A2 News and Notes
July 2001

INDEX

* Happy Birthday A2NandN!
* Syndicomm.com Contest Winner!
* KansasFest 2001 Turns Avila Ape
** KFest Webcast 2.0
** KFest Session Recap
** KFest Announcement Wrap Up
* Juiced.GS Volume 6, Issue 2 In The Mail
* Vintage Computer Festival East Done; VCF West Coming Up

* Happy Birthday A2NandN!

This month, Apple II News and Notes turns one.  Happy birthday!

* Syndicomm.com Contest Winner!

Thomas Compter submitted the winning entry into the Syndicomm.com slogan
contest with "When it absolutely, positively has to be there in plain 
text."  For his efforts, he won a Syndicomm.com T shirt and immortality 
in A2NandN.

* KansasFest Turns Avila Ape

Kansas City, Missouri braced itself as Apple II users from all over the 
world rocked Avila College once more.  About 50 KFesters celebrated the 
Apple II like there was no tomorrow, and once again witnessed a host of 
announcements and new and updated products.

** KFest Webcast 2.0

For the second year in a row, Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd's A2Central.com 
World Wide Web Site sponsored live streaming broadcasts of KansasFest's 
formal and informal events.  Here are the highlights:

** KFest Session Recap

A look at the KFest sessions, in no particular order:

Keynote address: Eric Shepherd

Prolific Apple II programmer and Syndicomm owner Eric Shepherd's keynote 
presentation focussed heavily on the need for the remaining Apple II 
enthusiasts to put time and energy into the platform.  In order for the 
platform to continue to survive and thrive, we need every Apple II user 
out there to become more involved.  Shepherd went to the extent of 
identifying several important projects such as Lost Classics and an 
"Apple II Welcome Wagon" for new users, asked KansasFest attendees to 
sign up for projects on which they'd like to work, and had those groups 
meet at KansasFest.  As part of the keynote, Juiced.GS Editor and 
Publisher Max Jones announced that Juiced.GS would become a Syndicomm 
publication effective January 1, 2002.

Lost Classics Continued: Howard Katz

Lost Classics Project Director Howard Katz updated attendees on progress 
of the past year in getting formerly commercial software reclassified as 
freeware, shareware, and public domain.  Howard went over the process of 
contacting authors, asking about reclassification, and necessary 
documentation of the reclassification.  Howard also discussed how others 
could help and have helped in the effort. 

Sir LANce-a-Lot: Geoff Weiss

Apple IIgs programmer and networking expert Geoff Weiss discussed the art of setting up a LANceGS.  Memorable quote from Geoff's session: "If it's 
crashing, we know it works."  Geoff took users from the first steps of 
having a brand new LANceGS to setting it up on a network.

Baker's Dozen Times Two: Eric Shepherd

Syndicomm owner Eric Shepherd announced the immediate re-availibility of 
several products which have not been available for the Apple II and 
Macintosh in quite some time: ANSITerm, PMPFax, PMPUnzip, Balloon, 
GraphicWriter III AWGS and RTF Translators, Shrink II, and AutoArk.  
Additionally, all APDA and Byte Works products are now immediately 
available from Syndicomm as well.  Syndicomm gave away free cups and 
frisbees to everyone.

TransWarp'in Across the Universe: Tony Diaz

Alltech Electronics' and apple2.org's Tony Diaz gave an interactive 
presentation on how to upgrade a TransWarp GS cache from 8k to 32k, 
something like a live, in-person version of his recent Juiced.GS 
article.  Tony showed the actual soldering and desoldering of cache 
chips on a TransWarp GS cache board.  Not for the faint of heart, but 
very educational.

2001--A Spectrum Odyssey: Geoff Weiss

Well known Apple IIgs programmer Geoff Weiss again showed how Spectrum's 
powerful, versatile, and easy-to-use scripting language lets it do 
everything.  Geoff demonstrated SCAF, a Spectrum script designed to 
verify files by calculating checksums.  Geoff also demonstrated KeGS 32, 
the Windows version of the Apple IIgs emulator originally for UNIX and 
similar systems.

Deep Inside Behind the Lines: Bruce Baker

Long time Apple IIe proponent Bruce Baker gave a thorough introduction 
to Jeff Fink's 8-bit Applesoft BASIC based adventure game Silvern 
Castle,discussing characters, game play, and some of the other features 
of the Wizardry-like game.  Fascinating for both experienced players and 
the uninitiated.

Bow Wow Wow--the Dog Clinic: Ryan Suenaga

Apple II emulation expert Ryan Suenaga led a tour of some of the most 
common Bernie ][ The Rescue problems, centering around printing,
creating ROM images, and disk images.  Ryan gave a quick demonstration
of Bernie and discussed the progress made since KFest 2000.

A Tour of Apple2.org: Tony Diaz

Tony Diaz again showed his immense collection of Apple II hardware, 
including several prototypes not often seen.  His latest addition is a 
"portable" (more like "luggable") version of a Franklin Ace Apple ][+ 
clone.  Tony once again showed the Golden Gate Apple II motherboard that 
was an early predecessor of the Apple IIgs.

You Can't Do That With An Apple II?  Wanna Bet?: Greg Nelson

Greg Nelson discussed various projects he worked on during his master's 
program at the University of Nebraska and how he used the Apple IIgs in 
their creation.

Four Ways to Route the Net to your Apple IIgs: Ryan Suenaga

Apple IIgs networking Geek Ryan Suenaga discussed four different ways to 
get the Internet using your Apple IIgs: hardware routers, software 
routers, dialup, and null modem.  For the Geek in you.

Roast of Max Jones

World Famous Apple IIgs newsletter publisher Max Jones of Juiced.GS was 
the target of some good-natured ribbing at the hands of Juiced.GS 
staffers Ken "M.C. For Life" Gagne, Geoff "Juicier.GS" Weiss, Eric "John 
Denver" Shepherd, and Ryan "Barns and No Bull" Suenaga, as well as the 
former KansasFest Big Cheese, Cindy "Max is Mr. Nice Guy" Adams.  This 
year's roast had singing, guitars, recorded music, PowerPoint, you name 
it.  What an extravaganza!

Syndicomm Online--Give it a Whirl!: Eric Shepherd and Dave Miller

Eric Shepherd, owner of Syndicomm, and lead programmer Dave Miller
showed off a coming World Wide Web interface for the fledgling online 
service.  Shepherd discussed the progress that's been made in the less 
than one year that Syndicomm.com has been online.

Medium Well Done: Ken Gagne

Ken Gagne of Gamebits (http://www.gamebits.net/) announced several 
celebrity CDs that would be sold at KFest.  Additionally, he introduced 
an Apple IIgs port of a classic Apple II game (Hammurabi) written by 
aspiring Apple IIgs programmer Thomas Compter and the availibility of a 
new Apple II CD set, Espirit de Apple Corps (see announcements below).

Shareware Solutions II: Joe Kohn and Ewen Wannop

Joe Kohn of Shareware Solutions II announced the availability of a new 
CD-ROM collection of the material from the long-missed 
Open-Apple/A2-Central publication that was the core of 
Resource-Central's Apple II kingdom in the late 80's and early 90's.  
Ewen Wannop, author of Spectrum, showed off some of his intricate script 
works, particularly Spectrum Automated Mailer (aka SAM) which is the 
only electronic mail program available for the Apple II. 

** KFest Announcement Wrap Up

*** Max Jones of Juiced.GS announced a sequel to his incredibly popular 
Friends for Life CD ROM, titled Friends II.  Details at the Juiced.GS
Web site located at http://www.wbwip.com/juiced.gs/

*** Pat Kern announced a new edition of her KansasFest Yearbook, 
Keepsakes of KFest.

*** Joe Kohn and "Burger" Bill Heineman obtained the release of most of 
the Vitesse products (with the exclusion of Faxination and Harmonie).  
More details through The Lost Classics Project as they become available.

*** Max Jones of Juiced.GS and Eric Shepherd of Syndicomm announced that 
Syndicomm would become the publisher of Juiced.GS effective January 1, 
2002.  Jones will continue on in an editorial role in charge of page 
layout.  Ryan Suenaga will become the editor-in-chief.

*** Tony Diaz received a freeware release for "some" of the Applied 
Engineering software products.  Details as they become available.

*** InTrec Software announced that ProTERM 3.1 for the Apple II would be 
available for $19.95 effective immediately.  The program would now come 
on with an on-disk manual instead of the printed paper manual.

*** Eric Shepherd of Syndicomm announced that Syndicomm would be 
distributing the complete line of Parkhurst Micro Products software; EGO 
Systems products Balloon and Graphicwriter III AWGS and RTF Translators; 
former EGO Systems products Shrink II and AutoArk (owned by Ross 
Falconer); the complete Byte Works product line; and the complete APDA 
(for Apple II) product line.  Details at http://www.syndicomm.com/products/

*** Gamebits' Ken Gagne announced Thomas Compter's Apple IIgs version of 
the classic Hammurabi as well as the two CD Espirit de Apple Corps 
package.

*** Syndicomm will be selling a two disc CD ROM set of KansasFest videos 
from KansasFest 2001.  See http://www.syndicomm.com/products/ for 
details.

*** Contest Winners:

Bite The Bag: Geoff Weiss
Door Sign: Eric and Sarah Shepherd
Roger Wagner Tie Contest: Tony Diaz
GShisen: Joe Kohn
HackFest: Margaret Anderson (with a HyperTalk file dump utility)

*** Miscellanea

**** Great work again by the KFest committee of Steve Gozdziewski, Cindy 
Adams, Tony Diaz, Allan Moore, and Jerry Cline.  Thanks so much!

**** Sean Fahey of Kansas City again opened up the garage to the KFest 
participants.  Looks like after all this time the garage is finally 
emptied.  Thanks, Sean--you have a heart of gold.

**** KansasFest 2002 information: Kansas City, Missouri, July 23-28, 
2002.  Intrec Software will continue as the sponsor.  Watch 
http://www.kfest.org/ for more information.

* Juiced.GS Volume 6, Issue 2 In The Mail

The most recent issue of Juiced.GS, the premier printed Apple II 
publication showed up in subscribers' mailboxes in early July.  In this 
issue Tony Diaz of Alltech Electronics gives a tutorial on increasing 
your Transwarp GS cache from 8k to 32k and Henrik Gudat of F.E. Systems 
is interviewed.  Subscribe today!  For more information see 
http://www.wbwip.com/juiced.gs/.

* Vintage Computer Festival East Done; VCF West Coming Up

The first Vintage Computer Festival East is over; on September 15th and 
16th, the fifth annual VCF West will be held in San Jose.  See 
http://vintage.org/2001/main/ for more details.

* Sign Off

A2 News and Notes is produced with real or emulated Apple II computers
using Appleworks 5.1 and Hermes with the occasional assist from ProTERM
Mac on the Macintosh.  Apple II Forever!

A2 News and Notes is (c) copyright 2001 by Ryan M. Suenaga, M.S.W.  All
rights reserved.

Opinions expressed herein are those of the individual authors and do not
necessarily represent the opinions of the copyright holder and
publisher.  The publisher does not guarantee the accuracy or suitability
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Material published in this edition may be reprinted free of charge
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