A utility to capture preshifted shapes from the HGR screen has been released. Written in 6502 assembly and Applesoft BASIC by Richard Jackson. You can try it online as well.

At PodBrix, they will sell, starting at 9pm EST on January 17th, the Wozwear 6502 shirt. The T-shirt shows a picture of the Woz minifig they sold last year, holding an actual 6502 chip in his hand (remove the chip for laundering). It will sell in a 300 unit limited edition. Get in line now!

Lyle Syverson has posted the January, 2006 issue of the monthly newsletter The Lamp!, which is a distillation of the best posts from the Syndicomm Online Apple II forum.

The excellent 8-bit Apple II emulator for Mac OS X, Virtual ][, has been updated to version 5.0. The new version fixes a couple of bugs and adds a new Inspector, which lets you watch the behavior of the virtual Apple II and debug programs running on it. Now you can set breakpoints and watchpoints, examine memory and the stack, and step through your Apple II code. Sounds like a great development aid for Apple II users!

Several community contributors from usenet newsgroup comp.sys.apple2 are in the process of creating a new Wiki called Apple2Guide.net. Please check it out, and consider contributing content so that the site can grow.

The Silvern Castle v9.1 update features 5 new spells, additional monster graphics, bug fixes, and much more! Stay up-to-date with the latest Silvern Castle news by copying this link into your RSS reader.

GSE-Reactive.com has announced that the ///SHH Systeme BlueDisk drive controller and their own Mockingboard clone are now available as kits for hands-on, do-it-yourself hobbyists. Also new, an external 3.5 drive and enclosure for the BlueDisk. You can see it all in their online store.

Andy McFadden has announced that CiderPress v2.3.2 has been released. CiderPress is a versatile Apple II image and file archive manager for Microsoft Windows. The utility is shareware, only $9.95 USD to register and available direct from the faddenSoft web site.New features:

– Added support for “.d13” images (like “.do”, but for 13-sector disks). They can be converted to/from .nib images, and the “new disk” feature allows you to create a bootable 13-sector disk.

– Added “find file” to file listing. This makes it easier to find specific files in large archives.

– Added “find text” to file viewer. Handy for long file listings.

– Added decoder for LISA assembler tokenized source files. There are three separate versions, corresponding to LISA v2.x, LISA v3.x, and LISA
v4.x/5.x. The appropriate converter is selected automatically.

Bug fixes:

– The “reopen” command now works correctly with volumes.

AppleWin 1.12.7.1 has been released.

UPDATE: A serious bug has been found and an updated version will be out shortly.1.12.7.1 – 08 Jan 2006
———————-
– Fixed cmd-line switches -d1/-d2 to work with filenames with spaces
– Reset: Init Phasor back to Mockingboard mode
– Benchmark button acts immediately
– Fixes to speaker emulation introduced in 1.12.7.0
– Adjusted speaker freq to work better with MJ Mahon’s RT.SYNTH.dsk
– Fixed Bxx; ABS,X; ABS,Y; (IND),Y opcodes: take variable cycles
depending on branch taken & page crossed

Restriction:
– Ultima V: Select Phasor (slot4) and not Mockingboard

UPDATE: There’s a 65C02 emulation bug which causes AppleWin 1.12.7.1 to crash! It occurs when you attempt a JMP (ABS,X). This affects SHRINKIT on the Silvern Castle HDV image.

ADT, the Apple Disk Transfer software, has a new web site. ADT is a utility that lets you transfer disk images over a null modem cable from a PC to an Apple II. The developer promises exciting new updates in the future.