Gizmodo brings us news that a wireless gaming controller is being developed for the Apple II. Check out all the juicy details here and then head to their Kickstarter to get in early on the action.

This month on Open Apple, we sit down with Kate Szkotnicki, long time Apple II fan and new addition to the retro community. We chat about her first impressions as a newcomer to the community, and the big splash she made at her first KansasFest. Kate is a cosplayer and frequent attendee of anime and comic cons, so she brought a very fresh set of skills and perspectives to KansasFest. Her presentation on making plastic parts (and candy!) with silicone moulding was very popular. Throw away your 3D printers- this is easier and better.

We also talk lots about John Brooks’ excellent work on updating ProDOS, Quinn says a bunch of stuff about Commodore that probably isn’t true, and Mike falls on his sword for getting everything wrong about Australian Apple II gatherings. Mike gets a record number of Apple /// references into this episode, so be sure to tune in and ignore that.

Breaking news! Between us recording and releasing this show, John Brooks has updated ProDOS to 2.4.1. Also, we worked out that the MegaBeep ROM is in fact compatible with it, contrary to the opening of the show. Listener James reported an issue that we believe was actually a bad ROM. If you are a MegaBeep owner, don’t hesitate to use it with any version of ProDOS, including John Brooks’ excellent new 2.4 updates.

Thanks to Brian Wiser of Call A.P.P.L.E. for permission to use the interview clip with Mike Harvey and John Leake.

Happy 30th birthday, Apple IIgs!

Brutal Deluxe Software, in partnership with Jean-Louis Le Breton (CEO of Froggy Software) and Richard Soberka (programmer, author of Zephyr), is happy to announce the release of the arcade game Pleins gaz for the Apple II.

This color HGR arcade game was released by Froggy Software in late 1986. As the company shut its doors shortly after, the game was barely distributed.

Version 1.2 presented here runs under ProDOS and is hard disk drive installable. The game runs on all Apple II with 128KB of RAM.

Together, in 2016, we have decided to release the game as software were distributed during the golden years of the Apple II: zip lock bag, manual, and floppy disk with label.

We auction the first three issues, one after the other. Those are signed by Jean-Louis Le Breton (http://www.jeanlouislebreton.com/) and Richard Soberka (http://www.soberka.com/).

There have been some interesting new developments in the Apple II community recently. You may have noticed we haven’t reported on them. I apologize for that, but my time has been constrained with family, work and other responsibilities and obligations that have left me with precious little time for my Apple II hobby.

Effective immediately, A2Central (as least where I’m concerned) is going on hiatus until I can get past a few major projects at work. I don’t know yet how long the hiatus will last. I appreciate your patience and understanding during this break in A2Central’s operations.

There are several other people who have the capability to post stories on A2Central, and I hope they’ll continue to do so while I take some needed time away.

Apple II Forever!
a2fan

Stephen Heumann has updated VNCView GS to v1.0. The update includes optimized raw pixel decoding routines, meaning raw pixels can be decoded and displayed incrementally while receiving data and there is now an added option to tune Marinetti for high throughput.

This software allows an Apple IIgs to connect over a network to any computer providing VNC services, to display and interact with that computer’s graphical desktop environment.

ByteBoosters is now selling via eBay, two new Transwarp GS enhancements.

High-speed 32KB DarkCache Card to replace the standard 8KB cache piggyback on the Transwarp GS. It uses the fastest SRAMS (8ns) available.

Complete GAL ICs replacement set, same high using the latest hardware revision and highest speed from Lattice (7ns).

Mountain View, CA, August 26, 2016 – Manila Gear, makers of the 4soniq quadraphonic sound card for the Apple IIGS, today announced the Apple IIGS VGA Adapter. The adapter lets you connect your Apple IIGS to a VGA monitor that supports 15 kHz. It consists of a DA-15 to DE-15 adapter with an integrated sync separator.

This is a great solution for those of us who have aging AppleColor RGB Monitors, or are still looking for a simpler and better VGA solution.

The adapter has been tested and confirmed to work with a few Benq and Samsung monitors. It can also be used with monitors that do not support 15 kHz, by using the adapter in conjunction with a frequency upscaler such as the Gonbes GBS-8200. A list of supported monitors is maintained here.

The Apple IIGS VGA Adapter retails for $30, and is now available for purchase at https://manilagear.com/product/apple-iigs-vga-adapter.

This month on Open Apple, we sit down with Mark Pilgrim, one of the most active software preservationists in the Apple II community. Mark has been spending his free time working on Passport, an automated cracking tool. It automatically detects and defeats copy protection schemes on Apple II disks, producing copyable disks that are otherwise completely intact. This is a boon for preservation of software that has only been (poorly) cracked by hoodlums of the past, or is previously uncracked. The latter is very common with educational software, business packages, and other things that the old crackers weren’t interested in. Mark’s skills and perseverance are making it possible to use more and more Apple II software on sites like Archive.org and VirtualApple.

KansasFest 2017 will be July 18th-23rd at Rockhurst University!

Meanwhile, tune in to this show and listen to Quinn and Mike bumble through news of various festivals, discuss lots of new hardware, and utterly fail to be respectful of the passing of a computer science legend. We’re sorry, Mr. Papert- you will be missed, and Logo touched all our lives.

There are a record number of amazing announcements of hardware and software this month. You won’t want to miss Passport, Ancient Legends, 4soniq, CP/M Turbo 7, SD-MIDI, and more. It’s an incredible month for spending money on your Apple II.

Go download Passport and archive all your floppies. Start now, or you’ll be up very late.

Thanks to Stephane Briancourt, we can see pictures from France’s premier Apple II retro-computing event. Check out the gallery here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/130765014@N06/sets/72157669232460520/

Remember the Dual Mockingboard card we posted earlier and now want so badly? Check out the latest from Fabrice Montupet! New video modes! Sprites! Colors galore!