In part 4 of the “Fix Your Old Computer” series, Chris Torrence shows how to disassemble and repair the disk drive within a Commodore Amiga 500. Although not strictly Apple related, the techniques are applicable to any retro computer. Watch now!
An important documentary about the origins of many modern technologies, “General Magic,” premiered in April at the Tribeca Film Festival. General Magic was founded in 1990 to reinvent telephony, and in 1994 – over a decade before the iPhone – they shipped one of the first smartphones and created a voice assistant. The visionaries at General Magic included people who were part of the original Mac team and innovators who went on to found eBay, develop Android, and create the…
John Morris has announced the immediate availability of the latest version of the Applesauce Floppy Disk Controller client software. Applesauce FDC client version 1.05 will add a myriad of fixes and enhancements including: New disk visualization system. Better performance and the output file sizes are 30% of what they used to be. PNG files now also contain metadata. Fast Imager has undergone a significant upgrade. It will now allow for light copy protections, like volume number changes and E7 bitstream,…
By Rick Sutcliffe Last month The Spy detailed issues with his university-owned mid-2015 MacBook Pro. He had thought nothing of the fact that the keys were beginning to imprint on the screen (it could be wiped clean), but when he realized that the machine would no longer stand on its own four feet, but was wobbling unsteadily on a bump in the lower case, he realize it had the dreaded swollen battery condition. So in some trepidation (a first timer…
In this three-part series, Chris Torrence shares tips & tricks for repairing your retro computer from the 1970s and 1980s. Episode #1: Tool, Computer Components, Power Supplies Episode #2: Magical Thinking and Using a Multimeter Episode #3: Multimeters and Logic Probes
The Eaten By A Grue podcast, episode number 22 has been released. The EBAG podcast, which is run by Kevin Savetz and Carrington Vanston, endeavor to lead the listeners through the Infocom game CutThroats this episode. Set sail for Hardscrabble Island, where sly divers vie for sunken treasure. Can Kevin and Carrington avoid the dangers of the deep long enough to enjoy the game? Don’t hold your breath. To listen to the Eaten By A Grue podcast, go to their…
John Brooks, the co-creator of the VidHD 1080p Card for the Apple II computer, has released a video of the capabilities of the card. The VidHD card allows users to use modern HDMI monitors with their Apple II computers. The Video demonstrates the high quality look of the video by using the following games via the NTSC mode of the VidHD card: Airheart, Rescue Raiders, Captain Goognight, Drol, Hard Hat Mack, Mr. Do, The Bard’s Tale, Wizardry, Dazzle Draw DHGR…
The latest version of the Applesauce Floppy Drive Controller client software has been released. John Morris, creator of Applesauce, pushed the update out through the automatic update feature now included in Applesauce. Included in this release are the following updates and fixes: * Flux Imaging now happens 25% faster! * Created Bulk Processing system under the Tools menu. * Added bulk processor for updating A2R files to the new version 2.0 format. * Added bulk processor for changing the Contributor…
We’re announcing the availability of the Tome of Copy Protection Errata. Anyone who purchased the Tome of Copy Protection prior to August 21, 2018 will find this errata useful. This errata is based on dozens of hours of discussion between a number of members of the Apple II community and author Lane Roathe. Additional credit goes to Antoine Vignau of Brutal Deluxe Software for his tireless attempts to ensure that everything was covered alongside Brian Wiser of A.P.P.L.E. The Tome…
The Apple II DiskBrowser has been updated. DiskBrowser, a creation of Denis Molony, is a utility which allows users to view the contents of Apple II disk images on their Macintosh computers. The java based utility has had additional graphics capabilities added to the program and offers rudimentary WOZ disk image support at the moment. DiskBrowser is a free utility and the latest versions of the utility are available for download from Github at: https://github.com/dmolony/DiskBrowser/releases/
Charles Mangin from Retroconnector has released a version for two players! Here is the info from his site: One of the first games I ever played on my family’s Apple IIe was the Jordan Mechner master work, Karateka. Fight the bad guys, save the princess – it’s a simple but classic formula. My brother and I would take turns making our way through Akuma’s fortress. Even then, we wanted a two player version. Fast forward more than 30 years, and…
The Virtual II Emulator has been updated. Virtual II version 8.6 is a highly rated shareware Apple II emulator and has received a host of Bug fixes and enhancements including: Added a keyboard shortcut to enter and exit full screen. The Inspector’s instruction trail now also shows the processor cycle count at the start of each instruction. The instruction trail can now be saved as a tab-separated text file. Increased the maximum capacity of the instruction trail to 9999999 instructions…
The Applewin Apple II Emulator for Windows has been updated. Version 1.27.7.0 has been posted by Applewin’s curator, Tom Charlesworth. Included in this update are the following bug fixes: [Bug #564] Fixed ‘Save State on Exit’ not working correctly when there’s a Configuration change to the hardware. [Bug #556] Reverted default so that ALT+TAB is not hooked Support new command line switch: -hook-alt-tab to support hooking ALT+TAB. [Bug #558] Reverted default so that ALT GR’s fake LEFT CONTROL is not…
Denis Molony has released a new version of the Apple II Disk Browser. The latest update to the popular disk browsing utility includes updates to the graphics handling within the program. You can download Version 1.0.28 of the Apple II Disk Browser JAR from the Disk Browser github releases page at: https://github.com/dmolony/DiskBrowser/releases
The “Eaten by a Grue” podcast, run by Kevin Savetz and Carrington Vanston, has announced the release of two new episodes of their popular Infocom based podcast. Two, yes TWO, new episodes of the #EatenByAGrue podcast are posted today, both recorded at @KansasFest https://t.co/Bqla5rpw7K #a2kfest #interactivefiction — Kevin Savetz (@KevinSavetz) August 7, 2018 The two new episodes, #19 and #20 cover the game Rollercoaster, the very first game to use the Laserdisk and the Infocom Non-Interacive releases including their production…
By Rick Sutcliffe Record Breaking Heat in numerous parts of the world has been a staple of the news for several recent years, including 2018. Shifting weather patterns and a steady general temperature increase have combined to see some locales with record-breaking heat waves and produce devastating wildfires, most notably in Canada Greece, and the western U.S. But weather and fires are not the only hot topics. Apple has a long history of heat problems with its devices. The switch…
The RetroMacCast Episode 274 is now available on the RetroMacCast website. This episode includes discussions on: The latest interesting eBay finds including an Apple organizer, 2c flat panel collection, and brass paperweight. Discussions about General Magic, and news includes World Emoji Day, Apple employee #345, and using a IIsi today. You can hear Episode 274 as well as all of the RetroMacCast podcast episodes on the RMC website at: http://retromaccast.ning.com/
Roger Wagner was the keynote speaker at KansasFest 2018, held July 17-22 at Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Missouri. Chris Torrence sat down with Roger to chat about his past and current experiences at KansasFest, including tips on how best to Bite the Bag. Watch now!
The Applewin Apple II Emulator has been updated. Version 1.27.6.0 of Applewin, is primarily a maintenance release which addresses a few bugs including [Bug #570] Fixed lag when repeat-stepping in debugger. [Bug #558] Fixed ClosedApple + <key> not working (when using right ALT key). Applewin is made for the Windows operating system and can be downloaded for free from the Applewin Github releases page at: https://github.com/AppleWin/AppleWin/releases
Chris Torrence shows how you can use John Keoni Morris’ new Applesauce Floppy Disk Controller to image copy-protected disks directly from your Disk ][ to your Mac. The video includes surprise guest appearances from Javier Rivera, John Morris, and Roger Wagner. Watch here!
