In a groundbreaking development for the Apple IIGS community, Alex Lee and Jesse Blue have announced version v0.7 of their “What is the Apple IIGS? Launcher”, a revolutionary way enthusiasts can launch and play their favorite IIGS games. This release, announced as part of Kansasfest 2023, aims to address longstanding issues such as slow read and write speeds of 3.5” disks and compatibility problems between different operating systems and launching methods.
The brainchild of a dedicated group of developers, this launcher owes its success to the collaborative efforts of several individuals and organizations. Jesse Blue of Ninja Force deserves commendation for his expert coding, resulting in a lightning-fast custom boot system and menu. Antoine Vignau of Brutal Deluxe Software and the famed Apple II hacker, Qkumba’s contribution to providing mass storage compatible versions of games and applications has been invaluable to the project. Dagen Brock’s GitLab collaboration has allowed the entire group to maintain organized and streamlined project builds. Additionally, Fatdog’s exceptional work on 3200 color image mode conversions has further enhanced the graphics within the project, increasing exponentially the launcher’s visual appeal.
The primary objective of the “What is the Apple IIGS? Launcher” is to offer a unified method for launching all commercial IIGS games and more. It requires a mass storage device that can support at least 8 Smartport volumes, ensuring access to an extensive library of titles. While some devices like FloppyEmu are compatible, they may have limitations in terms of simultaneous volume access. According to the release notes, the launcher currently runs smoothly with 1.25 megabytes of RAM, and allows users to use an accelerator card for optimizing performance with certain game titles. However, as demonstrated in the presentation, running some games at the normal machine speed produces the best results in performance within the games.
In version v0.7, the launcher boasts an impressive list of features. It includes every IIGS-specific commercial game release that can run from mass storage, along with a handpicked selection of freeware, shareware, educational software, and scene demos. The Boot volume itself houses multiple operating systems, allowing preselected OS loading for each title to save memory and minimize launch times.
The launcher’s user-friendly interface simplifies navigation with a fast text mode UI, controlled primarily by the keyboard. A convenient search function enables users to quickly find their desired game, ensuring a seamless experience. Moreover, returning to the launcher after playing a game is effortless, facilitated by the so called “3-finger salute” or open-apple, control, and reset.
Despite its impressive accomplishments, the “What is the Apple IIGS? Launcher” team acknowledges that there are still a few known issues and areas for future improvement. The development team is actively working on implementing a graphical user interface with control options using keyboard, mouse, or joystick. A curated “Recommended” list and a personalized “Favorites” category will cater to users’ preferences, while plans for additional versions include the ability to filter out incompatible and inappropriate titles ensure a family-friendly experience.
In the post announcement question and answer session, Alex Lee and Jesse Blue explained some further basis of the program, including Jesse’s previous works for Ninja Force, namely Taifunboot. They also explained how they accomplished the seemingly impossibility of getting several versions of GSOS on the same volume as well as the Apple IIgs’ 8-Bit booting features. A number of questions about the openness of the Launcher were asked by several attendees.
A.P.P.L.E.’s own Bill Martens asked the programmers about the possibility of having a further locked down demo mode within the launcher for use at public events and this idea was explained to be only possible on the ROM 03 machine and thus highly improbable to ever be implemented.
Future versions aim to introduce a cheat system, speed controls for gameplay optimization, and attract modes for demo versions of games. The team is also exploring the inclusion of an educational software collection specific to the IIGS platform, further enriching the launcher’s offerings. They also plan to filter ROM 03 specific titles when not running on the particular machine with the ROM 03. This will go a long way in preventing unnecessary trial and error by the end user.
While version v0.7 represents a significant leap forward for the “What is the Apple IIGS? Launcher,” some titles may still encounter minor issues, as listed in the known issues section. However, the development team says that they are committed to addressing these concerns in subsequent releases and to deliver an even more refined gaming experience for the Apple IIGS community.
To explore the latest version and join in on the exciting journey of IIGS gaming, users can visit the Ninja Force website and download the release. The download is a free 20mb download and is available immediately.
http://www.ninjaforce.com/html/news.html
A document outline the current statue of game titles which are still having issues after extensive testing is available for download as well.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19FCd3w-qTbxh5fbH6tgtLpsDUnFWcN6E6fSp0B3WjXU/edit?usp=sharing
