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.

Carrington Vanston has posted a new episode of 1 MHz: The Apple II Podcast. Download direct or subscribe via iTunes.

From the summary:

1 MHz is back to shout a quick hello before KansasFest 2011. Meanwhile, Anthony Martino and Henry Courbis say their goodbyes as UltimateApple2 and ReactiveMicro both go on hiatus. But then Henry Courbis says hello again almost immediately by scanning the Apple Service Technical Procedures Manuals and tossing them to apple2scans.net for hosting. I also take a quick gander at AppleIIGo, a new Apple II emulator written in Java that can run on (among other things) mobile phones and modern web browsers. Then I go in search of the poetic and lyrical in video games with Chris Lepine’s Artful Gamer. Finally, I get tangled in hilarious red tape with Douglas Adams and Infocom’s oh-so-funny and oh-so-difficult game Bureaucracy.

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.

Mike Maginnis provides a fascinating look at the Franklin ACE 2100, an Apple IIe clone. Through a series of photos, he pops the top off the case and takes us on a tour of the innards.

Here’s a sample of the sessions planned for Kansasfest. The list is subject to change, and several more are in the works.

• A tour of the hidden tricks of the Apple IIGS toolbox (Eric Shepherd)
• A demonstration and analysis of P2E, an Apple II emulator for iOS (Martin Haye)
• The secret sophistication and potential of LOGO (Peter Neubauer)
• A photo tour and comparison of several mobile robotic “turtles”, contemporaries of the Apple II (Peter Neubauer)
• A look at the timing of the Apple II using the Fast Processor Interface (Daniel Kruszyna)
• A tour of a scale model of an Apple II Plus, built in the game Minecraft (Steve Weyhrich)
• A technical look at the Apple III and its OS, programming languages, and add-ons you can get today (Mike Maginnis)
• Accessing files over a LAN with an Apple II (Ivan Drucker)
• Behind the scenes at Open Apple (Mike Maginnis & Ken Gagne)
• A2MP3 workshop (Vince Briel)
• An open-for-discussion look at early Apple television advertisements (Mike Maginnis)

It’s not too late to register for KansasFest and contribute your session to the pool!

Vince Briel will be conducting a KansasFest workshop this year to build his new A2MP3 card. Vince demoed a prototype of the card a couple of years ago at KFest. Included in the $99 workshop fee are all parts needed to build the card, along with Vince’s expert guidance (please bring your own soldering iron).

The card plugs into an internal Apple II slot. It accepts a USB memory stick and will play MP3s located on the stick through your Apple II. This will be the first time the card is available to the public, and these cards will be unique because they will have ‘KansasFest 2011’ silkscreened on the circuit board.

You can sign up for Vince’s workshop as part of the online KansasFest registration process.

I’ve built several of Vince’s kits, including the Apple-I Replica, PockeTerm, and Altair 8800micro (well, I paid him to build the Altair–all those front mounted switches, whew!), and have found them to be of high quality. He’s a helpful and enthusiastic teacher too.

Now that registration is open, the KansasFest planning committee is accepting session proposals for this year’s event. Sessions run from 30-60 minutes, and cover most any Apple II related subject. They are the lifeblood of KFest, and a great way for attendees to share their knowledge, interests and passion with others. You don’t have to be a polished or ‘expert’ presenter, just someone who wants to share what they know. The list is already off to a good start, with session topics on how to get your Apple II on a LAN, a look behind the scenes of the new Open Apple podcast, a technical look at the Apple III operating system and add-ons, and a workshop to build your very own Apple II MP3 card. Visit the past session archive to see what others have done, and please send in your proposal.

Mike Maginnis takes us step-by-step through his project to add the Apple IIe Card to his Color Classic. Nice write up and pictures, including some gotchas to look out for.

Melissa Barron’s recent art installation consists of a number of Apple II game and program screens recreated as loom weavings. ExTV writes that she “creates ‘glitch’ weaves by hacking a Jacquard Loom. What materializes is code, made tangible.” Amazing! Visit Melissa’s web site for additional projects.

The A2GS-L01 project folks posted a brief update to say they are building a new unit to replace the prototype that was lost last year. Plans are to show it and take orders at this year’s KansasFest.