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

Eric Rangell has announced that he will not be attending Kansasfest this year and thus, he has released what would have been his presentation at the event for all to view. The presentation is Reverse Engineering Ted Nelson and takes you through the the Ted Nelson library, a recent community funded scanning project for the Internet Archive. In the presentation, Eric takes introduces us to who Ted is and the works he was involved in including JOT. He has included…

The Applewin Apple II Emulator for Windows has been updated. Changes to version 1.29.11 of the Applewin emulator include the following: [Bug #771] Added new command line switch to load custom ROM: -rom . Supports 12KiB (at $D000) and 16KiB (at $C000) rom files. [Bug #765] Lancaster (Total Replay) hangs when starting second game. [Bug #734] DiskII controller card: support 13-sector firmware. The card auto-selects the firmware based on the .woz (v2 or higher) image properties. Only change the firmware at reset/reboot to…

The 518th episode of the the RetroMacCast has been released. In this episode, James and John discuss eBay finds: Picasso Mac poster, external floppy drive, and recapping service. They look back at Ambrosia Software, and news includes Apple store closures, WWDC 2020, and RR Auction results. RMC Website To listen to the latest episode of the RetroMacCast, check out their website at: http://retromaccast.ning.com/

Vince Weaver has created a new version of the game Myst. This one runs on the Apple II computer. For those who have seen the game on other platforms, this version will not disappoint. Using pure 6502 Assembly language, Vince has created a very playable demo version of the game. However incomplete the current version is, it does show great potential for a completed product. For more information or to download the Myst demo, check out The Apple II Myst…

James and John have released the 517th episode of their popular Mac Podcast, The RetroMacCast. In this episode, James and John discuss eBay finds: 100 Apple decals, NIB Mac Plus, and unused Mac box. Mark from MacEffects talks about his latest Kickstarter: Clear Case for Apple IIe and IIgs. News includes the auction of Jerry Manock Apple items. RetroMacCast Website To listen to the latest RetroMacCast or to see the show notes, visit the RetroMacCast website at RetroMacCast. You can also…

Urgent – VCF PNW 2020 has been cancelled. March 5th, 2020 Most of you are aware that the Seattle area is considered to be the epicenter of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak in the US. Yesterday King County health officials issued new guidelines and requests, one of which was asking for large events to be postponed or cancelled. Living Computers:Museum+Labs (our host) is complying with those guidelines and requests and they closed their doors today until further notice. I found out…

We regret to inform our readers of the passing of famed Robotics pioneer David Lee Heiserman. His obituary on the Funeral home site his family chose reads as follows: David Lee Heiserman, age 79 of Columbus, died Friday February 21, 2020 at Dublin Riverside Hospital. David was an educator, author, and visionary. David was a pioneer in robotics, authoring “Build your own working robot” (1976) and others. In total, he wrote over 40 books during the 70’s and 80’s. Diverse…

The Clock Signal Emulator for MacOS has been updated. This emulator simulates a variety of platforms including the Apple II series computers. Clock Signal currently emulates the following platforms: Acorn Electron; Amstrad CPC; Apple II/II+ and IIe; Atari 2600; ColecoVision; Commodore Vic-20 (and Commodore 1540/1); Macintosh 512ke and Plus; MSX 1; Oric 1/Atmos; Sega Master System; and Sinclair ZX80/81. In addition, emulation of the Atari ST is experimental. Clock Signal Author, Tom Harte writes of the new release saying “This…

Reactive Micro has announced the availability of a new version of the Apple II Plus Rev Seven RFI Boards. According to the posting on the Reactive Micro Blog, The Apple II Plus, Rev 7 RFI Motherboard project is offered in several options. As assembled or kit, with and without ICs and DRAM, and in 93-series ROM (original) or 27-series ROM (not yet released). It is designed to be a replacement motherboard for your existing Apple II and II Plus. It’s…

Raphael Rezende has released a new Apple II game, Bagatelle. According to his posting in the Apple II Software Enthusiasts group: This is a simplified arcade machine, in which you and the apple take turns, throwing balls into a box containing colored poles. Your score increases each time you hit a post, on your way down the box, and the ball changes direction when it hits a post, which increases your chances of hitting more obstacles. You use stick 0…

The Applewin Apple II Emulator for windows has been updated. The version 1.29.10 update of Applewin focuses primarily on the emulators support for the WOZ format created by John Morris’ Applesauce FDC. Changes in the release include: [PR #756] Write support for WOZ1/WOZ2 images. Fixes titles that need write support (see: #686, #704, #705). Allow creation of a blank (WOZ2) image (see AppleWin.chm: ‘Creating Disk Images’). multi-file zip support extended to scan for the first valid image. useful for most woz-a-day multi-file zips which…

KansasFest 2020, the 32nd annual Apple II convention, is scheduled for July 21–26 in Kansas City, Missouri. Robert Woodhead of Sir-Tech Software, well-known as the co-creator of the Wizardry series of computer role-playing games, will join us as the keynote speaker. At an early age, Robert Woodhead, aka Trebor the Mad Overlord, was consumed by two passions; computer programming and not having to have a real job. He first achieved this by writing computer games for Sir-Tech Software, most notoriously…

For those of you following the Apple II Desktop project, you will be happy to know that there is a new pre-alpha. Release number 10 of the pre-alpha stage of the Apple II desktop project includes the following changes: DeskTop File > New Folder scrolls new folder into view. #16 DeskTop: Restrict double-click detection to content area clicks. #183 Fix off-by-one in icon repainting.  #181 Fix several UI issues with Format/Erase dialog. #177 Support extended ProDOS 2.5 dates. #169 Desk Accessories Save control panel settings…

The 2020 rendition of the BASIC 10-Liner programming contest has begun. An announcement from the contest organizers on twitter read as follows:

For fans of the original 1970’s Star Trek game, there is now a version of the game for iOS. Classic Trek-80, so named because the author, Richard Loxley, places the game in the 80’s instead of the 70’s, is a full version of the original BASIC based StarTrek Game. The program is based on the original TRS-80 version of the game and is a free download and for anyone who played the original game on older platforms, this game is…

By Dan HendersonReleased 02 February 2020 (AKA 02022020) About Planet Invasion 2020 Some people will be familiar with the classic ‘Defender’ game from the 1980’s, yet weirdly, I know the game as ‘Planet Invasion’ on the ‘Dragon 32’ computer.  It has become apparent that the game was either copied or bought under licence. Anyway, I always thought it would be interesting to do a Low Resolution version of the game on the Apple II.  That being said, my not being…

David Schmenk has released another update to the PLASMA 2.0 Development Platform for the Apple II. PLASMA Version 2.0 Developer Release 4 includes several fixes and changes including: Improved editor auto-indenting Compiler fix for terneray operator precedence Machine check for HGR library About PLASMAPLASMA is a medium level programming language targeting the 8-bit 6502 processor. Historically, there were simple languages developed in the early years of computers that improved on the tedium of assembly language programming while still being low…

The Applewin Apple II Emulator has been updated. Applewin 1.29.8 was released with the following updates and changes: [Bug #749] Hotkeys to change emulation speed using Ctrl+n: now ignored if ALT is pressed. [Bug #748] DiskII: data latch returns a rand() value when no disk is in drive. [Bug #746] Debugger: correctly repaint Apple II screen when showing it from debugger. [Bug #745] WOZ: Support for large tracks. [Bug #743] Added new command line switches: -left-alt-control-buttons : left-ctrl=button0, left-alt=button1 -right-alt-control-buttons : right-alt=button0, right-ctrl=button1 -swap-buttons :…

The latest episode of the John Leake and James Savage produced RetroMacCast has been released. Episode number 511, Mac Muzzle, includes the following items: Mac Portable mug, TAM in box, and Mac Sales Training Guide. They look back to January 1990 via Macworld, and news includes Mac Mini, iPhone-20SC hack, BeOS, Powerbook-Mini, and Dubai Mac collection RetroMacCast Website You can listen to this episode as well as older episodes of the RetroMacCast at:http://retromaccast.ning.com/

Mike Harvey, the founder and publisher of Nibble, has passed away. Born May 25, 1938, Mike was best known for his Apple II publication Nibble Magazine as well as his Macintosh and PC magazines Nibble Mac and PC Hands On. A very successful author, Mike already had a successful career in high technology and computers before the morning when he decided to start Nibble. He had spent five years in sales with IBM and had the top sales record in…