Category: Vintage

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

Ken Gagne of Juiced.gs has posted a very thorough profile of Mark Simonsen, former Beagle Bros programmer and owner.   Mark attended Kansasfest in 2010, giving its keynote speech and participating in the annual Hackfest event which pits Apple ][ aficionados against the clock in an all out performance of their programming skills. To read the entire article, check out the Kansasfest website at: http://www.kansasfest.org/2012/01/loyal-to-the-core-simonsen/

If one really thinks about it, text files are a kind of virtual memory.  You can add strings, retrieve strings.  And if the strings are of a fixed length, then you can even replace strings in a text file. But I found the text file commands of DOS3.3 and Basic.system very slow.  Some recommendations were to save your strings to a BIN file instead. So I combined the two and created a sort of semi-Virtual memory for strings Applesoft is…

Mike Fort has created a version of Mini vMac which has LocalTalk support included.  The support is through the serial port in Mini vMac. The beta of the release which is based  on the version 3.1.3 of Mini vMac, is now downloadable from Mike Fort’s website at: http://web.me.com/mikefort/Mini_vMac_LT/index.html Mike is also working on a gateway solution which would allow traffic to go beyond the LAN.  The beta requires that you be running Mac OS X version 7.x in 32-Bit Mode.

Gerard Puter has released an update to his Virtual ][ emulator.  The latest release addresses a couple of issues with the 6.4 release.  They include: You can download the update from the Virtual ][ website at: http://www.virtualii.com/

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…

The latest version of the Java Apple Computer Emulator has been released.  JACE is a multi-platform Apple ][ Emulator which focuses on being cycle accurate to the Apple //e. In a posting on CSA2, developer Brendon Robert said that “JACE finally has a decent amount of updates and I think it’s stable enough to release another build. “ The changes in the emulator since the last build include the following: You can download the latest build from the  JACE Sourceforge…

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…

The C2T Binary Conversion program created by Egan Ford has now been officially released.  The program was created out of the need for a tool to convert Apple II files and disk images to audio files.   These audio files are used by the Apple ][ Game server Online as well as the Apple ][ Disk Server. Egan has written a complete documentation and breakdown of the C2T conversion program at: http://asciiexpress.net/files/c2t.html You can download the complete binary and source code…

Gerard Puter has updated the Virtual ][ Emulator to version 6.4.  The biggest change to the program is that this version of Virtual ][ will be the first version which is totally dedicated to the Apple Intel platform.  Most of the changes and feature fixes in version 6.4 are oriented around moving totally to the Intel platform and getting the most out of its performance.   The main changes in the program according to Gerard’s posting on the Virtual ][ website…

In what Egan Ford is calling a completed release, the Apple ][ Game Server and the Apple ][ Disk Server have been updated.   The updates included adjusting the speed to a slightly lower speed for transfers as the higher speeds initially listed as hi-fi were causing some issues and a higher rate of failure in the transfers between the Apple ][ and the PC. Be sure and check out Egans work at: http://asciiexpress.net/gameserver http://asciiexpress.net/diskserver

David Schmidt has released the latest version of the ADTPro disk imaging software.  Apple Disk Transfer Prodos (ADTPro) is a vintage Apple computer series specific disk imaging software package and will work on APple ][‘s and Apple ///’s. The latest version of  ADTPro 1.2.0 was released to address a host of issues with the previous version and is not a “revolutionary” update as would normally be suggested by the version number.  The issues addressed in this release include the following…

The Open Apple Podcast, produced by Apple ][ fans Mike Maginnis and Ken Gagne, is now available on the Open Apple Poscast website.  This is the 11th edition of Open Apple and features guest host David Greelish of the Retro Computing Rountable Podcast. This month Ken and Mike run through a host of news items including Steve Jobs’ passing, the 175,000 Apple-1, the 1.6 million dollar apple document, and the John Scully Interview done by David Greelish, as well as…

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…

Egan Ford has updated his new Apple ][ Disk Server once again.  The Apple ][ Disks Server allows the user to connect their audio port to the Apple ][‘s cassette i/o port and load complete disk images to the floppy drive.  This process now takes less than three minutes according to a note from Egan. Improvements between version 3 and version 6 include: To use the Apple ][ Disk Server, go to the Disk Server website at: http://asciiexpress.net/diskserver/

Datve Ottlani has posted his original Apple /// in 10 EZ lessons videos to You Tube.  The videos give a good overview of the Apple /// and its usage for those who have never touched an Apple /// Computer.  You can view the lessons from the links below or from Dave’s you tube channel Lesson 1 Lesson 2 Lesson 3 Lesson 4 Lesson 5 Lesson 6 Lesson 7 Lesson 8 Lesson 9 Lesson 10 Two other videos included in the…

Thanks to Arnaud Brossard, the original 1990 version of the Generous Efforts of Many (GEM) CD is now available for download from his website.  The collection which included all of the major Apple ][ shareware and freeware up to that point, included some 200mb of software, fonts, utilities and other items related to the Apple ][. The CD is divided into 6 sections, 32mb each, and are ProDOS volumes.  They include: GEM.CD.A – (Bootable) Features, Shrinkit GEM.CD.B – Sounds, Games…

Frank Kunze has put out a call for beta testers of his latest version of Eamon Deluxe.   Eamon is an adventure system originally created by Donald Brown in 1979.  The system has gone through several renditions and currently has over 255 adventures created by various authors globally. The Eamon Deluxe system was created by Frank Kunze to enhance the capabilities of the Eamon Adventure system and is now available for users of Windows Vista, Windows 7 in 32 Bit mode,…

An announcement on the Apple II Scans website brought word that Dave Ottlani, creator of the Washington Apple PI Apple /// DVD, has made the entire collection public domain.   He released this collection “so that the information there can be freely accessed.” You can read the announcement in its entirety at: http://apple2scans.net/apple-iii/washington-apple-pi-apple-dvd/ You can download the .iso of the DVD from here: http://apple2scans.net/files/apple3/WAP_DVD/A3DVD.iso The news release also included the corrected version of the corrupted file A3 and can be downloaded…

Egan Ford has been busy with finding new ways to utilize the cassette port on the Apple ][ computer.  His Apple ][ Game Server is now at version 0.5 and has a number of improvements in speed and methodologies of loading the programs onto real and emulated Apple ][ computers. Version 0.5 includes the following updates: Boosted audio volume from 50% to 75%. Added MON download option (Apple Monitor text for pasting into emulators). Right-click to save it. You can…