Open Apple

This month on Open Apple, we sit down with Rebecca “Burger Becky” Heineman. Becky is a legendary Apple II developer (not to mention many other platforms), and was the keynote speaker at KansasFest 2015. We discuss Becky’s KansasFest experiences then and now, how the community has changed, and what she’s up to now. She has a lot of Apple II gold archived away, and we’re starting to see more and more of it as a result of the continued warmth and friendliness of the Apple II community. Tune in after that interview, when Quinn and Mike go on to talk about amazing Bulgarian hardware products, new ways to acquire Byteworks software, the mysteries of Double Hires graphics, and of course Halt & Catch Fire. KansasFest stories abound, Mike plugs the Apple III, and Quinn acts oblivious to Mike on the subject of Prince of Persia. Listen in awe as she tells the exact same story about Mechner’s source code, immediately after Mike says the same thing. We swear your co-hosts do listen to each other most of the time, folks. Place your orders now for the hottest new fragrance, R3TR0: By Gagne. More information on everything discussed in this episode after the jump.   * Quinn on Twitter – Better late than never? * Becky on the web – Rebecca’s personal site. * Becky on LinkedIn – Rebecca’s business connections. * Becky on Twitter – Rebecca’s latest updates. * Halt & Catch Fire – Finally, an Apple II makes an appearance. Sort of. * D-Clock clone – Plamen continues to make awesome stuff. Buy it! * RamWorks III clone – Plamen’s not done yet. * IIc RAM/Clock clone – Plamen’s cloning all the things. Buy them all. * Byteworks’ products – Availability may be increasing? * ORCA/C Open Source – Briefly, anyway. Hope you got it while you could. * Buy ORCA direct – Mike Westerfield will sell to you directly via email now. * Buy from Syndicomm – As of this writing, they do also still sell Byteworks’ products. * Ken plays King’s Quest – The modern reboot is… well… a modern...

This month on Open Apple, we sit down with Rebecca “Burger Becky” Heineman. Becky is a legendary Apple II developer (not to mention many other platforms), and was the keynote speaker at KansasFest 2015. We discuss Becky’s KansasFest experiences then and now, how the community has changed, and what she’s up to now. She has a […]

This month on Open Apple, we sit down with Laine Nooney, researcher of early computer and software companies. She has been digging into the history of such greats as Brøderbund and Sierra On-Line. In particular, she has done some awesome research on the infamous Soft Porn Adventure, including behind-the-scenes details on the infamous advertising photo. We talk about broken microfilm projectors, we talk about printer stands, and we talk about revisionist small town historians. Trust us, it will all make sense in the end. Laine is going deep into the role of the microcomputer revolution in transforming domestic life (and the very layout of the houses we live in). Listen and wonder why Quinn thinks it’s 2010, wonder how loud an ASR-33 really is, and why Mike reads local newspapers of small towns in Utah. Explore the lost art of naming computer user groups, witness the first pure hack of Rastan, and see what Woz thinks about… well, everything and everyone. More information on everything discussed in this episode after the jump. * KansasFest – You missed it! But still, it was a thing. Go next year! * The Atlantic – Laine’s excellent article on SoftPorn, including newly discovered photos. * Laine Nooney – Her fascinating blog posts on Apple II software companies. * Laine Nooney on Twitter – Keep up to date on her latest activity. * Rastan Cracking – A live conversation of cracking Rastan while listening to our show. * Mister Z – An oldie but a goodie? Fun Apple II things lurk on old websites. * Ruth Dillon – A profile of a key Apple User Group member in Houston at the time. * 4am Archived – A sample of the (in)famous modern cracker’s archived writeups. * FloppyEmu – The Mac interloper Big Mess O’ Wires has added SmartPort support. * Technowarp – A new accelerator for 8-bit folks! * UltimateMicro – Store now open for all your newf...

This month on Open Apple, we sit down with Laine Nooney, researcher of early computer and software companies. She has been digging into the history of such greats as Brøderbund and Sierra On-Line. In particular, she has done some awesome research on the infamous Soft Porn Adventure, including behind-the-scenes details on the infamous advertising photo. We talk […]

This month on Open Apple, we sit down with Tony Diaz- KansasFest committee member, and consummate Apple II collector. With KansasFest just days away, we go deep on Tony’s amazing collection of unique prototypes, documents, peripherals, and the stories that go with them. If there’s a person with deeper knowledge of the early history of Apple Hardware, we haven’t met them. Thanks for your patience in June, everyone! Some technical and logistical difficulties kept us from posting this episode as soon as we would have liked. We hope the show is worth the wait. We dive into lots of new hardware toys, KansasFest-like events around the world, lots of software updates, and one of the best Apple II games ever made. How many times does Quinn boo Atari this month? What can we learn about Mike’s dark, mysterious past? How many tedious Jobs movie news items can the world produce? Listen and find out! KansasFest 2015 is just days away. Hope to see you all in Kansas City this week! More information on everything discussed in this episode after the jump.   * KansasFest – Registration closed by the time you read this, but come next year! * Halt & Catch Fire – The fast-and-loose-with-the-facts retro romp is back. * SpriteCastle – Flack expresses his secret jealousy for the Apple II. * The IT Crowd Manual – Retro hardware hiding in everyone’s favorite IT-centric comedy. * Orphan Black – An Apple II (ish) sighting in one of the best shows on television. * UltimateMicro – Mike reviews the Transwarp GS clone and RamWorks III. * Wasteland – A mainstream portal reviews the classic. The lame MS-DOS version, but still. * Wasteland II – The kickstarted decades-later sequel. * Minority Report – Futuristic UI was better when it was an AppleSoft BASIC prompt. * MakerFaire Apples – Hack-a-day shares some great photos of odd Apples. * Swyft Card – Still odd, still neat. Could have been what we’re all using now. * Guy Kawasaki – Area man goes on bizarre rant

This month on Open Apple, we sit down with Tony Diaz- KansasFest committee member, and consummate Apple II collector. With KansasFest just days away, we go deep on Tony’s amazing collection of unique prototypes, documents, peripherals, and the stories that go with them. If there’s a person with deeper knowledge of the early history of Apple […]

Welcome to a special extra episode of Open Apple! Fellow Apple II enthusiast Matt Ownby recently sat down for a chat with John Brooks, author of Rastan on the IIgs. It’s a fascinating conversation with tons of technical detail that you won’t want to miss. They talk copy protection, cycle counting, fast GS sprite rendering, and lots more! A huge thanks to John for taking the time to share his knowledge. Also a huge thanks to Matt for recording this and allowing us to air it on Open Apple. There are some audio quality issues with this piece, but we feel the conversation is well worth it. Enjoy, and send a thanks to Matt and John!    

Welcome to a special extra episode of Open Apple! Fellow Apple II enthusiast Matt Ownby recently sat down for a chat with John Brooks, author of Rastan on the IIgs. It’s a fascinating conversation with tons of technical detail that you won’t want to miss. They talk copy protection, cycle counting, fast GS sprite rendering, and lots […]

This month on Open Apple, we sit down with Jason Scott, documentary filmmaker, historian, public speaker, and archivist. We talk about the importance of a nuanced appreciation of history, the flavors of sadness in comment threads, whom not to trust with special data and the nature of humanity, and failing at life. Don’t miss Mike Hate Sponge Delicate Snowflake Maginnis’s sigh to end all sighs. Join us to learn how to take care of your capacitors, how to count your cycles, and how to do TCP/IP on your 8-bit Apple II. Want to troll your cable company, accelerate your IIe, or play Bomberman on your GS? Tune in and find out how!   More information on everything discussed in this episode after the jump. * Archive.org – Where they store Jason Scott and a bunch of stuff. * textfiles.com – The archive that started it all. * Nightfall Crew – An all-in-one cross-compiler and tool suite for… not Apple. :( * ADTPro Updated – Version 2.0.1, a minor fix. * Becoming Steve Jobs – A book, if you’re not sick of this guy’s mythos already. * Big Mess O’ Wires – Mac Floppy Emu adds Apple II support (800k!). * BMoW on Emulation – A nice post summarizing Apple II emulation. * Pranking Comcast – My Apple II won’t google! * Let’s Play Apple II Games – Leigh Alexander’s gameplay videos. * Via Skepchick – Retro computing commercials. Take that, RCR. * Marina – A TCP/IP stack for Apple II. Yes. Seriously. * Crazy Cycles – Desynchronized video mode demo from French Touch. * Ibiza II – Another awesome FT demo. Like magic! * ReactiveMicro – Sean Fahey writes up his experiences with the new products. * TechnoBytes – A new(!

This month on Open Apple, we sit down with Jason Scott, documentary filmmaker, historian, public speaker, and archivist. We talk about the importance of a nuanced appreciation of history, the flavors of sadness in comment threads, whom not to trust with special data and the nature of humanity, and failing at life. Don’t miss Mike Hate Sponge […]

This month on Open Apple, we sit down with Paul Lutus, author of seminal early Apple II software such as AppleWriter and GraFORTH. We talk about the impacts of software development on society, the value of the individual in the process, and the trials of coding software in the woods. We talk extreme offsite backups, […]

This month on Open Apple, we sit down with Paul Lutus, author of seminal early Apple II software such as AppleWriter and GraFORTH. We talk about the impacts of software development on society, the value of the individual in the process, and the trials of coding software in the woods. We talk extreme offsite backups, KansasFest keynotes, telnet BBSing, and the hurricane of awesome that is ReactiveMicro. We reminisce about the original Home Computer Wars (these kids today arguing about their smartphones are so darned cute), and also Boo Atari. We trek from Bulgaria to Korea to Canada and back again, to bring you the latest in sound cards, solid state storage, and portable Apple IIc action. You won’t want to miss Quinn plugging Phil Plait for some reason. With our story on Atari 8-bits in Poland, this marks the most Atari content ever on Open Apple. It also qualifies us as the 698th currently operating Atari podcast. Boo Atari. See what you get when you poke the bear, people? ][ Infinitum. More information on everything discussed in this episode after the jump. * AppleWriter – Arguably the first Apple II word processor. * WPL (PDF warning) – The word processing scripting language. * GraFORTH & TransFORTH – Terrific early implementations of FORTH on the II. * GraFORTH (PDF warning) – Try it out for yourself, here. FORTH is neat. * TransFORTH (PDF warning) – The business/science-focused version. * Electric Duet – Multi-voice music from a single flip-flop. * Pictures of Paul’s Apple – Coding in the woods, with an epic extension cord. * FrEDWriter – The unauthorized clone of AppleWriter. * Paul Lutus’ website – Keep up with what he’s up to now. * TransWarp GS clone – Now available! Shut up and take our money! * No Slot Clocks and Scalable Oscillators – Also now becoming available in limited quantities. *

This month on Open Apple, we sit down with Mark Kriegsman, author of Star Blaster, and a modern Apple II hacker. He has ported the awesome FastLED driver library to the Apple II, so you can drive many hundreds of 32-bit RGB LEDs with your Apple II. Meanwhile, we browbeat people into attending KansasFest, we rationalize our […]

This month on Open Apple, we sit down with Mark Kriegsman, author of Star Blaster, and a modern Apple II hacker. He has ported the awesome FastLED driver library to the Apple II, so you can drive many hundreds of 32-bit RGB LEDs with your Apple II. Meanwhile, we browbeat people into attending KansasFest, we rationalize our shame at developing on emulators, we talk dead tree easter eggs, we make terrible awesome BASIC & Twitter puns, we talk about post-mortem collecting, and Mike generates hate mail. Just in case you’re not completely over movies about Steve Jobs, we talk about one of those as well. Yawn. More importantly, help us convince Mark to build a lo-res display from FastLEDs and bring it to KansasFest. Once again, in case you missed it, the dates for KansasFest 2015 have been announced. July 14-19! Go to http://www.kansasfest.org to register. Then pull up a comfy chair and enjoy this super-sized episode of Open Apple. Apologies for some audio quality issues in this month. Quinn had some equipment difficulties and Mike has been under the weather. Thanks for your patience. Stay tuned until the end of the show for a special treat (not just Mike’s usual cheeky outtake)! More information on everything discussed in this episode after the jump.     * Star Blaster – The game you probably know Mark Kriegsman for. * FastLED6502 – If an Arduino can do it, the Apple II can do it better. * Inside FastLED – More info about Mark’s project. * Space Cadets – In case you’re a boardgamer, like Quinn. * BASIC Source – Microsoft’s original code found its way into the wild. * Jobs filming – The celluloid is finally rolling on the Sorken film. * Jobs cast – Photos of the cast of the upcoming Jobs biopic. * Apple II Web Server – A mysterious Dave Schmenk project. * PLASMA – Dave’s awesome Apple II programming language. * Lawless Legends – The incredible game that uses PLASMA for mission scripting. * CiderPress 4.0 – A long awaited new version of the best disk image tool. *

This month on Open Apple, we sit down with Beagles Bros Randy Brandt, Mark Simonsen Tom Weishaar, and Alan Bird. We share stories of Beagle’s development, poke lots of fun at each other, and check in on where everyone is now. We spread the love for Oz KFest with Andrew Roughan, and amazingly resist the urge to […]