Mario Patino, author of the TXTRIS text based Tetris clone, has released a new update to his game which is one of the entries for this years Apple II Software enthusiasts (A2SE) programming contest. The update includes a nifty little intro tune in the program. Play of the TXTRIS game is nearly true to the original, but this one is pure text and well worth the look. You can download the latest version of the TXTRIS disk image from:https://www.callapple.org/soft/ap2/games/txtris.dsk
Wade Clarke has in recent years become known for his interactive fiction game, Leadlight Gamma, including a version for the Apple II computer. Now he has put all of his apple II forays on his website including a fun look back at piracy in the Apple II world. Check it out at:https://wadememoir.wadeclarke.com
The theme of this release is Searching. A new Find command has been added to the Disk Analyzer. It will allow you to search Nibble Streams, Sectors, Blocks, and Files for Hex or Text strings. The Hex search also supports wildcards by replacing any nybble with a ? character (ex: D5 A? 96) Text search is case insensitive and supports Apple II high bit characters. For nibble searches, you can add a + character to require that hidden timing bits…
One need only to look at the names listed in the contributing authors listings and the staff listings to get an idea as to the significance historically of a magazine. One such magazine was ROM – Computer Applications for Living, a magazine that had impressive beginnings and eventually became one of the portfolio of one of the most significant magazines of the 1970’s and 1980’s. That would be Creative Computing Magazine. But we are getting just a bit ahead of…
Many kids in the 1980’s began programming computers using the USBORNE computer books, which were very colorful, step by step books that were appropriate for any age in reality. These books took you through the stages of creating programs from the idea creation, the design, the programming, modifications, and quite literally, all the way to the finished product. These books were quite good at teaching fundamental concepts to users, giving a good groundwork upon which to build. From initial forays…
If you have ever wanted to take part in a programming contest, the annual BASIC 10-Liners Programming Contest is a good one to start with. Each year, the best and brightest programmers in the retro computing community test their metal against the rest of the world. One of the first Apple II submissions this year is a really great effort by Humberto Barbera. Humberto’s 10 line submission, Archer is a great little game that utilizes the Apple II’s high-resolution graphics…
If you have not played a Davide Bucci adventure yet, you re really missing something. Created in the old style of Interactive Fiction games, Davide has created a number of adventures including his multi platform title, The Queen’s Footsteps. Synopsis of the game: “ Today is August 27th, 1904. Nine months ago, you, Emilia Vittorini, joined the Italian Archeological Expedition in Egypt led by Ernesto Schiaparelli, the director of the Egyptian Museum of Turin. You are now back in Genova,…
This release is mainly cleanup of the current bug list. Please watch your step, lots of squashed bugs around here. Maybe a new feature or two as well. Added file system support for Lisa Monitor. Preliminary support for loading DiscFerret DFI images for single-sided 5.25 disks. Improved geometry calculations for disks that lie about sector numbers. Improved data repair by looking at more neighboring tracks. Fixed: Flux Imager saving could sometimes encounter errors when saving as illegal filenames, and then…
As many of our readers know, the one and only Dr. Macintosh, Bob Levitus, has retired from the active Mac World. Mac Users Group Network’s Chuck Joiner interviews Bob about his latest endeavors and the goings on now that he has discontinued his focus on the Macintosh. Check out the entire interview here:https://youtu.be/gv74NJeDJrA
This years Apple II Software Enthusiasts (A2SE) text based programming contest is producing a myriad of great new games for the Apple II computer. Raphael Rezende has submitted another entry worth mentioning in the pages of Call-A.P.P.L.E.. His new game Escape pits you against a monster in a dungeon in which, “ You found in a mine, a precious stone, and when you were returning toward entrance, there was an earthquake, that released a monster which was keeping the treasure!…
For those of us who are Apple and Macintosh fans, we are partial to our machines no matter what age they are. We always hate to see people destroy perfectly good machines. I think Luke Miani knows this as a real Macintosh fan as he has managed to turn an old iMac into an M1 Silicon based iMac with just a few turns of the screw. Having an old iMac and a new M1 Mac Mini, Luke has decided that…
If you have one of the early Macintosh computers in the 128K, the 512K or the Plus series and are missing a keyboard, then this video from Mac84 also known as Steve Matarazzo takes you through the building process of creating an adapter for a PS/2 type keyboard to be able to connect to the older Macs. This original series of Macintosh computers used RJ-45’s or phone cable type connectors and the keyboards are not very prevalent. Now, you no…
Some things just last longer than others Those comfortable old sweaters, housecoats, a few pants and shirts worn to threadbare, and even beyond as they get relegated to gardening work, the 91 Buick Regal we kept till last year, and traded in before it was really finished with life, the forty year old rototiller, the house the Spy built in 1992 (the one before that was 1972), this old column he started in 1983, the Church he’s been involved in…
Yesterday, we highlighted one of the entries for the Apple II Software Enthusiasts (A2SE) programming contest, TXTRIS by Mario Patino. Today’s entry into the fray comes to us from Eric Sperano. His entry, Spetris! or as he calls it, “Yet Another Tetris Clone”, is a multi-themed version of the traditional game of Tetris. Originally created by Eric as a 6809 game in a learning experience moment on the Tandy Radio Shack Color Computer 3 or COCO3 as it is known,…
A nifty little video cast called the Macintosh Librarian is now running through the Retro Macintosh channels. The Macintosh Librarian ( K.Fox ) in her latest video talks about the history of the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (MECC) with her digital Mac SE-30, Maccy. Taking you from the earliest days through to the hey day of the MECC, the Macintosh Librarian Episode 6 is well worth the twenty minutes of time to watch it and gives some interesting perspective, not…
Over the past 30 years, there is one game which has appeared time and time again in many forms on almost every platform known to man. That game is TETRIS. Hours in the arcades led us all to seeing the blocks in our sleep due to the fact that we were still trying to get the entire 4 lines completed over and over again in the game. Thankfully, there is another fix for this re-iteration syndrome that we face. …
A few days ago, I read a post from a fellow programmer, Eric Clippert, and his blog post mentioned a weird little project that piqued my interest. Jeff Atwood and Eric Clippert have run through the entire book of the David H. Ahl produced BASIC Computer Games and is in the process of translating every single game in the book to nearly every modern programming language used in the mainstream, including Microsoft Visual Basic, Python, C#, Java Javascript and Ruby….
Steve Jobs would have been 66 today, Wednesday, February 24th, 2021. Born in 1955, Steve Jobs passed away at the age of 56 after a long battle with Pancreatic Cancer. The co-founder of Apple, Inc. and the primary reason for the company’s resurgence in the late 1990’s and 2000’s was known for his dedicated to detail, quiet philanthropy, his dedication to pursuing the ultimate in computing integration as well as a sharp tongue and ability to take those of us…
Last week, we highlighted Brendan Bellina’s Script-Central 2020 Special Edition which featured a slew of hypercard stacks and scripts. Included as part of that package was a game inspired by the EAMON series, The Dungeons of Fangborne Keep. Fangborne is an RPG which was developed completely in Hypercard and includes a number of features normally reserved for the bigger game development houses. Originally abandoned in 1995, the game was revisited by Bellina in October 2020 and a completion of the…
Over the past several years, we have been following along with James Savage and John Leake as they brought us the RetroMacCast Podcast. Since last year James and John have brought back the Video Cast of the RetroMacCast. Now, for those who prefer to actually watch video of the broadcasts rather than just listen, the Video Cast of the RetroMacCast Episode 561 is now available. Join James and John as they take you through the world of Retro Macintosh computing…
