Open Apple

As 2011 fades into memory and 2012 shines bright, the hosts of Open Apple are joined by Tony Diaz of Syndicomm, Sean Fahey of A2Central.com, Andy Molloy of Juiced.GS, and Eric Shepherd of Sheppyware to reflect on all that has happened with the Apple II and its community in the past year. Topics include favorite hardware and software releases, community connectivity, the loss of Steve Jobs, KansasFest 2012, and more.

This show reunites the guests of A2Unplugged‘s annual review and is held in fond memory of Ryan Suenaga.

Click past the jump for links mentioned in this episode.

Intro (0:00 – 4:02)

Hardware (4:03 – 14:13)

eBay (14:14 – 24:15)

Software (24:16 – 34:14)

Emulation (34:15 – 52:34)

KansasFest (52:35 – 1:06:09)

Community connectivity (1:06:10 – 1:16:30)

Steve Jobs (1:16:31 – 1:26:03)

Memories of 2011 & predictions for 2012 (1:26:04 – 1:35:30)

Blatant plugs (1:35:31 – 1:44:00)

This month on the Open Apple podcast, Mike and Ken are joined by Rob Kenyon, a two-time KansasFest attendee as well as a professional programmer and 30-year veteran of the Apple II. We talk about how great it is to be a part of the international community of Apple II users, even if none of us can afford to buy Apple’s founding contract in a Sotheby’s auction. Rob asks, did Steve Jobs purposely kill HyperCard to turn the Mac into a more closed environment? We congratulate Wade Clarke and Andrew Schultz on their showing in the 17th annual Interactive Fiction Competition. Plenty of original Apple II computers are selling on eBay, with Mike and Rob discussing how to distinguish an authentic classic from a modified one. We share our wishes for the holiday season, including for an affordable accelerator card and a CFFA3000, before signing off for the calendar year. Please take our listener survey, and see you in 2012!

[Please note: technical difficulties have resulted in a low volume on Ken’s track, and a loud volume for Rob. Our apologies for the inconvenience.]

Click past the jump for links mentioned in this episode.

Introduction (00:00 – 7:08)

• Funspot, home of the American Classic Arcade Museum
• Pinball Wizard
• Super Mario Bros. pinball
• Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One (hat tip: Retro Computing Roundtable)
• Open Apple listener survey
• Peter Neubauer’s Advanture Trek

User Login (7:09 – 17:29)

• GNO/ME UNIX environment for the Apple IIGS
• Present a session at KansasFest 2012!
• Vote for your favorite Apple II license plate

II News (17:30 – 1:04:03)

• A Dream Comes True! IIGS Users Unite in Paris!”>Alex Lee’s trip tp Paris
• FTA Wormz Party
• Mt. Keira Fest (2009)

Apple Pickings (1:04:04 – 1:24:46)

• Lot of Microzine lot
• Steve Jobs and Woz phreaking blue box
• Apple II computer sells for $6,100 (hat tip: MacNN)
• 1978 Apple II sells for $3,000
• 1978 Apple II sells for $5,995
• Mike Willegal’s motherboard identification page
• 1977 Apple II photo gallery
• Australian lot of Apple hardware & software
• Rich Dreher’s CFFA3000
• Apple Silentype printer
• ADTPro
• RetroFloppy cables
• a2RetroSystem’s Uthernet card
• You had me at Hello World t-shirt

This month in Open Apple, Mike and Ken talk with Melissa Barron, the Apple II community’s famed tapestry artist. The three relate their experiences exploring the past and future of computer media at conventions and museums in Chicago and Rochester, exploring the methods used to create and preserve history. Further tributes are made to Steve Jobs, while Mike Westerfield reclassifies old BASIC tools and releases new ones. Lord British’s Texas mansion is up for sale — a fitting home for Vintage Computer Festival Southwest? We debate various models of floppy drives and are wary of fake and expensive Apple II computers on eBay but excited about new e-books and iOS apps of interest to retrocomputing enthusiasts.

Congratulations to Todd Holcomb, who named the game as Spy’s Demise! He won an autographed copy of Bob Bishop’s Bomber on cassette, courtesy Mike Maginnis.

Click past the jump for links mentioned in this episode.

Introduction (0:00 – 11:40)

• Peter Watson’s homepage
• Andy Molloy’s homepage
• International Center for the History of Electronic Games
• Strong National Museum of Play
• Ski Colorado!
• Why are Apple II users ‘different’?
• The history of Apple II magazines
• Apple II Scans
• Review Open Apple on iTunes!

User Login (11:41 – 22:56)

• Melissa Barron’s homepage
• 73H 0r3g0n 7r41L KansasFest 2010 session
• Jacquard loom
• Melissa’s BFA art gallery installation
• Melissa’s Vimeo videos
• Apple II crack screens
• E-textfiles: Interactive projects for the Jacquard loom
• GLI.TC/H Kickstarter

II News (22:57 – 1:04:32)

• GLI.TC/H
• Steve Jobs
• Mona Simpson’s eulogy for her brother, Steve Jobs
• Photos from the Apple’s Steve Jobs memorial
• 60 Minutes‘ Andy Rooney dies
• Peanuts‘ Charles M. Schulz dies
• Computerworld video: Steve Jobs one-on-one, the ’95 interview
• What Steve Jobs taught us about failure
• NeXT Computers
• Daniel Kottke: Apple was “Steve Jobs’ therapy”
• GSoft BASIC now freeware; Mike Westerfield’s techBASIC now available
• Earn a free copy of The Byteworks’ Opus II!
• techBasic homepage
• OpenEmulator Apple-1 emulator
• Brain Board woth Wozanium Pack source code
• AppleWin emulator for Windows
• Virtual II emulator for Mac OS X
• Vince Briel’s Replica I
• Vince Briel’s A2MP3 card
• Melissa’s Juiced.GS article
• Block Party, part of Notacon
• @party demoparty
• WriteRoom word processor
• Jason Scott documentary three-pack Kickstarter
• “Digging into Technology’s Past” — archaelogy article on the 6502 (also on Apple II History)
• Visual 6502 simulator
• Ronald Mak’s The History of Computing at San Jose State University
• Terminator’s Skynet
• Denver Apple Pi
• Vintage Computer Festival East 8.0 dates announced
• Richard Garriott’s Britannia Manor for sale
• Original Castle Wolfenstein painting auctioned
• Richard Garriott vs. NCSoft
• Richard Garriott in space

Apple Pickings (1:04:33 – 1:22:49)

• Utilities to adjust floppy drive head speed
• Apple 5.25″ floppy drives
• Different models of Apple floppy drives
• Boston Computer Society publications
• Beagle Buddies
• Gravenstein Apple Users Group (GSAUG)
• Joe Kohn and the Mark Twain
• Apple Users Society of Melbourne (AUSOM)
• Stephen Buggie’s auction of AutoArk software
• Apple II power supply tech info
• Original Apple II goes for $5,145
• Fake Apple II
• Real Apple II, serial #A2S1-0101
• Spotlight on Bob Bishop
• Bell & Howell w/numeric keypad

Name the Game (1:22:50 – 1:46:24)

• Bob Bishop’s software catalog
• Bob Bishop’s Bomber
• Spy’s Demise
• Jimmy Maher’s history of interactive fiction e-book
• Jordan Mechner’s Prince of Persia e-book (excerpt)
• Prince of Persia ported to Commodore 64
• Prince of Persia Classic for Xbox 360
• Out Of This World for iOS
• Elite Collection coming for iOS
• M.U.L.E.
• Choplifter HD for PlayStation 3
• Archon II: Adept
• Alternate Reality
• Wizardry for iOS
• Akalabeth for iOS
• Andrew Plotkin’s PlotEx
• Andrew Plotkin: How I raised $24,000 on Kickstarter
• Frotz for iOS
• My Secret Hideout
• Meanwhile interactive graphic novel for iOS

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