This month on Open Apple, Mike and Ken chat with famed demo programmer Daniel Kruszyna, aka krüe. We chat about @party, the upcoming fourth annual demoparty to be held in recently beleaguered Boston, and how even non-programmers will find plenty to like. The first of three movies based on the life of Steve Jobs is now available for free online streaming — what’s the popular verdict on iSteve? There’s still more CFFAs coming from Rich Dreher, and they’ll work on even an original Apple-1, of which Mike Willegal is making yet more replicas. Speaking of clones, we found a “Redstone” Apple IIe clone in Australia that looks like a PC XT and is certainly no Tiger Learning Computer.

Find the show at the Open Apple Web site or in the iTunes and Zune podcast directories.

You may recall from our prior Prince of Persia coverage that Jason Scott and Tony Diaz helped Jordon Mechner resurrect the PoP source code from Mechner’s old disks and upload it to Github. Recently, Jason Scott posted a follow-up on Facebook’s Apple II Enthusiasts group about the efforts of PoP fan Adam Green.

Here’s Jason’s post:

Great news on the Prince of Persia front: Adam Green, a huge fan of the code and the original game, has been spending the time since Tony Diaz and I worked with Jordan Mechner put Prince of Persia on Github. He’s reverse engineered everything, documented it to within an inch of its life, and then created instructions and helper code to allow someone to actually build working images of Prince of Persia that boot in emulators (and possibly an Apple II). It’s a monumental achievement, and what we dreamed someone might have the time and effort to get done. If you scroll down, you can read all the essays he’s written explaining all the ways the code, the disk protection, and the system works. Great stuff.

You can see all Adam’s contributions here.

Rich Dreher has announced that a new run of CFFA3000 boards will be available sometime later this year. Pre-orders are not currently being taken, but you can get on his email list to be notified about details as they become available. This will also help Rich gauge interest in the next run.

Project Status:

4/23/2013:
There has been a lot of interest in the next batch of CFFA3000 boards (Run#3). Here are answers to a few questions being asked:

Run3 boards should be available some time this autumn (N. Hemi). We are aiming for Sept 2013.

They will probably cost the same US$149.95 + shipping as the previous run.

Preorder are NOT open yet, I am only collecting email addresses currenlty.

If you would like to get on the email list to be notified for a Run#3 please send me an email Here!

David Schmidt has announced the release of the latest version of the ADTPro utility.  Here’s what’s new:

Just a few little niceties this go-round:

Inspired by Sheldon Simms’ project to stay serial for not only booting but also disk serving, I combined Speediboot and the Virtual Serial Driver so that you can boot into the ProDOS BASIC interpreter with VSDrive active.  No floppies required, and all makes, models, and serial devices that ADTPro supports work.  The process is described here:
http://adtpro.sourceforge.net/bootstrap.html#Starting_with_Virtual_Serial_Drive

Since AppleCommander is an integral part of ADTPro now, I added a little command line invoker for the embedded AC jar.

Then there’s the thing I really wanted for myself: fixing the batch numbering scheme to start at 1 and not 0, and re-starting when the prefix name is changed.

Finally something that only the occasional person will need… you know who you are… floppy disks that don’t have a recognized filesytem will always be written in DOS physical order.

http://adtpro.sourceforge.net

1.2.7 – April 18, 2013

New functionality:

* [VDrive] Added the ability to bootstrap into ProDOS with
VSDrive active

* [Server] Added a command-line invoker for AppleCommander

Bug fixes:

* [Server] Start the numerical part of batch name at 1, not
0; reset the counter when a batch name changes

* [Server] 5-1/4″ disk images with unrecognized filesystems
are always written with DOS-ordered physical interleaving

This month on Open Apple, Mike and Ken chat with Earl Evans, Retrobits podcast host and Commodore 64 enthusiast — but we don’t hold that against him. Registration for KansasFest 2013 is open, and we all want to go, but Earl has another destination in mind. Tech history is being unearthed before our eyes, with schematics for operating systems and circuit boards appearing in museums (where the price is right) and art galleries (where it’s not). Brutal Deluxe is on a tear, releasing retroprogramming utilities for Windows and commercial games for the Apple II; we’re big fans! But not all news is happy news: the Steve Jobs film has been delayed, and LucasArts has closed its doors — will we ever get another Maniac Mansion game for the Apple II? Maybe not, but Richard Garriott’s successful Kickstarter gave fans a chance to pick up an original copy of Akalabeth. Better late than never!

Find the show at the Open Apple Web site or in the iTunes and Zune podcast directories.

While the evenings and nights of KansasFest are renowned for their spontaneity, the mornings and afternoons are reserved for sessions spanning a variety of uses, extensions, and applications of the Apple II family. Just as varied as these sessions are the good people who volunteer to present them. If you have a topic you’d like to present, fill out the session proposal form at:

http://www.kansasfest.org/sessions/

Some sessions already on the dock for this year include:

• Boot-tracing: a fun method of de-protecting games
• Track-center tuning of 5.25″ floppy drives
• Disk II theory of design and functionality
• Teaching US Kids to program
• Apple II hardware-hacking innovations
• Build your own MAME/MESS cabinet in 30 minutes
• Document scanning (with an eye to preserving Apple II history)
• A technical look at the Apple III
• Apple II copy cards
• MPW IIgs cross development

Do you have a topic you would like to see presented, even if you aren’t the one to do it? Email us your idea at sessions@kfest.org.

Past sessions have included hardware, software and game demonstrations and tutorials; integration of the Apple II with other devices; emulators; programming; Apple II history; or any subject that would be of interest to Apple II users.

We are especially interested in and prioritize sessions that focus on Apple II-related topics, but as space allows, we also love Mac, iOS and a stray Windows or UNIX session or two.

Sessions are typically 30 to 60 minutes in length and are held at various times throughout the daytime hours.

If you’ve never done a session, check out a sample of past year’s contributions at http://www.kansasfest.org/downloads/.

Rich Dreher, creator of the popular CFFA line of Apple-1 and Apple II expansion boards, has announced that cards from the next run of 200 CFFA1 are now available to order for $109.95 + shipping.  The CFFA1 is compatible with Vince Briel’s Replica 1, Mike Willegal’s Apple 1 Mimeo, the Obtronix clone, and of course, the original Apple-1.

Visit Rich’s CFFA1 Project page for more details.

Ewen Wannop is one of the busiest and most productive programmers in the Apple II community. Ewen’s latest project is RamRunTime (PDF manual), a versatile BRAM utility NDA for the Apple IIGS. You can read all about it in Ewen’s announcement attached below.

In response to a suggestion from Jayson Smith, I have released a new NDA on my website:

http://www.wannop.info/speccie

Primarily intended for a IIGs with a failing or missing battery, RamRunTime is an NDA which optionally does three things. Firstly, it will restore the BRAM settings at boot, secondly, it will set the system
clock to the current time, and thirdly, it will launch an application of your choice.

RamRunTime comes with a handy Installer, which installs all the files that are needed, then reboots the system ready for use.

To use the clock set facility, you will need to have Marinetti installed and running.

I have also issued a minor update to Phoenix, which adds Lock and Unlock buttons, to let you quickly lock or unlock selected files.

City Prints is offering a collection of prints featuring the schematics of iconic computers and consoles from the ’70s and ’80s. Naturally, the Apple 1 and Apple II are represented. Each print is produced on high quality, heavy GPA 110# Ice Pearl Cover for a nice shimmer effect. Prints are $40 each and framing options are available (but those can get expensive).

If your love for the Apple 1 or II knows no bounds, then take down that tired old Picasso or Warhol and replace it with an Apple.

Tech news giant CNET gave the Apple II some love today, posting an article about how Apple’s original DOS came into existence. Coincidentally, this is one of the themes we will be interactively exploring with Randy Wigginton at this year’s KansasFest. Be there or regret it forever.