Volume 22, Issue 4 (Dec 2017) of Juiced.GS, the longest-running Apple II publication in print, has now shipped.

This issue features reviews of a2heaven’s FASTChip //e accelerator card, the Game Port Interface Board, and the book Break Out; tutorials for expanding Applesoft BASIC by creating your own ampersand commands, and for activating the Apple III’s "Satan Mode"; a look at how Kelvin Sherlock ported the ProLine BBS software to a cloud-based telnet service; and much, much more!

This is Juiced.GS‘s fourth quarterly issue of 2017, its twenty-second year in print. The complete 2017 volume is now available as a bundle for only $16. Subscriptions for 2018 are now being accepted and are $19 each for United States customers, $24 for readers in Canada and Mexico, and $27 for international customers.

This month on Drop /// Inches, Paul’s Apple /// has trouble connecting with the world outside, so he speculates on possibilities for WiFi connectivity, and Mike’s Apple /// has trouble connecting with any worlds at all. So, we turn our attention to literature, including the full Apple /// patent, a survey of Apple II users, an early interview with Trip Hawkins, and books on the Apple ///. Paul’s gotten himself a Cursor /// and some late-era PFS software, and unexpectedly managed to get a CMC Quick-20 drive working, Mike’s gotten an Axlon 320 RAMdrive. And Charles Mangin has created a miniature Apple ///.

The second half of the episode is an interview Mike conducted over the phone with Wendell Sander, designer of the Apple ///, from a couple of years ago, covering things like the Apple-internal interactions between departments, problems and solutions to initial reliability issues, the RAM design and peripherals. Recorded from a speaker through the air for added retro sound quality, but very interesting indeed!

And after you’ve listened, be sure to read Dr. Sander’s follow up comments on the infamous National Semiconductor clock/calendar IC, loose chips in sockets, and the article on Applelogic.org.

You probably know that Dr. Wendell Sander is the “father” of the Apple ///, and that Daniel Kottke was the lead tech for the Sara project.  But did you know that before Colette Askeland was doing board layout design for the original Macintosh prototypes, she was the PCB layout artist for the ///?

For some reason, her involvement with Apple’s first business computer has been largely ignored by history, but  Drop /// Inches was fortunate to be able to chat with her about the long hours and difficult work she did before moving on to greater recognition as an original member of the Mac team.  Give it a listen.

Registration for KansasFest 2014 closes on Thursday, July 10. This is your last chance to get the sessions, camaraderie, and keynote from Margot Comstock.  Also, don’t forget to register for the optional “Build Your Own Computer” workshop with Vince Briel and “Stitch Your Own Apple IIe Ornament” workshop with Sarah Walkowiak by July 10.

Here’s the latest list of sessions.  The final schedule will be available shortly before KansasFest starts.

• Off-the-Grid Total Portability for the Apple IIc (Steven Buggie)
• Sew your own Apple II ornament (Sarah Walkowiak)
• Apple II Pi (David Schmenk)
• Controlling I/O via game port interface, or “How I learned to stop worrying and love the Apple II rocket launcher” (Ivan Hogan)
• Emulator detection in 6502 assembly language (Mark Pilgrim)
• Accelerating the IIc+ (James Littlejohn)
• How to Play STAR SAGA: ONE using VASSAL (Michael Sternberg)
• AppleTalk Networking with GSport (Peter Neubauer)
• A2CLOUD and A2SERVER 2014 (Ivan Drucker)
• Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of Sara (Tony Diaz)
• Jungle Adventure: an interactive text adventure (Ken Gagne)
• 3D Print Your Next Apple II (Charles Mangin)
• Making Apple II software on Mac OS X with cc65 (Carrington Vanston)
• A.P.P.L.E. — A Highlight of Current Projects and Products (Bill Martens & Brian Wiser)
• The Third Wave: A brief history of the Apple /// Development (Mike Maginnis)
• An Overview of the Apple3rtr Emulator (Mike Maginnis)
• Getting Started with an Apple ///: Oh My Gosh, What Did I Just Buy? (Mike Maginnis)
• Computer Art Technology (Andrés Lozano)
• Build a computer workshop (Vince Briel)
• Japanese on the Apple IIGS (Ian Johnson)
• Lawless Legends top-to-bottom (Martin Haye)
• The Internet Archive: It’s Been a Busy Year (Jason Scott)
• Satin Weave (Daniel Kruszyna)
• Veronica – a 6502 pilgrimage (Quinn Dunki)

This month on Open Apple, the Apple II community’s only co-hosted podcast, Mike and Ken chat with David Schmidt, the programmer responsible for ADTPro. Beyond his own program, David has also contributed to the development of Davex, GSport, AppleCommander, CiderPress, OpenEmulator, DiscFerret, CFFA3000 — and much, much more. Collectively, the show’s hosts marvel at the deluge of Apple II games that are being ported to iOS, Apple’s mobile operating system … though we question the direction Jordan Mechner is taking the classic Karateka. Apple-1 computers continue to fetch exorbitant prices at live auctions, while iPads and IMSAIs fail to sell on eBay — though the latter may soon get a Kickstarter from Vince Briel. Finally, Ken quietly broods while Mike and David enthusiastically sing the praises of their favorite computer, the Apple III.

Find the show at the Open Apple Web site or in the iTunes and Zune podcast directories.

David Greelish, who last month made tech news headlines for his in-depth interview with John Sculley and his troubled relationship with Steve Jobs during their days together at Apple, has posted an audio interview he conducted with Bob Cook.  Cook, owner of an early Apple dealership, established Sun Remarketing in 1985 and grew it into a successful direct marketing enterprise, eventually selling over $100 million in used Apple II, III, Lisa and Macintosh equipment before selling the company in 2006.  The Sun Remarketing name will no doubt be familiar to Apple II users as a reliable source of quality, affordable hardware long after Apple Computer, Inc. discontinued their favorite machines.

Among other stories, Bob relates his experiences with getting the business off the ground by selling 3,500 Apple III’s that were formerly used by Apple employees, before Jobs ordered them replaced by Macintosh’s (the III’s, not the employees), as well as having to watch the more than 2,700 Lisa computers in his inventory taken from his warehouse by Apple and buried in the legendary Utah landfill.

You can listen to the interview, which clocks in at just over 45 minutes, here.

In conjunction with the recent reclassification of the Washington Apple Pi Apple /// DVD, Dave Ottalini has uploaded to his YouTube channel all ten video lessons from the Apple /// in 10 EZ Lessons DVD.

Also there, is an interview Dave conducted with Andy Hertzfeld in 1988 about the Apple /// “Running Horses” demo, and footage from a WAP GarageSale in 1993 where ON THREE’s new BOS operating system was demonstrated by Bob Consorti himself.

Dave Ottalini of the Washington Apple Pi user group announced today on Facebook that their Apple /// DVD, which formerly sold for $45, is now reclassified as public domain.  Here’s the text of David’s announcement:

Folks – I’d like to let you know that I’ve decided to put the old Apple /// DVD into the public domain so that the information there can be freely accessed. If Mike or anyone cares to upload that material they are welcome!

Note that the video DVD of using the Apple /// in ten EZ Lessons can also go into the PD as far as I’m concerned.

The DVD .iso is currently being uploaded to apple2scans.net and should be available later today.  This is great news from Dave and we thank him for his generous decision.

UPDATE: The 4.5GB image has been uploaded and is available now.  Get it here.

CP/M was a popular command line-based operating systems for PCs in the 1980’s, before Microsoft’s MS-DOS took over the platform.  It was also available on the Apple II (and III) thanks to the efforts of third-party vendors such as Applied Engineering and Microsoft, who sold the necessary hardware to interested users.  CP/M never really took off on the Apple II mainly because of the popularity of DOS and ProDOS, the availability of powerful applications that didn’t require the purchase of additional (and often expensive) hardware to run (such as AppleWorks), and because it was seen by loyal Apple fans as an “IBM thing”.

Not everyone eschewed Gary Kildall’s OS though and today, there exists a small but dedicated group of CP/M users in the Apple II community.  Gord Tulloch is one of those users and he recently started the AppleCPM blog.  In his latest post, Gord describes the steps he discovered by trial and error to get CP/M up and running on one of Rich Dreher’s popular CFFA cards.  His instructions utilize Steven Hirsch’s PCPIPRO and ProPartition software and only work with the PCPI AppliCard, and you must follow the steps exactly but I gave this a whirl last night and it worked fine for me.

Currently, the instructions still require you to boot from a floppy disk but Gord promises a future post on how to boot from the CFFA, as well as instructions for getting it working on the new CFFA3000.  If you’re interested in running CP/M on a modern mass storage solution for the Apple II, be sure to check out his blog.  You can also subscribe to the Yahoo AppleCPM group for a great file repository and forums for support from a knowledgeable, friendly group of CP/M fans.

Volume 15, Issue 4 (December 2010) of Juiced.GS, the longest-running Apple II publication in print, shipped today to all subscribers. This issue features an interview with Apple II retailer and collector Wayne Bibbens, who was featured in the documentary Welcome to Macintosh; an analysis of technologies introduced in the failed Apple III that were more successfully deployed in the Apple II; a comprehensive guide to accessing ProDOS disks on modern computers, and how to convert those volumes to disk images; a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of Ivan Drucker’s Slammer; and a tale of two detectives puzzling over a programming problem.

This is Juiced.GS‘s fourth quarterly issue of 2010. The entire 2010 volume is now available as a bundle; 2011 subscriptions are available for $19 for United States customers and $26 for international customers.