Over the past several years, Brazilian Felipe Pepe, a Tokyo resident, has been coordinating one of the largest projects covering RPG game history. His project has now culminated in a new, extended version of the print book, The CRPG Book – A Guide to Computer Role Playing Games (Expanded Edition), is now available through his publisher, Bitmap Books. This printing of the CRPG Book is the second printing with a lot more material included. According to the press release on…
A New Apple II Demo from Daniel Henderson is available. The demo, Star Wars Episode 6 – The Empire is Mildly Offended, is a tongue in cheek, satirical look at Star Wars, the main characters and political, societal stances through the low resolution graphics of the Apple II Computer. The look is taken through a visit to each of 6 planets and the occupying main character with a new perspective on line and then once you have gone through each…
The Clemens IIGS Emulator has been updated. Some of the new features in this release of the Clemens IIGS emulator include: According to the release note by Samir Sinha: While you’re waiting for Crossrunner (or if you’re just curious about yet another IIgs emulator) I’ve posted a new release of my own project Clemens IIgs v0.6. There have been many fixes and improvements since 0.5 way back in January 2023. Given the multitude of options for IIgs emulation out there, another one…
The Applesauce FDC Client Software has been updated. Version 1.86 of the Applesauce FDC Client Software includes the following updates and fixes from the past few weeks: Improvements and Fixes in 1.86 You can download the latest version of the software by doing the automatic update through the client software or from the Applesauce FDC Software page at:https://applesaucefdc.com/software/
If you are in the Seattle area, you will want to check out the SDF Public Access UNIX System event scheduled for September 30th and October 1st. According to the posting on the SDF website, -=- The Interim Computer Festival -=- Where: Intraspace 3100 Airport Way S, Seattle WA 98134When: September 30th and October 1st from 10am to 6pm 2 days of retrocomputing and homebrew fun featuring exhibitsand demos from the collector community. Exhibitor, Demo/Speaker and Volunteer registration is OPEN…
If you need a really good run-through of the various Karateka versions and the different platforms it was produced for, Ernst Krogtoft, shared his collection this month with the world. In a wildly extensive posting on the Retro365 Blog at https://retro365.blog/2023/08/05/karateka-a-stellar-debut/, Ernst shares the various boxes as well as a ton of information and tidbits about Jordan Mechner’s extremely popular game.
Digital Eclipse has announced the trailer of their new documentary, “The Making of Karateka”, a look at the game that became known as one of Jordan Mechner’s best and most enduring from the 1980’s. This video is proposed to be the first in Digital Eclipse’s Gold Master Series. According to the release, two new remastered Karateka games will also be released along with the documentary, made from “Cutting room floor” materials.1 If you need a really good run-through of the…
Henry Lowe has released the latest version of his Apple II card recognition software, Card Cat. Version 1.2 now has the ability to recognize more than 70 different peripheral cards in the Apple II computer. There also have been a number of bug fixes included in the latest release. Card Cat version 1.2 includes better detection for the new A2 Analog Cards. You can download the latest version of Card Cat from the Card Cat homepage at:https://henrylowe.net/card-cat/
A2Heaven, the Bulgarian manufacturer of Apple II and Retro Macintosh related products has announce a new Midi Interface. This Midi Interface is an Apple A9M0103 compatible interface which connects to the Apple IIgs, the Macintosh 512K Enhanced Macintosh Plus, Macintosh SE, or Macintosh II computer. According to the site, the A2Heaven Midi Interface should allow you to use products and software that run on the platforms in conjunction with music products that plug into the Midi port. Plamen Vayssilov, creator…
The Apple II History site is hosting an updated version of the Apple II Redbook, long considered to be one of the most important manuals in the history of the Apple II Computer. This updated version has been reproduced and upgraded with additional materials included from Apple II history. You can download the updated Redbook for the Apple II computer and get further information about the update from: https://www.apple2history.org/sdm_downloads/apple-ii-redbook-digital-edition-2023/
A.P.P.L.E. has introduced a new Apple II series computer related Games release page which lists games introduced over the past several years. While still in the works, the game page now contains 2022-203 games that have been released by some of the great programmers of the Apple II community. This collection is freely accessible to everyone. The goal of the page is to be a one stop shop for recent game releases announced on the A.P.P.L.E. website or in Call-A.P.P.L.E….
July-August 2023 Apologies are certainly in order, as the Spy let not just a day or two of July go by with no column, but the entire month. Put the lapse down to senility setting in if you will, for he simply forgot until queried at month’s end by the editor of one of the magazines to which these random ramblings are syndicated. Even then, the Spy thought “no, impossible; I surely wrote and sent it, but for some reason…
An announcement in the Apple II Software Enthusiasts group by Fabrizio Caruso heralds the 7th game created with the CrossLib library that allows games to be written quickly for more than 200 retro computing platforms. This library was highlighted last year in Call-A.P.P.P.L.E. magazine and has been in the works for a number of years now. According to the announcement: Hi everyone! I present Shuriken, the seventh game I have written in C with my Cross-Lib framework (https://github.com/Fabrizio-Caruso/CROSS-LIB), which provides…
The Applesauce Floppy Disk Controller client software has been updated. John Morris, the creator and curator of Applesauce FDC posted the following bit about the update in the Slack channel. From John Morris:
In a posting on the Kansasfest Discord by Andrew Roughan, The dates for the Australian Apple II event, OzKFest have been announced. According to the post, OzKFest – the located-in-Australia version of a Kansasfest-like event that happens less often will be happening this year. Announced dates are 25-29 October and will be focussed on an in-person event with the possibility of remote presenters. Kansasfest Discord Community Announcements Channel Information about the schedule and location chosen for the event, Portland, New…
Kelvin Sherlock has released the 47th update to his Ample interface for the MAME Emulator. Version 0.257 of the primarily Apple and Macintosh centric Ample interface includes the following updated or enhanced items: This latest release requires MacOS 10.13 or later and can be downloaded for free from the Ample Github Page at: https://github.com/ksherlock/ample. Ample also includes preliminary support for the Atari ST as well.
Steve Heumann announced the immediate release of ORCA/C 2.2.0, a major update to Mike Westerfield’s ORCA/C Compiler for the Apple IIgs. Some of the improvements in the ORCA/C compiler include the following items: According to the readme posted with the update, you can download the ORCA/C manual for free. The readme file and a detailed release notes file can also be downloaded from the ORCA/C Compiler GitHub site. For those users who are running ORCA/C, this update requires a minimum of ORCA/C…
Seattle, Washington — July 30, 2023 — Thanks to the tireless workings of Paul H. Lee, Henry Pedro, Brian Wiser, and Bill Martens, the popular Bulletin Board System, GBBS Pro, has received a significant update to version 2.3 – both the software and the expanded physical manual that accompanies it with an additional 142 pages. GBBS Pro 2.3 is a user-friendly, highly-modifiable Bulletin Board System (BBS) for communications and entertainment. It has advanced features that can be configured by a…
Seattle, Washington — July 30, 2023 — An early Bulletin Board System, Net-Works II, has received a an update to version 2.6 – and a new physical manual over 100 pages. Net-Works II is a Bulletin Board System written by Nick Naimo for the 300 baud Hayes Micromodem. For a time, it was the most popular BBS software for the Apple II computer. As many as 60 BBS’s were using the software in 1984. Availability Net-Works II is available through the A.P.P.L.E….
Seattle, Washington — June 20, 2023 — The Apple II KeyCaps OpenType font created by John Snape has been released. The font allows you to make key presses clear in your text, and also includes over 160 glyphs and ornaments for Apple II and Mac documents, such as the Open-Apple and Solid-Apple keys. The printed manual includes instructions and samples of all the fun and useful icons. Availability Apple II KeyCaps Font is available through the A.P.P.L.E. bookstore with production and…
