Open Apple

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 make any upside-down jokes about Australia. Mike and Quinn are trying to be bigger than northern-hemispherism, and they like to think they’ve grown as people as a result. We talk brain-imaging, we talk helicopter piloting, and we spread more IIgs love than usual. We search for amazing things, and sometimes we find them. Join us for another great month of Apple II brouhaha. BREAKING NEWS: Dates for KansasFest 2015 also announced! July 14-19. More at http://www.kansasfest.org More information on everything discussed in this episode after the jump. * Oz KFest – Come on down under for Apple II fun, April 17-19, 2015. #ozkfest2015 * Apple II comes home – 33 years in Nepal, and still fighting fit. * Infiltrator – Interview with the creator, who is much smarter than us. * SkyFox – Bionic Toad interviews the creator, who is also much smarter than us. * Brian Picchi reviews the II – Tanru Nomad bringing the fun, as usual. * Stanford stats – Athletics department used a II for proper work. * PFS: File – Great, but not the recipe panacea Quinn had hoped for. * Woz at NAMM – The lovable engineer shows up in the strangest of places. * The IIc bag drama continues – Mike and Quinn continue to share delusions. * More IIc images – It looks different in every promotional picture. * I.O. Silver – Version 1.2 is now available, and documentation. * Bootstrapping – Never hurts to review ADTPro again. * Beautiful Boot – Still amazing! *

This month on Open Apple, we sit down with Ben Heck, one of our most-requested interviews. We talk about his Apple I replica, his Apple IIgs laptop, and Adam Sandler for some reason. Meanwhile, Mike and Quinn talk about Apple Porsches, Pinball Construction Set, and Western Design Center. In the comedy department, we get back to our roots (making fun […]

This month on Open Apple, we sit down with Ben Heck, one of our most-requested interviews. We talk about his Apple I replica, his Apple IIgs laptop, and Adam Sandler for some reason. Meanwhile, Mike and Quinn talk about Apple Porsches, Pinball Construction Set, and Western Design Center. In the comedy department, we get back to our roots (making fun of Wizardry). There’s potato chips, there’s troll pits, there’s 3D printing, and all kinds of other wandering off topic this month, so be sure to stay tuned for none of that. We’re looking forward to a great new year with the Apple II, so join us as we kick off what is sure to be an awesome 2015! Wews! More information on everything discussed in this episode after the jump. Porsche Apple – Replica of the 935K3 LeMans Porsche in Apple livery. A2Central – The number one Apple II news site. Go there! Now! A2Central Contact – Want to help out? Here’s how. Ben Heck – Ben’s blog. Ben Heck Show – Ben’s YouTube channel. Apple I Replica – Ben’s three part series on the project. Apple IIGS Laptop – Every Apple II fan’s favorite project of Ben’s. Replica I – Vince Briel’s awesome kit. Nishida Radio – The man, the wizard, the legend. Ben’s Chip Clip – A rite of passage. Pet Conversions – File his legs down a bit! Pinball Construction Set – The source code released! Boo Atari. 65xx Dev Boards – Now available for purchase (sort of). CiderPress 4.0.0 – Squeeze more out of your disk images (nyuk nyuk). Assembly Lines – Chris Torrence’s book now available. Buy it or Quinn will kick a kitten.

This month on Open Apple, we close out the year with our traditional Year-End Roundtable discussion. We’re joined by Eric ‘Sheppy’ Shepherd, Sarah W., and Carrington Vanston. We talk about alternate universes, our collective love of the IIgs, and Quinn takes cheap shots at Carrington. It’s the holidays, so Commodore users are given a respite. […]

This month on Open Apple, we close out the year with our traditional Year-End Roundtable discussion. We’re joined by Eric ‘Sheppy’ Shepherd, Sarah W., and Carrington Vanston. We talk about alternate universes, our collective love of the IIgs, and Quinn takes cheap shots at Carrington. It’s the holidays, so Commodore users are given a respite. Well, a bit of a respite, anyway. Meanwhile, Sheppy solicits hatemail, Carrington calls shenanigans, and Sarah keeps everyone honest. Count the euphemisms! So many euphemisms! As usual, we have lots of news to talk about as well. It’s been an amazing year for the Apple II, and we have new games, new hardware, and new video histories to share. I/O Silver is here, John Romero is there, and JSMESS is everywhere. More information on everything discussed in the show after the jump. * No Quarter – Mike and Carrington’s other thing. * Drop /// Inches – Mike and Paul’s other thing. * KansasFest – Of course! * A2RetroSystems – Home of the upcoming Uthernet II, and other magic. * CFFA 3000 – You either have one or you want one. Maybe you want more than one. * 65xx SXBs – Western Design Center’s 6502-based hobbyist boards. * ReactiveMicro – Makers of the upcoming TransWarp clones. * Portal – No, not that Portal. Jimmy Maher talks about this obscure game. * Penguin Software – Jimmy also talks about The Spy’s Adventure series… * Carmen Sandiego – …and the competing series most of us know. * PolarWare – The other side of the controversy, from the Spy’s Adventure folks. * Crush, Crumble, and Chomp – Sheppy’s pick, not what Quinn thought it was. * The Movie Monster Game – What Quinn thought it was. *

This month on Open Apple we present an early holiday gift, in the form of an epic three hour episode. We sit down for a great conversation with Apple II legend Randy Brandt, perhaps best known for his work at Beagle Bros. We go deep on Beagle Bros, exploring the making of their quirky, innovative software and […]

This month on Open Apple we present an early holiday gift, in the form of an epic three hour episode. We sit down for a great conversation with Apple II legend Randy Brandt, perhaps best known for his work at Beagle Bros. We go deep on Beagle Bros, exploring the making of their quirky, innovative software and the wacky characters that produced it. Never one to rest on his laurels, Randy is now helping to produce a modern reboot of Beagle Bros’ only major game release, I/O Silver. The game will be released very soon as of when you’re reading this, and it runs on all major mobile platforms. Look for it in an Apple App Store or Google Play Store near you. If that’s not enough, we have a huge pile of news to talk about this month, joined together by the most epic series of segues ever to grace the history of podcasting. We talk Transwarps, we talk Woz, we talk Neuromancer, we talk Wizardry, we talk to our listeners, and we talk smack. That’s just how we roll here on Open Apple. We also spend a lot of time pretending to know anything about Apple II mice. In addition, we have the unfortunate duty to recognize the passing of some Apple II luminaries- Bob Bishop and Mike Pfaiffer. The Apple II community is great because of a lifetime of hard work by many talented people. Join us as we remember the contributions of two of those people. Don’t worry, there’s much Apple II stuff to be thankful for in this month of American Thanksgiving. So put down the turkey leg and get caught up on ye olde stripey Apple. The biggest episode of Open Apple ever!   More information on everything mentioned in the show can be found after the jump. Links for Episode 41 * Randy Brandt – An Apple ][ figure who needs no introduction. But just in case, here’s an introduction. * Randy on A2H – An overview of Randy’s career on Apple II History. * Beagle Bros – Everyone’s favorite software company. * Beagle Bros Archive – A repository of Beagle Bros software, created by A.P.P.L.E. * GPLE – The Global Program Line Editor, by Beagle Bros. * D Code – The AppleSoft compactor and debugger, by Beagle Bros. * Timeout – The series of AppleWorks add-ons from Beagle Bros. * AppleWorks – An excellent rundown on the history of this product by Dr. Weyrich. * Bubble Sort – The first sort you learn in Computer Science, and then never use again. * Quicksort – A much more sophisticated sort, in common use today. *

Now for something completely different. We have a bit of a gap between shows here on Open Apple, due to the timing of some interviews we have lined up. Rather than keep you waiting, we thought we’d try something wacky. In this “episode” of Open Apple, Quinn and Mike sit down together and watch The Goldbergs. This is a sitcom airing on ABC that is garnering some critical acclaim. In particular, we watched episode 4 in season 2, entitled “Shall We Play a Game?”. This episode features an Apple II+ prominently throughout the show, including terrific shots of games and applications you will definitely recognize. The producers did their homework, and showed the platform genuine love and respect. It’s a very prominent feature of this episode, so we thought it might be fun to talk about it. The format of this episode is rather like a DVD commentary track. However, we can’t legally include any audio or video of the show in the podcast, so you’ll need to set that up yourself. Queue up the episode of the show on your DVR, Hulu, or whatever other method you care to use, and listen to the podcast while you watch. We’ll tell you when to start playback of the show. We watched a version of the show with no commercials, so be sure and pause the podcast during breaks if you need to. We start watching at the opening line, “Growing up, my mom was many things…”.  Fair warning- the podcast by itself will not make much sense if you aren’t watching along with us! For best results, we recommend a commercial-free version of the episode. See the show notes after the jump for some options. We have no idea if this experiment is going to work for anyone, but we like to push the cutting edge of 30yo platforms here on Open Apple. Let us know what you think of this half-show. We probably won’t do it again, unless another TV show happens to spend half its screen time on an Apple II, but you never know. Stay tuned for the “real” November episode of Open Apple coming soon! More information on The Goldbergs after the jump. Links for Episode 40.5 * Shall We Play a Game? – Watch the episode for free on ABC’s site (pause the podcast during commercials). * Shall We Play a Game? – Watch the episode commercial-free in HD on iTunes. * Shall We Play a Game? – Watch the episode on Hulu. * The Goldbergs – The official site. * The Goldbergs – Everything you might want to know about the show.  

Now for something completely different. We have a bit of a gap between shows here on Open Apple, due to the timing of some interviews we have lined up. Rather than keep you waiting, we thought we’d try something wacky. In this “episode” of Open Apple, Quinn and Mike sit down together and watch The […]

This month on Open Apple, we talk to Chris Torrence, the new Roger Wagner Volunteer Archivist on behalf of Softalk magazine. Chris is a lifelong Apple II fan, and has recently undertaken the valuable effort of producing a book containing all of Roger Wagner’s Assembly Lines columns. This will include all of the articles included in Roger’s original book (Assembly Lines: The Book) as well as columns never before available in book form. He’s not just republishing the articles, he’s annotating, footnoting, and expanding on them as needed. It’s a terrific service for the community. We’ll dig into that, as well as Chris’ start in computing, and how he got to where he is today. We manage to get through an entire show without taking a cheap shot at Commodore, so you won’t want to miss this. Wait- no we don’t. We also mark the passing of Lode Runner creator Douglas E. Smith, we talk about printers for some reason, and we talk about more eBay auctions on this show that doesn’t talk about eBay auctions. You won’t want to miss this month’s Weird Gaming, where we run the gamut from incredible educational games that didn’t get their due, to horrifying shareware games that can’t be forgotten quickly enough. We talk AppleSoft source code in Tech, and lots more. So drop your machine two inches, and let’s go! More information on everything mentioned in the show can be found after the jump. Links for Episode 40 * Drop /// Inches – The Apple /// podcast. If you like us, you’ll like them, because one of us is one of them. * Avery 5.25″ Floppy Labels – These are totally still a thing. * Avery 5.25″ Template – There’s even a handy Word template for using them in your printer. * 3.5″ Labels and Template – Why not, since we’re here. * Hack-A-Day 10th Anniversary – Veronica ventures to Pasadena. * Raspberry Pi – You too can make a fruit salad out of your Apple. * Raspple II –  Ivan Drucker’s big pile of win for making Apple Pi. * SoftTalk Magazine – A digital archive of one of the very best Ap...

This month on Open Apple, we talk to Chris Torrence, the new Roger Wagner Volunteer Archivist on behalf of Softalk magazine. Chris is a lifelong Apple II fan, and has recently undertaken the valuable effort of producing a book containing all of Roger Wagner’s Assembly Lines columns. This will include all of the articles included in Roger’s original book (Assembly Lines: […]

This month on Open Apple, we talk to Gary Little, prolific author of many technical reference books about various models in the Apple ][ line. In addition to writing great books that go deep on the hardware, Gary also wrote lots of great software, including such gems as AmDOS, and the popular Point To Point modem communication software. We also catch up on all the news (there’s lots!) and take some cheap shots at other podcasters along the way. Join us as we talk about open source hardware, GS ports of great arcade games, the joy of redialing, and DClocks. So many DClocks! More information on everything mentioned in the show can be found after the jump. Links for Episode 39 * Halt and Catch Fire – AMC Drama series set in the golden age of 8-bit computing. * ImageWriter II cameo in Halt and Catch Fire – The prop used to represent the “Protonix OccasionMaster”. * Rocky’s Boots cameo in Halt and Catch Fire – A classic Apple ][ game made to appear to be running on the Cardiff Giant. * The Mac speaks for itself – The Mac speech demo that Quinn totally didn’t think was real. Jobs demonstrates his early flair for showmanship. * Dagen Brock’s IIgs video series – Episode 0 of Dagen’s series on learning to program the Apple IIgs. * Easy 6502 – A hands-on Java-based tutorial for learning 6502 assembly language. * Western Design Center – Watch this space for information on the upcoming 6502-based hobbyist development boards. * Western Design Center on Facebook – For all the latest announcements from our favorite chip maker. * DuoDisk 3.5 Prototype auction – A genuinely rare and neat Apple ][ artifact for sale. * Earlier DuoDisk 3.5 auction – The first one of two that appeared, which sold for impressive money. * RAM Express & DClock combo auction – An incredibly rare and desirable pair of peripherals for the Apple //c Plus. * Another RAM Express & DClock auction – Amazingly, a second auction for these rare items (not the same ones!). *

This month on Open Apple, we talk to Gary Little, prolific author of many technical reference books about various models in the Apple ][ line. In addition to writing great books that go deep on the hardware, Gary also wrote lots of great software, including such gems as AmDOS, and the popular Point To Point […]

This month on Open Apple, we go deep on Lawless Legends with most of the team building it. We’ve managed to corner Seth Sternberger (of 8-bit Weapon fame), Martin Haye, and Brendan Robert (Dave Schmenk, we’re coming for you…) to grill them on this amazing effort. We also wish a fond farewell to co-host Ken Gagne, and welcome our new co-host Quinn Dunki. Listeners can look forward to more angry sarcasm and less professionalism here on Open Apple. Of course, we also ramble some more about KansasFest 2014. Because KansasFest. Lawless Legends is a new wild west RPG game being built cross-platform for classic 8-bit computers, and possibly a few modern machines as well. Among its many outstanding features are a 2.5D free-roaming raycast engine, mipmapping, sprites, a high-level scripting language, and full modern pipeline for creating art and design elements. We gather up as many of the team as we can muster and pick their brains about how the game is coming along. We go deep into the process of building it, and take some cheap shots at Commodore along the way. It’s okay though, by the time their machines finish loading, this will all be ancient history. More information on everything mentioned in the show can be found after the jump. Links for Episode 38 * KansasFest – The biggest and best retrocomputing conference there is. * Lawless Legends on Facebook – Get the scoop on this game, and keep up with the latest news. * Lawless Legends on Github – All the source code, ready to be forked around with. * Outlaw Editor – The cross-platform retro game editor which is the beating heart of the Lawless Legends pipeline. * JACE – The Java Apple Computer Emulator, which is the beating heart of the beating heart of Outlaw. * The Tale of Big Blue – Follow a single pixel from editor to screen memory. Martin walks through the raycaster top to bottom. * Blockly – The graphical code editor which was incorporated into Lawless’ design pipeline. * “Burger” Becky Heineman – The legendary Apple ][ game developer by whom Lawless Legends managed to get noticed. * Graphics Gems – Techniques for optimizing rendering engines that are as useful on the Apple ][ as they are on the PlayStation 4. * 8-Bit Weapon – The chiptunes band with a soft spot for the Apple ][, and a love of retro RPGs.  

This month on Open Apple, we go deep on Lawless Legends with most of the team building it. We’ve managed to corner Seth Sternberger (of 8-bit Weapon fame), Martin Haye, and Brendan Robert (Dave Schmenk, we’re coming for you…) to grill them on this amazing effort. We also wish a fond farewell to co-host Ken Gagne, […]