by Art Matsak, has a new location. The archives, which runs through all the different topical videos related to Steve Jobs and his life, can now be found at:https://www.stevesarchive.com

New Apple II Game: Hell In the Tower

Raphael Rezende has released a new game for the Apple II computer as part of the latest A2SE programming contest. The game, Hell in the Tower, pits you as the fire brigade, attempting to catch the people jumping from the top of the burning building. Each game consists of 12 jumpers and you must do your best to catch all 12. The game uses the left and right arrow keys to control the catcher and from this players perspective, is…

Clock Signal Emulator Updated

The Clock Signal Emulator, a multi platform emulation system for Mac OS with Apple II Series support, has been updated. The latest update to the Clock Signal program includes support for the Apple Game Controller API as well as fixes for some of the non-Apple platforms. Clock Signal also has support for a number of other systems including: Acorn Electron; Amstrad CPC; Apple II/II+ and IIe; Atari 2600; Atari ST; ColecoVision; Commodore Vic-20 (and Commodore 1540/1); Macintosh 512ke and Plus;…

Building your own Apple II Revision 0 Replica

Several people lately have been looking at the replica realm with great interest and I found myself looking back through the files at what people had done already. One of the mainstays in the Apple II replica real was Mike Willegal, the former curator of the the Apple-1 Registry. One of the wonderful pages he had done was the “Information on Building your own Rev 0 Replica”, a page dedicated to the idea that the first Apple II available on…

New 3D Printed Cable Bracket for the Apple II

Matthew Sparby, vintage computer enthusiast and the sysop of the Atrium BBS, has created a new 3D Printed bracket for the Apple II Super Serial card connector. The brackets allow users to connect their cable connectors in a solid fashion without damaging the Apple II while at the same time providing a stable base to connect the cables to. According to Matthew, he also has plans to do up a DB-9 compatible bracket as well as a DB-19 compatible version…

Uthernet II Cards Available Again

Glenn Jones of a2RetroSystems has announced the availability of the Uthernet II cards. The Uthernet II is the only ethernet card available for the Apple II series computers. As of 21 January, there is stock on hand for those who have been waiting for the, The website allows ordering of up to four units and each unit is priced at $70 USD per. For more information or to order the Uthernet II cards, check out the A2RetroSystems website at:http://a2retrosystems.com

Talbot Fantasy 7 for the Apple II

Vince Weaver has given us a bit more of his “Talbot Fantasy 7” game, which is as he says, “a sort of RPG” for the Apple II series computer as well as under the Linux operating system. If you haven’t checked it out already, this one is a bit of a fun watch. Be forewarned, this is not the glossy Playstation 5 kind of videos you might be used to in this day and age. It is pure, Retro goodness…

Mac OS 9 on the M1 Mac

Our friends over at Inaudible Discussion came up with a way of getting Mac OS 9 and older Mac OS X (10.0-10.4) running on the Silicon based M1 Mac’s with QEMU. While this kind of hard core install is not for everyone, with QEMU as the main focus of the install, it just goes to prove that where there is a will, there is a way, when it comes to emulation and retro operating systems on the newer machines. Check…

BASIC10Liners Programming Contest Begins

Gunnar Kanold has officially announced the start of the 2021 rendition of the BASIC10Liners programming contest. BASIC10Liners is an annual 8-bit programming contest which allows authors to use any 8-bit platform and come up with their best 10 line program. This years event marks the 10th anniversary of the BASIC10Liners programming contest and stands to be one of the best ever. People have been clamoring to get the event started and now it is a full go. The categories for…

Mini vMac Localization Chinese file now available

The Gryphon project also know as Mini vMac has apparently received a Chinese translation for the Mini vMac user interface. Paul Pratt, the curator of the site, says that until now, displaying Chinese in the Mini vMac was not really feasible and in spite of this, has made both the translation available as well as a Pinyin version of the translation available. Simplified Chinese:https://www.gryphel.com/c/minivmac/local/zh_hans.html Pinyin Chinese:https://www.gryphel.com/c/minivmac/local/zh_latn.html For more information about this or other Mini vMac related items, check out the…

New Map for EAMON Adventure 206 — Curse of Hellsblade

Huw Williams has once again been at the computer and created a masterpiece map for an Eamon adventure. This week’s target is EAMON Adventure number 206, Curse of Hellsblade. Curse of Hellsblade is an adventure which was originally created for the Knight Quest system , a highly advanced version of EAMON style text adventure system, by the author John Nelson. John Nelson was the founder of the National EAMON Users Club, which produced a newsletter for several years. The newsletters…

Assembly Language in Excel

Francois Vander Linden has posted a proof of concept for his Excel Spreadsheet Assembler. As it is still in very rough form, Franco obviously has some hopes for it saying, ” I think it might be useful for some rapid 6502 test routines with an emulator for example.” Some of the features included in the assembler are: all the 6502 instructions plus a couple of pseudo-instructions – all addressing modes global and local labels EQUs to declare constants use of…

New Apple II Game: Oubliette 2021

A.P.P.L.E. Member Tom Porter and Daniel Henderson have announced the latest version of their Oubliette graphical adventure game.   Oubliette 2021 is the second game in the Oubliette series games and is a fully keyboard controlled tile based adventure that runs on any Apple II series computer with 128kb of RAM onboard. The game play is very much like the original Oubliette game, where you become the adventurer, running through the maze, hitting switches which opens seemly random doors, all…

Virtual II Emulator Updated

The Virtual II Apple II Emulator has been updated. A minor update, version 10.2.1 addresses an in version 10.2 in which the “game paddle input values to make large jumps, skipping intermediate values”. To download the latest version of the Virtual II, go to their website at:http://www.virtualii.com

A History of Epyx Software Company

If you haven’t seen this video yet, this is probably the best history of Epyx ever produced. Written and produced by the Bastich B, the video takes the viewer through the humble beginnings of the company and through the one hundred plus games that the company produced from 1978. Starting with Starfleet Orion, the video takes us all the way to downfall of the company in 1990 and is adorned with the graphics and covers of the games. It also…

Apple-1 Goes on Sale – Registry # 79

Another Apple-1 computer is up for Auction on EBay. The Apple-1, the 79th listed in the official Apple-1 Registry is set for a buy it now of a cool $1.5 Million USD. The Apple-1 computer was built by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in their now famed garage and was the stepping stone to making Apple Computer, Inc. what it is today. Owned now by a Krishna B. Blake of Canada, the machine was recently repaired by the famed curator…

Brutal Deluxe Software Announces Hierarchic 1.6.2

Brutal Deluxe Software has announced the release of the latest version of the 1990’s Brainstorm Software package, Hierarchic. Version 1.6.2, which was apparently finished in 1994 and never released according to the posting on their website, has been updated to Merlin32 and is now available from the Brutal Deluxe Software website: https://www.brutaldeluxe.fr/products/apple2gs/hierarchic/

Two Retro Magazines Issue No 1 Being offered on EBAY by David Ahl

For those of us who grew up in the early computing world, there were a few magazines which we had to choose from to fill our computer dreams and to learn things that most of our colleagues had no idea about. They were Byte, Kilobaud, Personal Computing, and of course the David Ahl created Creative Computing. David Ahl is well known for his books, BASIC Computer Games and More BASIC Computer Games from the 1970’s as well as dozens of…

Merlin 32 Goes Universal

Thanks to the efforts of Antoine Vignau and John Morris, the Merlin 32 App is now available as a 64-bit app for both the x86 based and the M1 based Mac computers. The Merlin 32 App is available as a free download from the Brutal Deluxe software website at:http://www.brutaldeluxe.fr/products/crossdevtools/merlin/

Assembly Lines #121 – Disabling your Disk Drive Write-Protect Switch

In Assembly Lines Podcast episode #121, Chris Torrence takes us inside of disabling the write protect switch in a disk II drive and the newer 5.25″ drive produced by Apple after 1982. He goes into disassembly, functioning of the switch and the disabling of the switch. Check it out here: