Brendan Robert continues to improve JACE, the Java Apple Computer Emulator.   Today, he added Passport MIDI Adapter support and fixed a minor bug.  Per Brendan’s comp.sys.apple2 post:

“I just confirmed that JACE can output music from Ultima V very very very very beautifully.  Note that if you use linux you might be better off using OpenJDK as the Sun JRE drivers SUCK for audio. Passport MIDI is mostly emulated at this point.  I didn’t implement any sort of actual MIDI IN/OUT functionality — just a virtual MIDI Out to the embedded java midi synth engine.”

Get the latest build of JACE here.

Gerard Putter has released another update to the popular Virtual II 8-bit Apple II emulator.  The following changes are included in this latest version:

• Fixed an issue where the Mockingboard card could halt the virtual machine (this happened, for example, in Ultima IV).
• Corrected an issue in the "floating bus" screen rendering, thereby improving compatibility.
• Fixed an issue that could cause stray pixels on the emulated screen when switching from 80-column text to low-resolution graphics.
• Improved screen rendering perfomance by using Apple’s Grand Central Dispatch technology.

Version 6.5 requires Mac OS X 10.6 or later.  Version 6.3.7 is still offered for users of OS X 10.4 and 10.5.  Visit the main Virtual II site here to download your preferred version.

Speccie’s News Acquisition Program (SNAP for short) today received an update to v1.1, according to program author Ewen Wannop.  SNAP is an NNTP client program for the Apple IIGS.  According to Ewen:

This is an update release of SNAP, which fixes a multitude of bugs, as well as introducing many enhanced features. Please read the manual fully to see what has changed, and what has been been enhanced. A IIgs readable manual is included with the archive package, or alternatively, download the enhanced PDF manual.  SNAP is an online NNTP News Client for the IIgs.

Download the update here.

Gerard Putter today posted v6.4.1 of the popular and awesome Virtual ][ emulator for Mac OS X.  Coming on the heels of the recent major update which among other things, dropped support for Mac OS X 10.4 and PPC Macs, this update is designed to address a couple of minor bugs found in 6.4:

Double-clicking a disk in the Finder didn’t work anymore when Virtual ][ did not run – this has been fixed.

All pictures in the Inspector Help were missing – this has been corrected.

Get the latest version from the Virtual ][ page.

Brendan Robert has released an update to JACE, a Java-based Apple II emulator.  Here’s a list of the latest changes, per his comp.sys.apple2 post:

Changes since last build:
-Better NTSC color emulation
-Fixes to prevent crashes on start (race condition in video initalization)
-Tweaks to sound timing
-Experimental raw sound output (activate/deactivate with F7)
-Help text on start screen now reports correct key shortcuts
-Lots of other things here and there I’ve forgotten about (it’s been a while!)
-Removed some configuration options that were causing unnecessary grief (Program counter shouldn’t be a config variable)

Get yourself a copy at this Sourceforge page.

Gerard Putter’s excellent 8-bit Apple II emulator Virtual ][ for Mac OS X has been updated to version 6.4.  The most significant change is that support for Mac OS X 10.4 and PowerPC Macs has been dropped.  Here’s a list of what’s new:

– Dropped support for Mac OS X 10.4 and the PowerPC processor. The program now requires an Intel Mac running Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) or better.
– Added a feature to change the write protection and volume number of disk images.
– It is now possible to configure a 65C02 processor in an Apple ][ or ][+ virtual machine.
– When choosing “Copy as Text” from the Edit menu, international characters on the screen are now correctly copied to the Mac clipboard.
– Improved the quality of the QuickLook preview and thumbnail of a saved state file.
– Some custom character sets were not accepted by the virtual machine – this has been fixed.
– Fixed a number of minor issues, thereby improving the overall stability of the program.

Grab a copy from Gerard’s website.  Virtual ][ is shareware; $49 for a full license, $19 for a limited license, $30 to upgrade.