A2 News and Notes 
March, 2005

 INDEX 
* Going On Hold
* Memory Magic
* GS Viewing
* Making Music
* Summer Camp News
* 8-Bit Development
* Software News
* SignOff 


-- Reports of a timing issue as well as an incompatibility with larger 
size Compact Flash units has caused Rich Dreher to put a temporary hold on 
sales of his popular Compact Flash for Apple II storage unit.  This bug 
seems to affect CF units of 256 meg or larger.  Mr. Dreher says that he 
has identified the problem and will be releasing a new firmware chip 
shortly.  More information can be found at: 
http://spudboy.dreher.net/CFforAppleII


-- Over half of Bill Garber's second run of 4-meg memory cards for the 
IIGS have been sold.  Designed with the help of Vince Briel, these cards 
will give the GS users enough memory to run all version of GS/OS as well 
as most memory-intensive programs. More information as well as
 pricing and ordering instructions can be found at:  
http://garberstreet.netfirms.com/RAM-4-GS.html


-- With aging monitors abounding, IIGS users have begun looking for other 
options to view IIGS output.  David Murray has devised a way to use a 
PlayStation One Portable LCD screen with the IIGS.  Information about his 
find as well as a schematic of the adapter needed to use this screen can 
be found at:  http://galaxy22.dyndns.org/shuttlecraft/psonelcd.html

--The IIGS is known for being very capable of making and playing music, 
but now it's not the only Apple II with that distinction.  Michael Mahon 
has developed the AppleCrate, which comprises multiple Apple //e 
motherboards wired together to create true musical tones and waveforms.  
Mr. Mahon has put images, construction information, as well as mp3 files 
of the sound output on his website:  
http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/Applecrate.html

--Summer Camp for Apple II users, otherwise known as Kfest has begun 
taking reservations for the 2005 gathering July 19 through the24th, at 1. 
Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Missouri. More information, including 
the downloadable registration form can be found at http://www.kfest.org .  
Kfest is one event that every Apple II user should attend at least once in 
their lifetime - more if they're lucky!

--8-Bit Baby is a project to build a development board to make it easier 
to develop hardware for 8-bit systems, like Apple II, and others, like the 
Commodore 64.  People interested in creating Apple II hardware should 
check out:  http://www.8bitbaby.de/


--Software News:

 -Apple I users, or those who are interested in Vince Briel's Apple I 
clone may want to check out Lee Davidson's Floating Point BASIC adaption 
for the 6502.  Released as freeware, this program can be downloaded at:  
http://applefritter.com/node/6970

 - Anton Treuenfels has released1. Hobby Cross Assembler, a 
cross-assembler that assembles 6502, 65C02, 65802, and 65816 code on Apple 
II and other platforms.  Version 0.11.supports a variety of assembly tools 
and is free for download under the standard GPL rules. More information 
cam be found at:  http://www.home.earthlink.net/~hxa/INDEX.HTM.


-- Emulation News:

 -Gerard Putter has found and fixed a bug that could cause booting CP/M 
to fail during a boot operation in his popular Virtual ][ emulator for Max 
OS X.  Version 3.4.1 which fixes this problem can be downloaded at:  
http://www.xs4all.nl/~gp/VirtualII/

 - AppleWin 8-bit Apple II emulator for Windows has been updated to 
version 1.12.6.0.  Some of the changes include added support for 2 hard 
drive devices, a fix for a mouse pointer/screen flicker problem, text 
character display as well as others.  More information as well as download 
instructions can be found at: 
http://www.tomcharlesworth.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/

 - Version 0.94 of the Multiple Emulator Super System (MESS) has added 
Apple IIGS emulation. MESS emulates more than 150 console and early home 
computer systems. Based on the MAME core, this emulator can be found at:  
http://www.mess.org/



* Sign Off 
A2 News and Notes is produced with real or emulated Apple II computers 
using AppleWorks 5.1. Apple II Forever! 

A2 News and Notes is (c) copyright 2005 by Ryan M. Suenaga, M.S.W. and 
edited by Howard Katz. 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 of any 
information included herein. We reserve the right to edit all letters and 
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Material published in this edition may be reprinted free of charge 
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