Virtual II Version 8.5 Released

Posted by: Bill Martens Date: July 7, 2018 0 Likes 156 Views

Gerard Putter, creator and curator of Virtual II the emulator, has announced a new version of the software.   Virtual II is the premier Apple II emulator for Mac OS X and has been consistently updated for more than 10 years now.

Version 8.5 was released today with a host of patches and fixes including:

  • Added Dark Mode support for macOS 10.14 (Mojave).
  • Woz disk image files are now shown correctly (enabled) in the disk open panel.
  • Reading an empty diskette drive did not trigger an I/O error – the drive just spun endlessly. This now works correctly.
  • Writing to a diskette while more than one diskette is mounted could result in a corrupt disk image. This has been fixed.
  • On the iMac Pro, game paddle emulation with a USB / Bluetooth game pad did not work correctly. To solve this, and to make the app future-proof again, this part of the app has been fully rewritten using modern API.
  • Redesigned the game pad configuration window.
  • Fixed an issue that could result in Virtual ][ becoming unresponsive when performing diskette I/O at top speed.
  • The app crashed in macOS 10.11 and 10.12 when selecting “Import Disk Images in Spotlight”. This has been fixed.
  • Changed the way the command key is handled, improving compatibility with some text editors (such as UCSD Pascal 1.2).
  • Fixed an issue that caused the ImageWriter configuration window to remain visible after clicking OK or Cancel.
  • Solved several crashes.

According to Gerard,

The update is recommended for all users, because it fixes a bug that could corrupt disk image files. The release contains improvements, and also adds support for macOS Mojave’s Dark Mode.

You can download the latest version of the Virtual II emulator from the website at:

http://www.virtualii.com

Author: Bill Martens
A.P.P.L.E. Chairman of the Board and Club president -- Bill worked for the founder, Val J. Golding and A.P.P.L.E. from 1981 to 1982. In 1999, he began archiving the materials which were distributed and sold by A.P.P.L.E.. That project led to the group that remained of A.P.P.L.E. Bill was involved in the financial industry in Tokyo and has over 20 major office infrastructure projects to his name. In March 2001, he retired to write books and to spend more time pursuing personal interests. As the president of the users group, Bill is in charge of distribution of Call-A.P.P.L.E. magazine as well as the organization of this web site. Bill currently resides in Tokyo, Japan and Shelton, Wa splitting time between the places.
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