At the dawn of 2014, Open Apple, the Apple II community’s only monthly podcast, engages in its annual tradition of reflecting on all that has transpired in the Apple II community in the past year. Ken Gagne moderates a panel of Mike Maginnis, Andy Molloy, Ivan Drucker, and David Schmenk to look at topics in news, emulation, hardware, software, conventions, and publications. Popular themes include the Raspberry Pi, the S-Prize, social media, JSMESS, the Jobs film, and KansasFest 2013.

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

This month on Open Apple, the Apple II community’s only monthly podcast, Mike and Ken chat with Andrew Schultz — gamer, FAQ author, and Interactive Fiction Competition winner. Text adventures are enjoying a resurgence in popularity and access, and Andrew guides us through the tools and resources available for aspiring game authors. Both Steve Weyhrich’s history book and the Steve Jobs movie are available for home delivery, but there’s only one we want to find under our Christmas tree. Jason Scott has integrated the JSMESS emulator into the Internet Archive, granting users unprecedented access to historical software right in their browsers. Finally, Ken, in his quest to be more Woz-like, adopts his hero’s fashion sense.

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

This month on Open Apple, the Apple II community’s only monthly podcast, Mike and Ken chat with Bill Martens of Call-A.P.P.L.E. Preserving our community’s software and documentation is important not just to the users, but to the people doing the preserving; Bill explains why. The show looks at how the media can never get enough of Steve Jobs, examining his early career and denoting his boyhood home as a historical landmark — but Woz gets his time in the spotlight too, on panels about Atari, the Jobs movie, or a Homebrew Computer Club reunion. Highlighted eBay auctions include the ten rarest and most expensive games and yet another Apple-1. Finally, Brian Wiser calls in to discuss The WOZPAK Special Edition, a book that made its debut at KansasFest 2013 alongside its creator, Steve Wozniak.

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

This month on Open Apple, the Apple II community’s only monthly podcast, Mike and Ken chat with Brendan Robert of the Java Apple Computer Emulator (JACE) and Apple Game Server.Innovative cross-platform tools are being used to bring Lawless Legends, an original 8-bit RPG, to the Apple II and Commodore 64; as part of the programming team, Brendan takes us behind the scenes. He lives in a lawless land himself — the Old West of Texas, where gaming icons Ion Storm, Zynga, Lord British, Rooster Teeth reside. But when it comes to games, sometimes you can’t do better than Tetris, of which there are many new and devious deviations. We get rid of old toys, like a SCSI CD-ROM 7-disc changer and a LANceGS card, so we can all have room for new toys, like A2CLOUD, Apple2Pi, BenchmarkeD, AppleIIWorks Envoy, and Final Cut Pro X. And sadly, Wayne Green of InCider and Byte has passed away; we remember his magazines fondly.

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

The Open Apple team forced Carrington Vanston of 1 MHz and KansasFest first-timer Kevin Savetz of the new (and excellent) ANTIC: The 8-bit Atari Podcast into a room in the basement of Corcoran Hall at Rockhurst to record the very first Open ANTIChertz.

Listen in as we discuss KFest goings-on, from Kevin’s impressions — both as a newcomer to the week-long convention and as a life-long Atari fan — to Randy Wigginton’s keynote, the appearance of a working Apple-1, and did someone mention Woz? Yes, for what feels like the thousandth time, Mike recounts the harrowing tale of how we got the Apple co-founder and creator of our favorite computers to return to Kansas City on the 10th anniversary of his keynote speech, and 25th anniversary of our favorite summer camp for geeks. Download our collaborative KansasFest report now!

Then Mike and Ken kick out their guests just in time to hustle Woz away from the hectic crowds of Apple II fans for a few minutes, and sit him down for an interview. Did the Apple co-founder have fun at Rockhurst this year? Listen to our interview to find out!

This month on Open Apple, the Apple II community’s only monthly podcast, Mike and Ken chat with Mike Willegal, Apple-1 and Apple II reproduction expert extraordinaire. His topic is hot this month: five Apple-1 computers were simultaneously on display at the History San Jose museum; one is being auctioned online; Willegal was interviewed for a Kickstarter-funded book about the Apple-1; and his clones are appearing in a feature-length film about Steve Jobs — what a guy! He even went to Vintage Computer Festival Southeast this spring, though he’ll be absent from VCF Southwest, KansasFest, and Oz KFest, all occurring this summer. Mike, Mike, and Ken watch the trailer for the Jobs movie and find we all have different reasons to see (or skip) Ashton Kutcher in the title role. They may or may not have dressed up to see the recent Star Trek and Man of Steel films; maybe they’ll fit the part by wearing some Apple t-shirts from 1986 to see Jobs.

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

This month on Open Apple, the Apple II community’s only monthly podcast, Mike and Ken chat with Lon Seidman, sysop of the Matrix Returns BBS and co-host of Behind the Video. The dial-up bulletin board is making a comeback, thanks to Warp Six and the Raspberry Pi! It’s so easy, anyone can do it — unlike buying an Apple-1, the going rate for which has skyrocketed to $668,000 USD. But even that is a pittance compared to what Steve Wozniak’s former house is selling for. How long before he sells his current house and moves to Australia? Jordan Mechner’s Karateka reboot has paved the way for Karateka Classic on iOS, just the way we remember it. Charles Mangin also blends new and old with his USB interfaces for the Apple II — get yours next month at KansasFest! Finally, if you want a GET LAMP coin or any of Jason Scott’s documentaries shipped overseas, you’re outta luck — but he has four new films coming, with a colleague’s pinball film en route as well.

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

This month on Open Apple, Mike and Ken chat with famed demo programmer Daniel Kruszyna, aka krüe. We chat about @party, the upcoming fourth annual demoparty to be held in recently beleaguered Boston, and how even non-programmers will find plenty to like. The first of three movies based on the life of Steve Jobs is now available for free online streaming — what’s the popular verdict on iSteve? There’s still more CFFAs coming from Rich Dreher, and they’ll work on even an original Apple-1, of which Mike Willegal is making yet more replicas. Speaking of clones, we found a “Redstone” Apple IIe clone in Australia that looks like a PC XT and is certainly no Tiger Learning Computer.

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

This month on Open Apple, the Apple II community’s only co-hosted podcast, Mike and Ken chat with Egan Ford, aka the datajerk, the Apple-1 and II programmer extraordinaire responsible for the Apple II Game Server Online! Egan expertly demonstrates which CPU is faster, the 6502 or 8088, running circles around everyone listening. Laurie Spiegel is an Apple II user you may not have heard of, but extraterrestrials have, thanks to her contributions to Voyager’s Golden Record; we have some of her music for you to listen to. Courtesy Facebook and scanners, we save Don Worth’s magazines from the trash and Softalk from extinction, but we can’t save derelict hardware from abandoned buildings. Will Steve Wozniak be as good a commencement speaker as the late Steve Jobs? Having heard Woz at KansasFest, we weigh in.

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

This month on Open Apple, the Apple II community’s only co-hosted podcast, Mike and Ken chat with Jimmy Maher, the historian behind the renowned blog The Digital Antiquarian. A published author, Jimmy provides us with his perspective on the pros and cons of going with a publishing house over the recent trend in retrocomputing toward self-publishing. We gripe about the Steve Jobs film sacrificing historical accuracy for mass appeal and recommend some alternative movies that get it right. We’re still loving iOS as a platform for classic gaming ports, from the adventure game Transylvania to the recently released Lode Runner Classic. Speaking of platforms, which is better: the Apple II or the Commodore 64? The answer may not be as obvious as you think! Finally, we offer a cautionary tale to vintage computer collectors whose inventory may be at the mercy of an avaricious landlord.

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