Just in time for the Summer Kansasfest crowd, Andy Mcfadden has announced an update to his Apple II file transfer utility, Ciderpress. Version 4.0.4 includes a host of changes including the following: [app] Fixed limitation that prevented files larger than 16MB from being added to HFS volumes. [app] Fixed range check on volume number in 2IMG properties editor. [diskimg] Fixed a bug that caused assertion failures on ProDOS disks with short volume directories. [reformat] Fixed an incorrect Apple /// BASIC…
Petar Puskarich has announced the immediate availability of the latest beta 4 build of hfs.fst for GSOS. This release FIXES many of the old corruption issues found over the years. Mount the .po file Drag the new hfs.fst to your System FSTS folder. INACTIVATE the old hfs.fst or remove it from the folder. Only one hfs.fst should be active at any given time or some odd things happen with format/erase and fst selection during subsequent mounts. I have been doing…
With the virtual event Kansasfest 2020 in the books, the official announcement of the dates of the 2021 rendition of the biggest Apple II event in the world has been published. Acording to the Kansasfest committee, “Barring unforeseen circumstances, #A2KFEST 2021 is scheduled for July 19-25 at Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Missouri. Robert Woodhead, one of the co-creators of Wizardry, who originally was scheduled to be the 2020 keynote speaker, will kick off the 2021 event.” For more information…
Writing this tribute to Mike Harvey of Nibble magazine is long overdue for me. It’s overdue largely because of avoidance – Mike’s passing hit me especially hard when I learned about it on December 31, 2019. It’s interesting how the unexpected can happen. Sometimes in life the choices one makes lead to a path that unexpectedly becomes a journey. I had the extreme pleasure of working with Mike over several months in 2016 while creating and editing the “Nibble Viewpoints” book…
Seattle, Washington — July 24, 2020 — Apple Pugetsound Program Library Exchange (A.P.P.L.E.) is proud to announce the availability of a beautiful new 127 page manual for “Twilight II: The Ultimate Screensaver for Your Apple IIGS.” Twilight II was programmed by Jim R. Maricondo in 1993 and went through several revisions, eventually reaching a 2.0 beta. The new release 2.0 is the culmination of many efforts, with Antoine Vignau fixing bugs and compiling this final version in 2020. Bill Martens…
Seattle, Washington — July 24, 2020 — Apple Pugetsound Program Library Exchange (A.P.P.L.E.) is proud to announce the availability of a new manual for “Higher Text Plus” written by Ron Aldrich and Darrell Aldrich in 1980. Generate upper and lower case text in a variety of typefaces, sizes, and colors from your programs for display on the Apple II hi-resolution screen. Features an easy-to-use editor for creation of your own unique character sets, with over 90 fonts included. Several additional…
Seattle, Washington — July 24, 2020 — Apple Pugetsound Program Library Exchange (A.P.P.L.E.) is proud to announce the availability of a new manual for “Ampermanager: Amper Soft & DOS Manager” written by Rick Sutcliffe in 1983. Ampermanager enhances the BASIC programming language on the Apple II by interfacing machine language routines directly to Applesoft with the ampersand (&) command. Three additional utilities will help you write EXEC files, launch commands from menus, and read or write disk blocks in…
Seattle, Washington — July 24, 2020 — Apple Pugetsound Program Library Exchange (A.P.P.L.E.) is proud to announce the availability of a new manual for “ProCMD: The Commander” written by Glen Bredon in 1987. From the author who gave us Big Mac comes ProCMD: The Commander – a set of ProDOS utilities and 25 new ProDOS commands that greatly increase the power and flexibility of ProDOS in your Apple II. And you can create your own modules! Additional commands are included…
Seattle, Washington — July 24, 2020 — Apple Pugetsound Program Library Exchange (A.P.P.L.E.) is proud to announce the availability of a new manual for “ProZAP: A ProDOS Block Read/Write Utility” written by Gary Charpentier, Val J. Golding, Greg Kielian, and David Sparks in 1984. ProZAP is a ProDOS block read/write utility that is your key to unlocking many of the mysteries of Apple II disk directories, files and programs. It uses intrinsic ProDOS routines to read, edit and write any…
The Crow Cousins have released a new update to Hunt the Gulon, the double lo-res kin to decades old Hunt the Wumpus game, fixing a few minor display bugs and switching to an ultra-fast assembly-based painting routine, soon to be available in an upcoming release of Magic-Pixels. The update is available on the Crow Cousins website in .dsk and .woz disk image formats for Enhanced Apple //e, //c, IIc+, and IIgs models and various emulators.
Gerard Putter has released a new version of the Virtual II Apple II Emulator for Mac OS X. Version 10.0.1 has restored High Sierra Mac OS 10.13 support. You can download the latest release of the Virtual II Emulator from:https://virtualii.com/
Apple II Disk Browser has been updated. The Denis Molony produced Apple II disk image viewing application has a number of bug fixes included in this version of the program. Apple II Diskbrowser version 1.47 is downloadable for free from the Diskbrowser Github page at:https://github.com/dmolony/DiskBrowser
The Crow Cousins (in this case, Daniel Henderson and Roby Sherman) have collaborated on the world’s first double lo-res whodunit adventure for the Apple II. Set within the sprawling country estate of Screenhole Manor, seven miles north of nowhere, the game begins when another boring family, gathering, filled with the usual threats and melodrama one would expect, is interrupted by the savage MURDER of your uncle Hertzfeld! Taking on the persona of inspector Pomme-Deux, you, the player, must use your amazing powers…
RetroMacCast Episode 532 has been released by James and John. In this episode, they are joined in their discussions by Steve from Mac84. Topics in this episode include: eBay finds: Apple playing cards, SE/30, and G3 All-In-One. news includes Intel future predictions and early ARM Mini benchmarks. To listen to the latest edition of the RetroMacCast, check out the podcast website at: http://retromaccast.ning.com/
The Crow Cousins have released version 2.0b9 of their double lo-res drawing program Magic-Pixels. The 2.0 version introduces a “Blazing Paddles” menu and this version in particular fixes a number of compatibility issues with IIgs and //c computers using mice. As with prior versions, Magic-Pixels will allow you to save your creations in either a bitmap format or a special “draw on demand” format similar to the old Graphics Magician / Hi-Res adventure games. In fact, the Crow Cousins are…
David Schmenk has announced the release of the latest version of the PLASMA programming environment for the Apple II series computers. PLASMA 2.0 Alpha 1 includes the following improvements: Improved entry/exit for 128K Apple IIe //c Improved entry for Apple /// Improved entry and function calls for 16 bit VM Apple3 ReadyToRun compatible images You can download the latest version of the PLASMA programming environment from the PLASMA GitHub page at:https://github.com/dschmenk/PLASMA
Virtual Apple II Emulator for the Mac has been updated. Gerard Putter has announced that this version 10.0 of Virtual II includes some of the most requested features that people have been asking for as well the following: Virtual machine snapshots can now be saved and restored at any time, without the need to close the virtual machine. This feature is available in the full-licensed version only. Improved woz disk reading. Some diskette images could not be opened, but now…
Somethings new at WWDCdelivered a spate of announcements across the board about Apple products. The big one had long been predicted here, and the timeline was roughly as forecast when the Spy first mentioned it a few years back. Apple will now abandon Intel chips for the Macintosh line and switch to its in-house design, the A12Z chip. Indeed, the WWDC demonstrations were done on a machine running with the new chip. Developers will be seeded with MacMinis that have…
What happens when you take the classic cave exploration / hunting game, evict the wumpi, add earthquakes, found arrows, and double lo-res graphics (thanks to power of Magic-Pixels)? You get Hunt the Gulon, a satisfying remake crafted by Crow Cousins for the Enhanced Apple //e, //c, and IIgs. The game is freely available for download on the Crow Cousins website.
Crow Cousins have released Magic-Pixels, a double lo res painting program, based on Marc Golombeck’s awesome Double LORES graphics library! The paint program can create “drawing format” files (similar to those Graphics Magician images used in hi-res adventures back in the day) plus a bitmap image format. Both image formats can be loaded and displayed using the included source code, which can be freely incorporated into your own Applesoft BASIC creations. Magic-Pixels works on an Enhanced Apple //e, //c, or…
