A2 News and Notes July, 2006

INDEX
* Kansas In July
*Phoenix Rising
*Sweet Emulation
* Name That Format
* Apple I Rebirth
* Apples Online
*Name That Game
* More Storage Options
* Software News 
* Emulation News
* SignOff 


-- By all accounts, KansasFest (aka KFest) was a success this year.  Held 
in July in Kansas City, MO, the event pulled people from all over the US 
(including Hawaii), and Canada.  While a synopsis of the entire even is 
beyond the scope of this publication, suffice it to say that several major 
hardware and software projects were announced there (and are noted here) - 
a day-to-day report, as well as pictures can be found at the KFest 
website:  http://www.kfest.org.  KFest 2007 has been also been confirmed, 
and will be held at Rockhurst University, July 17th through July 22nd.


-- Mac users may remember Deja ][, the single-purpose emulation program 
that allowed you to run 8-bit AppleWorks (classic) on your Macintosh.  
Written by Mark Munz and Randy Brandt, Deja ][ was released as freeware 
under the Lost Classics Project, complete with source code.  
Unfortunately, Deja ][ only ran well under "classic" Mac OSs. It was 
announced at KFest that Mark Munz has decided to update the program to 
work with OS X as a Universal binary, has named this new incarnation "Deja 
//x" and has begun a blog of his progress. You can read the reports, or 
comment on the blog at: http://phoenixrebirth.blogspot.com


-- Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd got cheers from the KFest crowd when he 
announced that his BeOS-based IIGS emulator, Sweet16, has been ported over  
to run under Mac OS X.  Released as freeware and as a Universal Binary, 
Sweet 16 features printing from IIGS applications, full Ensoniq chip 
emulation, screen captures, as well as other features emulation users 
demand.  Still under development, a usable version of the program can be 
downloaded from http://www.sheppyware.net/software-mac/sweet16/  (note 
that the user needs to supply their own ROM image of their IIGS computer.)


-- It may not be free, or even necessarily cheap, but if you have the need 
to transfer your Apple II disks to another platform's format, then a 
company called RetroFloppy (http://retrofloppy.com) can help.  Charges 
start at $4.95US to read a disk side and store the info in a disk image 
format, and range from free email delivery to $4.95US for a CD of your 
data.  Extra fees for additional services are also listed on their 
website.


-- As reported last month, Vince Briel has been developing a Replica 1 
Apple I clone.  The computer, dubbed the Replica 1 SE is now available 
and being sold either in kit form or as a complete computer.  More 
information can be found at:  http://www.brielcomputers.com/replica1.html


-- Glen Jones has announced that he will be producing a 3rd run of his 
Apple II 8-bit compatible Uthernet card.  This ethernet card allows any 
slotted Apple II to connect to the internet, meaning that all AppII 
computers (barring the //c) can be used.  

Jones has also announced the release of Contiki 1.3, Oliver Schmidt's 
ProDOS-based suite of software that can be used on these machines.  New 
features include mouse support, the ability to quit back to your program 
launcher, the ability to start up any Contiki program directly, and will 
work with extended memory.  Contiki will work with either the Uthernet or 
the LANceGS card.

More information on the Uthernet card and the Contiki updates can be found 
at: http://www.a2retrosystems.com/


-- The Apple II (as well as other platforms) had many users who only 
booted up their machines to play games, and a lot were released during the 
70s and 80s.  Some popular titles weren't released by the larger software 
houses, but by small entities. Stephane Racle has opened a website, the 
Gallery of Undiscovered Entities, that's trying to develop historical 
information regarding these companies.  If you can help out, or have an 
interest in this topic, visit their website at:  
http://gue.vintagegaming.org


-- You may be familiar with the CompactFlash for Apple II card developed 
by Rich Dreher (http://www.dreher.net/CFforAppleII) which uses solid-state 
compact flash media for storage.  Now Alex Freed has reported that he's 
begun development of an Apple II storage device using multimedia cards 
(MMC).  This new device has the ability to be seen as a Disk ][ controller 
to the system, and could thus handle nibblized disk images.  Alex is 
trying to gauge interest in such a device; if interested drop him a line at:  
alexf@mirrow.com



--Software News
  
 - Andy McFadden has released version 2.42 of his popular Windows-based 
Apple II disk and file utility.  Changes in the program are to help 
compatibility in a Windows environment, as well as support for Parsons 
Engineering FocusDrive partitioning.  More information as well as 
shareware and downloading instructions can be found at:  
http://www.faddensoft.com/ciderpress/

 - Apple IIGS users connected to the Internet may be interested in Ewen 
Wannop's v2.0.1b6 of SAFE 2, his new FTP client.  A stand-alone product, 
SAFE 2 allows for FTP transfers from other computers on your home or 
office network, as well as FTP sites on the internet.  More information 
can be found on Sir Ewen's website: 
http://homepage.mac.com/speccie/index.html

 - Marinetti users will want to download version 3.0b3 of this IIGS 
TCP/IP stack.  This software is necessary to connect a LANceGS card to an 
ethernet network, and work is under way to allow it to work properly with 
the Uthernet card.  A note on www.a2central.com states that in order to 
use this version, you first must have v. 3.01b installed.  More 
information about Marinetti can be found at:  
http://sourceforge.net/projects/marinetti 

- Michael McMahon and Scott Hemphill have succumbed to the Sudoku craze 
and have released a Sudoku Solver, a program usable on any 8-bit Apple 
II which helps the user solve sudoku puzzles.  The website, besides having 
the downloadable program, discusses the programming involved with the 
product, as well as source code for those interested in the program.  More 
information and download instructions can be found at:  
http://members.aol.com/mjmahon/Sudoku.html

 - If you want to develop IIGS software, you may be interested in getting 
Marc Wolfgram's Resource editor, Foundation, originally published by 
Lunar Productions.  Now released as freeware, this program is available 
in both Mac StuffIt and binhex archives, and can  be found at:  
http://www.maccetera.com/wolfgram/lunar/

 - Brendon Robert's Apple // Game Server has been updated to version 1.1.  
This new version has improved SuperSerial card support, as well as other 
improved subroutine and data support.  More information can be found at:  
http://a2gameserver.berlios.de/

 - Want to develop Apple II software but you don't need a full-fledged 
assembler?  Then try http://web.pdx.edu/~heiss/software/assembler.html a 
simple package that allows you to work with simple programs, using a text 
editor as your source.


--Emulation News

 - OSXII, the Apple //e emulator written for Mac OS X has been released as 
a Universal Binary, meaning that the newer Macintosh machines with the 
Intel chips can run this emulator natively.  Written mainly for game 
usage, this emulator has been released as freeware, and can be downloaded 
from:http://apple2.intergalactic.de/
 
 - Terry Olson has released version 6.7.29.1 of his Internet Modem 
program.  Using a serial connection from an Apple II to a Windows machine, 
this program can use a standard comm program to connect to telnet-based 
services or ISPs.


* 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 2006 by Ryan M. Suenaga, M.S.W. and 
edited by Howard Katz. All rights reserved.  Contact the editor at 
a2.tester@gmail.com

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
copy.

Material published in this edition may be reprinted free of charge
anywhere provided this copyright notice is included.
