The Apple II community heard the passing of Anthony Mario Diaz (1967 – 2021) on a dark day of Autumn 2021.

Tony was a long-time Apple II recognized enthusiast. Hardware guru, owner of rare prototypes, always keen on telling stories, also known for his weak business skills, Tony was one of the great guys of the Apple II community. He will be missed.

Tony Diaz with Brutal Deluxe members at Kansasfest 2017

From the europlus zone blog:

[A]lthough it’s not far away, I’m very happy to announce the date for the next WOzFest: WOzFest RC 21/10 will be held on Saturday 2 October 2021, starting at midday Sydney time (UTC+10:00).

And, to top off the year, I can also announce that WOzFest 22 will be held on Saturday 30 October 2021, starting at midday Sydney time (UTC+11:00).

Why two WOzFests in one month? Well the name for ’21 should give the clue – I’m entering RetroChallenge 21/10, and it seemed a good way to bookend my efforts for the month.

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

Volume 26, Issue 3 (September 2021) of Juiced.GS, the longest-running Apple II publication in print, has now shipped.

This issue features coverage of KansasFest 2021; a post mortem of Nox Archaist with Mark Lemmert, Chris Torrence, and Beth Daggert of 6502 Workshop; a profile of Robert Grumbles, who used his Apple II to hack into NASA as a teenager; a look behind the scenes of Jeremy Rand’s md2teach, Chris Vavruska’s markdownGS, and Peter Ferrie’s TextBoot; and much, much more!

This is Juiced.GS‘s third quarterly issue of 2021, its twenty-sixth year in print. Subscriptions for 2021 and 2022 are available for $20 each for United States customers, $25 for readers in Canada and Mexico, and $28 for international customers.

Axel Muhr has just released a Floating Point Unit interface card for the Apple IIgs and Apple IIe (enhanced and unenhanced). The NumberCruncher Reloaded is a peripheral card for the Apple II series that features a math co-processor, often also called a Floating Point Unit (FPU) which is specialized on, well, floating point calculations. Doing so, it is much, much faster than any 6502 or 65816 CPU ever will be.

That said, the NumberCruncher Reloaded will not automatically speed-up your programs as CPU accelerators like the Transwarp GS or ZIP CHIP would do. Programs will have to be either specifically written to use the NumberCruncher Reloaded or use a floating-point library like the SANE interface which then needs to be patched to itself use the NumberCruncher Reloaded for calculations instead of the main CPU.

Get one at https://www.geekdot.com/numbercruncher-reloaded

Volume 26, Issue 2 (June 2021) of Juiced.GS, the longest-running Apple II publication in print, has now shipped.

This issue features an inside look at the Apple II emulated in Joshua Weier’s Unreal game, zero_page; a tutorial for using ham radio with your Apple II; reviews of the ROMX and MacEffects’ transparent case; an Apple II podcast roundup; the continuing adventures of Detective Pomme and Colonel Hexings; and much, much more!

This is Juiced.GS‘s second quarterly issue of 2021, its twenty-sixth year in print. Subscriptions for 2021 are available for $20 each for United States customers, $25 for readers in Canada and Mexico, and $28 for international customers.

You can pre-order up to four different editions of Attack of the Petscii Robots, the new Apple II arcade style game by the 8-bit Guy and his team at http://www.the8bitguy.com/product/petscii-robots-for-apple/

A IIgs specific version will be available in a couple of months.

KansasFest 2021, the 33rd annual Apple II convention, is open for registration. Users, programmers, hobbyists, and retrocomputing enthusiasts are invited to gather virtually from Friday, July 23, through Saturday, July 24, for two days and one night of sessions, demos, announcements, contests, and camaraderie.

We will make the best of the virtual arrangement and return in person to Kansas City in 2022. We’ve rescheduled the keynote speaker, Robert Woodhead, to next year.

Registration is $10 for access to all talks and activities. For $20 you get access to all talks/activities plus you will also receive a commemorative pin (postage included). Official KansasFest t-shirts are extra and optional. To register, please visit https://www.kansasfest.org/registration.

KansasFest invites any and all Apple II users, fans, and friends to attend the largest and longest running annual Apple II conference. For photos, videos, schedules, and presentations from past year’s events or to sign up for the email list and for inquiries, please visit https://www.kansasfest.org/.

For once, three demos were presented during the Revision Online 2021 party. Two for the 8-bit Apple IIs, and one for the Apple IIgs.

Watch them online:

• LowTech demo by Stéphane Champailler @ https://youtu.be/Dlmrd0howLw
• Terra Nova by French Touch @ https://youtu.be/7Qrt6jzggWE
• No Hard Feelings by Ninjaforce, Dagen Brock, and Fatdog @ https://youtu.be/uDdJFKRtufU

Congratulations to you!