This month on Open Apple, we sit down with Michael Packard, author of the upcoming new game Alien Downpour. Michael has gone back to teach himself assembly language and make the kinds of games he wished he had made back in the day. The results are indeed impressive, and his first foray into solo Apple II game production is shaping up great. He’s also been very encouraging to the community, having set up the Facebook group Apple Graphics and Arcade Game Design Enthusiasts, dedicated to the book by the same name. This group is a place for Michael to share his progress on his games, as well as for other people to jump in with their own projects.

As of this recording, you can still pre-order Alien Downpour over at Michael’s site. Remarkably, you can order it on floppy or cassette! It comes with a retro-style baggie and insert as well. Michael is writing a book on his experiences (re)learning all this, so keep an eye out for that as well. He’ll also be at KansasFest this year with a presentation on Alien Downpour. Register now so you can see that! You won’t want to miss Michael’s perfect re-impersonation of the Egghead Discount Software answering message.

Meanwhile, Mike and Quinn get stuff wrong on a great many topics, but have fun doing it. If you want to try using a IIgs as your daily driver, launch cows with extreme prejudice, or run GEOS on a weird piece of hardware, you’ve come to the right podcast.

Register for KansasFest while you still can!

More information on everything discussed in this episode, after the jump.

• Alien Downpour – Pre-order it now! Michael’s first solo Apple II game is looking great.
• Apple Graphics and Arcade Game Design – A great FB group about a great book!
• Apple II+ Prototype? – A rare-looking machine found by John Romero.
• Leigh Alexander on archiving – She sits down with 4am and Jason Scott.
• Apple II viruses – There’s more than just Elk Cloner!
• Educational games are under appreciated – Check out the premiere muppet-based GUI.
• Cow-a-pult – A great new vignette from 6502 Workshop.
• 8-Bit-Do firmware – It has been 8-bit-updated, and Chris Torrence reports.
• Caverns of Mordia – Improved coverage of this great story.
• Apple IIgs resurrected – Onsite action at the most recent WozFest.
• WozFest PR#6 – Lots of cool announcements from Oz this year.
• AFP Bridge – TCP/IP and AppleShare getting easier (no more LocalTalk).
• Using a IIgs in 2017 – A well-meaning dude takes a shot at it.
• GeoBook for sale – An auction for one of the rare GEOS-based laptops.
• GeoBooks are a thing – They have fans, because of course they do.
• Might & Magic – Mike and Quinn like it, and you will too (especially on Apple II)
• HowardSoft – It still exists! Take that, Microsoft Word.