The Apple-1 put up for Auction on 21 September by Bonhams Auction House has sold for a mediocre $365,000 USD. While up to $500,000 was expected in the auction, interest seems to have waned somewhat since a record $905,000 was paid for a completely working system. The system sold by Bonhams was owned by Tom Romkey, owner of the Personal Computer Store in Florida and is believed to be one of the 50 or so systems purchased by the Byte…
This month on Open Apple we sit down with Mike Westerfield, of The Byte Works’ fame. We talk about his adventures writing assemblers & compilers for 8/16 bit computers, and we see what he’s up to nowadays. We talk about small-system compilers, Logo, the perils of open source, and where to go for Byte Works’ products. It’s a compiler and assembler-themed episode of the one-and-only Apple II podcast. Tune in to hear Mike pine longingly for Lawless Legends, and hear…
At last, the 14 photo entries for last month’s Retro Apple II Photo Contest have been judged, leaving us with a first prize winner for an Uthernet II, a second prize winner for free shipping on the same, and three honorable mentions. To keep everything fair, the judge was someone who is not a part of the Apple II community, but who has a BFA degree and has a basic familiarity with the Apple II. Entries were judged based on composition, elements from…
by Rick Sutcliffe Back Up To The Old Tricks October 2015 Much has happened worth commenting upon in the months that this space has been devoted to explicating some of the features of Modula-2 R10 that make it safe, reliable, and extensible as a problem solving tool. For one thing, a few errors were noted in the June article. R10 uses NOT, but ~ is not a synonym, [DESCENDING] was removed for FOR loops and replaced by FOR selector–, and…
This year was my first Kansas Fest, and didn’t arrive on time for the Garage Giveaway. Regardless, I think the organizers do this from their hearts and spend a lot of time and money organizing, gathering, and transporting all goods. They deserve some help, so other than not selling what is giving away for free on eBay, we should chip in any way we can. Found about a GoFundMe page for helping them and I encourage everybody to contribute to…
Charles Mangin of RetroConnector fame has been working on an interesting conversion project. He has converted an Apple II Disk II drive to a Blu-Ray drive. This particular hack is being done by Charles as a special order item. For more on this hack and to view the photos of the hack, check out Charles RetrioConnector Blog at: http://retroconnector.com/updates/
Hi everybody! . . . . and it’s time for RCR #108 where Paul, Ken, and Jack talk about funding Funding retrocomputing projects When you get a new idea for something related to retrocomputing (new electronics, new cases, coffee table books)—and it’s a great idea—but you can’t fund it all yourself, what are the options? Thinking back on such projects, what seems to you like it’s been most successful? What would you try (or never try again)? Also from the…
Charles Mangin of RetroConnector fame has posted photos of his Apple //c Plus Headphone Jack. At press time, the only information we have outside of the photos of the unit are a promise from Charles that installation video and documentation will be available soon. To view the Apple //c Plus Headphone Jack information, check out the RetroConnector blog at: http://retroconnector.com/updates/
James and John have posted the latest edition of the RetroMacCast postcast. Episode 378 takes a look at the MacCharlie, an IBM compatibility box for the Mac. They also discuss the upcoming Apple event, their wild ebay finds for the week as well as the Steve Jobs movie poster. To listen to the RetroMacCast episode 378, go to the RetroMacCast website at: http://retromaccast.libsyn.com/rmc-episode-378-maccharlie
Brutal Deluxe software has updated the Apple II cassette tape collection with a new addition. Curator and Apple II aficionado, Antoine Vignau announced this week that Creative Computing’s Mission Impossible has been added to the collection bringing the total number of tapes to 634. To view or download the collection, check out the Apple II Cassette Collection website at: http://www.brutaldeluxe.fr/projects/cassettes/
Adam Christianson has posed the latest episode of the MacCast. This weeks episode delves into the expected items from the upcoming Apple event as well as the problem of the 225,000 breached iCloud accounts. To listen to this week’s episode, check out the MacCast website at: http://www.maccast.com/2015/09/04/maccast-2015-09-04/
Another Apple-1 computer is being auctioned by Bonhams Auction House. The Apple-1 owned by one Tom Romkey, a personal computer store owner in Florida, has owned the computer for the past 39 years. The board, having sat on a shelf for the majority of that time, is in pristine condition and is expected to draw 300,000 to 500,000 USD at the auction. The Apple-1’s were built by Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs in the garage of Steve Jobs home in…
Press Release via Ken Gagne SEPTEMBER 1, 2015 — LEOMINSTER, MA — Gamebits, publisher of premier Apple II magazine Juiced.GS, is proud to announce its partnership with software developer The Byte Works to sell Opus ][: The Software and Opus ][: The Source. These products, which collect the majority of The Byte Works’ products and source code, are available immediately on CD and USB and as downloadable disk images, starting at $25 each or $40 for both. “Juiced.GS’s collaborations with…
by Rick Sutcliffe Technology News and Views Since 1983 Modula-2 R10 Templates September 2015 Modula-2 R10 has been the Spy’s meat and potatoes in this space for a few months now. It is the fully modern dialect of Niklaus Wirth’s Modula-2 that he and Telecom engineer Benjamin Kowarsch have developed to address serious software engineering issues of safety, security, reliability, and extensibility. This month we consider the use of Generic templates to reach toward the software engineering grail of reusable…
This month on Open Apple, we sit down with Rebecca “Burger Becky” Heineman. Becky is a legendary Apple II developer (not to mention many other platforms), and was the keynote speaker at KansasFest 2015. We discuss Becky’s KansasFest experiences then and now, how the community has changed, and what she’s up to now. She has a lot of Apple II gold archived away, and we’re starting to see more and more of it as a result of the continued warmth…
First prize donated by A2RetroSystems. What do you love most about using an Apple II? Probably that it’s an open system, will expand only to the limits of your imagination, and that it’s straightforward to understand and program. But be honest: you probably also love the retro feel of the machine: the curves, the glow of the CRT, the sounds of the Disk II, the rainbow Apple logo. The theme of this contest is to recreate that vintage feel in…
Ciderpress version 4.0.1 has been released. The update to the disk utility was posted on the Ciderpress website, however change notes were not available at press time. Ciderpress is a Windows based utility for manipulation of Apple II disks and runs on all Windows system from XP to the latest version. Updates in Version 4.0.1 include the following items: Added support for displaying hi-res images compressed with LZ4FH. Fixed handling of semicolons in Merlin assembly source conversion. Fixed “find” feature…
John and James have posted the latest episode of the RetroMacCast. This episode, number 377, includes their EBAY finds which include a laser Beach Towel and an interesting collection of Apple memorabilia. They also take a look back atht eh August 1985 edition of MacWorld Magazine. To listen to the podcast, check out the RetroMacCast website at: http://retromaccast.libsyn.com/rmc-episode-377-pizzazz
Oliver Guinart has announced a new Visual Studio language reference for the Merlin32 Assembler. The announcement appeared in Oliver’s twitter feed last last night and promises some big things for the future of Apple IIgs programming. Prototype of a Visual Studio language service for Merlin32. Similar to the CC65 integration I demo’ed in France. pic.twitter.com/oZ2b2kBmzd — Olivier Guinart (@OlivierGuinart) August 26, 2015
In RCR Episode 107, Paul Hagstrom and Earl Evans discuss the Host Topic: The End Of Retrocomputing We here on the speaking end of these microphones have a pretty similar timelines with computers, having been young and eager when computers were just entering the “personal” era. No doubt a part of the current interest in re-exploring that time is nostalgia. Will people who were 10 in 2003 (Bart Simpson aside) play around with old Dell Windows boxes when the mid…
