A2 News and Notes November, 2006

INDEX
* A Fake Disk?
* Now Showing On An Apple II Near You!
* ...And How To View It
* Old Home New Service
* Apple Internet
* And Were Live!
* New Digs
* A Fake Disk?
* Software News 
* Emulation News
* SignOff 


-- Not a -fake- disk, but a PseudoDisk.  Alex Freed has continued 
development and production of his PseudoDisk, which allows the user to 
load and run disk images to a SD or MMC card.  While programming is still 
a work-in-progress, cards are available for sale.  Check out Alex's 
website at:  http://www.mirrow.com/FPGApple/pseudodisk.html


-- Conventional wisdom has always held that video on an 8-bit Apple would 
be difficult at best, and near impossible to do well.  A CSA2 contributor, 
"Frank M." has come up with a method to rasterize videos for viewing on a 
//e.  He's done an Apple II rendering of the Guns N                                                                
Roses "Welcome to the Jungle" video, and has it available for downloading 
as a disk image file at:  
http://clients.kraftworksltd.com/download/GNR-FINAL.zip    Instructions on 
how to run the file are available from the website.


-- One problem Apple II users have had to contend with is aging equipment, 
especially monitors.  While attempts have been made to make an adapter for 
use with modern monitors, nothing has yet been successfully produced.  One 
website shows promise in this direction however, with schematics on how to 
build an NTSC-to-VGA adapter.  Heat up your solder gun and head over to:  
http://elmchan.org/works/sc/report.html 


-- A2.Central, the home of A2 News and Notes, as well as The_Lamp! has 
continued with the transfer over to Sean Fahey, and has opened with a 
revamped webpage as well as updated services.  One notable change is that 
online chat is available through the website, and is accessible via IRC, 
making it usable for Apple II folk running either Contiki or Marinetti.  
Visit the website at:  http://www.a2central.com


--  Glenn Jones has announced a new run of his 8-bit ethernet card, called 
the Uthernet, will be available for sale beginning early December.  This 
card allows ALL slotted Apple II computers to hook into the internet via a 
standard ethernet connection, and allow the user to access via text-based 
screens common internet activities such as web browsing or IRC chat.    
Ordering information when it becomes available can be found at:  
http://www.2retrosystems.com 


--Software News
  
 -- ADTPro is a software package used to transfer files from an IBM-style 
computer to an Apple II.  Usable under ProDOS, ADTPro has been updated to 
allow programs to "bootstrap" disks when transferring programs.  More 
information can be found at:  http://adtpro.sourceforge.net/   


-- Andy McFadden has released a new version of his popular CiderPress 
program.  CiderPress v2.4.5 contains a bugfix that affected writes to 
physical disks at certain times.  The program can be downloaded from:  
http://www.faddensoft.com/ciderpress/index.htm



--Emulation News

 -
 -- Gerard Putter has updated the 8-bit Apple II emulator, Virtual ][, to 
version 5.6.  An OS X program, version 56 now includes such features as 
SuperSerial Card emulation, as well as several bugfixes.  More information 
can be found at: http://www.xs4all.nl/~gp/VirtualII/



* 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

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