For those of you who have been following Daniel Gordon’s Realm release, there is a new version of Realm: Rays of Nightmare available for both DOS 3.3 and ProDOS. According to the release notes accompanying the release, “This release provides automatic combat resolution, some new potions, and support for the ProDOS RAM disk. It adds interface improvements, balancing, and a little different Iron Tower magic. The RAM disk works on emulators, but testing on real hardware is still pending.” In…
Rand-Emonium Software has announced the release of the latest version of the Apple II gs game BuGS. According to the press release from Jeremy Rand, curator of Rand-Emonium Software in the Kansasfest list, This bug fix addresses a problem where a failure where the network interface cannot be brought up at all was treated as a “soft error” that could be fixed with a retry. This lead to a situation where you could get repeated prompts due to a score…
Rand-emonium Software has announced the release of the Apple IIgs Build Pipeline for Xcode version 3.0. The Apple IIgs Pipeline is a package, which allows users to create their Apple IIgs software in Xcode and to build disk images that are end user ready. Some of the updated features included in Apple IIgs Build Pipeline version 3.0 include: Support for the mame emulator along side GSport and GSplus. The build now creates a separate distribution disk image from the boot…
And the not entirely so grimas, once again, Canada persists in celebrating the Spy’s birthday a couple of daysearly and the Excited States a day late. ‘Course, both have been at it a tad longerthan he, so he extends best wishes that both will outlast him, despite at least someindicatiors to the contrary. Truth and ConsequencesThere was a time in the increasingly distant past when the truth of one’sstatements was considered non negotiable, for it had to founded on actualrepeatable…
The latest alpha release of the Apple II Desktop has been released. Version 1.2 Alpha 31 is now available for download from the Apple II Github page at https://github.com/a2stuff/a2d. Changes in this latest release include the following: General Various string updates. DeskTop Don’t use “shift key mod” on Laser 128 (since mouse button is detected as BUTN2 as well) Clip long paths in dialogs. Fixes Adjust fixed list view line width to handle wide dates. Desk Accessories This Apple DA:…
A.P.P.L.E. Member, Dan Gordon, has released a new Apple II game. Recovered from old hard drives, REALM – Rays of Nightmare is an Ultima style RPG game, originally written more than 30 years ago and has been re-worked for the modern day emulators. From the Manual: “In your wanderings, you come upon a lone orc, apparently under some kindly enchantment. He presents you with a note from his lord: “I am Xavier Francis, eighteenth Baron Lemphocym. I faithfully serve the…
Tom Harte has updated the Clock Signal multi platform emulator. This release updates to the Apple II and Macintosh emulation sections of the program. Included in the update list are the following: adds support for Macintosh drive images, in addition to its existing support for volume images; substantially improves messaging and semantics around ROM loading, hopefully to ease application setup; accepts state snapshots by drag and drop, in addition to regular media images; adds a square-pixel option for Apple II…
Paul Wasson, Winner of last winter’s Apple II Software Enthusiasts programming contest, has released his Double Hi-Res Graphics Toolbox to the general public. The program includes a number of features for Adventure Game Designers including: A tile-editor to create either 14×16 or 7×8 tiles using double hi-res A map-editor to place the tiles and see how they fit together. Full in program Help Screen Paul has released the source code for the toolbox as well. The Source and Disks can…
Be sure and check out the ASCII 10 Liner 8-Bit Programming Contest, being sponsored this month by Roy Templeman AKA The Loud Scots Bloke (@loudscotsbloke). Thus far, 23 people have signed up for the contest, and 5 entries have been received.
<TRUMPET_BLARE> Announcing the winners of the Spring 2021 Call-A.P.P.L.E. giveaway! First, second, and third place winners are displayed in the video below in order of spin! (Yes, you’ll have to watch to find out if you won! ) ** The First and second place winners will receive a copy of the WOZPAK Special Edition and a 1 year membership to A.P.P.L.E! ** The Third place winner will receive a 1 year membership and a special mystery gift (it could be…
With apologies to “Our Anne” (with an “e”) the Spy this months takes note of some notable disappointments, failures, and wonders who or what is on the brink. We start with the technological realm itself of course, but this column has always been about much more than machinery. The industry giants have had their share of embarrassments over the years. The much-touted, but poorly assembled Apple /// from late 1980 gets an honourable mention, as does the Power Mac powered…
The French Touch hackers group has released a new demo, OldSkool Fort et Vert, which is an 8K Apple II intro demo. The demonstration program was released as part of the demoscene event, Shadow Party 2021 which took place from 21 to 23 May 2021.
Apple has announced their 2021 rendition of their World Wide Developers Conference or WWDC for June 7 to June 11 beginning at 10am PDT on the 7th. For more information, check out the Apple Developers website at: https://developer.apple.com/wwdc21/
We are proud to announce the 2021 Apple II Software Enthusiasts Pinball Construction Set contest. Show off your creativity, and at KansasFest 2021, we will announce the winners. You can win a few cool prizes along the way! Updated contest announcement! We’re now big time! Let’s get cracking people! Thanks Bill Martens for helping to bring this together! Entries must be posted in the A2SE Group on Facebook by 15 July 2021. For those users who have never used Budgeco’s…
Denis Molony has released the latest rendition of his Apple II disk viewing utility, Diskbrowser. Version 1.59 includes updates to the system level items including Saving individual files. You will need to have the Java SDK installed in order to use Apple II Diskbrowser, however, the program will function on Windows, Macintosh and Linux based machines. You can download Diskbrowser 1.59 for free from the Diskbrowser Github page at:https://github.com/dmolony/DiskBrowser
Lexington Infosystems, owned and operated by Renee Harke, has introduced a piggyback card for the Apple II Ramworks cards that allow users to utilize the modern Apple II memory cards with the piggyback and RGB cards. This card allows users to not only use the cards but also to reduce the amount of heat produced by the cards as well as to reduce the power requirements, thus also expanding the lifespan of both the machine and the cards. The cards…
Vince Weaver (AKA Deater78) has released a new Apple II demo. The demonstration titled Island Adventure fits in a whopping 32K of memory and has been put forth as his entry into the Outline 2021 event. The demo finished in 2nd place which according to Vince, “was a shock as it is rare for Apple II demos to place very high in a combined demo entry, especially when competing against DOS or Amiga entries”. Outline 2021 is the longest running…
Denis Colony has released the latest rendition of his Apple II disk viewing utility, Diskbrowser. Version 1.58 includes updates to the system level items and bug fixes. You can download Diskbrowser 1.58 for free from the Diskbrowser Github page at:https://github.com/dmolony/DiskBrowser
Gary Graham has painstakingly created a new OpenType Font Collection for Apple II fans – Apple II Pro. The package includes eight typefaces: Apple II Pro, Display Pro, ALT Pro, Display ALT Pro, and their inverted “Neg” counterparts. Additionally, Gary has crafted an impressive guide that details every aspect of these fonts. According to his documentation, “Apple II Pro is a vastly expanded version of the original Apple IIc and Apple IIe internal character sets, including MouseText, all combined into…
Technology News and Views Since 1983May 2021 The academic realm is often stereotyped as an impregnable, remote-from-life, unscalable ivory tower with little to say to the real world. The Spy’s corner of said kingdom is actually an ivory basement overdue for new carpeting and a coat of paint, and he likes to think his students are becoming well-equipped to tackle the real world–not just as it is today, but as it is becoming for the years to come. Oh,…
