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

From the notes of the renowned hacker, A2_4am comes the release of the latest version of his Anti-M Apple II Disk Booting Utility: “Anti-M v1.7 is out: https://github.com/a2-4am/anti-m/releases/tag/v1.7 Anti-M can boot any 5.25-inch Apple II disk on any Apple II, including – 13-sector disks – SpiraDisc on //c or IIgs – games that require a ][+ or 6502 – booting from drive 2 Version 1.7 adds support for “Odin” and fixes some bugs.”

By A.P.P.L.E. Staff A never before seen Take 1 movie comes to us by way of its creator, Eric Iwasaki. Star Voyagers is a high action Take 1 movie which spans an entire 10 Apple II disk package! According to Star Voyagers Creator, “When I stumbled upon Bill Martens’ Take 1 Movie Site, the timing couldn’t have been more amusing.  I had just celebrated 30 years working as a game developer in the interactive entertainment industry…a career that my Take…

Sellam Abraham has announced the official release of GReasy Graphics System 1.0, a complete low-resolution graphics sprite and background animation tool with integrated editing suite and programming library for the Apple ][ line of computers.Features: Up to 31 sprites of any dimension- Up to 32 background frames- Small memory footprint (<5K with fully initialized sprite system) Documented and easy to use Applesoft BASIC interface- Includes drawing program, sprite editor, and &-command extensions for quick & easy development Download GReasy Graphics…

James Savage and John Leake have released the 536th episode of their RetroMacCast. In this episode, James and John discuss their latest eBay finds including Apple stockings, clear case Fat Mac, and Power Mac G4 Cube. John puts an SSD in his Lime iMac, and news includes using an old iBookand Mac OS 8 Javascript app. Also in this episode are a host of other items: StarTech.com IDE to SATA Hard Drive or Optical Drive Adapter Converter PNY CS900 120GB 2.5 Inch SATA III Internal Solid…

Tom Harte has updated his multiple platform emulator for MAC OS X. This emulator has the capability of running OSes from multiple Apple platforms as well as many other retro computing systems. This release of the Clock Signal emulator applies some fixes to the Qt version of this emulator. SDL and native Mac versions are not altered in any way. Specifically: a potential crash when using machines with indicator lights (e.g. drive access lights) has been corrected; additional feedback is…

Just in time for the Summer Kansasfest crowd, Andy Mcfadden has announced an update to his Apple II file transfer utility, Ciderpress. Version 4.0.4 includes a host of changes including the following: [app] Fixed limitation that prevented files larger than 16MB from being added to HFS volumes. [app] Fixed range check on volume number in 2IMG properties editor. [diskimg] Fixed a bug that caused assertion failures on ProDOS disks with short volume directories. [reformat] Fixed an incorrect Apple /// BASIC…

Gerard Putter has released a new version of the Virtual II Apple II Emulator for Mac OS X. Version 10.0.1 has restored High Sierra Mac OS 10.13 support. You can download the latest release of the Virtual II Emulator from:https://virtualii.com/

Apple II Disk Browser has been updated. The Denis Molony produced Apple II disk image viewing application has a number of bug fixes included in this version of the program. Apple II Diskbrowser version 1.47 is downloadable for free from the Diskbrowser Github page at:https://github.com/dmolony/DiskBrowser

RetroMacCast Episode 532 has been released by James and John. In this episode, they are joined in their discussions by Steve from Mac84. Topics in this episode include: eBay finds: Apple playing cards, SE/30, and G3 All-In-One.  news includes Intel future predictions and early ARM Mini benchmarks. To listen to the latest edition of the RetroMacCast, check out the podcast website at: http://retromaccast.ning.com/

David Schmenk has announced the release of the latest version of the PLASMA programming environment for the Apple II series computers. PLASMA 2.0 Alpha 1 includes the following improvements: Improved entry/exit for 128K Apple IIe //c Improved entry for Apple /// Improved entry and function calls for 16 bit VM Apple3 ReadyToRun compatible images You can download the latest version of the PLASMA programming environment from the PLASMA GitHub page at:https://github.com/dschmenk/PLASMA

Virtual Apple II Emulator for the Mac has been updated. Gerard Putter has announced that this version 10.0 of Virtual II includes some of the most requested features that people have been asking for as well the following: Virtual machine snapshots can now be saved and restored at any time, without the need to close the virtual machine. This feature is available in the full-licensed version only. Improved woz disk reading. Some diskette images could not be opened, but now…

The Applewin Apple II Emulator has been updated. Applewin version 1.29.13 includes a host of changes and fixes including the following: [Bug #790] Fixed regression for -d1,-d2 & -s7-empty-on-exit (introduced at 1.29.7.0). [Change #787] Debugger: Extended ‘cycles part’ command to do timings relative to a user-specified base. [Change #783] Debugger: Extended ‘tf’ command to include cycle count. [Change #720] Debugger: Added more symbols to APPLE2E.SYM. NB. LC ($C08n) symbols are now correct for the LC, so ‘LDA $C08C,X’ will disassemble as ‘LDA LCRAMIN1_,X’ instead…

Paul Hagstrom has updated his Apple II DSK to Prodos Ord (PO) disk converter. The converter, written entirely in Python, allows users to convert the disks by mapping the sectors in a .dsk (DOS-order, .do) files into those of a .po (ProDOS-order) file. You can download the script from the DSKtoPO Github page at:https://github.com/paulhagstrom/dsk2po

Calibre has announced an update to their E-Book manager application. Calibre version 4.17 includes a lot of changes and updates to the app including: New features Add a workaround for Amazon destroying cover thumbnails on e-ink Kindles.For books sent with this release of calibre, reconnecting the Kindle to calibre after the cover has been destroyed will restore it automatically Viewer: Group search results by section Viewer: When the search results panel is expanded, show more context Tag browser: Add options…

Microsoft released the source code to GW-BASIC this past week and then promptly made it un-modifiable announcing that the source code was for historical purposes only. No build scripts were included with the release and thus there is no way to create any binaries without a great heap of work. If you are still interested in seeing the source, you can check it out at:https://github.com/microsoft/GW-BASIC

Tom Porter of Naspite Labs has ported the Game Boy version of Pyramid of Ra to the Apple II. This version of the game includes the first 13 levels of the game thus far and features a number of tunes alongside the game play keeping in spirit with the original. Game Play Controls *APPLE II+A/S (LEFT + RIGHT)W/Z (UP AND DOWN)NOTE:*You can change line 3001 for ASCII key codes if you prefer better controls. *APPLE IIeARROW KEYS*unchangable OBJECT OF GAME…

Programmer, Alexander Akhmetov, has released a new MOS 6502 Apple-1 Emulator. The new emulator was developed to run on both Linux and Mac OS X. One of the main features of this new emulator include the ability to use either the Apple1Basic Rom or the Replica-1 Rom. You can download the Akhmetov MOS 6502 Apple-1 Emulator from Alexander’s Github page at: https://github.com/alexander-akhmetov/apple1/releases

Richard Bannister has updated his KiGB Gameboy Emulator for Mac OS X. KiGB version 2.0.7 introduces several changes including the following new features: Optional Super Gameboy emulation. Motion sensor support (Kirby Tilt & Tumble). Game Genie and Game Shark support. KiGB requires the end user to supply their own Gameboy cartridge images but the program will handle standard .gb images. You can download the emulator from the KiGB Website at:https://www.bannister.org/software/kigb.htm

The MacCast, A podcast that covers all things Macintosh, has released their 744th episode. The current Adam Christianson produced episode of the MacCast covers: Apple’s 2Q 2020 Earnings. Lots of new names coming to Apple TV+. The updated 13-inch MacBook Pro. Apple addresses AirPods Pro issues. New iPad in 2020. Don’t Panic, you have an Apple Watch. The iPhone 12. All the things. Does Apple TV+ have a problem? Play AppleTV on Mac screen. Impressions of the 16-inch MacBook Pro….

The latest version of the Mactracker App has been released. Version 7.9.2 of Mactracker includes the following changes: Adds MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2020, Four Thunderbolt 3 ports) and MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2020, Two Thunderbolt 3 ports) Updates Support Status for Apple’s latest Vintage and Obsolete products Other minor changes and additions To download the App, go to the Mac App Store or from the Mactracker website at: http://mactracker.ca/index.html