This month on Open Apple, Mike and Ken chat with Kay Savetz, Internet publisher and author of the memoir Terrible Nerd. We cross enemy lines to review a book about the cultural, scientific, and philosophical implications of Commodore 64 programming, some of it applicable to the Apple II. Paul Terrell’s Polaroid snapshots of the first Apple-1 computers are cool, just like our reception to Jordan Mechner’s new Karateka game. On eBay, we discover the Androbot is not just another neat product from a Nolan Bushnell company, but another reason we prefer the Apple II to other platforms. And Ken’s accidental purchase of some Microzines produces the concept for a new and very expensive podcast!

Click past the jump for links mentioned in this episode.

Introduction (0:00 – 17:33)

• No Quarter podcast
• Arcade Explorers books
• Ken’s review of Max Brooks’ World War Z
• Organ Trail for iOS
• Ken’s Wii U unboxing
• Denver Apple Pi
• Colorado Macintosh Users Group

User Login (17:34 – 32:18)

• Kay Savetz’s homepage
• Terrible Nerd, from Savetz Publishing
• AtariArchives.org
• Classic Computer Magazine Archive
• Douglas Engelbart’s Mother of All Demos
• Kevin’s Free Printables & FaxZero sites
• Kevin on the Retro Computing Roundtable
• Name.com domain name registrar
• Liquid Web: Storm on Demand hosting company

II News (32:19 – 1:03:33)

• 10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10, by Nick Montfort, et al
• The 8 Bit Weapon Collection 1998-2012
• The early days of PCs as seen through DEAD TREES
• Remembering the EasyKey keyboard overlay for the Apple II
• Paul Terrell’s Polaroid photos of the Apple-1
• Help KansasFest by shopping at Amazon.com
• TIME‘s top 100 video games ever
• Elite Dangerous: Kickstarter
• Trade Wars
• Save the Day, an HTML5-based Choplifter remake (hat tip: Hanuman Welch)
• Karateka not so hot with Ken or Metacritic
• RIP, Tony Gonzalez of Ultima GS

Apple Pickings (1:03:34 – 1:18:44)

• Androbot Topo II robot, Apple IIe, sending unit, Toposoft software (video)
• The history of Androbot, Inc.
• Heathkit H.E.R.O robots
• Ken’s new Microzines, complete with case!
• Carrington’s DoubleTake podcast
• Jeri Ellsworth’s C64 Direct-to-TV joystick
• A modern PC inside a Commodore 64 case
• Curt Vendel’s Atari Inc: Business Is Fun, courtesy Kickstarter
• Commodore 64 games on the Nintendo Wii’s Virtual Console