KANSAS CITY, MO — March 7, 2012 — KansasFest, the 23rd annual convention dedicated to the Apple II computer, is now open for registration. Users, programmers, hobbyists, and retrocomputing enthusiasts are invited to Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Missouri, from Tuesday, July 17, through Sunday, July 22, for six days and five nights of sessions, demos, announcements, contests, and camaraderie.

The week kicks off with a keynote speech by John Romero, co-founder of id Software and creator of Wolfenstein 3D, Dangerous Dave, and nearly a hundred other popular computer and video games. Romero will be available immediately afterward for a Q&A and autograph session.

The week then offers a variety of presentations and workshops, including but not limited to:

• The history of AppleWorks, presented by Randy Brandt
• Andy Molloy looks at the best of the Apple II demo scene
• Apple II Road Show — Tony Diaz shows you how to tell authentic hardware from a fake
• Build your own Apple II WordPress site with Ken Gagne
• Learn to program interactive fiction in Inform 7 with Carrington Vanston
• A Kickstarter brainstorming session
• HackFest, an annual programming challenge open to coders of all skill levels
• A vendor fair and exhibit hall for attendees and the general public to show off, play with, and buy and sell new or unusual hardware and software

Attendees are encouraged to share their knowledge by presenting their own hardware and software sessions, especially of the Apple II but including Macintosh, Windows, Linux, iOS, and others. All KansasFest sessions are presented by the attendees, who are known for unscheduled events and debuts, too. Whether it’s a behind-the-scenes look at new software, preorder opportunities for new hardware, a live-action text adventure, a podcast recording session, GShisen and Dueltris tournaments, or an athletic round of Bite the Bag, there are experiences to be had and memories made at KansasFest that aren’t possible except in the company of surprising, brilliant, diehard Apple II fans.

Register before June 1 to guarantee a price of $375 for a double room or $445 for a single, which includes admission to all sessions as well as most meals. Official KansasFest shirts are extra and optional and must be ordered by May 31; registration for staying on-site closes July 8. Veterans of the event are invited to bring a first-time attendee; if each indicates the other’s name on the registration form, both will receive a $25 referral rebate at the event. To register, please visit the official Web site at http://www.kansasfest.org/

KansasFest sponsor 16 Sector invites any and all Apple II users, fans, and friends to attend the world’s only annual Apple II conference. For photos, videos, schedules, and presentations from past year’s events, to sign up for the email list and for inquiries, please visit the event’s Web site.

CONTACT:
Email: http://www.kansasfest.org/contact/
Register: http://www.kansasfest.org/register/
Twitter: @KansasFest
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/events/382225585123061/

SEPTEMBER 30, 2011 — KansasFest 2012, the Apple II convention scheduled for July 17–22 in Kansas City, Missouri, comes just two months after the twentieth anniversary of Wolfenstein 3D, the first-person shooter that, when released for MS-DOS in 1992, defined a genre that is still popular today. Not only did the game, which was later ported to the Apple IIGS, use as its inspiration the Apple II game Castle Wolfenstein; Wolfenstein 3D’s creators got their start working at Apple II disk magazine Softdisk.

To commemorate that anniversary and heritage, KansasFest 2012′s keynote speech will be delivered by none other than Wolfenstein 3D co-creator John Romero.

Romero, whose Apple II credits include Dangerous Dave and Dark Castle, has been a pillar of the electronic entertainment industry for nearly as long as the Apple II has existed. Popular Apple II magazine inCider published Romero’s first program in 1984, with many more of his titles to appear in both inCider and Nibble. Romero later joined Origin Systems, publisher of the Ultima and Wing Commander games, as a programmer, after which he co-founded Inside Out Software. At both companies, he ported software to and from the Apple II and Commodore 64. With KansasFest 2008 keynote speaker Lane Roathe, Romero also co-founded software company Ideas From the Deep, where he developed the Apple II game Zappa Roidz as well as the InfoDOS operating system for Infocom’s Apple II games.

In 1989, Romero joined Softdisk, a stint that introduced him to three important people: John Carmack, Tom Hall, and Adrian Carmack. The four co-workers left Softdisk in 1991 to co-found id Software, which a year later revolutionized electronic gaming and demonstrated the potential of the shareware distribution model when they released Wolfenstein 3D, which sold 100,000 units in its first 18 months. Later id Software blockbusters, including DOOM and Quake, further cemented the company as an industry powerhouse. Romero has since been involved with many additional high-profile games, including Deus Ex, Daikatana, and Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows. He most recently co-founded social games company Loot Drop, developer of the popular Facebook game Ravenwood Fair, which currently has nearly five million users.

Despite such overwhelming success and a storied résumé, Romero has long celebrated his roots as an Apple II programmer. In 1998, he reunited forty Apple II programmers in celebration of the Apple II turning 20 the year before. So prestigious were Romero’s invitations that in attendance was Apple II inventor Steve Wozniak, KansasFest 2003′s keynote speaker. It was this event that later inspired Jason Scott, keynote speaker at KansasFest 2009, to begin production on a documentary of the 6502 processor, which powers the Apple II. Romero appeared in Scott’s text-adventure documentary, Get Lamp, and will support Scott’s upcoming 6502 film as well.

From Commander Keen to DOOM and Quake, Romero’s games — 97 to date — regularly become household names and spawn countless imitators. Romero’s reflection on the role of the Apple II in both his and the industry’s successes will captivate KansasFest 2012 attendees.

KansasFest is an annual convention offering Apple II users and retrocomputing enthusiasts the opportunity to engage in beginner and technical sessions, programming contests, exhibition halls, and camaraderie. KansasFest was originally hosted by Resource Central and has been brought to you by the KFest Committee since 1995. Any and all Apple II users, fans, and friends are invited to attend this year’s event. Registration details will be announced on the KansasFest Web site in early 2012. For photos, videos, and presentations from past KansasFests, please visit the event’s official Web site at http://www.kansasfest.org/

CONTACT:
KansasFest 2012
http://www.kansasfest.org/
http://twitter.com/kansasfest/

Two years after it was first unveiled at KansasFest 2009, Vince Briel’s A2MP3 card finally became commercially available at this year’s event, bringing MP3-playing capabilities to the Apple II. Attendees of KansasFest 2011 not only had the opportunity to assemble their A2MP3 kit under the watchful eye of its creator; they also got a custom board branded with the KansasFest logo, available nowhere else.

Until now! If you missed your chance to get the limited-edition A2MP3 card, you can now bid on one on eBay. This card, which has been built and modified by Tony Diaz to eliminate the need for a zip tie, was donated by Vince Briel and is the only way for anyone who didn’t attend KansasFest 2011 to get their hands on this unique card.

Best of all, 100% of the proceeds from this auction benefit the @rsuenaga Scholarship Fund. Ryan Suenaga was a longtime member and stalwart supporter of the Apple II community who tragically passed away earlier this year. Ryan had every intention of attending KansasFest 2011. In his absence, his friends have created a scholarship to benefit young adults, to whom Ryan, as a social worker, dedicated much of his life. This auction will be added to funds collected at KansasFest 2011 into a single donation that will make a significant difference in a young person’s life.

During KansasFest, Martin Haye demonstrated his Pseudo-II Emulator (P2E), an Apple II emulator written in JavaScript that is still in its early development stages. Check it out at: http://p2e.mobi/

Note: P2E doesn’t appear to be compatible with IE9 yet but works fine in Firefox and Chrome.

At KansasFest 2011, Juiced.GS, the Apple II community’s longest-running print publication, announced that the magazine will continue its streak into 2012 with a seventeenth volume of quarterly issues, with subscriptions now being accepted. A new PDF is also available for purchase, and publisher Gamebits is offering advertisement design services. Full details are on the Juiced.GS blog.

Steve Weyhrich has an extensive write-up of Bob Bishop’s keynote talk, covering Bob’s time at Apple, his Apple II software projects, and SiMPLE, a programming language for kids and adults.

David Schmenk amazed KansasFest attendees with his game ‘Escape From the Homebrew Computer Club 3D’. It’s a first person shooter, minus the shooting, that uses low res graphics to produce a 2 1/2 dimension game running on all models of the Apple II. The object is to help Woz find his way out of a multi-level building while avoiding the pursuit of assorted baddies from IBM, Atari and Radio Shack — all who want to steal his newly-demoed Apple computer.

The game features a high frame rate, joystick support, power-ups and a timer to compete against your friends. Here at KansasFest, folks have been having fun playing it on an Apple IIc+ set up in the dorm common area.

We hope to have a video of his presentation up soon, but in the meantime, enjoy this YouTube video of HBCC. You can download the game through links provided in the YouTube description, or play it on Virtual Apple ][ through your web browser.

Hot on the heels of the Sweet16 update, Sheppy announced SideClick v2.0. SideClick is a contextual menu manager for the Apple IIGS, supporting right mouse button and control-clicking to open an object’s contextual menu.

Eric “Sheppy” Shepherd today announced the release of Sweet16 v2.3, the premier Apple IIGS emulator for MacOS X. See the release notes for a complete list of additional features and bug fixes.

David Schmidt has posted a superb demonstration video of Rich Dreher’s new CFFA3000 card that is being released at KansasFest.