Today Syndicomm announced the availability of its second DVD covering the events of KFest 2004.Disc 2 includes Code Secrets of Wolf 3D, LANceGS Programming, and Hi-Fi WiFi. There are a few minutes of bonus footage as well, including after-hours goings-on around the dorm at Avila University..

Gerard Putter has released version 3.0 of Virtual ][, which runs on Mac OS X.The new version emulates the Epson FX-80 printer on Mac OS X 10.3 or later. In addition, it adds the following changes:

• The state of a virtual machine can be saved and restored.
• Now emulates the Applied Engineering RamWorks card on the Apple //e, which gives you up to 8 MB of memory.
• The program now includes several different character set ROMs, and supports user-customized character sets.
• Installing ROM files has been simplified.
• The color of the “phosphor” on monochrome screens can be configured.
• The video refresh rate of the emulated monitor can now be changed.
• When doing a cold restart, the disks now stay in the drives.
• Mouse emulation has been improved; software like the Apple II DeskTop now runs correctly.
• Fixed a bug that prevented removing a diskette image from a configuration.

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Stephen Heumann has released a new version of his incredibly cool VNC viewer for the Apple IIgs. It can be downloaded at http://www.syndicomm.com/~s.heumann/VNCviewGSa2.bxy.The new version supports hextile encoding, which can improve performance on low-speed connections, fixes a bug that causes second and subsequent connections not to work properly, and improves performance when scrolling rapidly between different parts of the server’s screen..

Geoff Weiss has posted LanceHack, an Applesoft BASIC program that can change the MAC address of your LANceGS card. The software can be downloaded from the Syndicomm Online A2 file library, which is available to Syndicomm Online members by clicking the “Syndicomm File Library” link in the sidebar to the left..

Syndicomm has released the first in a series of DVDs providing video coverage of KansasFest 2004.The first DVD contains the roast of Dave Miller (along with the awarding of prizes for various contests and a moment of silence for Gary Utter). Also on the DVD are Sharon Knoblock’s presentation on genealogy and some after-hours stuff including a casual chat with Hans Franke while he writes code on his Replica-1 Apple 1 computer replica..

AppleWin, the IIe emulator for Windows, has been updated with several new features and fixes. The author has rewritten a substantial amount of the core emulation code for version 1.12.04. Folks can submit features for his wishlist.Changes since the last version include:

• Switched to MAME’s AY8910 emulation
• Added support for SSI263 speech chip on Mockingboard (tested with SMS s/w & Rescue Raiders)
• Ctrl+Reset now resets MB
• Key presses: 2 buffers. Fixes problem where key presses are missed on faster PCs.
• Added FLASH support
• Switched Speaker to use DirectX
• Rebuilt using DirectX 9.0b library
• Removed AppleWin calibration when starting a new version
• Fixed 6502 emulation cycle-count inaccuracies, resulting in:
• Precise analogue joystick support (Rescue Raiders’ joystick support now works)
• Precise Apple speaker
• Emulation speed control now works when using Mockingboard
• Full speed (Scroll-lock) mutes all sound (Speaker,Mockingboard)
• Reset now switches Alternate char set off
• PC’s delete key maps to Apple’s DEL key
• Fixed characters: ‘6’, ‘|’, ‘_’
• Fixed DELREG.INF
• Added wishlist
  

• Joystick emulation doesn’t work properly in some games (Championship Lode Runner, Boulderdash + others)
• SSI263 emulation is very basic: there is no attempt to emulate rate, inflection or filters.
• Possible problem with FLASHing text under WinXP (text flashes green!). I can’t reliably reproduce this..
  

5112080933 – Ends Aug-03-04 08:40:34 PDT
Apple II Pre-Production Prototype #111

This will probably sell for (relatively speaking) big bucks, but depending on how much you love the Apple II platform, it could be yours – a TRULY RARE piece of early Apple II history.

08/03 UPDATE: The auction ended with a final bid of $6099.00 but with the seller’s unknown reserve price not met.This has truly been an interesting auction to watch and an opportunity for lively discussion in Syndicomm’s Apple II Forum RTC. Since the auction began, our resident experts have been going over the pictures, comparing notes. The concensus opinion is that this unit is indeed a valuable specimen of Apple II history but that it’s not really an actual prototype. It would be better classified strictly as an early production unit. To verify this opinion, Tony Diaz, who owns several prototypes of various Apple and third-party projects in his personal collection compared the auction unit with his own handmade prototypes. Still, we consider it a HIGHLY desirable and collectible unit! Hopefully it will be relisted soon..

Stephen Heumann has posted VNCView GS to the A2 library on Syndicomm Online. This software allows an Apple IIgs to connect over a network to any computer providing VNC services, to display and interact with that computer’s graphical desktop environment.The software can connect to any remote computer running a VNC server, which is available for a wide variety of platforms including Mac OS X, Mac OS 9, Microsoft Windows, and many forms of Unix and Linux using the X Window System..

Ventzislav Tzvetkov ported his columns-type Amiga game Colorix to the Apple II. Source code is included and the game runs on both 8-bit and 16-bit Apple IIs. His announcement of the game on Usenet discusses how he solved some programming problems..