In celebration of the 40th anniversary of Apple Pugetsound Program Library Exchange, we have decided to make the current issue of Call-A.P.P.L.E. Magazine available for free download. Some of the highlights of the issue include a variety of articles covering the history of A.P.P.L.E., the founding of The Apple Programmers and Developers Association (APDA) by A.P.P.L.E., full coverage of VCF Pacific Northwest, as well as detailed programming articles and retro Apple and Macintosh related items. Some of the authors featured…
Over the past year or so, Remy Gibert has been working on a multi-tasking operating system for the Apple II. The system, which appears to be much like Unix / Linux, is well into development with a good portion of the system completed. The goal of A2osX as Remy has named his fledgling operating system is to create: a cooperative, event-driven multitasking kernel (meaning it is applications that are responsible to give back control to kernel) Its principal goal is…
The latest release of the Applewin emulator is now available. Version 1.27.2.0 of Applewin includes a host of updates including: [Change #522] SSC: Support ACIA’s TX Empty interrupt for both COM and TCP modes. [Change #311] SSC: Support ACIA’s CTS/RTS. [Bug #308] Fixed TCP mode which was only generating an IRQ for first byte received. SSC: Fixed reading DIPSW registers. SSC: Support ACIA’s Program Reset (write to register 9). SSC: Improved logging for unsupported modes (Echo, Tx break signal). Changes…
The 462nd edition of the RetroMacCast Podcast has been released. In this episode, James and John discuss eBay finds: WWDC pins, original Apple logo banner, and Apple Pacific mug. John gets his Mac ROM-inator working, and news includes Hap’s prototype auctions, and Sosumi. To listen to the RetroMacCast episodes, check out their website at: http://retromaccast.ning.com/
Southern Stars released what is likely the best iOS satellite tracker available – Orbitrack, a successor to their Satellite Safari. It tracks thousands of orbiting satellites, including military satellites, and has detailed 3D models, facts, mission descriptions, and when satellites will be visible for one’s location. Southern Stars has been innovating astronomy software for many many years. I found it intriguing that one can see the perspective from the satellite’s view, complete with a 3D model, beyond seeing all of…
For those of you who havent heard it yet, the latest Eaten by a Grue podcast will give you a wonderful insight into the Infocom game, Bureaucracy. According to the posting on the main menu for this episode, To listen to this episode, fill out form GRU3 using a #2 pencil and send it by postal mail no later than 8AM yesterday. Be sure to submit all forms in triplicate, in person, and in ink. To listen to the latest…
In his latest exciting video, Chris Torrence shows you how to build a volume control that goes to 11 for your Apple II, II+, or IIe. Watch here!
Don’t have enough retro reading material? Never fear, the new Paleotronic magazine has you covered! Chris Torrence’s Assembly Lines podcast does a video review of the new magazine from down under. Watch here!
AgileBits has released a beta of 1Password 7 with a plethora of new features they have been working on for several years. Available now for Mac and Windows, this venerable password manager adds new features such as: a dark sidebar, drag and drop between vaults, nested tags, pop-out items, an integrated Safari extension, and running as a single process for the first time. Additional standout features include notes with rich formatting and hyperlinks, a new “Courier Prime Bits” font for…
The Spy notes and passes on verbatim with little comment (it is its own commentary) the following advertisement: Is your target audience completely persuaded? Let Vologda Analytica do it for you. Our extensive data sets and state-of-the-art algorithms can analyze any target population and build your campaign. Whether your product is political, household or industrial goods, or your services, our techniques have proven effective with a wide variety of clients and situations and will work in yours as well. We…
Manila Gear released the new 0soniq, which gives you zero channels of sound for your Apple IIgs, instead of the usual one. Each of the 32 oscillators available in the Apple IIgs’ Ensoniq Digital Oscillator Chip (DOC) can be assigned to play on any one of 8 output channels. The 0soniq blocks all 8 of those channels. If you would like to hear those channels, check out our 2soniq stereo or 4soniq quadraphonic sound cards. To enjoy no sound with…
MARCH 30, 2018 — KansasFest 2018, the 30th annual Apple II convention, is open for registration. Users, programmers, hobbyists, and retrocomputing enthusiasts are invited to Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Missouri, from Tuesday, July 17, through Sunday, July 22, for six days and five nights of sessions, demos, announcements, contests, and camaraderie. The keynote speaker will be Roger Wagner. In 1978, Wagner started his own software publishing company and sold popular titles such as the Merlin assembler and ASCII Express….
Have you always wanted lowercase support in your Apple ][ or ][+? Chris Torrence shows you how to create new character ROMs for your Apple ][ in the latest Assembly Lines video. Watch now!
Adam Christianson has released the 649th episode of his MacCast. This episode covers a myriad of macintosh topics including: Next announcements from Apple. Apple buys Texture magazine service. Apple updates MFi program. iPhone ‘upgrade’ cycle likely to stay flat. Quick follow-up stuff. Apple’s parental controls. Don’t use Markup to cover up. Understanding your Mac’s sleep modes. To listen to Episofe #649 of The MacCast or to hear other episodes, go to the The MacCast website at: http://www.maccast.com/
David Schmenck has released version 1.1 of PLASMA. The programming environment which allows users to use a modern programming language on all of the vintage Apple computers, is the first new programming language for the Apple II in more than 30 years. According to the release notes for PLASMA 1.1, changes in this version include: All known bugs are fixed PLASM compiler received a little performance boost with an assembly language helper for ID/keyword lexical scanner You can download the…
Publisher DotEmu has finally updated Karateka Classic to support iOS 11. I’ve found it to be one of the more enjoyable ports and am very glad to have this Apple II game working again. Speaking of DotEmu and their Mac / iOS games, they’ve also done very nice ports of the popular action/adventure Another World and Jordan Mechner’s adventure The Last Express. Raiden Legacy and R-Type are also excellent, classic shooters.
For those of you who have suffered long with the old version of Apple Commander, your cries have been answered. AppleCommander 1.4.0, which allows users to manipulate Apple II Disk images, has now been released. According to the new GitHub page, changes in the new package include: We migrated from SourceForge to GitHub. This updates the boot code to point that out. AppleCommander would hang in an infinite loop if a directory wrapped in on itself. Thanks to @Lisias! Fixed…
Joshua Bell, creator of the online version of the Applesoft and Logo interpreters and curator of Calormen.com, has a new project. The project, with full sources on GitHub, is a complete disassembly of the program known as Apple II Desktop or MouseDesk by Version Soft. According to the Apple II Desktop repository readme, The goal of this project is to disassemble/reverse-engineer the suite with an eye towards understanding how it functions, and eventually fixing bugs and adding functionality. While, Joshua…
The source code for Mini vMac emulator version 3.6 Alpha is available for download from the Gryphel project website. This version is only an alpha and is not yet an official release but is available for those who want to build it and test out new features and bug fixes in the app. Mini vMac emulates a Mac Plus on multiple platforms and can run up to Mac OS 7.5.5 and runs on Mac OS X. The Gryphel project, run…
Adam Christianson has released episode 647 of his MacCast podcast. This episode includes a variety of Macintosh related topics including: iCloud on Google servers, not a surprise. More iPhone X Plus details. Two security firms claim to have iOS 11 cracks. Apple’s audio products are doing well. Apple Video adds M. Night Shyamalan series. Battery replacement times get longer. Avoid “Apple” phishing emails. Apple Watch track winter activities. A ‘lower priced’ Macbook Air? FileVault 2 clarification. Dealing with finicky FaceID….
