Welcome to Ron’s Metal Roundtable Apple Assembly Lock, the annual “megapodcast” from KansasFest 2024, hosted IRL and on StreamYard.

Participants:

Welcome to the annual “megapodcast” from KansasFest 2023, hosted IRL and on Zoom.

Participants:

Welcome to Open Retro Chicken Drop Retro Adventure Table Lines Roundup, the annual “megapodcast” from KansasFest, hosted IRL and on Zoom.

Participants:

For decades, Tony Diaz held the record of the only person to have attended every KansasFest. Whether at that convention, on the comp.sys.apple2 Usenet newsgroup, or on his livestreams, he would share his comprehensive knowledge of Apple II hardware and demo the rare prototypes in his vast collection. When KansasFest lost its home at Avila University, Tony, then the head of the KansasFest committee, helped find the event its new home at Rockhurst. And as a member of the Juiced.GS staff, he would respond to reader queries about how to restore their vintage equipment.

In memory of Tony, who passed away in October 2021, Open Apple‘s original co-hosts, Em Maginnis and Ken Gagne, reunite to remember their friend and his passions, accomplishments, quirks, and foibles.

If you or someone you know needs help, please call the crisis hotline at 1-800-273-8255.

• Tony’s websites
  • Apple2.org
  • Apple II wiki
  • FlyingThingz
  • 16Sector.com
  • Syndicomm
  • ResetVector
• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Tony’s plane
• WIRED: “The Geeks Who Saved Prince of Persia’s Source Code From Digital Death“
• Jason Scott’s Facebook tribute
• Juiced.GS staff photo covers
• Alltech Electronics
• Open Apple #48 (June 2015) : Tony Diaz, KansasFest Memories, Prototypes, and 8-bit DNS

Welcome to Poly Retro Assembly Cast Chicken Missile Drop Grue Museum, the annual “megapodcast” from KansasFest, hosted again via Zoom.

Participants:

• Charles Mangin (Chicken Missile)
• Carrington Vanston (Retro Computing Roundtable & Eaten by a Grue)
• Chris Torrence (Assembly Lines)
• Joe Strosnider (Joe’s Computer Museum)
• John Leake (RetroMacCast)
• Kate the Cat (Chicken Missile & RetroMetal)
• Ken Gagne (Polygamer & Transporter Lock)
• Kay Savetz (ANTIC & Eaten by a Grue)
• Mark Pilgrim (Chicken Missile)
• Michael Mulhern (Retro Computing Roundtable)
• Paul Hagstrom (Retro Computing Roundtable & Chicken Missile)
• Quinn Dunki (Retro Computing Roundtable)

The original video edition was livestreamed to YouTube:

A longer audio edition is available from the Chicken Missile podcast.

Welcome to Retro Open Poly Roundtable Chicken Missile Lines Drop Museum Gruecast, the annual “megapodcast” from KansasFest, this time conducted virtually via Zoom. Scroll past the links for Open Apple‘s audio edition, or enjoy the video edition courtesy Chris Torrence’s Assembly Lines podcast:

Participants:

• Quinn Dunki (Blondihacks, Open Apple, Retrocomputing Roundtable)
• Earl Evans (Retrocomputing Roundtable, Next Without For, Retrobits)
• Ken Gagne (Polygamer, Transporter Lock)
• Paul Hagstrom (Retrocomputing Roundtable, Drop III Inches)
• John Leake (RetroMacCast)
• Charles Mangin (How II)
• Rob McMullen (Player/Missile)
• Blake Patterson (Retrocomputing Roundtable)
• Kay Savetz (ANTIC: The Atari 8-Bit Podcast, Eaten By A Grue)
• Kate Szkotnicki (RetroMetal: Old Games on Old Machines)
• Carrington Vanston (Retrocomputing Roundtable, Eaten By A Grue)

Game-related links:

• KansasFest
• KansasFest (YouTube channel)
• National Dairy Council Grab A Byte
• Ancient Tarot
• Canadian Tire Complimentary Cassette
• The Missing Ring
• Softline Mar/Apr 1984
• Magic Knight Rayearth
• Gertrude’s Secrets
• Conan: Hall of Volta
• Apple Cider Spider
• Firebug
• Old Timers: MUSE Software (KansasFest 1992)
• Three Mile Island
• Senseless Violence 1 and 2

This month on Open Apple, we bring you the traditional big group podcast that we record every year at KansasFest. Tune in for a casual chat with your favorite retro podcasters, and get a behind-the-scenes peek at what makes KansasFest special. This year we managed to twist the following arms into joining us:

• Quinn Dunki – Open Apple
• Carrington Vanston – Retrocomputing Roundtable, Eaten By A Grue
• Paul Hagstrom – Retrocomputing Roundtable, Drop III Inches
• Ken Gagne – Retrocomputing Roundtable, Polygamer, Transporter Lock
• Charles Mangin – How II
• Steve Weyrich – Retrocomputing Roundtable
• Kay Savetz – ANTIC, Eaten By A Grue, Tech Enthusiast Hour
• Chris Torrence – Assembly Lines
• Jason Scott – Jason Scott Talks His Way Out Of It

You’ll have to excuse the strained voices and general discombobulation, as we generally record this sometime in the middle of the night on what-feels-like day 400 of KFest, in a dank basement chapel. It’s way more fun than I just made it sound. You should come to the next KansasFest!

This month on Open Apple, we sit down with Kay Savetz and Carrington Vanston of the Eaten By A Grue podcast. Eaten By A Grue is a game-by-game style of podcast where the intrepid hosts are playing every Infocom game. They both play the game, then discuss it in detail, with and without spoilers. They discuss the amount of cheating required, how mapping was done, the quality of writing and puzzles, and so on. The show has a very nice structure wherein they discuss the show with no spoilers to the halfway point, so that you can stop and go play it yourself if you are so inclined. If not, you can keep listening and hear gory details of all the puzzles.

Kevin talks about getting beasts into bed, and other reasons not to play these games on real hardware. Meanwhile Carrington gets his feelies on and brags about how he has so many original copies of Infocom games that he sits on them for fun.

Meanwhile Mike and Quinn debate dubious silicon valley histories, wedge computers, and competing with other 8-bits in BASIC. Tune in to hear us malign our guests, misremember important names, and get super pedantic about connector nomenclature for no conceivable reason. You won’t want to miss a moment of the drama.

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

• The Eaten By A Grue podcast – Listen for yourself. You won’t be disappointed.
• Zoom – A great way to play Infocom games on modern systems.
• The CPRG Book Project – A great free book that is a work-in-progress.
• Roger Wagner to keynote KansasFest – Accidentally timely information!
• WozFest DB9 -Announced, and, well… happened a while ago.
• Full BBS Documentary interviews – All the B-roll now online for listening.
• MOS Technology – The old building is entering a new chapter.
• Home-brew Apple /// – Chris Zuhar’s project marches on.
• Apple //e Intro – Harry McKracken talks about it, and shares old photos.
• Adventure Game Rockstars Live – Transcript of this historical event.
• Eamon Remastered – Another text adventure engine modernized for the web.
• FApple II Fest 2018 – Japanese Apple II gathering.
• Scart HDMI for GS – A handy solution to the IIgs’ challenging video problems.
• Apple 1 in Verilog – Get your own enhanced Apple I running on an FPGA.
• CFFA3000 Run #5 -The last(?) run is done. I hope you got one!
• Plasma 1.0 – Support for more chips, and ready to use.
• AppleWin updated – Bug fixes, administrative stuff.
• BASIC 10-liner contest – Was underway, but is now probably done.
• Javier demos WiModem232 – A really great device- get it while you can.
• Sneakers on BoingBoing – Sneakers on BoingBoing!
• IIc as a wedge – According to some folks, anyway.
• Rastan source – Discovered? John Brooks is unimpressed. Neat story, anyway.
• Silicon Valley miniseries – Maybe it happened? Is it still happening? Nobody knows.
• Nestle/Atari lawsuit settled – Be careful how you sell Kit Kats.
• Woz’s company fails – But we still love him anyway.

This month on Open Apple, we sit down with Ken Gagne and Andy Molloy of Juiced.GS, the longest running continuously published Apple II magazine (that you can still get in your mailbox to this day!). Juiced.GS is in its 23rd year, which has to be a record for magazines of almost any type.

Ken and Andy talk about the bloodless coup of the magazine, the long history of same, where things are headed, and why they hates trees.

Meanwhile, Quinn and Mike chat about FPGAs, nuclear weapons, and BBSes. What do you do when you need a mathematically provably correct piece of hardware to verify nuclear weapons compliance? Why, you grab your Apple II, of course! Duh!

Here’s a time sensitive news item that didn’t make it into the show- vote for Nox Archaist and Lawless Legends for your favorite Ultima-inspired indie games of 2017!

Stay tuned for a Tech segment where we follow up on last episode and go even deeper on fast IIgs graphics. There’s always more to know about the intricacies of squeezing performance out of this unique and beautiful machine.

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

• Juiced.GS – Subscribe here and get Apple II goodness direct to your mailbox every quarter!
• Tiger Learning Computer – Andy’s photo gallery of this fascinating artifact.
• Juiced.GS FAQ – Find out why there’s no PDF, and stop asking Ken about it.
• Byteworks Tools – Now for sale from Juiced.GS.
• IIgs Build Pipeline – Jeremy Rand’s ORCA/GoldenGate-based tool chain.
• Apple II+ FPGA – All the cool kids are doing it.
• Apple I on an ESP8266 – A very unique torturing of a commodity device.
• Apple II for Nukes – What to do when you need to really verify something.
• Ready Player ][ – A BBS scavenger hunt! With prizes!
• Jeremy Barr-Hyde’s Collection – More goodies here and here!
• CFFA Run 5! – This is great news!!
• DOS 4.4 – A skunkworks project from Brutal Deluxe.
• Virtual II Updated – The best emulator keeps getting better.
• Call A.P.P.L.E – 2017 winter magazine released.
• Apple IIe is 35 – Happy birthday to the letter ‘E’.
• ADT Pro 2.0.2 – Not compatible with High Sierra? Be careful.
• ProDOS 2.4.2 – Now in Beta!
• Nox Archaist Kickstarter – It’s rebooting. Stay tuned!
• Prince of Persia – It changed the way game animation is done.
• Jason Scott and Benj Edwards – They both have new podcasts. Give a listen!
• Apple Time Warp – A rare gem of a podcast. Worth your patience.
• Eaten By A Grue – The best internationally co-hosted Infocom podcast.
• Kay Savetz

We’re baaaack! Sorry for the unscheduled hiatus folks, but your intrepid hosts had some family matters to attend to. This month on Open Apple, we sit down with Seth Steinberger of 8-bit Weapon. We talk about their new album Class Apples, which was made entirely on an Apple II. Yes, every sound on the album is generated by real Apple II hardware with no add-on cards. Apple IIs can make good sound with the right software and in the hands of a talented musician.

After the amazement of Class Apples wears off, we get into Seth’s background with Apple IIs, how he got interested in electronic music, how 8-bit Weapon came to be, and where they’re headed next. We touch a little bit on his work as the main artist on the upcoming RPG Lawless Legends, and Seth explains how much better keyboards are as compared to proms. Furthermore, we all agree that the primary value of the internet is to find pictures of Devo. Michelle wasn’t able to be on the show, but you won’t want to miss the story of how she got to work with Mark Mothersbaugh.

Mike and Quinn then get into augmented reality, alternative operating systems, and of course Richard Garriot. Can’t have an Apple II show without mentioning Richard Garriot. Stay tuned to hear about accelerator control, new magazines, and making your own memory cards.

Lastly, Quinn goes deep on how to program fast graphics on the notoriously “crippled” Apple IIgs. Yes, you can do big beautiful sprites at high frame rates. Learn all about the deep dark secrets that the best games and demos used.

Help keep the Garage Giveaway running at KansasFest! Donate here to keep it a thing. It’s one of the greatest services the Apple II community has, and we’re going to lose it this year if we don’t get donations.

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

• 8-bit Weapon – The greatest chiptunes group around.
• Class Apples – The greatest (read: only) pure Apple II album.
• 4Play List – All the software for the four-player joystick card.
• Checkpoint – An Augmented-Reality-ish game project for Apple II.
• A2OSX – A new multitasking OS for Apple II, with discussion.
• KansasFest HackFest – The judging videos are finally online for 2017. Better late than never.
• Homebrew Club AR – Yes, a second Apple II-related augmented reality item!
• TechCrunch analyzes Apple’s IPO – Back when tech IPOs were shiny and new.
• Breakout – A very reasonable book claiming Apple II’s starting of various revolutions.
• Carmen Sandiego – The making of! A great story.
• Richard Garriot – Another telling of his getting-started story.
• Timezone for Apple II – Yes, it exists, but maybe only in Akihabara.
• NORMFAST – A handy accelerator controller.
• SAFE2 on High Sierra – A note on compatibility with this FTP client.
• CiderPress 4.0.2 – A nice little update of the best disk image manager.
• Web-based assembler – 6502 on the web. Why not?
• Antoine’s IIx project – Adult software collection- not so family-friendly, but historical.
• Latest Call A.P.P.L.E – Get it while you can!
• Latest Juiced.GS – Magazines for all!
• DIY Memory – Make your own memory card for you two GS. Here’s one way.
• Jeremy Rand’s GS build pipeline – He showed it at KansasFest, now you can have it.
• Merlin32 – Brutal Deluxe’s build pipeline for Windows.
• The fast GS graphics path. These links will help you understand fast GS graphics: