Volume 22, Issue 2 (Jun 2017) of Juiced.GS, the longest-running Apple II publication in print, has now shipped. This issue features Ninjaforce’s first-hand account of the Revision demoparty; Mike Whalen’s tutorial for hosting a telnet BBS; behind-the-scenes looks at Kelvin Sherlock’s Golden Gate and the projectile animations of Nox Archaist; reviews of a2heaven’s 8MBRAM/ROM card and Richard Garriott’s Explore/Create memoir; and much, much more!

This is Juiced.GS‘s second quarterly issue of 2017, its twenty-second year in print. Subscriptions for 2017 are $19 each for United States customers, $24 for readers in Canada and Mexico, and $27 for international customers.

From the europlus blog:

I’m very happy to announce that the next WOzFest, WOzFest Slot 7: Your Card, will be held on Saturday 22 July 2017, starting around midday Sydney time (UTC+10:00).

The theme for the day will be “The IIgs”, and was requested/selected by attendees at WOzFest PR#6.

In addition, the now-annual video hookup with Kansas Fest attendees will start at about 14:00 local time (23:00 Friday Kansas City time).

Further details on the announcement post, and updates will be posted under the europlus blog’s WOzFest tag.

Gamebits, the publisher of Apple II magazine Juiced.GS, announces its partnership with software developer Kelvin Sherlock to distribute his newest product. Golden Gate is a compatibility layer that allows modern computers to run ORCA and GNO/ME shell programs as if they were native. With Golden Gate, programmers can engage in cross-platform development of Apple IIgs applications in an IDE such as Xcode, or any other Windows, macOS, or Linux text editor.

"I’m excited to work with Juiced.GS to bring modern development amenities to the Apple II," said Sherlock. "Gamebits demonstrated its commitment to supporting Apple II programmers when it made The Byte Works’ Opus products available. Carrying Golden Gate in the same store was a natural fit."

"Juiced.GS has been covering Apple II software development for over two decades," said Ken Gagne, the magazine’s editor and publisher. "It’s an honor for us to share the tools for developing the next generation of software. I look forward to featuring Golden Gate-developed tools in future issues of Juiced.GS!"

Golden Gate is available immediately for $10 and includes macOS and Windows installers, documentation, source code, and future updates. Read Sherlock’s behind-the-scenes look at the development of Golden Gate in the June 2017 issue of Juiced.GS.

Kelvin Sherlock is the creator of many games and utilities for multiple operating systems, including GShisen, Silver Platter, and PNG Floyd for the Apple IIgs; Shrink-Fit X and ProFUSE for Mac OS X; and iShisen for iOS. Learn more about Golden Gate at Sherlock’s website.

Juiced.GS is the longest-running and last remaining print publication dedicated to the Apple II. Subscriptions are available at $19 for United States customers, $24 for readers in Canada and Mexico, and $27 for international customers. Receive news and updates about Juiced.GS by signing up for our email list or following us on Facebook or Google+.

This month on Open Apple, we sit down with Michael Packard, author of the upcoming new game Alien Downpour. Michael has gone back to teach himself assembly language and make the kinds of games he wished he had made back in the day. The results are indeed impressive, and his first foray into solo Apple II game production is shaping up great. He’s also been very encouraging to the community, having set up the Facebook group Apple Graphics and Arcade Game Design Enthusiasts, dedicated to the book by the same name. This group is a place for Michael to share his progress on his games, as well as for other people to jump in with their own projects.

As of this recording, you can still pre-order Alien Downpour over at Michael’s site. Remarkably, you can order it on floppy or cassette! It comes with a retro-style baggie and insert as well. Michael is writing a book on his experiences (re)learning all this, so keep an eye out for that as well. He’ll also be at KansasFest this year with a presentation on Alien Downpour. Register now so you can see that! You won’t want to miss Michael’s perfect re-impersonation of the Egghead Discount Software answering message.

Meanwhile, Mike and Quinn get stuff wrong on a great many topics, but have fun doing it. If you want to try using a IIgs as your daily driver, launch cows with extreme prejudice, or run GEOS on a weird piece of hardware, you’ve come to the right podcast.

6502 Workshop announces the release of Part 2 of the short short narrative video Cow-A-Pult using the game engine of their 8-bit tile-based RPG. This video shows more combat features. Mark Lemmert assures us that “Part 2 really does have cows in it. The people who omitted the cows from Part 1 have been sacked.”

In the previous episode, the band of heroes found a village that was attacked by marauding orcs. Now the adventure continues into the wilds to find the lair of the orcs and confront the guardian of the ruins.

This video introduces several gameplay elements:

• New spells
• New combat tactics
• New tile graphic animations

Look for more details about Nox Archaist’s combat in the June 2017 issue of Juiced.GS prior to the game’s release later this year.

The sixth WOzFest, the informal, irregular, afternoon gathering of Apple II enthusiasts in Wollstonecraft, Australia happened on Saturday 29th April. Here is a brief recap of the announcements that were made. For full coverage, head over to the organiser’s blog post about WOzFest PR#6.

Manila Gear has announced that their version of the No Slot Clock is now available for pre-ordering. This device was announced at WOzFest 5.25 in November and has been delayed by software testing. It will be available for purchase at https://manilagear.com/product/no-slot-clock/

John Brooks told the gathering that he is working on a new version of ProDOS 8 that will incorporate drivers for the No Slot Clock and the DClock. This is not yet available but is already in testing.

Sean McNamara has produced an Electrolytic Capacitor ‘Spec & Check’ Sheet for the Astec Power Supply AA11040B/C which is a very useful resource for refurbishing Apple ][ and Apple ][ europlus power supply units. See his blog post for further information and for a link to the resource.

Stephen Heumann has released AFPBridge, a tool that allows an Apple IIgs to connect to file servers using the Apple Filing Protocol (AFP) over TCP/IP. It works by using the existing AppleShare FST, but redirecting its network traffic over TCP/IP rather than AppleTalk.

With AFPBridge, anyone with a Marinetti-compatible network interface (such as an Ethernet card) can connect to AFP file servers from a IIgs, with no need to set up a LocalTalk network. This provides a very convenient way to move files to and from the IIgs, just by copying them in the Finder or accessing them in any other IIgs program.

See the AFPBridge website for more information.

The Apple II computer celebrates its 40th anniversary this summer and to celebrate, The New Apple II User’s Guide by David Finnigan is now reissued under new 40th anniversary covers.

The New Apple II User’s Guide with 40th Anniversary cover is available to order from Amazon.com for $25. This special 40th anniversary cover will only be available through the end of 2017. An ebook edition is also available for sale directly from the author. Visit the companion web site for more information.

The book has received praise and accolades from dozens in the Apple II community, including Steven Weyhrich, author of Sophistication & Simplicity: The Life and Times of the Apple II Computer; Chris Torrence, editor of Assembly Lines: The Complete Book; Eric Shepherd, well-known Apple II programmer and shareware author; and Open Apple, the Apple II podcast.

This book covers all models of Apple II, and contains everything that the new user needs to know to get started using and programming his Apple. Learn how to setup and start using the Apple, then learn how to program in BASIC. Further chapters cover graphics and sound, the disk system, networking, printing, and much more. This book is completely up-to-date and covers all recent advancements and developments in the Apple II world.

6502 Workshop announces a major milestone in the development of Nox Archaist, their 8-bit, tile-based RPG: the combat module has been completed, as showcased via the short narrative video Cow-A-Pult (Part 1) using the Nox Archaist engine.

In the previous episode, the wizard Ojithar warned that the nearby ruins contain a great evil. Of course, that’s where the party is headed today, as there’s bound to be treasure!

This video demonstrates several new game features:

• Combat scenarios
• Spellcasting special effects
• New tile graphic animations
• NPCs outside of towns

Look for more details about Nox Archaist’s combat in the June 2017 issue of Juiced.GS prior to the game’s release later this year.

This month on Open Apple, we sit down with Mark Lemmert, co-founder of 6502 Workshop. Him and his partners (Mike Reimer, Bill Giggie, Robert Padovan, Gordon Mackay, and Galactagog) have been building Nox Archaist, a brand new story-driven tile-based role-playing game in the classical Ultima style. They’re pushing the hardware as far as they can with this new engine, working to break new ground in scope, story, animation, sound, and music. Early builds look great, and we’re really excited to see more!

Mark’s journey with the Apple II parallels a lot of us. The machine sparked an interest in programming, and a fascination with RPGs and tile engines in particular. Nox Archaist is the fulfillment of that childhood dream to build such a game from scratch. Mark shares his war stories (that many of us can relate to) of strewing our childhood computers with half-baked game engines that were doomed from the start. As he and his team are proving, it’s never too late to revive and achieve that dream.

KansasFest 2017 registration is now open! Early bird rates in effect as of this posting, so don’t wait. Attendance is limited to 100 this year. Sign up now! Mark will be there and likely demonstrating Nox Archaist, so you won’t want to miss that.

Meanwhile, Mike and Quinn yammer on about new hardware, new old games, old new games, and of course Woz. Also back this month is the controversial Softalk segment. Read along with us in issue #4!