Category: Apple IIgs

Have you ever wondered what Apple had in mind when it was designing new Apple IIgs machines back in the 1980’s?  Lim Thye Chen gives us a brief glimpse into some of those designs of prototypical Apple machines with a few pictures from the original Apple Design book at: http://retromaccast.ning.com/photo/photo/listForContributor?screenName=rxq26qsiiir9 While this is not the first time we have seen such wild ideas of Apple products, it is the first time we have seen a mythical Apple IIsi or a…

Program: Shink-Fit X Category: Archiver Utility Released: Feb 02, 2012 Version: 1.0 Size: 1.4 MB Language: English Seller: Kelvin Sherlock Price: Free For many of us, the SHK or Shrinkit files have been a thorn in our sides, especially if we were on a Mac.  Now, our time in purgatory has been relieved by a nifty utility from the computer of Kelvin Sherlock, the author of GShisen.  Shrink-Fit X is a Mac OS X Application which allows users to open…

T. C. Lim has been working on a book about Pascal programming for the Apple II gs for the past several weeks, releasing preliminary versions along the way.  The book includes a number of programs his kids have developed for the Apple IIgs in Pascal, Orca Pascal, and GSoft BASIC. The book was produced with iBooks Author and is the first Apple ][ series related book to be produced specifically for iBooks 2.0.  T.C. has announced the immediate availability of…

Brutal Deluxe Software has announced the availability of their Fishhead Copier program which allows users to copy software in the GS/OS Environment. Fishhead includes a number of important advancements and features including: * Attribute preservaswtion when copying files * Batch Mode allowing removable devices and consecutive disk copying * Advanced error handling * A complete history log of all copies performed. Fished copies files in 256 byte chunks  and it’s primary function is to allow the user to archive a…

Antoine Vignau of Brutal Deluxe has posted a new software package for the Apple IIgs.  According to the posting: Brutal Deluxe Software is proud to introduce Fishhead, the Caped Copier, to the Apple II community. Fishhead is a GS/OS desktop file copier application. It offers several features which make it a powerful software for diskette and file preservation purposes: Attributes preservation — All copied files keep their original date, time and other attributes (e.g. invisible or locked) information Batch mode…

Ewen Wannop has released an update to his Speccie’s News Acquisition Program or SNAP.  Version 1.1 features the ability to read Usenet and NNTP news on your Apple IIgs desktop as well as to post and reply to messages.  The configuration system in SNAP lets you “tailor your daily news fix.”. SNAP requires Marinetti 3.0b3 or later on the Apple IIgs.  For more information check out the Speccie website at: http://www.wannop.info/speccie/

Lim Thaye Chen has made his Virtual GS Programming book available in both PDF and iBook format on the Virtual GS website.  The book is the first Apple ][ specific book to have been created with the new iBooks Author package introduced by Apple this month. You can download the book in it’s entirety for free from the Virtual GS website at: http://virtual-gs.appspot.com/web/Book.html

Ivan Drucker, creator of Slammer and NuInput has updated his website.  The changes include the addition of his recently created A2Server and a new section for other projects he is working on.  However, as he says, “There is no other stuff. Yet.”. Ivan’s recently release A2Server is a file server which runs on modern machine allowing the Apple //e and IIgs to connect and boot from the server.  Ivan added a version of A2Server ready to go on a VMWare…

Ivan Drucker has released his Apple ][ Server, a linux based setup which allows Apple //e’s with workstation cards and Apple IIgs’s that are network capable to connect.  The file server is offered in a complete, ready to go setup that is downloadable from Ivan’s website. A2Sever allows users to boot ProDOS 8 or GS/OS over the network after uploading the media from your Mac or Windows based machines.  According to Ivan, the real gist of the A2Server is that…

A.P.P.L.E. has updated the Apple Archives Link site with over 50 new links and now has more than 250 vintage apple links.  The site includes categories for nearly every aspect of vintage apple computing including software, emulation and project related links.  Some of the new features of the archives include: New Pull Down menus for each category Added DVD and Apple IIgs categories to the archives Single click to website links There currently are another 25 links remaining in the…

Thirty years have passed yet we get constant reminders of what the Apple computing world was like.  One such reminder is the saga of the Data East published game Burgertime.   Over the years since it’s release in 1982, there have been several renditions of the game on many different platforms and even numerous more cracks of the game, particularly on the Apple ][ computer. Recently, Rich Martin (A.K.A. Datawiz) wrote of his exploration of the winding trail of the cracks…

The Free Tools Association has updated their ActiveGS plugin Apple IIgs Emulation system to version 3.5.750.  The latest version is primarily to bring the plugin into line with the latest version of Firefox Browser and also to fix a a few issues with other browsers. The ActiveGS plugin is the primary emulator for Virtual Apple ][ (http://www.virtualapple.org), which is now run by the Gamezyte group (http://www.gamezyte.com).  To load the latest version of the plugin, go to the Virtual Apple ][…

Silver Platter is a NDA HTTP Server for the Apple IIgs computer and is the only one available for the IIgs . The program has been reclassified as freeware by the original author, Kelvin W Sherlock, as of 1 October 2011 and is freely available for download from his website. The current version of Silver Platter supports HTTP versions .9 through 1.1. This product was formerly a commercial product, and is still available from Syndicomm as of press time. Kelvin…

In 1988, Berkeley Softworks came out with what was then one of the premier operating systems for the Apple ][ series computers.  The Graphic Environment Operating System, or GEOS for short was to put it mildly, a revolution in the way that the Apple //e handled its programs.  Using capabilities only available on the Apple IIgs and other personal computers on the higher end of the spectrum of the time, Berkeley Softworks gave the lowly Apple //e, //c, and the…

From Eric Shepherd’s post on CSA2: I’ve released my first all-new project in years! Trasher is a new extension for the Apple IIgs that adds support for using Command- Delete on your keyboard to delete the selected icons in the Finder. In addition, if you have SideClick installed, you get “Move to Trash” and “Empty Trash” contextual menu items as appropriate! The funny story behind Trasher is that I actually started working on this project back in 1994, but was…

The iPhone / iPad version of the ActiveGS Application version 1.22 is now available in the Apple App Store.    Changes in Version 1.22 include: + 60FPS support for iPad & iPhone4 + CRT Emulation + B&W & Green Monitor The application is freely downloadable from the App Store.  Users can also add their own disk images to the emulator. To get the application go to the App Store at: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/activegs-best-of-fta/id405115025?mt=8  

Alex Lee, curator of the What Is the Apple II gs website (http://www.whatisthe2gs.apple2.org.za/) has put together an ultimate collection of system tools, extensions, CDA’s and other plugins for your Apple IIgs.  The collection is available on a single 32mb disk image and is downloadable from the WITA2GS (http://www.whatisthe2gs.apple2.org.za/) website.  The collection has items for every Apple IIgs OS from System 3 to System 6.x. You can download the package at: http://www.whatisthe2gs.apple2.org.za/files/System_Addons.zip You can read the entire article at: http://www.whatisthe2gs.apple2.org.za/system-extensions-or-create-your-killer-gs-os-environment/  

By Mark Phosis Philip Lord was looking for a basic listing of Tetris in a recent post on Comp.Sys.Apple2 and this was the program listing by Mark Phosis.  The program was written in 1992 and could definitely be optimized to run faster. The drawing primitives are at lines 200 and 225.  It looks like the subroutine at line 800 does collision detection. ============ 10  GOSUB 1000 100 W = W + 1: IF W > LV THEN W =  0:…

by Wade Clarke This is my ‘new’ (IE previously unreleased anyplace) version of Super Star Trek for the Apple II Time to share another old game of mine with folks in the internet age 🙂 You can download the disk image here: http://home.iprimus.com.au/bloomer/STARTREK.zip In 1995 I put together this version of ye olde ‘Super Star Trek’ game, using pseudo-animated mousetext graphics and some nice sound effects.  The interface is also friendly, you just tap a key to do most things….

by A.P.P.L.E. Staff The Apple II software imaging software, ADTPro has once again been updated.  The current version handles Apple II’s and Apple ///’s and works over either Cassette port audio cables, Ethernet or Serial connection.  The new version includes the following features: New functionality: * [Client] Implemented native assembly ProDOS selector/ launcher eliminating the need for Applesoft; results in 30% faster booting and executing from floppy * [Client] Laser 128 machines can now use their native modem port at…