Hugh Hood on comp.sys.apple2:

================================================================
Direct Connect PostScript Printer Driver
– For the Apple IIgs running GS/OS –
Official Release – February, 2021
================================================================

Direct Connect PostScript Printer Driver – What is It?
———————————————————
The Direct Connect PostScript Printer Driver [DCPPD] is a moderately
patched version of Apple’s GS/OS System 6.0.1 LaserWriter Printer Driver
that allows a user of Apple IIgs GS/OS Desktop software to print
directly to any PostScript-capable printer, and unlike Apple’s Driver,
requires NONE of the following:

(i) that the IIgs have AppleTalk networking installed and enabled;

(ii) that the PostScript-capable printer understand the AppleTalk
protocol;

(iii) that the PostScript-capable printer have an AppleTalk /
EtherTalk speaking networking port and be attached to an
AppleTalk network that is connected to the LocalTalk port
on the IIgs;

(iv) that the PostScript-capable printer be recognized and selected
in the Net Printer Control Panel; and,

(v) that the connection path between the IIgs and the printer
support bi-directional communications.

A PostScript printer can now be connected to the Apple IIgs via either
built-in serial port (Printer or Modem), via a parallel printer card, or
via an Uthernet TCP/IP card. The latter is important because while not
many modern printers still include a serial or parallel interface,
almost all modern network printers have an Ethernet TCP/IP connection.

In addition, the patches include changes to the generated PostScript
code to provide better compatibility with Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3
PostScript printers, with printers utilizing automatic emulation
switching (e.g. receiving and discriminating between both PostScript and
PCL jobs), and with printers from manufacturers other than Apple, whose
variant or emulation of the PostScript language may differ from Apple’s.

************************

For complete details, including full documentation and screen shots of
the Direct Connect PostScript Printer Driver in operation please visit:

<http://www.apple2works.com/directconnectpostscriptdriver>

The 6502 Workshop team is pleased to announce that Nox Archaist has been released!

Journey back in time to the 1980s and experience an adventure inspired by classics like Ultima and Bard’s Tale.

Lord British himself has traveled to Vali, the world of Nox Archaist, to help thee on thy quest.

Game Trailer

6502 Workshop would love to put a collector’s edition box in your hands, featuring cover art by Denis Loubet, or set you up with the Digital Edition. Click here to order!

• View web pages
• Send the results of interactive Forms
• Download linked files
• Load and display HTML files from disk
• Keeps up to 256 Cached pages in a navigation Stack
• Editable History list
• Bookmarks
• Keep & View optional transcript Logs
• Supports Proxy connections
• Supports password protected web pages
• Print pages

Originally intended to be released for KFest as an example of what you can now do with the updated HTMLTool, for a number of reasons, it just was not ready to be released then. I thererfore spent a great deal more time with it, and it has now been expanded into a full featured web browser, which I hope will be a worthy successor to Geoff’s S.I.S.

Ikigai Software presents 2048 for the Apple II with DHGR features. Written by Eric Donadieu, the full game, manual, and disk label can be found at https://www.ericdonadieu.fr/2048/

Bobbi Manners has been hard at work over the last several months creating a suite of programs to send, receive and edit email on an enhanced Apple //e or Apple IIgs equipped with an Uthernet II.

emai//er 1.0 has been announced and includes programs to download, read, edit, and send emails including attachments. The suite takes advantage of RamWorks-style memory if available and can deal with messages and attachments of up to 16MB in size (the maximum ProDOS file size).

Bobbi has created a webpage to introduce her projects to the world including links to downloads and github for source code.

A new version of Marinetti, the implementation of TCP/IP for the Apple IIgs, is now publicly available.

The previous public announcement of a release of Marinetti was 3.0b9 in July 2018. Since then there have been several bug fix versions that have not been made widely available. This release includes fixes for the following issues:

– TCPIPSendIPDatagram was not using the correct Direct Page and looks like it never worked correctly.
– TCPIPReadLineTCP now returns the correct error code and TCP error code to the caller. This would have resulted in strange behaviour for applications that use this call.
– There was an issue with TCPIPReadLine returning strange data when used after TCPIPReadLineTCP. This would have resulted in strange behaviour for applications that use this call combination.
– The TCP stack would erroneously reset a connection in response to an unclaimed packet that is not part of that connection. This would have resulted in strange behaviour for applications.
– The MSS Option has been added to TCP Headers which tells hosts that they can send larger packets to Marinetti. This may improve performance e.g. with file transfers.

For more information on the above issues, refer to the ChangeLog included in the release for the ticket number and then refer to the related ticket on Sourceforge.

While this software is still officially classed as ‘beta’ software, it has been extensively tested. It is highly recommended that existing users of 3.0b3 and 3.0b9 upgrade to this version.

Marinetti 3.0b11 can be downloaded from the Marinetti homepage as a Shrinkit archive, or soon from the a2RetroSystems website where it will be available as a disk image that can be mounted in an emulator or a disk emulation device like the CFFA. The disk image includes the original Marinetti 3.0b1 installer for new installations if necessary and a replacement Init which contains the latest changes. Ewen Wannop’s latest Uthernet link layers are also provided.

Marinetti was originally written by Richard Bennett in 1996 and was subsequently released as an open-source project. It is now maintained by members of the Marinetti Open Source Project, which is hosted on SourceForge.

The 6502 Workshop team is pleased to announce that the Kickstarter campaign for the boxed edition of Nox Archaist is now live!

Click here to pledge!

What’s better than a brand new, hand-coded 8-bit classic 80s era tile based RPG?  Answer: One that comes in an awesome collector’s edition box with lots of cool physical goodies!

What’s even better than that?  When the game will also feature an NPC appearance by Lord British, the alter ego of Richard Garriott, the creator of the Ultima series of games!

Pledges include the following awesome stuff:

• Full color collector’s game box
• Cloth map
• Printed manual
• Game artifacts such as coins of the realm and various other cool trinkets

All Nox Archaist boxed editions will include 5.25″ floppy disks for real Apple II hardware and a flash drive for Mac and Windows PC emulators. The game will also run on real and emulated hard drives with ProDOS installed.

6502 Workshop can’t wait to get Nox Archaist into a collector’s edition box and put it in your hands.

Click here to pledge!

The source code for 45 Infocom text adventures is now available in its native ZIL (Zork Implementation Language) from GitHub.

I've uploaded the entirety of source code of all Infocom text adventures/interactive fiction to Github. https://t.co/p0K8MRKoTN If you don't understand ZIL, and you probably don't, read this instruction manual. https://t.co/H8nl1fxWcv

— Jason Scott (@textfiles) April 16, 2019

According to the code repository’s readme file, “This collection is meant for education, discussion, and historical work, allowing researchers and students to study how code was made for these interactive fiction games and how the system dealt with input and processing. It is not considered to be under an open license.” But notes Gamasutra, “… Activision, which purchased Infocom in 1986, still owns the company IP, meaning it could eventually clamp down and halt Scott’s preservation efforts.”

To commemorate the release of this code, GitHub will host the live event “Game On I: The Great Quest for Imagination“, on the afternoon of Friday, April 26, 2019, 3–6:30 PM PDT (UTC-7) at its headquarters at 88 Colin P Kelly Jr St, San Francisco, California, USA. Steve Meretzky, the sole or lead designer on such Infocom games as The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, A Mind Forever Voyaging, Planetfall, and Leather Goddesses of Phobos, will be the guest of honor. The event will be moderated by Kevin Savetz of the Eaten by a Grue podcast. Topics will include Infocom, working with ZIL, putting the source code on GitHub, and the evolution of software and version control. Following the discussion will be a happy hour, during which game stations will be set up all where people can have fun with Infocom titles and multiplayer games. The event is open to the public; free registration is required. It will also be livestreamed online.

For more on the history of Infocom, watch Jason Scott’s Infocom documentary, included as part of Get Lamp.
Read the rest of this entry »

From Antoine Vignau’s post at comp.sys.apple2 on August 17:

Graffidisk is a new kind of software for the Apple II. Its limit is your imagination: enter text or draw a GR picture on your Apple II and let Graffidisk tag your 5.25″ floppy disks. See the results of your piece of art with John Morris’ Applesauce. Share with your friends!

You can check it out here.

(With apologies to Leo Laporte…) Packing and readying for a move across town has kept me from getting started here as soon as I’d like, but that’s coming to an end so I thought I’d kick things off with a summary of all the Apple II goings-on I could find, in the last week or so:

Software updates! Windows-based emulator AppleWin, and Dennis Molony’s Apple II Disk Browser saw new versions recently released (hat tip to Call APPLE for those items).

Michael Packard has officially announced OidZone for Apple II-family computers.

Thomas Harte’s MIT-licensed emulator Clock Signal now emulates the IIe.

Jeff Ramsey invites you to play his server-based Zork I setup on your Apple II. Just telnet over to zork.retroadventures.net, port 6502 and login with the username zork and password 2018Zork.

Did you get on the waitlist for one of John Morris’s Applesauce devices?

VCF West 2018 happened this weekend. Hackaday has some great coverage.

… and I’m sure plenty more 8-bit Apple IIish goodness happened elsewhere, but that’s all I have time for right now. See you soon!

Update: IIGS developer Ewen Wannop reached out to us and let us know the item mentioning the update work on SNAP was inaccurate. We have removed the paragraph and apologize sincerely to Ewen and our readers for the error.