Tag: apple II

BBC Micro fans who are also Apple IIe users can now rejoice. Bobbi Manners has released her Applecorn emulator which is as she says, “It is basically my little program pretends to be the BBC Micro’s Machine O.S. (MOS) so the language ROMs can run.  So far I have gotten BBC BASIC, COMAL, Forth and MicroProlog running.” The program does require the 128K Enhanced Apple IIe and uses the BBC BASIC v2 from the BBC Micro. It will leave 32K…

The latest alpha release of the Apple II Desktop has been released. Version 1.2 Alpha 31 is now available for download from the Apple II Github page at https://github.com/a2stuff/a2d. Changes in this latest release include the following: General Various string updates. DeskTop Don’t use “shift key mod” on Laser 128 (since mouse button is detected as BUTN2 as well) Clip long paths in dialogs. Fixes Adjust fixed list view line width to handle wide dates. Desk Accessories This Apple DA:…

Tom Harte has updated the Clock Signal multi platform emulator. This release updates to the Apple II and Macintosh emulation sections of the program. Included in the update list are the following: adds support for Macintosh drive images, in addition to its existing support for volume images; substantially improves messaging and semantics around ROM loading, hopefully to ease application setup; accepts state snapshots by drag and drop, in addition to regular media images; adds a square-pixel option for Apple II…

Paul Wasson, Winner of last winter’s Apple II Software Enthusiasts programming contest, has released his Double Hi-Res Graphics Toolbox to the general public. The program includes a number of features for Adventure Game Designers including: A tile-editor to create either 14×16 or 7×8 tiles using double hi-res A map-editor to place the tiles and see how they fit together. Full in program Help Screen Paul has released the source code for the toolbox as well. The Source and Disks can…

Denis Molony has released the latest rendition of his Apple II disk viewing utility, Diskbrowser. Version 1.59 includes updates to the system level items including Saving individual files. You will need to have the Java SDK installed in order to use Apple II Diskbrowser, however, the program will function on Windows, Macintosh and Linux based machines. You can download Diskbrowser 1.59 for free from the Diskbrowser Github page at:https://github.com/dmolony/DiskBrowser

Lexington Infosystems, owned and operated by Renee Harke, has introduced a piggyback card for the Apple II Ramworks cards that allow users to utilize the modern Apple II memory cards with the piggyback and RGB cards. This card allows users to not only use the cards but also to reduce the amount of heat produced by the cards as well as to reduce the power requirements, thus also expanding the lifespan of both the machine and the cards. The cards…

Vince Weaver (AKA Deater78) has released a new Apple II demo. The demonstration titled Island Adventure fits in a whopping 32K of memory and has been put forth as his entry into the Outline 2021 event. The demo finished in 2nd place which according to Vince, “was a shock as it is rare for Apple II demos to place very high in a combined demo entry, especially when competing against DOS or Amiga entries”. Outline 2021 is the longest running…

Denis Colony has released the latest rendition of his Apple II disk viewing utility, Diskbrowser. Version 1.58 includes updates to the system level items and bug fixes. You can download Diskbrowser 1.58 for free from the Diskbrowser Github page at:https://github.com/dmolony/DiskBrowser

Gary Graham has painstakingly created a new OpenType Font Collection for Apple II fans – Apple II Pro.  The package includes eight typefaces:  Apple II Pro, Display Pro, ALT Pro, Display ALT Pro, and their inverted “Neg” counterparts.  Additionally, Gary has crafted an impressive guide that details every aspect of these fonts. According to his documentation, “Apple II Pro is a vastly expanded version of the original Apple IIc and Apple IIe internal character sets, including MouseText, all combined into…

Matt Walsh has put together a website running on Will Scullin’s Apple II JS emulator. The website is coded completely in 6502 Assembly Language. The website, MDW OS v0.1.1, is Matt’s personal website that contains his resume, research papers, links, and other items. The Seattle based Matt, talkes about his life as well as the things that interests him on the website, which uses a graphic of an Apple monitor, along with the green text, giving it a complete Apple…

Kelvin Sherlock has released his Application wrapper for the MAME emulator. Ample 0.231 has been lined up with the release of MAME in the version number and runs on Apple machines with Mac OS 10.14 or newer. The release includes a version of MAME which only supports the Apple-1, Apple II Series, and the Apple III computers. Work is currently being performed on the Macintosh emulation within the program but as of yet, only a subset of the features are…

The Virtual II Apple II Emulator has been updated. Included in this release is a bevy of bug fixes which have been reported over the past few months including: Fixed several crashes that could occur if a Disk ][ interface card has no connected drives. Enhanced compatibility with WOZ disk images available in the public domain by correcting an error in version number checking. Extended the feature to speak lines on the screen; the application can now automatically speak new…

For those of you who follow the 8-Bit Guy, AKA David Murray, on YouTube, you will be pleased to know he has introduced a new game, this time for the Apple II computer. PETSCII Robots is a game in which it is up to you to save the universe from the invading robots. You can accomplish this through the use of a variety of weapons which you accumulate within the game, as you attempt to take on the various levels…

The Apple II based Passport, a disk cracking package, has been updated — release dated 04-21-2021. The latest version of the Mark Pilgrim and Peter Ferrie produced software package has been released with the following changes: – NEW: patchers/harvey.a (Buzz Bang Harvey, Harvey by Primes) – NEW: patchers/jmp2012.a (BackAid) – NEW: patchers/pdi.a (Leadsheeter, Polywriter) – NEW: patchers/rps.a (Pac-Man Thunder Mountain release, Problem Solving in Algebra) – IMPROVED: patchers/ssprot.a (fixes Metric System Tutor) – IMPROVED: patchers/bb03.a (fixes Spanish for Mastery) -…

Kris Kennaway has released a video of the January 1984 Apple ad running in Full Motion Double Hi-Resolution Video complete with Playback on the Apple IIe computer. Now, before you say, the Apple IIe cannot do that, there are a few items you will need which were not available in 1984. First, you will need a 128k Enhanced Apple IIe running the software, also known as II-Vision version 0.2 by Kris Kennaway, allowing conversion or “transcoding” of the video files…

Those crazy astronauts (Daniel Henderson and Roby Sherman) who brought you that terrestrialbrain stumper, Murder Manor, have returned with a game of space travel, exploration, and wormholes! In Orion Trail, players take on the role of intrepid space pioneers, to make the treacherous journey across the length of the Orion Belt to reach a planet known as Oregon IV — An unexplored world full of free space and the possibility of precious metals! Some of you earth creatures are familiar with…

Mario Patino, author of the TXTRIS text based Tetris clone, has released a new update to his game which is one of the entries for this years Apple II Software enthusiasts (A2SE) programming contest. The update includes a nifty little intro tune in the program. Play of the TXTRIS game is nearly true to the original, but this one is pure text and well worth the look. You can download the latest version of the TXTRIS disk image from:https://www.callapple.org/soft/ap2/games/txtris.dsk

The theme of this release is Searching. A new Find command has been added to the Disk Analyzer. It will allow you to search Nibble Streams, Sectors, Blocks, and Files for Hex or Text strings. The Hex search also supports wildcards by replacing any nybble with a ? character (ex: D5 A? 96) Text search is case insensitive and supports Apple II high bit characters. For nibble searches, you can add a + character to require that hidden timing bits…

Many kids in the 1980’s began programming computers using the USBORNE computer books, which were very colorful, step by step books that were appropriate for any age in reality. These books took you through the stages of creating programs from the idea creation, the design, the programming, modifications, and quite literally, all the way to the finished product.  These books were quite good at teaching fundamental concepts to users, giving a good groundwork upon which to build. From initial forays…

If you have ever wanted to take part in a programming contest, the annual BASIC 10-Liners Programming Contest is a good one to start with. Each year, the best and brightest programmers in the retro computing community test their metal against the rest of the world. One of the first Apple II submissions this year is a really great effort by Humberto Barbera. Humberto’s 10 line submission, Archer is a great little game that utilizes the Apple II’s high-resolution graphics…