Technology News and Views Since 1983May 2020 The Spy is a little latewith his meanderings and prognostications this month. The two weeks of year end meetings and activities lacked an actual graduation ceremony–a great disappointment for students to be sure, who have to wait till November or later for their walk across the stage and handshake–but were replete with lengthy meetings around “how did we do this term?” and “What are we going to do next?” The consensus on the…
From the europlus zone blog: I’m very happy to announce the date for the next WOzFest: WOzFest SWEET16 will be held on Saturday 25 July 2020, starting at midday Sydney time (UTC+10:00). The theme for WOzFest SWEET16 is “Community” – having supportive communities is important at the best of times, but especially so at the moment. The camaraderie involved in events like WOzFest certainly help me feel lucky in these trying times. So come and join my community for a few hours, no matter where you are in the world….
The Handbrake Team has released the latest version of their Handbrake video conversion software. Version 1.3.2 includes a bevy of fixes, changes, and updates, of which a full listing can be found in the Handbrake 1.3.2 release notes on their Github Page at:https://github.com/HandBrake/HandBrake/releases/tag/1.3.2 The latest version of the Handbrake software is available for free from their website at: https://handbrake.fr
Valve is now ending support for SteamVR on Mac OS X so as they say in their posting, “so our team can focus on Windows and Linux.” While the Mac has never really been a real focus for Steam VR, they did make a big bruhaha about their support of Mac OS X a while back but that excitement seems not to have translated to any real dollars for Valve. And just like that, they are dropping the whole Mac…
Jeff Jetton has released a new version of the traditional bar game, Shut the Box, for the Apple-1. The game, traditionally a dice gambling game also known as Bakarat, can be found in many variations and under many names. This version of the game was written in 6502 assembly language and is available in ASM file format as well as a binary, Woz monitor file, and JS Tape File Format for the Will Scullin Apple-1 Emulator. You can download the…
The missing side B of the Apple II package FrakTured FaebLes has finally been located. In a posting in the Apple II Slack Channel, a copy of the game posted by Dan Chisarick contained the full and complete second side. Long known to be a game that was incomplete due to the oversight by American Eagle Software, Inc., this is finally available in full form. When the game was written to the disk, only Side A was written in most…
Dr. Steven Weyhrich has released a new Apple II parody video just in time for the opening of the Kansasfest registrations. Here it is for your full enjoyment:
James Davis has created a full Apple II ROM disassembly listing which lists all of the addresses from $C000 to $FFFF in the Apple II Computer. This listing is one of the most complete listings and utilizes many publications including several A.P.P.L.E. Publications and can be viewed on Andy McFadden’s website at:https://6502disassembly.com/a2-rom/
KansasFest 2020, the 32nd annual Apple II convention, is open for registration. Users, programmers, hobbyists, and retrocomputing enthusiasts are invited to gather virtually from Friday, July 24, through Saturday, July 25, for two days and one night of sessions, demos, announcements, contests, and camaraderie. We will make the best of the virtual arrangement and return to Kansas City in 2021. We’ve rescheduled the keynote speaker, Robert Woodhead, to next year. Registration is only $20 to participate in all talks and…
Virtual KFesters:We are now accepting session proposals for Virtual KansasFest 2020. Please submit your session at:http://www.kansasfest.org/sessions/The plan is to offer two days of sessions, with 15 or 30 minute time slots. Preference will be given to live talks, but you may also submit a pre-recorded talk that can be played in the session’s scheduled time slot, or (if you need a longer time) to be made available separately to participants.A few logistics: – Session proposals will be accepted until May…
The Gryphel Project has released an alpha release of the latest version of the Mini vMac Macintosh Emulator. This update includes a number of bug fixes and some changed behavior in the emulator including: * Mini vMac will now check if a disk image that is being mounted looks like a Macintosh disk image format (HFS or MFS), and if not decline to mount it, showing an error message. This helps prevent accidentally corrupting other files, especially when using ImportFl….
The Applewin Apple II Emulator for Windows operating systems has been updated. Applewin Version 1.29.12 includes numerous changes and updatees including the following: [PR #757] Allow use of an INI-file for configuration instead of the Registry (fixes #709). new command line switch: -conf [Change #773] Added Apple II J-Plus support. [Bug #778] Fixed for when Joystick(s) are disabled. [Bug #777] Fixed Phasor speech (SSI263) to match Mockingboard (when in Mockingboard mode). fixes: #698 (Rescue Raiders), #753 (Bejeweled). also improvements to Phasor card’s native Phasor mode. [PR #775] Debugger: Fixed so…
The 523rd episode of the RetroMacCast has been released. In this latest episode, James and John discuss their eBay finds: PowerBook 1400 cover inserts, Apple settop box and NIB SE/30. They chat with Rocky Bergen about his extraordinary papercraft retro computers, and news includes Dana Sibera and Macs powered by Apple. To listen to the latest episode or past episodes of the RetroMacMast, check out their website at: http://retromaccast.ning.com/forum/topics/episode-523-rocky-s-papercraft
This has been a big hunk of work! I have completely reworked large portions of the low-level architecture of the Applesauce Floppy Disk Controller client software. The first fruit of this endeavor is that if you have an Apple SuperDrive, you can now image High Density (1.44MB) disks! The Fast and Flux Imagers for 3.5 disks supports imaging 1.44M and 720K disks with an Apple SuperDrive. If you are Fast Imaging non-Apple disks (like MS-DOS), then you can save them…
Just as the world was going into full lock down mode, the French Touch, released a new demo for the Apple IIe. Digidream demonstrates some of the Apple IIe and IIc computers sound capabilities featuring the Mockingboard. For this and other French Touch demos, check out their website at:http://fr3nch.t0uch.free.fr/ or their video page on YouTube at:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_oJwEI4Abnb98ryTUS_IAQ/videos
The RetroMacCast episode number 522 has been released. In this episode, James and John discuss eBay finds: Quadra 800, MacEffects Clear Mac SE, and Corvette mouse cover. They play some classic Lode Runner, and news includes iPhone SE, Apple Music, HyperCard P.T. and Apple II. To see all of the show notes and join the RetroMacCast website where you will find the episodes as well as the RMC discussion forums. Also, be sure to join the RetroMacCast Facebook page and visit RMC at RetroMacCast.
A version of the ZX Spectrum game, Manic Miner has been released by StewBC. This initial version incorporates all of the features of the original Manic Miner but on the Apple II, uses a screen scrolling feature in order to get the entire game board on the screen. You can download the release of the game from the Manic Miner releases page on Github at: https://github.com/StewBC/mminer-apple2/releases
Gerard Putter has released an update to his Apple II emulator for Mac OS. Virtual II version 9.3 includes a bevy of changes and fixes including the following items: Added support for the 13-sector Disk ][ card. In macOS 10.15 (Catalina) the window position is now correctly restored when starting the application. Game controller calibration is now saved between runs of the applications. Improved the accuracy of the analog game paddle input values. Solved a number of issues of the embedded…
The next two-liners programming exhibition from the Apple II Software Enthusiasts group runs through July 31st, 2020. The theme for this next round will be “Fancy Screen Stuff“. Write and submit your most impressive and inspired code that showcases the Apple II and your abilities as it relates to the theme above (and your own personal interpretation of course). You can make something animated, lo-res, hi-res, text, it’s completely up to you! Just bring your A-Game! The winner selected will…
The Epple II Emulator, which emulates an Apple II computer on multiple platforms has been updated. Produced by Christopher Mosher, Epple II Version 1.0.5 includes a host of features including support for the latest WOZ disk format as well as others. You can download the latest version for your platform from the Epple II Github releases page at: https://github.com/cmosher01/Epple-II/releases
