Category: Vintage

Marc Ressl has released the latest version of his OpenEmulator.  The OpenEmulator emulates a number of machines and will eventually include the entire Apple II series in its emulator core.  At the moment, version 1.0.3 includes the following features: Added the 1979 Apple II plus and Apple II j-plus Added the 1979 Disk II drives and interface card (13 and 16 sector), with support for DSK, DO, D13, PO, CPM, NIB, 2IMG, FDI, DiskCopy 4.2, V2D disk images Added the…

Apple IIgs programmer Ewen Wannop announced yesterday that he has decided to change the status of his commercial software to freeware. Said Wannop: As my contribution to KFest ’12, I am reclassifying all my commercial software. From now on, all my commercial titles that have been sold by Syndicomm are now Freeware, and can be downloaded either from Syndicomm at no cost, or from my own web site: http://www.wannop.info/speccie The titles include: Spectrum 2.5.3 Deluxe disk image Spectrum 2.5.3 floppy…

Brutal Deluxe Software has added more cassettes to their Apple ][ Cassette archives.   The project, run by Antoine Vignau has set out to archive every cassette ever produced for the Apple ][ computer and as of this posting has a total of 566 tapes in its collection. The new additions to the archives include: The Micromint, Inc.: Applesoft Sweet Talker Program Softape: Saucer invasion / Rocket pilot, Solitaire poker According to a posting in the comp.sys.apple2 newsgroup, there are 17…

This month on Open Apple, Mike and Ken speak with Rich Dreher, developer of the CompactFlash For Apple (CFFA) card. The first batch of CFFA3000 cards sold out in 2011, and the second batch is now shipping with similar sales numbers. Rich takes us behind the scenes of the product’s success before dishing on other II hardware developers Vince Briel and Mike Willegal. We look at the astronomical numbers rare Apple-1 computers are fetching on eBay and at Sotheby’s and celebrate…

Gerard Puter has released a major update to the Virtual ][ Emulator. The latest update brings the emulator in line with the latest version of Mac OS X (Mountain Lion) and includes a number of video related improvements as well.  Improvements included in Version 7.0 of Virtual ][ are as follows: Virtual ][ is a Macintosh based Apple ][ emulator, which includes many advanced emulation features rarely found in other emulation packages.  Some of these advanced features include Epson compatible…

Brutal Deluxe Software has released a new command line too for managing Apple ][ Disk image files in Windows.  According to the press release from Antoine Vignau of Brutal Deluxe Software, ” Brutal Deluxe Software is proud to announce the release of CADIUS, a command-line tool for Windows to manage Apple II image disk files (.2mg, .po, .hdv). The first purpose of Cadius is to write the output of the 65c816 Assembler directly into an Apple IIgs disk image (usually…

Apple ][ Scans has completed scanning the entire Obsorne / McGraw Hill Guide to Your Apple /// available on their website. According to Apple ][ Scans Curator, Mike Maginnis, the original scan had “the first two chapters of this book and made it available online.  It had some great notes from Dave Ottalini inserted in the PDF, but for whatever reason, it wasn’t the whole thing.  This new scan is the complete book and is higher quality than the first…

Brendan Robert has updated the Java Apple Computer Emulator, also known as JACE.   JACE is a free ware emulator which is Java 6 based and intended to be executable on multiple platforms.  In the latest update, Bendan has announced the following changes and fixes: +Prince of Persia cheat module is included, but not active by default.  Enable from configuration menu (F4) +Obligatory cheats such as infinite health, start with sword +Crazy insane cheats using mouse such as “click to teleport”…

Rich Dreher announced the availability of 500 more units of his popular Apple II card, the CFFA 3000.  The CFFA 3000 allows Apple II and /// series users to store programs on  compact flash and USB thumb drive, making the 8 bit Apples a seriously fast machine.  Programs and hard disk images can be easily transferred from PC to Apple II / III via the CF and USB thumb drives and the cards, bringing these old machines into the 21st…

This past week, we mentioned (http://www.callapple.org/2012/06/20/whats-where-in-the-apple-ii-is-returning/) the forthcoming re-release of William F. Luebbert’s popular Apple ][ book, What’s Where in the Apple in eBook format.   Today we have further news and more accurate pricing schedules based on information we received from the publisher, Robert Tripp: 1.  The price is going to be $19.95 but people who “pre-order” (as simple as pressing the “pre-order” button on the web site that sends us an e-mail) can get the book for $15.00.  They…

Well-known Apple IIgs programmer Ewen Wannop released a starter kit for the popular Sweet16 emulator which runs on Mac OS X and emulates the Apple IIgs computer. This kit simplifies the process of using the emulated Apple IIgs to access the Internet, including email, Usenet newsgroups, and FTP sites. The starter kit includes the latest versions of Wannop’s Apple IIgs Internet programs, SAM2, SNAP, and SAFE2. The starter kit is available from the following URL: http://www.wannop.info/speccie/

For those of us who grew up programming in the Late 1970’s and early 1980’s, the introduction of William Luebbert’s book “What’s Where in the Apple” was a defining moment that meant we no longer had to scramble for internals information for the Apple II.  It was all there in one book and the information was clear, concise and allowed us to complete our programs in a timely manner. Now, the book has once again reared its head from the…

Lincoln, IL – Jun. 18, 2012 – Author David Finnigan has written and published a paperback book covering the Apple II computer. Before the Macintosh and iPod, Apple Computer became famous for its easy-to-use personal computer. The New Apple II User’s Guide covers everything from setup to programming of this important, early computer. The purpose of the book is to serve as a guide to all models of Apple II, and explain the basics of setup, programming, networking, and other…

Sotheby’s Auction House sold an Apple-I Computer this week for the staggering price of $374,500 USD.  The hammer price of this auction more than crushed the previous record of approximately $210,000 USD for an Apple-I. The Apple-I computer was created in 1976 by Steve Wozniak and was the first machine sold by Apple, Inc.  While the machine was really just a board, many hobbyists were able to assemble the machine into a working machine with just a few parts and…

The Apple ][ Cassette Library, started by Antoine Vignau of Brutal Deluxe Software now has several new apps added to the library.  Cassettes were produced for the Apple ][ from 1977 to 1982 by over 50 companies but they lost popularity as the floppy disk took over the Apple ][ software realm. The new Apple ][ apps added to the cassette library include: Apple: Color demos 4K Apple: Breakout 4K Programma International: Home accounting Programma InternationalStar voyager Softape: Screen machine…

David Finnigan, the curator of the MacGui.com website has published a new Apple ][ series users guide. The guide (http://macgui.com/newa2guide/) is currently 10 days from being released to the general public and is already available for pre-order on the Barnes & Noble online book store at: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-new-apple-ii-users-guide-david-finnigan/1111384271 for the price of $13.50 USD Although the last books for the Apple ][ computer were published more than 20 years ago, there are many machines still available on the second hand and…

David Finnigan of the Apple and Macintosh centric site, Mac Gui City has been working hard on a new users guide for the Apple ][ series computers.  the new guide with some 600 plus pages and 12 chapters will include information about 6 different Apple ][ series computers and their setup. As for a release date on the new book, according to a recent post in CSA2, david says “The first complete draft (meaning that every section of the book…

Jordan Mechner posted on his twitter account about the ongoing source recovery of the original source for the game Prince of Persia.  The floppies containing the source code was found in a box his father had recently discovered and shipped to Jordan.   Now, the source code for the Apple ][ version of the game is available for download to anyone who wants a copy from the GitHub repository at: https://github.com/jmechner/Prince-of-Persia-Apple-II

The Android version of the Mini vMac Emulator has been updated to version 3.2.3, bringing it inline with the current version of the Mini vMac emulator for other platforms.  The emulator is available in two versions, Macintosh Plus which is a free download and the Macintosh II, a $1.99 download from the Android Marketplace.   You can also download the current source code for the emulator for free as well. Gil Osher has more information about the emulator on his website…

David Schmidt has released an update to the ADTPro disk imaging package.  ADTPro allows users to convert Apple ][ and Apple /// disks to digital images for use with emulators.  According to the press release on CSA2, “This release has a couple of snazzy things that folks won’t need to see very often: The bare-metal bootstrapper works in about 1/3 the time it did before.  It now shifts the serial hardware into high gear to transmit the bulk of  the…