The Virtual II Apple II Emulator has been updated. Included in this release is a bevy of bug fixes which have been reported over the past few months including: Fixed several crashes that could occur if a Disk ][ interface card has no connected drives. Enhanced compatibility with WOZ disk images available in the public domain by correcting an error in version number checking. Extended the feature to speak lines on the screen; the application can now automatically speak new…
Preemptitive schedule for our Zoom Meeting 8.May2021– if I am missing some of you, pls. advise ! If someone want´s to give a talk in any future meeting, pls, contact me, or John HardyAbraham MollerTony LewisUlrich HoffmannDon Golding or just post on the group, you want to give a talk forth related, or you want to show us something. All of you are heartly invited to speek ! Even beginners to forth, or present yourself to the group. Is a pleassure to receive you. https://www.forth2020.org/zoom-meeting
For those of you who follow the 8-Bit Guy, AKA David Murray, on YouTube, you will be pleased to know he has introduced a new game, this time for the Apple II computer. PETSCII Robots is a game in which it is up to you to save the universe from the invading robots. You can accomplish this through the use of a variety of weapons which you accumulate within the game, as you attempt to take on the various levels…
The Apple II based Passport, a disk cracking package, has been updated — release dated 04-21-2021. The latest version of the Mark Pilgrim and Peter Ferrie produced software package has been released with the following changes: – NEW: patchers/harvey.a (Buzz Bang Harvey, Harvey by Primes) – NEW: patchers/jmp2012.a (BackAid) – NEW: patchers/pdi.a (Leadsheeter, Polywriter) – NEW: patchers/rps.a (Pac-Man Thunder Mountain release, Problem Solving in Algebra) – IMPROVED: patchers/ssprot.a (fixes Metric System Tutor) – IMPROVED: patchers/bb03.a (fixes Spanish for Mastery) -…
Kris Kennaway has released a video of the January 1984 Apple ad running in Full Motion Double Hi-Resolution Video complete with Playback on the Apple IIe computer. Now, before you say, the Apple IIe cannot do that, there are a few items you will need which were not available in 1984. First, you will need a 128k Enhanced Apple IIe running the software, also known as II-Vision version 0.2 by Kris Kennaway, allowing conversion or “transcoding” of the video files…
Anthony Beaucamp has just released his latest rendition of 8-Bit Unity game SDK. His Beta of the 8-Bit Unity SDK, version 0.4.0 includes a host of updates and changes. Anthony has posted the following in regard to the new graphics engine for 8-Bit Computers: After 6 months of hard work, I finally pulled the plug on new features and got down to fixing bugs. The result is here: 8bit-Unity 0.4.0! Hope you will enjoy this short overview of what’s new….
For those who love emulation, especially Macintosh Emulation, this one will be right up your alley. Kyle Fox has posted a picture of Shadowgate (Mac 68K version) running on the M1 Macintosh. In order to get there, he had to jump through a few hoops and architectures. The game Shadowgate itself was released in 1987 by Mindscape and is a game that offers a combination graphical / textual adventure experience that will not only entertain you but will challenge your…
Brainstorm Software and Brutal Deluxe Software have coordinated to bring Full Métal Planète for the Apple II gs to the masses. Originally released in 1988 by Ludodélire and developed by Hitech productions, the Full Métal Planète strategy game was limited to French until today. The English version of the Apple II gs game was blessed by Brainstorm Software and with the programming talents of Brutal Deluxe Software, it is now available for all to play. The synopsis of the game…
The Fr3nch T0uch hack group just came out with an absolutely fantastic 256 byte intro titled Terra Nova for the Apple II. The demo was for the Revision 2021 event going on currently from April 2nd to April 5th 2021. Written on the Apple IIe, Terra Nova demos a purely text based scroller with full Mockingboard sound track. It will run on either DOS 3.3 or ProDOS with the source code also available in addition to the binary. Revision 2021…
Cameron Kaiser has announce the end of development on the Ten-Four-Fox application, which provided users of G4 machines with Firefox Browser capabilities. As he mentions in his writeup, the costs of the operation are a huge item with about $600 per month in accruing by providing the application. To read further, check out Cameron’s article at:https://tenfourfox.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-end-of-tenfourfox-and-what-ive.html
With the announcement this past week that Volkswagen was to embrace the electric era by changing the corporate name to Voltswagen, the Spy decided to research the matter of pending corporate name changes and related issues. He made some fascinating discoveries. And, in an exclusive to this intrepid reporter comes word on internal debates at Apple between those who want to embrace the current name and are trying to sell the slogan “An Apple a day keeps MS away,” and…
From the europlus zone blog: Hot on the heels of WOzFest 18 I’m very happy to announce the date for the next WOzFest: WOzFest 19 will be held on Saturday 1 May 2021, starting at midday Sydney time (UTC+10:00). The theme for WOzFest 19 is “Freedom” – a good friend and frequent WOzFest attendee retires the day before, so I thought what better way to celebrate than to get together with Apple ][ enthusiasts?! I’ll leave it to attendees to interpret the theme as they see fit….
From the europlus zone blog: [I’m happy to announce] four test sheets covering the major revisions of Apple ][ and ][+ motherboards: WOzFest Labs Apple II Motherboard Test Sheet – Revision 0 WOzFest Labs Apple II Motherboard Test Sheet – Revision 1-4 WOzFest Labs Apple II Motherboard Test Sheet – Revision 7 WOzFest Labs Apple II Motherboard Test Sheet – Revision RFI The sheets show most major components, including product codes, which motherboard product codes are relevant for that revision, areas to…
Those crazy astronauts (Daniel Henderson and Roby Sherman) who brought you that terrestrialbrain stumper, Murder Manor, have returned with a game of space travel, exploration, and wormholes! In Orion Trail, players take on the role of intrepid space pioneers, to make the treacherous journey across the length of the Orion Belt to reach a planet known as Oregon IV — An unexplored world full of free space and the possibility of precious metals! Some of you earth creatures are familiar with…
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…
