]]>The Australian retro computing gathering, OzKfest, will be happening in Brisbane, Australia, July 26-28. That’s just 6 weeks away. Steve Kazoullis and I would like you join us for a few of days of retro inspiration, Aussie ingenuity and camaraderie.
Some of the confirmed sessions include:
- Live discussion of the events of KanasFest that will have taken place in the previous days
- Matt Jenkins will take us on a ‘A trip down Memory lane’
- There will be a demonstration of the Carte Blanche with HDMI adapter in an Apple IIe (courtesy of Stephen Howell)
- I will be demonstrating The Complex, a turn based, multi player, RPG created by Sean Craig (who may be in attendance)
- Skype link up with Woz
- Skype link up with KansasFest attendees
I keenly anticipate some hardware hackery from Alex Lukacz and Jon Co and I’m sure Alex will be bringing his turtle robot controlled via Bluetooth. There may even be some Apple interfaces with the Raspberry Pi. We also have some presentations related to other classic computer platforms and current hobbyist innovations such as the Maximite.
The website has all the logistical details including a registration form. Session details will be updated shortly. http://ozkfest.net/
There will be a few attendees of past KansasFests and the previous OzKfest and we hope to imbibe the KansasFest spirit into OzKFest again this year.
Now is the time to get your registration form in, arrange how to get there and where you’ll stay. If you need help, let us know how we can help.
If you have an idea for a session that you’d like to present, please let us know so we can allocate a time slot for you. If you would like to learn something, let us know what that is and we will try to find a presenter for that topic, e.g. Stephen Wright would like an introduction to IIgs development and I’d like to find out how to change and manage disk images within ActiveGS.
Steve and I are really excited about this event and can’t wait to see you there! Reminder that the ‘Downunder Chat’ happens every Friday night from 9pm Australian EST in irc.a2central.com #a2.chat
Originally designed as a ventless, fanless computer, Apple quickly determined that the Apple II would overheat and malfunction in it’s original case. Rather than add a cooling fan (Steve Jobs hated fans), vents were quickly added to the case design, solving the overheating issue. The Apple II remained vented ever after (though users still often added a third-party cooling fan). It’s been speculated that only about a hundred of these ventless cases were ever manufactured. Apple eventually offered a trade-in program to owners of the early cases and most of them took advantage of the replacement offer, thus insuring the rarity of the Apple II ventless case.
Recently, Apple II machines with early revision motherboards have been increasing in value (if eBay sales are a reliable indicator). Some machines with low serial numbers have been selling for $3000-$5000 USD depending on their original, overall condition. It’s been an on-going topic of interest in the Apple II collecting community as enthusiasts ponder if this is a just a fad or a harbinger of the future value of their collections.
]]>Two models, both based on the PJRC Teensy (an Arduino clone), are available assembled for $35USD. Each is machine specific for the Apple //e or //c.
Going to KansasFest? You’ll have the option of picking up your order at the conference!
]]>
This month on Open Apple, the Apple II community’s only monthly podcast, Mike and Ken chat with Lon Seidman, sysop of the Matrix Returns BBS and co-host of Behind the Video. The dial-up bulletin board is making a comeback, thanks to Warp Six and the Raspberry Pi! It’s so easy, anyone can do it — unlike buying an Apple-1, the going rate for which has skyrocketed to $668,000 USD. But even that is a pittance compared to what Steve Wozniak’s former house is selling for. How long before he sells his current house and moves to Australia? Jordan Mechner’s Karateka reboot has paved the way for Karateka Classic on iOS, just the way we remember it. Charles Mangin also blends new and old with his USB interfaces for the Apple II — get yours next month at KansasFest! Finally, if you want a GET LAMP coin or any of Jason Scott’s documentaries shipped overseas, you’re outta luck — but he has four new films coming, with a colleague’s pinball film en route as well.
Find the show at the Open Apple Web site or in the iTunes and Zune podcast directories.
]]>]]>We wanted to get in touch with Apple enthusiast groups everywhere, because of our forthcoming book—sure to be of interest to anyone who enjoys Apple and ‘70s Silicon Valley history—The First Apple. It’s the nonfiction account of the Apple-1, the first computer produced by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, produced in Jobs’ parent’s garage. One such computer, the very one presumed to be the first sold to an individual by Steve Jobs, has survived through the years, and is now owned by Bob Luther, author of The First Apple. (About three-fourths of the full run of these computers were disposed of by Apple itself, in the run-up towards the Apple II.)
We recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to help in the completion of this publishing project. We’re hoping that members of your group with a particular interest in Apple Computer history will help by checking out The First Apple on Kickstarter, and by spreading the word to other enthusiasts. Here’s the link to that page:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2022043843/the-book-the-first-apple
This book features extensive and exclusive interviews with many of the originators and inner circle of Apple, and their views on engineering design, computers in education, as well as their unique personal perspectives on what it was like to be at ground zero during the PC revolution.
Thank you for your time and interest.
Larry Rodman
the upcoming book The First Apple
www.TheFirstApple.com
office (703) 535-3320
toll free 1-888-881-3320
2809 Mt. Vernon Ave., Suite 201
Alexandria, Virginia 22301
Attendance is UP this year, as regulars and several new attendees alike converge for the largest gathering of Apple II enthusiasts in the world. Be there or regret it forever.
]]>
The *latest* RPi application for the Apple II is called ‘Apple II Pi’ (apple2pi), by David Schmenk. It’s a (for now) serial-based, client/server set of software that turns your Apple II into a kind of thin client. Your Apple II’s keyboard and mouse input are then piped to the RPi server to control it. See David’s example video of his Apple IIc controlling a virtual Apple IIGS in the following YouTube clip:
The apple2pi code is open source, and available at https://github.com/dschmenk/apple2pi
You’ll need to edit a few control settings to get it working, add a third party serial port to your RPi and maybe a DB9 to DB25 adapter. See this Applefritter thread for instructions.
David plans to develop his apple2pi project even further, including adapting the RPi board to mount on a slot card that can access the Apple II’s bus signals directly. This in turn could lead to other enhancements for your Apple II such as networking, co-processing, file storage… the prospects are wide open.
The RPi may very well turn out to be one of the most amazing Apple II peripherals ever invented.
]]>
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.
]]>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.
]]>