Apple co-founder, chairman, and former CEO Steve Jobs has passed away. In this special episode, Mike and Ken remember an industry leader, visionary, and rascal.

Links mentioned in this episode:

• Bill Corbett responds to Steve Jobs’ death
• Woz responds
• President Obama responds
• Star Trek thanks Steve
• Google responds
• Barnes & Noble responds
• Bill Budge responds
• Dan Bricklin responds
• Snoop Dogg responds

This month in Open Apple, Mike and Ken talk with Kelvin Sherlock, prolific Apple II programmer of GShisen, Silver Platter, ProFUSE, and more. Ken builds the suspense before revealing the identity of KansasFest 2012’s keynote speaker before we look at the latest Kickstarter fundraising projects that appeal to Apple II users. We ask ourselves, “Why are Apple II users different?” when sharing knowledge, products, and magazines. On eBay, we’re looking at soundtracks, CP/M cards, compression software, and defunct user group newsletters, before engaging in a smackdown of BASIC programming languages. Finally, we enjoy classic Apple II games on iOS and challenge Kelvin to explain why we can’t port Portal to the 6502.

Congratulations to Sal Bugliarisi, who named the game as Choplifter! He won a $20 credit to the Juiced.GS store, courtesy publisher Gamebits. Our next winner gets an autographed copy of Bob Bishop‘s Bomber on cassette.

Click past the jump for links mentioned in this episode.

Introduction (0:00 – 3:36)

• WarGames t-shirt

User Login (3:37 – 12:29)

• Kelvin Sherlock’s homepage
• A Touch of Applesoft BASIC
• inCider
• Kelvin’s IIGS software
• ProFUSE
• Silver Platter from Syndicomm
• KShisen for Linux
• iShisen for iOS
• FlaShisen
• Vintage Computer Festival East 2.0

II News (12:30 – 50:52)

• John Romero to keynote KansasFest 2012
• Wolfenstein 3D
• Vintage Computer Festival Midwest 6.0
• Retro Computing Roundtable #16
• Vintage Computer Festival South
• GLI.TC/H
• GLI.TC/H Kickstarter
• Melissa Barron’s homepage
• Google+
• Facebook Video Calling vs. Google+ Hangout
• The Jason Scott Documentary Three-Pack — Kickstarter
• Textfiles.com
• 8 mysterious Apple products which you might not know of
• ROM 04, aka Mark Twain
• The Apple Graphics Tablet
• Knowledge Navigator
• Bandai Pippin
• Why are Apple II users “different”?
• Softalk
• inCider
• T40 crack screen editor
• T40 art gallery by Daniel Kruszyna
• Rich Dreher’s CFFA3000
• CFFA3000 for Apple III
• Apple III driver for CFFA3000
• Juiced.GS Volume 16, Issue 3 ships
• Happy 25th birthday, Apple IIGS!

Apple Pickings (50:53 – 1:09:52)

• Metal Gear Solid 3 soundtrack
• Karate Kid soundtrack
• Microzine lot
• More about Microzine
• Open Megahertz
• Sid Meier’s Pirates!
• A2MP3 auction to benefit @rsuenaga fund
• DRALS’s CP/M card
• Microsoft Softcard
• More about Digital Research’s CP/M card
• Apple CPM Yahoo! group
• AutoArk
• HardPressed
• AutoArk from Syndicomm
• Ultima IV
• Apple IIGS crystal paperweight
• Electric car with on-board Apple IIc
• Pimp My Ride
• Boston Computer Society newsletter
• The Boston Computer Society’s Wikipedia page
• Still more about the Boston Computer Society

Retroviews (1:09:53 – 1:19:30)

• Morgan Davis’ MD-BASIC
• Micol Advanced BASIC
• GSoft BASIC
• Toolbox Programming in GSoft BASIC
• SideClick
• Trasher
• Nibble magazine
• ORCA/Integer BASIC

Name the Game (1:19:31 – 1:36:14)

• Choplifter
• Bob Bishop’s Bomber
• Ultima 1–4 now available at Good Old Games (GOG)
• DOSBox
• Boxer, a DOSBox client for Mac OS X
• Defender of the Crown for iOS
• Amiga emulator
• Video demo of Amiga emulator
• iBASIC
• Jimmy Maher’s writings about the Apple II & Eamon
• Portal 2 soundtrack
• Portal: The Flash Version
• ASCII Portal
• Silver Platter now a free download!

Mike and Ken are on the road instead of in the studio this month, so in lieu of a full episode, you’re invited to enjoy the audio from our KansasFest 2011 session, in which we detail the production methods, tricks, and secrets of Open Apple. We’ll be back in October!

Introduction (0:00 – 3:50)

• Presentation to Denver Apple Pi

Behind the Scenes (3:51 – 43:23)

• KansasFest
• About Open Apple
• Video: Behind the scenes at Open Apple

Wrap-up (43:24 – 45:34)

• Apple iWork Keynote

This month in Open Apple, Mike and Ken keep the KansasFest vibe going with first-time attendee David Schmenk, getting his perspective on the greatest products, sessions, and experiences of last month’s Apple II convention, from the CFFA3000 to Sweet16 and more. Ewen Wannop’s publication of an online magazine archive leads to a brief discussion on the creation and consumption of PDF scans, after which we get Tony Diaz on the line to clarify a hardware matter. On eBay, we like pins, buttons, and games, before getting ready for a special guest at this month’s Denver Apple Pi user group meeting.

Congratulations to Antony Mauget, who named the game as Hard Hat Mack! He won a complete collection of 300 Baud magazine. Next month’s winner of the easiest Name the Game contest ever gets a $20 gift certificate to the Juiced.GS store.

Click past the jump for links mentioned in this episode.

Introduction (0:00 – 7:57)

• KansasFest
• Tony Diaz’s A2 Drivecast
• Has Open Apple gotten too long?
• The “new” Commodore 64
• The original C64 on eBay

User Login (7:58 – 17:16)

• David Schmenk’s homepage
• COBOL for the Apple III
• John Carmack
• Xorg
• Wolfenstein 3D for the Apple IIGS
• Apple II turns 30 (in 2007)
• Escape from the Homebrew Computer Club
• David’s KansasFest 2011 session on Escape from HBCC

II News (17:17 – 1:03:27)

• Woz’s keynote speech KansasFest 2003
• CFFA3000
• David Schmidt’s ADTPro
• iDisk
• RAMFast SCSI card
• Vintage Computer Festival
• Daniel Kruszyna’s HackFest
• Open Megahertz
• Wizardry written in Pascal
• Silvern Castle
• Sweet16 emulator
• SideClick 2.0
• Martin Haye’s Pseudo-II Emulator (P2E)
• FTA’s ActiveGS
• Virtual Apple
• Jason Scott
• The Internet Archive
• Bob Bishop’s homepage
• Michael J. Mahon’s homepage
• VM02 — 6502 Java Virtual Machine
• Apple II concert by The Machine Project
• Melissa Barron‘s weavings
• Ewen Wannop’s BASUG / Apple2000 archives
• Adobe Acrobat X
• iBooks application for Apple’s iOS mobile devices
• David Greelish’s Historically Brewed Kickstarter project
• Softalk magazine
• Titan III + IIe emulator users’ guide
• Apple Industrial designers Robert Brunner and Jerry Manock
• A photo of the Apple IIsi
• COSMAC Elf (not an Apple-1)
• Quark purchased by Platinum Equity
• Quark Word Juggler
• Quark Catalyst
• Andy Hertzfeld’s Apple II
• Happy 61st birthday, Woz!

Apple Pickings (1:03:28 – 1:18:44)

• Auction Sniper
• Star Saga:Two
• Lot of Apple II cards
• Ask Me How Computers Work
• Open Apple button
• Apple II Tutorial pilot wings
• Wizardry
• Archon

Name the Game (1:18:45 – 1:29:22)

• Galaga
• Championship Lode Runner
• Denver Apple Pi
• Randy Brandt
• The D-Pad podcast

In this episode of Open Megahertz, KansasFest attendees Mike Maginnis, Ken Gagne, and Carrington Vanston join forces to reflect on the world’s greatest Apple II convention, as well as review a classic edutainment title.

Links

• Felicia Day’s guide to surviving cons
• Vince Briel’s A2MP3 card
• Rich Dreher’s CFFA3000 card
• Robert MacNaughton

Guest voiceovers by Melissa Barron.

This month in Open Apple, Mike and Ken share the studio for a one-on-one recording session. We look at user groups, museums, and academic classes that celebrate the Apple II, as well as the growing collection of the Internet Archive, courtesy Jason Scott. While looking forward to next week’s KansasFest convention, memories of previous KFests are unearthed and examined. Unusual Apple II and Apple III machines are hot on eBay, as are the competitors in recent and upcoming arcade tournaments. And let’s not overlook the gauntlet that Richard Garriott has thrown down over the future of the Ultima franchise.

Congratulations to Alex Lee, who named the game as DuelTris! He won a $20 credit to the RetroFloppy store, courtesy David Schmidt. Next month’s winner gets a three-issue hardcopy collection of 300 Baud magazine.

Click past the jump for links mentioned in this episode.

Introduction (0:00 – 12:58)

• Thomas Compter’s homepage
• NAUG’s AppleWorks Forum scans
• Andy Molloy’s homepage
• Denver Apple Pi
• Gamebits, Ken’s defunct gaming column
• Done the Impossible

II News (12:59 – 54:24)

• Seattle Retro-Computing Society
• Commodore Computer Club’s trip to the SRCS
• Photos from the Living Computer Museum
• Computer History Museum on Facebook
• This Day in History
• CS 185C: History of Computing
• San José State University class audit form
• Computist on the Internet Archive
• Why Jason Scott put Computist on Archive.org
• The GET LAMP Interview Archives
• BBS Documentaries
• “Yes.“
• 6502 vs. 8088
• Machine Project’s Aple II concert
• Video of the Apple II concert
• Bill Fickas’ Guitarple for ALF Products, Inc.
• LoadingReadyRun’s CheckPoint
• Square Enix to release a chiptune album
• Symphony for Dot Matrix Printers (video demo)
• “A Simple Text File” by Man or Astro-man?
• Music Construction Set YouTube playlist (hat tip: Reddit)
• Matthew Pearce’s stock footage under Creative Commons
• CNBC Titans: Steve Jobs
• Mini-Appler reflects on Beautiful Boot
• Beautiful Boot source code
• Apple’s 10 worst products ever (hat tip: 8Bit Aficionado)
• Smartport Virtual Hard Drive
• Rich Dreher’s CFFA3000
• ReactiveMicro & UltimateApple2 on hiatus
• Commodore 64 Replica
• Byte relaunches

Retroviews (54:25 – 1:09:01)

• Ken’s report from his first KansasFest
• Silvern Castle
• Maxster v0.79.5, a Napster client designed for HackFest

Apple Pickings (1:09:02 – 1:22:56)

• AppleWorks 4
• 29 Forgotten Realms novels
• Apple II Europlus
• Lisa X/ProFile Hard Drive Emulator
• Focus IDE HD Controller
• SCSI terminator
• James Littlejohn’s 18.75 MHz Applied Engineering Transwarp GS
• Transwarp II
• Apple III

Name the Game (1:22:57 – 1:43:24)

• Classic Apple II game deaths
• The American Classic Arcade Museum at Funspot
• Gamers gather for retro glory in New Hampshire
• World’s largest arcade introduces interactive Wall of Fame
• Pinball tournament at The 1-Up
• Free PC version of Ultima IV (requires DOSBox)
• Does a free Ultima IV herald a new Ultima game?
• Richard Garriott: “Only my team can create the true heir to my previous work.”
• Eamon PC to Inform 6 conversion scripts
• Leigh Alexander’s memories of Colossal Cave
• MCC-216 S-video
• Alex Freed’s Carte Blanche

This month in Open Apple, Mike and Ken are joined by Brian Wiser, an unsung hero of the Apple II archivist movement, as well as a director and producer of films related to Joss Whedon’s Firefly television show and Serenity movie. Ken reports on his trip to the Vintage Computer Festival East 7.0, Mike notes the changing of the guard at Syndicomm, and Brian brags about the Apple employees he’s met and the museums he’s visited, after which Mike and Brian chat about their favorite Apple II publications. We all lusted after the Ultima trilogy on eBay but were dismayed by two other auctions that were not what they seemed. Classics that need to be remade, those that are being remade, and those that were and failed are our gaming topics of the month.

Congratulations to Brian Sturk, who named the game as Lode Runner! He won a 20% or $50 discount off one ReactiveMicro.com order. Next month’s winner gets a $20 credit at the RetroFloppy store, courtesy David Schmidt.

Click past the jump for links mentioned in this episode.

Introduction (0:00 – 10:18)

• Applied Engineering Repository
• Beagle Bros Software Repository
• Nibble Magazine and Books
• The Computist Archive
• What is the Apple IIGS? The Book
• Brian Wiser on Twitter
• Done the Impossible
• Browncoats: Redemption

II News (10:19 – 46:51)

• VCF East 7.0
• InfoAge Museum
• Apple II visual matrix
• NadaNet
• AppleCrate
• NadaPong
• Scholastic’s Microzine
• Comic-Con
• Andy Molloy’s tribute to Ray Borrill and the Data Domain
• Fire in the Valley
• The Apple-1 boots up
• Apple-1 Owners’ Club
• Apple-1 Registry
• A2MP3 workshop at KansasFest 2011
• Musée de l’Informatique
• La Défense Musée de l’Informatique photo gallery
• Apple-1 at the Smithsonian
• The Ryan Suenaga Scholarship Fund
• Syndicomm announces change of management
• Sweet16 emulator
• Bob Bishop’s homepage
• The First 10 Apple Employees: Where Are They Now?
• Ron Wayne’s homepage
• Ron Wayne on Twitter
• Welcome to Macintosh
• CNN article on Ron Wayne
• Logo Draw for iOS
• GraFORTH
• Cult of Mac reports on player pianos
• Reddit: An Apple II making player piano rolls
• 1979 Apple Graphics Tablet vs. the iPad on Slashdot

Retroviews (46:52 – 59:24)

• A+ magazine
• InCider Magazine”>inCider magazine
• Softalk
• Shareware Solutions II
• Computist in the Internet Archive
• The Lost Classics Project
• Treasure Chest Project
• Apple Archives

Apple Pickings (59:25 – 1:18:28)

• Ultima trilogy
• Ultima I remastered
• Mockingboard
• Ultima V on the Passport
• Mark Simonsen’s keynote speech
• Apple IIe in portable carrying case
• Apple Users Society of Melbourne
• Apple IIGS System 6.0.1
• Vulcan Gold 100MB hard drive
• The Visible Computer

Name the Game (1:18:29 – 1:37:57)

• Lode Runner for Xbox 360
• Miner
• ReactiveMicro.com
• David Schmidt’s RetroFloppy
• Name the Game rules
• Gold Runner Lite
• 16 gaming classics that need to be remade today
• Karateka II: The Wrath of Dude
• Take1
• How Elite took flight
• Ian Bell’s Elite homepage
• Board Games > Balance of Power 1990″>Balance of Power
• HHGTTG being remade
• Legends of Zork MMO closes
• Peter Neubauer, graphic designer extraordinaire

This month in Open Apple, Mike and Ken chat with Apple II historian Steve Weyhrich about strategies and philosophies for scanning, preserving, and publishing the story of the Apple II. Hardware hacks for the Apple IIc and expansion cards making their KansasFest debut caught our attention this month, as did the American Humanist Association recognizing Steve Wozniak, who earned a musical tribute from Jonathan Mann. Watches, shirts, boxes, and Risk topped our eBay auctions, while games ran the gamut from text adventures to Xbox spiritual successors to IIGS classics, with a few decorative posters thrown in for good measure. In addition to Dr. Steve, former KansasFest logo designer Chris Lackey makes not one but TWO guest appearances this month!

Congratulations to Jeremy Rand, who correctly named the game as Out of this World! He wins a $25 discount off KansasFest 2011 registration or a free KansasFest shirt. Next month’s winner will earn a 20% or $50 discount off one ReactiveMicro.com order.

Click past the jump for links mentioned in this episode.

Introduction (0:00 – 23:21)

• Taking the Apple II online with Uthernet
• Ken’s blog post about Jeri Ellsworth
• Triangulation podcast interview with Jeri Ellsworth
• 6502 Lane
• Transmit FTP client for Mac OS X

II News (23:22 – 52:02)

• Apple IIc mass storage Smartport hack
• Apple II Weather Display
• Rich Dreher’s CFFA3000
• Vince Briel’s A2MP3 card at KansasFest
• Jonathan Mann’s “That’s Just the Woz” song
• Song-A-Day: The Album by Jonathan Mann — Kickstarter
• Steve Weyhrich’s audio parody
• RetroMacCast #200
• David Greelish’s Retro Computing Roundtable
• Carrington Vanston’s 1 MHz
• Vintage Computer Festival East 7.0
• What’s an “Atari 64”?
• BYTE.com
• iWoz, by Gina Smith

Apple Pickings (52:03 – 1:01:20)

• Vintage Computer Museum collection
• Englebart mouse
• Apple boxes
• Letting the Boxes Go: A Tale of Sadness, by Blake Patterson

Name the Game (1:01:21 – 1:19:53)

• Out of this World coming to iOS
• Outland for Xbox Live
• Portal: The Flash Version
• Wolfenstein 3D turns 19 (and acknowledging its roots)
• Catacombs 3-D
• Creating Interactive Fiction with Inform 7 (and Jason McIntosh’s review)
• Usenet group rec.arts.int-fiction
• Trizbort, the Interactive Fiction Mapper
• Retro videogame propaganda posters
• Panic’s lost 1982 artwork. Found.
• OverClocked Remix fundraiser

Apple II podcaster, programmer, writer, editor, and event coordinator Ryan Suenaga has passed away. In this special episode, Mike and Ken remember their friend.

Click past the jump for links mentioned in this episode.

• Ryan’s last LiveJournal entry
• Ryan’s wish to establish a scholarship
• Ryan’s podcast, A2Unplugged

The third monthly episode of Open Apple, recorded on April 3, 2011, has Mike and Ken joined by KansasFest committee member Peter Neubauer. The three look forward to attending KansasFest and VCF and reading Juiced.GS, 300 Baud, Twisty Little Passages, and Don Lancaster’s Assembly Cookbook; review favorite edutainment software; gawk at outrageous eBay “Buy It Now” prices; and discover remakes of classic games Ultima, King’s Quest, SimCity, Lode Runner, Wizardry, Choplifter, and more.

Winning a two-day pass to VCF East is Marvin Malkowski Jr., who correctly named the game from last month’s episode! The prize for this month’s contest is a $25 discount off KansasFest registration or a free KansasFest 2011 t-shirt, both courtesy KansasFest sponsor 16Sector.

Click past the jump for links mentioned in this episode.

Introduction (0:00 – 10:46)

• Retro Computing Roundtable
• RetroMacCast
• Earl Evans of Retrobits on Twitter
• KansasFest committee roster
• Thomas Compter
• PAX East 2011 in pictures, by Andy Molloy
• Littlejohn Systems

II News (10:47 – 31:10)

• KansasFest 2011 opens for registration
• Steve Wozniak’s Facebook comment on attending KansasFest
• KansasFest Vendor Fair
• Peter Neubauer’s KansasFest 2010 session on Alan Floeter’s Macrosoft
• Vintage Computer Festival East 7.0
• Jay and Silent Woz shirt
• Juiced.GS Volume 16, Issue 1 (March 2011)
• Nick Montfort’s Twisty Little Passages
• 300 Baud magazine
• Mike Willegal’s Brain Board
• ProFUSE
• Kelvin Sherlock
• Uthernet Ethernet card
• ADTPro
• Don Lancaster’s Assembly Cookbook

Retroviews (31:11 – 40:07)

• Popular Mechanics article on Logo
• Homepage for Brian Harvey, author of multiple academic texts on Logo
• 3D Logo
• The Computist Archive
• Warren Robinett’s Rocky’s Boots

Apple Pickings (40:08 – 44:30)

• Apple IIGS Woz Signature Edition
• Sammy Lightfoot
• Bob Bishop’s Bomber
• Panic.com converts iPad audio to Applesoft
• Make Your Own Murder Party
• Apple Adventure (disk only)
• Apple Adventure (Buy It Now)
• Apple Adventure (disk & manual)
• 5.25″ Kraft Disk Notcher

Name the Game (44:31 – 59:48)

• Flash-based Ultima IV FAQ
• AGD Interactive — free, licensed, downloadable remakes of Sierra point-and-click adventures
• Sarien — free, licensed, online remakes of Sierra point-and-click adventures
• Ultima II and SimCity for the Apple IIGS?
• Micropolis — open-source version of SimCity
• Super Crate Box
• Spoonbill Software — remakes of Frogger, Lode Runner, Firebird, and more
• Wizardry: Well of Souls for PlayStation Network
• Choplifter remake for PlayStation network