Marc Golembeck has released his entry for the Apple II Software Enthusiasts Challenge 2021 programming contest. The program, The Pudding Strikes Back, is a double low resolution graphical shooter game, is appropriately themed for the Christmas 2021. Pudding runs on an enhances Apple IIe, IIc and the IIgs as well as a variety of Apple II Emulators including Applewin and Virtual II. This is an unusual First Person Shooter game as it features a number of effects not normally seen…
Jim C. Warren Jr. was more than a technologist; he was a bridge between the free-spirited counterculture of the 1960s and the revolutionary dawn of personal computing in the 1970s. Born in the midst of the Great Depression and passing away in the era of ubiquitous digital connectivity, Warren’s life encapsulated the transformation of computers from monolithic machines to tools of empowerment for the masses. His contributions as an educator, entrepreneur, editor, and activist helped shape the Silicon Valley ethos,…
Jim Warren, the famed founding editor at the People’s Computer Company, publisher of Dr. Dobbs Journal has passed away. Jim was aged 85 and was known for his intelligent editing of Dr. Dobbs as well as the founding of the West Coast Computer Faire. He died on the 24th in St. Michaels Medical Center in Silverdale, WA.. Some of the publications he worked on included Intelligent Machines Journal, Later known as InfoWorld, Silicon Gulch Gazette, Datacast Magazine, Computer World, in…
Kelvin Sherlock has released an update to the Ample MAME interface. Ample is a front end for the MAME emulator which is Apple II series and Macintosh centric. Complete with easy to use customization of the emulation setup, Ample is one of the easiest setups to use. The current version matches the current version of MAME. You can download the latest version of Ample from the GitHub page at:https://github.com/ksherlock/ample
Bobbi Manners has released the latest update to her emai//er suite for the Apple //e and Apple IIgs computers. The latest release, version 2.1.13 addresses the following issues in the program: * Both SMTP65.SYSTEM and NNTP65UP.SYSTEM parsed the first 20 lines of the message looking for headers, and failed to stop at the first blank line, as they should. The consequence of this was when forwarding an email, the headers of the message being forwarded were parsed when they should be ignored. Fix is…
Kent Dickey has announced the latest version of the Kent’s Emulated GS (KEGS) Apple II gs emulator. KEGS version 1.14 is primarily a minor bug fix with fixes for Pulse Audio and serial DCD signals as well as providing support for the M1 Silicon Macs. He has also added preliminary support for DynaPro. Changes in KEGS v1.14 since v1.13 (11/14/21) Better support for disk images inside .zip files. Linux sound fixes to make PULSE_AUDIO work a little better. Better handle…
In the run up to the holidays, Roby Sherman of Crow Cousins software has Re-released his Snow Display Demo for the Apple II. The Demo which was released last year, carries a Christmas theme and runs through 9 different animated displays as it runs. You can download the floppy disk image from the Crow Cousins Software website at:https://err0r.tech/crowcousins/let_it_snow_2020.dsk
Ultima IV Remastered is a fan project with over 40 bug fixes and enhancements upon the original 1985 game by Lord British. Notable features include: trainer menu (optional cheat codes); gender-neutral character creation; faster dungeon exploration with a single-character mode; skull artifact supported in combat; Mockingboard support on Apple IIgs and //c models. The latest release of the game, Ultima IV Remastered Version 1.2.5, includes changes for a couple of items including: Fixed Lord British says Moonglow is on the…
For this folks who are fans of the Steve Chamberlain created ROM-inator, there is good news. Kay Koba, the owner of Kero’s Mac Mods store has contracted with BMOW to create and sell them again. The ROM-inator is a replacement boot ROM which allows the Mac 128K and 512K to have up to 1mb on the boot rom. Some of the features of the ROM-inator include: Startup beep is replaced by a glass “ping” Happy Mac icon is replaced by…
Gerard Putter has announced the immediate release of an update specifically targeting the Apple Silicon Macs. Issues with the functionality of the Quicktime Movie recording feature on the M1 has led to Virtual Apple II version 10.5.1 being released. To download the latest release of the Virtual Apple II emulator, go to:https://www.virtualii.com
Some four decades ago when many of us knew some form of net-based document linkage was coming, just not who would instantiate it and what form it would take, the Spy coined the term “metalibrary” to refer to the collection of all a society’s knowledge, in whatever medium, together with the means of accessing them. He reserved the term “The Metalibrary” for such collection in electronic form, somewhat anticipating the linguistic distinction later adopted for “internet” versus “The Internet”. The…
The Applesauce Floppy Disk Controller Software has been updated. Release 1.53 as it is being called includes a bevy of fixes and improvements including: Fixed a crash in the Disk Analyzer flux edit view if selecting invalid nibbles. Drive Config/Probe will properly set sane defaults if you skip things like the HD test. It will also properly set sane values if you manually change the supported density. This was causing some drives to not be able to image some formats…
Tom Charlesworth has announced the release of the latest version of the Applewin Apple II Emulator for Windows. Applewin 1.30.6 includes the following updates: [Bug #993] Fix Mousecard not persisting after a machine’s hardware changes. (Regression at 1.30.5.0) [Bug #985] Fix one-shot paddle timers. [xotmatrix] [Bug #989] Debugger: Fix disassembly for NMOS 6502’s JMP (Indirect) not showing correct target address. [Change #987] Debugger: Add ‘lbr’ command to show Last Branch Record for a change to the control-flow from an instruction or interrupt. NB. Bcc…
Long time Apple II hobbyist and business owner, Tony Diaz, has passed away at the age of 54. Born in 1967, Tony was known for his legendary knowledge of the Apple II series as well as for his collection of extremely rare Apple II computers and software. Tony was also known as a civil aviation and military enthusiast, having held the rank of Lt. Colonel in the U.S. Civil Air Patrol. His well-documented and simulcast trips across the US in…
Joshua Bell and his team on the Apple II Desktop project have released another update. Apple II Desktop 1.2 Alpha 38 includes a slew of changes, fixes and updates including the following: General Use language-specific thousands separators. Various string updates. Loaders: Add background to loading screens progress indicators, if MouseText supported Only show tip with Apple glyph if MouseText characters are supported DeskTop Show clock immediately when menu bar changes. #586, #587 Make renaming a file with the same name a no-op. #584…
Gerard Putter has announced the release of the latest version of his Virtual II Apple II Emulator for Mac OS X. Virtual II Version 10.5 now includes support for ShrinkIt Files within the emulator. The new features in Version 10.5 include: The File menu now has an “Extract ShrinkIt Archive” item. You can also double-click an archive in the Finder to unpack it. Files inside ShrinkIt archives are automatically indexed for searching in Spotlight, and are shown by the Finder…
Ultima IV Remastered is a fan project with over 40 bug fixes and enhancements upon the original 1985 game by Lord British. Notable features include: trainer menu (optional cheat codes); gender-neutral character creation; faster dungeon exploration with a single-character mode; skull artifact supported in combat; Mockingboard support on Apple IIgs and //c models. The latest release of the game, Ultima IV Remastered Version 1.2.4, includes changes for a couple of items including: Game changes Dungeon fixes in Wrong and Covetous…
Kelvin Sherlock has released a new release of the Ample MAME Interface version 0.236. The previously released version was having a problem with a missing file that was due to a build time problem. The issue has since been corrected and Ample 0.236-1 released. You can download Ample 0.236-1 and the source code for the program at:https://github.com/ksherlock/ample
Daniel Henderson has released a new Apple II Lo-Res demo just in time for Halloween 2021. The demo is a low resolution graphical rendition of Michael Jackson’s Thriller and utilizes Bothe Double Lo-Res via Daniel’s Greasy Graphics as well as Mockingboard sound with Mockingboard conversion using Tom Porters’ Midi2Mock.. You can download the disk image from Marc Golembeck’s website at:http://www.golombeck.eu/index.php?id=53&L=1
Peter Hirschberg has updated his port of the Pacman game for the Apple IIGS. GS.Pacman version 1.5 is a full fledged port of the original Pacman and includes a number of features found in the original arcade version. This release addresses a game freeze issue which cropped up in version 1.2 Included in the update for 1.5 is the following changes and fixes: can quit game from start screen can start game from joystick button fix for eyes being edible…
