Category: Apple II
We are living the golden era of retro computing, with all the activities happening around the World, including shows, new hardware and software, etc. There are, however, some examples of retro “something” that is in full activity nowadays but started when retro computers were brand new and survived all these years. Call A.P.P.L.E is one of the best examples of this…
If you haven’t noticed yet, the retro computing scene is alive and more active than ever! What better proof of that than a brand new language that can only be used on 30+-year-old computers! After a few beta releases in the past couple months, PLASMA (Proto Language AsSeMbler for Apple) 1.0 is finally officially out. PLASMA is a medium level…
Hot on the heals of the CFFA3000 resuming production, Big Mess O’ Wires has posted an article unveiling the “Yellowstone” disk controller. The Yellowstone is an FPGA-based disk controller for the Apple II, capable of emulating vintage controllers that have become difficult and/or expensive to obtain. In particular, Yellowstone was designed to clone the “LIRON” controller, also known as the…
R&D Automation LLC has announced that a fifth run of the legendary CFFA3000 mass storage adapter for Apple II systems is now underway. Approximately 1000 units will be assembled, with pre-orders expected to open some time in mid-to-late February. The CFFA3000 is Compact-Flash or USB-based mass storage adapter for Apple ][+, Apple //e, and Apple //gs systems which provides floppy…
The BASIC 10Liners contest is, for me, one of the highlights of the retro scene and I am happy to announce that the 7th edition of the competition is already online, accepting new entries. This year, the organizers have changed a few rules after receiving some feedback from the previous edition. The most important change is that for the PUR-80…
Apple II computer enthusiasts are fortunate to have a very active community and to reinforce that, John Brooks has announced via Call A.P.P.L.E (adding these dots is so laborious!) that a new release of ProDOS is available for download. This is a minor release bringing fixes for the major 2.4 version, released months ago. Release Notes: Bugs fixed: If a directory…
A new version of Virtual II emulator has been released. The new version 8.0 brings many new features and improvements. The big changes are behind the scenes, resulting in a 64-bit application that is compatible with the most recent MacOS APIs changes. This, at the end, ensures the longevity of Virtual ][ running on this and the next versions of…
Would you buy new a computer for US$ 24,000 nowadays? Unless you are loaded, the answer is probably “no”. That is what happened with the Apple Lisa when it was released in 1983 for US$ 10,000. Although it had very cool technology with its Graphic User Interface and the use of a mouse to interact with the computer, only about…
A lot of people out there that celebrates Christmas like to have their own traditions that are repeated religiously every year. Blake Patterson from Byte Cellar has also jumped on the tradition rituals bandwagon and once more published a post showing off retro Christmas demos. The 2017 demo collection consists of 16 demos across 13 platforms, including the CoCo, ZX…
For all of us that have overlapping interest in game design and retro gaming, the GDC 2018 will hold an interesting presentation: Classic Game Postmortem: ‘The Bard’s Tale I and II’. Michael Cranford, the designer of the iconic RPG series first launched in 1985 will be the speaker. This session will explore the conception and development of Interplay’s ‘The Bard’s Tale…
