Earlier this month, Matthew Clark posted a long held mystery of Eamon #80 – Search For The Key by Eamon’s creator, Donald Brown. Apparently, Dr. William Trent had a unique way of winning the game, however, he never disclosed the secret. In follow up emails with Dr. Trent, he no longer seems to remember what that solution was and thus Matthew Clark has put our a call to the entire Eamon community looking for those who might have a clue…
This month on Open Apple, we sit down with Ken Gagne and Andy Molloy of Juiced.GS, the longest running continuously published Apple II magazine (that you can still get in your mailbox to this day!). Juiced.GS is in its 23rd year, which has to be a record for magazines of almost any type. Ken and Andy talk about the bloodless coup of the magazine, the long history of same, where things are headed, and why they hates trees. Meanwhile, Quinn…
This week, the Vintage Geek Blog highlighted on of the better and least expensive video converters for the Apple IIgs. This video converter was also a highlight of the presentation at FAPPLE2 Fest 2018 by Atsushi Suzuki and is known to produce some of the best and clearest form of conversion. The CiBest HDMI to SCART Converter-Composite Video Stereo Audio Adapter not only handles NTSC but also PAL conversion for a bevy of gaming and computing platforms from your computer…
Alan Garfield has managed to put together another Apple-1 implementation, this one completely in Verilog. The project sucessfully runs both the Woz Monitor and Integer BASIC. Font and Color support has also been added to the project. Thus far, there have been two boards which have been tested and successfully work with this implementation of Apple-1 Emulator. You can see the implementation of one of them in the photo below: If you would like to try this out for yourself,…
Rich Dreher, owner of R&D Automation LLC which produced the CFFA 3000 card has released a new update on the next run of the cards. According to his website, Rich says: The first 500 boards have arrived back from the assembler! I have just tested 3 boards and they all work. My tentative plan is to open for pre-orders next Saturday (Feb 24) in the afternoon. This date is subject to change. I will email everyone on the waiting list…
James and John have been busy and a massive dump of episodes to the RetroMacCast website brings them up to date. A number of topics are discussed including the latest EBay finds, VCF and other retro Macintosh related topics. Be sure to catch all of the latest episodes by going to the RetroMacCast website at: http://retromaccast.ning.com/
In the latest episode of the Assembly Lines podcast, Chris Torrence shows how to beat an Olympic record using only his index fingers. Is the mysterious package from Bulgaria involved? Find out here!
Roger Wagner KansasFest 2018, the premier annual Apple II convention, is scheduled for July 17 – 22 in Kansas City, Missouri. This year marks the 30th time that this event has been held. In July 1989, Resource Central held the first A2-Central Developer Conference, focused on the individuals and companies who were still producing hardware and software for the Apple II and IIGS computers. Within a couple of years, the event transformed into a conference for Apple II developers and…
Over the next few days, we may have periods of going dark due to our servers being migrated to a new service provider. We started with VServers in Tukwilla,Wa. in 1997 where we would just call the server support guys out on the server farm and have problems with the machine fixed. That has changed with the latest change after the current provider took over Peer1 and basically began to insist on us paying fees that are not realistic. Thus…
For those of use who used Apple computers in the early 1980’s, there have been two constants in the gaming world. The first was Oregon Trail which every school age child of that generation still recognizes today. The other, while not as recognizable, was just as influential in the Text Based Interactive Fiction realm. That would be Eamon, the adventure system created in 1980 by Donald Brown. Over the years since his initial version of the Beginners Cave appeared in…
MacTracker, the Ian Page produced Apple product information tracking app has been updated. The latest release, version 7.7.2, includes the following changes: HomePod added to the database The latest OS updates have been added Support status and obsolete status of Apple products added Other minor changes, fixes and additions. MacTracker is a Free app and is available from the Apple app store. For more information, check out the MacTracker website at: http://mactracker.ca/
PLASMA, the modern programming language for the Apple 1, II, and III series computers has been officially released. Version 1.0 was announced today by the developer, David Schmenk. The new version includes disks which will run on a variety of Apple platforms including the entire Apple II series as well as the Apple III. While the program does not run on the Apple-1, it does provide the means by which to develop programs for it as well. According to the…
Tom Charelsworth has updated the Applewin Apple II Emulator. Version 1.27.0.0 includes a host of changes and fixes including: Full release that rolls-up all the changes and fixes from the 1.26.2 & 1.26.3 experiment builds. Changes to the system include: [Change #428] Added Config Input option to use PC Joystick 1 Thumbstick 2 for emulated Joystick 2 play Nick Westgate’s updated Robotron using gamepads with two analog thumbsticks, eg. Logitech F310, PS4 DualShock 4, Xbox controller [Change #528] Improved logging…
Eventbrite has announced the 2018 rendition of the Seattle Retro Gaming Expo. The Expo which takes place each year at Seattle Pacific Science Center is considered to be one of the largest retro gaming conventions in the Pacific Northwest. According to the website, SRGE 2018 dives in to the nuts & bolts of what makes retro gaming fun: playing your favorite games with friends, learning about retro gaming, collecting and trading games, multiplayer tournaments where everyone is in the same…
Wrong about the iPhone XWell, it has happened before…back in ’83. See, from a feature point of view, the iPhone 8 look doomed beside the X. But price points do come into play in such matters. Apple is curtailing the production of the X, and the Spy assumes it will be discontinued once the X year is done. As the physician said to the 12-year old Spy when he came into his office looking like scarlet fever: “Allergic to the…
The popular audio tool X Lossless Decoder(XLD) has a new 64-bit beta test version that was released today. XLD is a very useful tool for converting lossless audio files into various formats like FLAC, Apple Lossless, MP3, and AAC among others. While the author is asking for feedback with his 64-bit beta, the current 32-bit release is another choice for new users and has been actively developed since 2006. Another powerful feature, for anyone with audio CDs, is the ability…
During the past week, I have been re-visiting a number of the original Apple II archives which we produced here at A.P.P.L.E. during my testing with John Morris’ Applesauce. In the bunches of floppies, I found one disk labeled mysteriously “March Special E-Base Program“. Initially, I thought it might be an old database program that never came to light, however, to my surprise, it was the original Eamon version 2.1 Base Program which was modified by John Nelson and Robert…
Come watch Chris Torrence as he attempts to tackle the Oregon Trail, IRL, or at least as much as you can tackle from within a museum. Watch the video here!
ReactiveMicro has announced the latest version of their Rom Reader adapter. The 9316A Rom Reader Adapter V.1.2, produced by Henry Courbis is now available from the ReactiveMicro website: v1.2 of the adapter now has 300 mil wide square pins which are gold plated. This new version of the adapter comes fully assembled from the manufacture. We have also found a new way to assemble … For more information or to purchase the new 9316A Rom Reader Adapter, go to: https://www.reactivemicro.com/2018/01/29/new-product-version-9316a-rom-reader-adapter-v1-2/
The CFFA 3000 card Run # 5 is now in progress. The CFFA 3000 card, produced by R&D Automation LLC is an Apple II series card which allows users to use Compact Flash or USB thumb drives in their machines as a mass storage device. According to the R&D Automation website, Great news! Today we verified that 4 CFFA3000 “first-article” units off the assembly line function perfectly in two Apple IIgs computers. The assembler is now in the process of…
