Category: Vintage

An interesting piece of video comes to us this morning from Antoine Vignau of Brutal Deluxe software.  It is a project by French Professor Max Tournarie, who decided he could attach a card reader to the Apple II Euro back in the 1980’s. The reader simply sends binary code to the Apple II, either zeros or ones.  While most readers of the era were fairly high speed, this one simply processes the cards in a slow but methodical manner.  Check…

Since the announcement of the availability of the newly-released Apple IIgs System 6.0.2 a week ago, over 22 years since the last release, the feedback has been positively awesome from all around the world.  That is great news for our active and enthusiastic Apple II community. CallApple.org news of the release has been featured on over 50 major blogs and related news sites with the announcement having been viewed over 800,000 times and the disk images downloaded more than 5000…

Jeremy Rand has released his 2015 Hackfest entry, Sudoku for the Apple II.  The posting, from the KFest mailing list includes all of the source code for the project as well as the Apple II emulator ready DSK disk image. A video of the program in action has been posted by the Kansasfest comittee to YouTube: Additional features have been added to the program post Kansasfest and the latest disk is available for download  now.  For more information about the…

Kansasfest 2015 has ended as one of the more successful gatherings in the past 20 years.  With 76 attendees, this event continues to prove that the Apple II computer is not dead and that there is a lot more life in those computers. A.P.P.L.E. thanks those who attended our session this past Saturday at the event and for the input provided during the session.  We look forward to attending the 2016 rendition with even more product announcements and seeing all…

The Mac Gui software repository has added over 700 new files to their library.  According to the site’s owner and curator, David Finnigan in CSA2, Of particular note are the files in the CP/M category; these came from a disk collection that I bought last year. If anyone is using Vista drives, I may have some useful files in there for you. Owners of Franklin Ace clones may also find some new disks there of use. This one is pretty…

What’s new for Apple IIgs System 6.0.2After 22 years, 2 months, 2 days and 2 hours since System 6.0.1 was released, this is a summary of the visible changes. There have been many bugs fixed and many features added that are not immediately visible–they will enable developers to create better future products.  Be sure to also read the Shortcuts file on the SystemTools3 disk for more information. Finder (see also Finder Help)The list is FSTs now includes the RDOS 3.3…

Once again I converted a 15″ Apple Color Monitor IIe to a modern display, using a 15″ color LCD screen. I had to cut lots of plastic from the front plastic panel of the IIe monitor, but didn’t compromise the integrity of the plastics and locking mechanism. To solve the main issue – the curved screen, I added a black cardboard pieces to close the gaps with the flat screen. after several tries found it was the best approach keeping…

A graphical scene artist, Myles Stonecutter, is undertaking the publishing of a 90 page fairy tale book using graphics on the Apple II computer.  The book has taken Stonecutter more than a year to work out and according to his Kickstarter page, is nearing completion. All of the graphics were produced on an Apple II computer using the Blazzing Paddles software package and according to Stonecutter, “Took a lot of pixel picking to get the best out of the GUI…

Ian Kim, a member of the Korean Apple II community has developed a new Mockingboard compatible sound card for the Apple II series computers.  According to the introduction document sent to A.P.P.L.E, Apple II Fans and Afficiandos, I’m am a member of the Korean APPLE II group in community. Having grown up with the APPLE II and having spent tons of time with it, I have a particular fondness for the machine, It was my first computer and if its…

While we normally do not talk about devices that are not Apple produced, this story of emulation caught our eye.  Corbin Davenport has managed to get the Open Mini VMac III emulator to run on his Android Wear.  While the sight of the old school Mac OS System 6.0.3 booting on an android device might be almost sacrilegious to the true Apple Fan, it is still pretty cool.  However, at the same time, Corbin seems to be a bit finger…

The AppleIIScans.net website has posted the Apple IIc Users Guide.  The guide originally published in 1984 by Brady Communications and authored by Gary Phillips and Donald Scellato  features the Picaso style Apple //c on the cover of the book.  It is available in PDF format from the Apple2Scants.net website at: http://www.apple2scans.net/2015/04/20/apple-iic-user-guide/

Ninjaforce has released an update to their Bomberman clone, Kaboom.  Version 1.01 addresses a number of issues including: + Fixed a bug where the game crashes during play. + The game now stores settings and scores (oops). + Typos in credits fixed (plus some names we forgot). Kaboom is for the Apple IIgs and can be downloaded from the Ninja Force website at: http://www.ninjaforce.com/html/products_kaboom.html

Brutal Deluxe software has added a number of cassettes to their Apple II cassette collection.   The library, maintained by Antoine Vignau, has now grown to 633 cassettes over the life of the library.  New additions to the collection include the following programs: Creative computing software: Voodoo castle adventure Innovative computer programs (by Ron Graff): The patient professor Instant software: Oil tycoon Mad hatter software: Diet planning package MUSE: Maze game, Tank war, U-draw Program design: Preschool IQ builder (Same and…

The Ninjaforce programming group, the people who brought you Wolfenstein 3D for Apple IIgs, have released their latest action game: KABOOM! The game supports 4-players simultaneously– the first Apple IIgs game to do so! “Not only does KABOOM! play like a charm – its visuals and acoustics are of top quality to satisfy even the most demanding GS gamer!” Visit the official site for screenshots and downloads

Registration for Kansasfest, the only convention dedicated to the Apple II computer has officially opened for Registration.  The 2015 event will include a keynote given by famed programmer Becky “Burger” Heineman.  According to the press release from the Kansas Fest comittee, KANSAS CITY, MO — April 10, 2015 — KansasFest, the 27th annual convention dedicated to the Apple II computer, is now open for registration. Users, programmers, hobbyists, and retrocomputing enthusiasts are invited to Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Missouri,…

For a long time I have been looking for the Apple //c Flat Panel LCD, one of the nicest items on the line. This monitor was short lived as its readability was poor and the item expensive. It was retired early so not many were produced, which is what makes them rare and sought today by collectors. I was lucky enough to be able to secure one, but quickly disappointed when first using it. I am a hands-on person that…

Mike Maginnis has announced the posting of Don Worth’s dis-assembly of Apple II Dos 3.2/  The document was scanned many years ago by Apple Historian David Craig and is a hand signed copy of Don’s personal copy of the dis-assembly.  You can download the document for free from the Apple II Scans website at: http://www.apple2scans.net/2015/03/19/david-t-craigs-copy-of-don-worths-dos-3-2-flow-of-control-annotated-disassemblies-and-notes/

David Finnigan of MacGui.com has announced the availability of his latest software project, the Marina TCP/IP stack for the Apple II.  Marina is a stack which was written completely in 6502 assembly language and is written to work with the Uthernet,   According to the press release, Because I wanted to learn more about ethernet and TCP/IP networking, and because I was dissatisfied with existing TCP/IP implementations for the Apple, I decided to write my own implementation. It is called…

Mike Maginnis, host of the Open Apple Podcast announced the release of the 45th edition of the podcast.  According to his posting, This month, we sit down with Mark Kriegsman, author of Star Blaster, and a modern Apple II hacker. He has ported the awesome FastLED driver library to the Apple II, so you can drive many hundreds of 32-bit RGB LEDs with your Apple II. Meanwhile, we browbeat people into attending KansasFest, we rationalize our shame at developing on…

Version 2.0.1 of ADTPro has been released.  This version has a fix that is important for users with native RS-232 serial ports (though they’re getting more and more rare all the time).  There’s also some help for  our friends that are trying to tune their audio settings, and a few  other bug fixes.  Initial text bootstrapping is faster due to some  screen trickery and denser packing of data. http://adtpro.sourceforge.net 2.0.1 – March 21, 2015 New functionality: * [Audio] Client sends…