This isn’t the first z-machine interpreter for Apple’s mobile operating system, but Activision’s just-released “Lost Treasures of Infocom” for iOS is the first official way to play many of Infocom’s classic text adventures on your iPhone or iPad.  The app is available for free from the App Store and comes with Zork I: The Great Underground Empire included at no extra charge.  To play the other 26 titles Activision is including, you’ll have to fork over $2.99 for each additional five-game theme collection (or get them all for $9.99), as in-app purchases, so “free” in this case is perhaps somewhat dubious.

“LTOI” also comes with InvisiClues and maps (each a $0.99 in-app purchase), game manuals, photos of the original game packaging and in-box “feelies” for each title; and promises, “new interface enhancements” which presumably make playing text adventures easier in a touchscreen environment.

If you’re considering checking it out, keep in mind this isn’t the complete back-catalog of Infocom titles.  Missing are Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Bureaucracy, Shogun, Nord and Bert, Beyond Zork, Zork Zero, Sherlock: Riddle of the Crown Jewels, Arthur, and Journey.

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.

Lim Thye Chean’s IIGS programming book, “Virtual GS” is now available from the iTunes store.  This free iBook was created with Apple’s free iBooks Author app and requires an iPad with iBooks 2 running iOS 5 or later.  Lim’s book covers several popular IIGS programming topics, including Pascal and GSoft BASIC.

The November 2011 episode of Open Apple, the only co-hosted Apple II podcast, is now available. This month, Mike and Ken talk with Melissa Barron, the Apple II community’s famed tapestry artist. The three relate their experiences exploring the past and future of computer media at conventions and museums in Chicago and Rochester, exploring the methods used to create and preserve history. Further tributes are made to Steve Jobs, while Mike Westerfield reclassifies old BASIC tools and releases new ones. Lord British’s Texas mansion is up for sale — a fitting home for Vintage Computer Festival Southwest? We debate various models of floppy drives and are wary of fake and expensive Apple II computers on eBay but excited about new e-books and iOS apps of interest to retrocomputing enthusiasts.

Find the episode on the Open Apple Web site or in iTunes.