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

  Lord British, A.K.A. Richard Garriott, has returned to the gaming scene with a new RPG entry. Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues is a combination online / offline game which looks to change the way that RPG games are looked at and played. Lord British is known in the realms of the Ultima world among others. Starting with his first game on the Apple ][ computer, Akalabeth, he soon became an overnight sensation with more than 30,000 copies of…

Have an old Parallel interfaced Connectix Quickcam sitting around collecting dust?  David Schmenk may well have just found a purpose for it.  Using a standard Apple //e and Low Resolution graphics on the //e for display, David has managed to get real time data into the machine and displaying fairly respectably. While this setup does require a massive wired connector as was so stated by David in his video, it is a setup which works and proved that there is…

Darren Crawford has managed to do what no one ever considered possible:  Post a Facebook posting from an Apple //e computer.   In what is a first ever event, Darren posted his message using a combination of Lynx and the mobile version of the  Facebook website. It wasn’t just an instant success, but instead was a work of some trial and error.   In discussions in the A2C.Chat channel of A2Central’s IRC, much of the discussion was about issues with character loss…

The Original Angry Birds has been marked to Free by Rovio Entertainment Ltd.  Normally, Angry Birds is a $0.99 cent download. The company has also updated the app with 15 new levels, marking the first update in the app in a long while.   Upon updating it, they also released the game to the public for free download, although no timeframe has been specified for this giveaway. You can download the original Angry Birds game from the Apple iTunes store at:…

Java once again is at the firestorm of vulnerabilities with Apple.  The latest release of Java 6 has been exploited again and Apple is pushing out an update, Java for Mac OS X 2013-002. According to the information provided in the update panel, “Java for OS X 2013-002 delivers improved security, reliability, and compatibility by updating Java SE 6 to 1.6.0_43. On systems that have not already installed Java for OS X 2012-006, this update disables the Java SE 6…

WITA2GS has added a bevy of home brew courses for the Apple IIgs Golf Game from Accolade, Mean 18.  According to the posting on the website, “Sorting through many miscelleous archives forwarded on from Antoine as he comes into contact with random collections and images each disk from them, I came across 8 disks worth of golf courses for Mean 18, the excellent golfing sim from Accolade.” For more information check out the WITA2GS website posting at: http://www.whatisthe2gs.apple2.org.za/homebrew-helpings-lots-of-courses-for-mean-1/

The Apple ][ specific Cassette Tape collection maintained by Brutal Deluxe has reached 589 tapes and is continuing to grow nearly daily.  Antoine Vignau, curator of the site has added a number of items in the past few days including items from the following vendors: A.P.P.L.E. (Library pak 1C/2B), Hayden (Applesoft utility programs, Engineering mathematics-1, Revive, Slow list/stop list) MUSE (Maze game) Programma (Ampersoft, Jumpout/Shooting stars, Saucer war, Time clock) Systems design lab (Funpak I by Chuck Sommerville) Tsukumo (Apple…

Gerard Puter, the developer of the Virtual ][ Emulator has released an update to the emulator.  Virtual ][ Version 7.1 is primarily a bug fix release witht he following items changed: Fixed an issue that could cause Apple II screen pixels to be randomly shown or hidden. Improved implementation of the “mounted OS X folder” feature to fix an incompatibility with EDASM. Some of the Applescript demos didn’t work in version 7.0; this has been fixed. Virtual ][ is a…

A security breach with Evernote’s servers has exposed more than 50 million users passwords, causing the Evernote Corporation to issue a complete password reset.  The announcement by the Evernote Corporation states that there was no data exposure but to be safe, the company is forcing all users of the popular note taking service to reset their passwords. The full announcement is at: http://evernote.com/corp/news/password_reset.php

Apple has introduced a 128gb version of the 4th generation iPad with Retina Display.  The new iPad will be available to users on 5 February 2013 but is available for order immediately.   The standard WI-FI model will start at $799 USD with the cellular enabled model costing $929 USD. The Press Release from Apple this morning follows: CUPERTINO, California―January 29, 2013―Apple® today announced a 128GB* version of the fourth generation iPad® with Retina® display. The 128GB iPad with Wi-Fi and…

Apple has released an update to iOS.  Version 6.1 of the operating system includes the following improvements: •    LTE support for more carriers (complete list of supported carriers at http://www.apple.com/iphone/LTE/) •    Purchase movie tickets through Fandango with Siri (USA only) •    iTunes Match subscribers can now download individual songs from iCloud •    New button to reset the Advertising Identifier According to the update release notes, the update is available for  iPhone 3GS and later, iPod touch (4th generation) and later, iPad…

Thom Robertson, the guru behind the popular multi-player game Artemis and owner of Incandescent Workshop, has released an update to the iOS version of Artemis to match his PC version of the game.  Incandescent Workshop released version 1.701 includes a number of fixes, new features, and changes including: All references to USFP have been changed to TSN. Engineering damcon systems have been adjusted, so they (hopefully) don’t fall out of sync with the server. Collisions have changed, from a soft…

Apple has released updated printer drivers for the Brother series of printers.  Version 2.10 of the Mac OS X printer driver was posted last night on the Apple Support website and is now available for download.   The driver coversMac OS X Mountain Lion, Lion and Leopard You can download the new driver from the Apple support page for Brother printers at: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL894

Apple has updated their printer drivers for the HP series printers.  Version 2.12 (listed as 2.13 on the apple support page) is now available for download and covers Mac OS X Mountain Lion and Lion, as well as Leopard (Mac OS X 10.6) You can download the drivers from the Apple HP Printer support page at: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL907

The Latest version of Brendan Robert’s Apple // Game Server  is now available from the Apple // Game Server Sourceforge website.  Of particular note with version 3.1 of Apple // Game Server is the requirement of Java 6 on machines using the Apple // Game Server progam. The Apple // Game Server allows the user to send floppies directly to the Apple II computer over a serial connection, eliminating the need for floppies to play games on an original Apple II series…

Brendan Robert has announced a minor bug fix update to the JAVA Apple Computer Emulator or JACE as it is known. The JACE 12-30-12 update includes the following fixes: + Leaving fullscreen mode caused a blue border to appear at the top, shifting the whole display area down.  This has been corrected.+ Mouse pointer was not properly positioned when in fullscreen mode, especially when proportional mode (F8) is active.  This is now fixed, with an optional fix to fix the…

A posting in the Apple II enthusiast group on Facebook this evening from Antoine Vignau shows a video of the game play from the long fabled SimCity for the Apple IIgs.  Although originally written in 1994, the game never saw the light of day due to the fact that the Apple IIgs had been discontinued by that time and EA’s reluctance to release it as freeware.  To this day it remains unreleased. If you want to check out the Apple…

The latest version of the Applewin Apple ][ emulator, version 1.22, have been posted in the Applewin SVN repository.  Changes in version 1.22 include: . [Feature #005557] Support DOSMaster image created by Apple Oasis. . [Feature #003272 and #005335] Support 2x windowed mode: – Toggle between 1x and 2x by using Resize button (or F6). – Full screen now enabled by CTRL+Resize button (or CTRL+F6). Fixes: . [Feature #004346] Don’t show mousetext for original Apple //e. . Fixed HDD firmware…

Dr. Steven Weyhrich, long known for his complete history of the Apple ][ computer and http://apple2history.org/, has announced the impending release of his new book,  “Sophistication & Simplicity: The Life & Times of the Apple II Computer“. Just over twenty years ago, the final part of the Apple II History was uploaded to the A2 Roundtable on GEnie. From a series of newsletter articles explaining the various models of Apple II computers released by Apple, it had evolved into a…

The Artemis Starship Bridge Simulator for iOS was released by Tomas Robertson this month.  Incandescent Workshop LLC was the programmer of the port of Artemis, a Starship simulation which requires more human interaction than it requires actual computer.  Run by teams of 4-6 players, the game presents one starship control per player with 6 players being the optimal number.  Just as a starship cannot be run by one man, neither can Artemis.  Artemis gives you have the Helm Control, Weapons…