Open Apple

We’re baaaack! Sorry for the unscheduled hiatus folks, but your intrepid hosts had some family matters to attend to. This month on Open Apple, we sit down with Seth Steinberger of 8-bit Weapon. We talk about their new album Class Apples, which was made entirely on an Apple II. Yes, every sound on the album is generated by real Apple II hardware with no add-on cards. Apple IIs can make good sound with the right software and in the hands of a talented musician.

After the amazement of Class Apples wears off, we get into Seth’s background with Apple IIs, how he got interested in electronic music, how 8-bit Weapon came to be, and where they’re headed next. We touch a little bit on his work as the main artist on the upcoming RPG Lawless Legends, and Seth explains how much better keyboards are as compared to proms. Furthermore, we all agree that the primary value of the internet is to find pictures of Devo. Michelle wasn’t able to be on the show, but you won’t want to miss the story of how she got to work with Mark Mothersbaugh.

Mike and Quinn then get into augmented reality, alternative operating systems, and of course Richard Garriot. Can’t have an Apple II show without mentioning Richard Garriot. Stay tuned to hear about accelerator control, new magazines, and making your own memory cards.

Lastly, Quinn goes deep on how to program fast graphics on the notoriously “crippled” Apple IIgs. Yes, you can do big beautiful sprites at high frame rates. Learn all about the deep dark secrets that the best games and demos used.

Help keep the Garage Giveaway running at KansasFest! Donate here to keep it a thing. It’s one of the greatest services the Apple II community has, and we’re going to lose it this year if we don’t get donations.

More information on everything discussed in this episode, after the jump.

• 8-bit Weapon – The greatest chiptunes group around.
• Class Apples – The greatest (read: only) pure Apple II album.
• 4Play List – All the software for the four-player joystick card.
• Checkpoint – An Augmented-Reality-ish game project for Apple II.
• A2OSX – A new multitasking OS for Apple II, with discussion.
• KansasFest HackFest – The judging videos are finally online for 2017. Better late than never.
• Homebrew Club AR – Yes, a second Apple II-related augmented reality item!
• TechCrunch analyzes Apple’s IPO – Back when tech IPOs were shiny and new.
• Breakout – A very reasonable book claiming Apple II’s starting of various revolutions.
• Carmen Sandiego – The making of! A great story.
• Richard Garriot – Another telling of his getting-started story.
• Timezone for Apple II – Yes, it exists, but maybe only in Akihabara.
• NORMFAST – A handy accelerator controller.
• SAFE2 on High Sierra – A note on compatibility with this FTP client.
• CiderPress 4.0.2 – A nice little update of the best disk image manager.
• Web-based assembler – 6502 on the web. Why not?
• Antoine’s IIx project – Adult software collection- not so family-friendly, but historical.
• Latest Call A.P.P.L.E – Get it while you can!
• Latest Juiced.GS – Magazines for all!
• DIY Memory – Make your own memory card for you two GS. Here’s one way.
• Jeremy Rand’s GS build pipeline – He showed it at KansasFest, now you can have it.
• Merlin32 – Brutal Deluxe’s build pipeline for Windows.
• The fast GS graphics path. These links will help you understand fast GS graphics:
  
  
  
  • https://apple2.gs/technotes/tn/iigs/TN.IIGS.070.txt
  
  
  • https://archive.org/details/IIGS_epluche_French
  
  
  • http://www.brutaldeluxe.fr/products/crossdevtools/mrspritetech/index.html
  
  
  • https://apple2.gs/library.php
  
  
  
  
• X10 on Apple II – You can still them, if you want.
• Donate HERE to keep the Garage Giveaway going at KansasFest!