Gerard Putter, creator and curator of Virtual II the emulator, has announced a new version of the software. Virtual II is the premier Apple II emulator for Mac OS X and has been consistently updated for more than 10 years now. Version 8.5 was released today with a host of patches and fixes including: Added Dark Mode support for macOS 10.14 (Mojave). Woz disk image files are now shown correctly (enabled) in the disk open panel. Reading an empty diskette…
Seattle, Washington — July 5, 2018 — Apple Pugetsound Program Library Exchange (A.P.P.L.E.), Bruce Jones, and Lane Roathe are proud to announce the immediate availability of the book Tome of Copy Protection. Copy protection is designed to keep people from making copies of a disk. Because of the complexity and ‘hidden’ aspects of copy protection, most people have little or no idea how this protection works. This 380 page book is designed to help you understand what is going on…
Seattle, Washington — July 5, 2018 — Apple Pugetsound Program Library Exchange (A.P.P.L.E.) is proud to announce the immediate availability of our book All About Applesoft: Enhanced Edition. As a comprehensive guide to Applesoft BASIC, “All About Applesoft” examines the construction and use of the BASIC programming language on a variety of levels. This new “Enhanced Edition,” encompassing 280 fact-filled pages, features the improved readability of modern fonts and typesetting, memory maps, example programs, many programming references, how-to’s, and a…
Seattle, Washington — July 5, 2018 — Apple Pugetsound Program Library Exchange (A.P.P.L.E.) is proud to announce the immediate availability of our Call-A.P.P.L.E. Magazine: 40th Anniversary – all 96 color pages are now in print! Normally, only A.P.P.L.E. members can enjoy our digital magazine, but now this special magazine is available in print. This February 2018 issue includes 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., coverage…
Apple Pugetsound Program Library Exchange (A.P.P.L.E.) has released a new manual for the Apple II programming language Blankenship BASIC by John Blankenship. Beyond improved readability from modern typesetting, this 80 page manual makes using, understanding, and expanding the programming language easy. John assisted us with this release, and he is eager to see how people expand their programs. Blankenship BASIC, last released 1987, expands the power of Applesoft BASIC by vastly expanding available commands and capabilities for Apple II programmers…
Apple Pugetsound Program Library Exchange (A.P.P.L.E.) has released a manual for the Apple II copy protection program The Scrambler by Jerry Jongerius. The software was originally published in 1983 by A.P.P.L.E., but no manual was released at that time. The Scrambler, which also includes Fast Disk Check and Password, is a suite of DOS 3.3-based utilities that enable users to copy protect 5.25″ disks and data, set a password for disks, and verify the integrity of disks. If you…
Chris Torrence continues his hacking on Mike’s Rev 0 Apple II. In this episode, he hooks up the Apple II to an Arduino to try to diagnose what’s wrong with the computer. Hilarity ensues…
The Applewin Apple II Emulator has been updated. Verison 1.27.5.0 is now available to all users. This update of Applewin includes a host of bug fixes including the following: [Bug #567] Fixed Mockingboard/6522: Reading the 6522’s IER now returns 0x80|IER. [Bug #556] Allow system key combinations to be read: Open Apple (left ALT) + ESC/SPACE/TAB. Also fixes #145, #198, #448. Support new command line switches: -no-hook-system-key, -alt-enter=<open-apple-enter|toggle-full-screen> Fix for save-state which wasn’t correctly saving last key. [Bug #555] Reverted 1.27.4’s…
First mentioned here back in 2005, and oft referenced since, the Spy’s Fourth Law: Marketshare lags mindshare by two to five years. has proven a robust marketplace staple, applicable to both entire technology companies and individual products. On the way to becoming the global technology giant, Apple earned mindshare with meticulously designed and executed hardware and software. Not everything Apple did was truly innovative, but their products worked better, lasted longer, won people over, made friends who then bought their…
From the europlus zone blog: Yes, I know I’ve been slack not posting my WOzFest DB9 Recap and Photos Galleries, but I am able (and happy) to announce the date for the next WOzFest, WOzFest X – Saturday 21 July 2018, starting around midday Sydney time (UTC+10:00). I haven’t set a theme for WOzFest X – however, I have organised the usual Kansas Fest video hookup we try for each year. The Skype call is slated to start at around 14:00 local time (23:00 Friday Kansas…
For those of you who have been following the A2osX project, there is now a new version of the Source and Build floppies available for download from the A2osX Github repository. The brainchild of Rémy Gibert, A2osX aims to be a multitasking operating system for the Apple II much like Linux or other Unix type operating systems. If you are interested in helping with this project, developers who are familiar with this type of operating system development are welcome to…
DiskBrowser has been updated to version 1.0.25. The latest version of Denis Molony’s Apple II disk image browsing software now supports the WOZ format. DiskBrowser is a Java based application and includes the following features: Applesoft and Integer Basic Pascal disassembler 6502 disassembler Wizardry internals and maps Infocom text adventure internals Appleworks Visicalc HDV and 2mg Compressed disks – shrinkIt, gzip, zip Track and sector display Dual DOS disks CPM disks Comprehensive disk listing You will need the latest version…
James and John have released the 466th episode of the RetroMacCast Podcast. In this episode, they discuss a host of items including: eBay finds: six-color Apple poster, Woz-autographed floppy, and a Peach Apple II clone. They delve into the Takky Mac, and news includes Susan Kare, the end of Airport, and Hap’s prototype collection. To listen to the RetroMacCast podcast, check out their website at: http://retromaccast.libsyn.com/rmc-episode-466-takky?tdest_id=159182
Charity Buzz is currently auctioning off one of the original Apple-1 Computers. The “Duston 2” as this Apple-1 is being named, was previously owned by Adam Duston of Naperville Illinois. One of the original Byte Shop machines, the “Duston 2” has been modified slightly but according to Apple-1 restorer and expert, Corey Cohen, is not in bad physical condition and he gave it a 7.0 rating, stating that “the board would have been an 8,5 had it been all original….
The Applewin Emulator has been updated to Version 1.27.4.0. This version focuses on items related to the Super Serial Card and the recent interest in BBS and Modem related topics. The latest release of Applewin includes a host of improvements and fixes including: Fix for showing 559th DHGR vertical column. But now an HGR HCOLOR=2 vertical line at column 0 is only 1 DHGR pixel wide. Fix TEXT80 to be aligned with DHGR. Fix FLASH in TEXT80 (the inverse aux-memory…
The Spy’s garden is kinda dusty these days, as this past month has been the driest May on record here in the West of the frozen North. Apple has its own problem with dust–in its MacBook Pro keyboard switches. Seems once it accumulates sufficiently, the butterfly switches cease functioning. Good thing the Spy thought of that possibility and bought a JCPAL keyboard overlay when his machine was new. True, the extra printed information was one motivation, but he’d had dust…
The latest version of the Virtual II Emulator has been released. Virtual II is a Shareware full featured Apple II emulator which offers users near real hardware experiences on Mac OS X. The latest release, version 8.4 contains a host of changes including Improved “woz” disk image compatibility; the application now deals better with several copy-protection schemes. If a woz disk’s internal write protect property has been set, QuickLook now shows the disk without a write-protect notch, to indicate that…
Join Mike Maginnis and Chris Torrence as they try to fix Mike’s Rev 0 Apple II on the latest episode of the Assembly Lines podcast. Watch here!
I recently had the opportunity to beta test the new ReactiveMicro Apple IIc Plus Universal Power Supply, and it’s a beauty! The Apple IIc Plus was the last version of the already popular portable version of the Apple II. It featured a 4 MHz processor, expandable memory, internal 3.5 floppy drive, and new serial connectors. But the best feature was the lack of “brick on a leash” that plagued the original //c. This gave this model the freedom and portability…
For a spell, the Steve Jobs Archive was the one go-to place on the web to get a good synopsis of the videos of Steve and the associated grouping. The site contains 43 categories of Steve Jobs’ life and the videos which contain that aspect. After the disappearance of the site, A.P.P.L.E. inquired and apparently the interest in Steve Jobs had waned to a point where the curator, Art Matsak, felt that it was no longer needed. However, Since said…
