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….
The RetroMacCast crew has released episode 261 of their podcast, entitled “Possible but Not Probable”. This time around, James and John discuss their lastest eBay finds: an Apple Acapulco patch, the TAKKY Color Classic, and a clear prototype Apple IIcx. They also take a look back at March 98 in the Macintosh world through the lens of MacAddict magazine. Some of the news items they discuss include Apple’s filing for the six-color logo return, an Apple 1 restoration, and Steve…
The 2018/04 RetroChallenge is now taking entries for their event. RetroChallenge is an bi-annual event sponsored by John W. Linville in an effort to further the retro computing hobby. Entry rules pretty much sum up the feeling of the event: it is a bit like the opposite of Global Thermonuclear War — the only way to lose is not to play… The contest allows entries which are for any computer system which is older than 10 years and in the…
Ever had a problem with your rev 0 or rev 1 Apple II keyboard? Chris Torrence shows how to diagnose problems and clean sticky keys in the latest Assembly Lines video. Watch now!
The 75 page 40th Anniversary issue of Call-A.P.P.L.E. magazine has been released for A.P.P.L.E. members. We’re celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Apple Pugetsound Program Library Exchange (A.P.P.L.E.) User Group, founded February 21, 1978 along with the first issue of Call-A.P.P.L.E. in February 1978. This 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., full coverage of VCF Pacific Northwest, as well as detailed programming articles…
ReativeMicro and Briel Computers have agreed to a distribution of the Briel products. Briel Computers has long been a creator of products such as the Replia-1; an Apple-1 replica board, The Micro-Kim, The Altair 8800 Micro and other popular replica machines. Currently, the Replica-1 Plus are now available through ReactiveMicro. Other products that will be in the distribution have not been specified as of yet, but the Replica-1 Plus, the power supply and bus keyboard converters are currently available through…
A new film called “Steve Jobs’ Choices” is on IndieGoGo, produced by 8-Bit Generation who also produced “The Commodore Wars.” The documentary looks intriguing from the posted trailer. They have assembled some impressive interviews with people like John Sculley, Mike Markkula, Steve Wozniak, Andy Hertzfeld, Al Alcorn, Dan Kottke, Larry Tesler, Jay Elliot, Paul Terrel, Chuck Peddle, Alvy Ray Smith, Steven Levy, Alan Cooper, Stan Veit, Michael Swaine, and Paul Freiberg. About a month remains to complete their funding goal…
Bad news for the iPhone X continues to hit the net–both by way of fact and rumour. Apple has severely scaled back its orders for displays from Samsung–indicative of the ongoing disappointing sales of the X. The falldown is extensive. Samsung will now have surplus capacity and can both use those displays itself and sell them to Apple’s competition, who will in turn retail phones challenging the X but at much lower price points. They won’t make as much money,…
Target Stores are now apparently getting into the Realm of the Retro Machine. A new hand held game being sold exclusively at Target emulates the original 1984 version of The Oregon Trail. While most games related to the property in recent years have focused on renewing the property, this one plays squarely on the original. In a form factor that looks a lot like some of the Akalabeth emulators for iPhone, The Oregon Trail hand held has all of the…
The guys over at RetroMacCast have released their 260th episode of the RetroMacCast. This time around, they take a look at Descent as well as some really old Apple-1 Relica stuff. To listen to the RetroMacCast, check out their website at: http://retromaccast.ning.com/
This is the first issue of the rebooted Working Smarter Newsletter, aka version 2.0. My goal is to provide you with useful tips, hints, and techniques you can use to work smarter, along with links to tips, hints, and techniques of others you might find beneficial. First up, a quick tip about the WiFi menu on your Mac: The old Option key trick for your Mac’s Wi-Fi menu I heard this today on one of my favorite podcasts—MacGeekGab—and it reminded…
