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Man runs Telnet BBS on an Apple IIe using Raspberry Pi because he can
When life hands you old technology you can either throw it away, store it, or try and make it work again. Thanks to the invention of powerful and easily adapted micro computers like Raspberry Pi it's now easier than make your own Frankenstein machine. YouTube user Lon Seidman figured out how to check his email on a 1986 Apple IIe modified with just such a Raspberry Pi device. With the help of a serial to USB connector the IIe thinks sees the Pi device as a modem. Using the modified IIe Seidman is able to check his email from his laptop even when he's away from home. Here's his fascinating video showing exactly how he was able to rig up the computer to his Raspberry Pi. Enjoy.
YouTube find: Hilariously bad Apple IIe ad promises "six tutorial diskettes" with purchase
Old tech commercials often toe the line between hilarious and cringeworthy. This old Apple II ad from 1985 fits that description to a tee. The best line comes at the end when our noble host exclaims, "Buy now and receive a free training seminar and six tutorial diskettes!" And he actually concludes with "Apple, Apple, Apple."
Flickr Find: Transferring games from iPad to Apple II
This is a little on the old side, circa late 2011, but it's still incredibly cool. Reader Ken Fager posted a photo of an iPad being used to download games from the Apple Game Server Online onto an Apple //e. Fager explains what's happening in the photo above by saying, "The iPad is connected to the audio input of the Apple //e. Turn the Apple //e on and press CONTROL+RESET. At the prompt type LOAD and press Return. On the iPad select the game audio file and press play. The game will automatically transfer and start on the Apple II." There are a ton of games available for the vintage Apple computers on Apple Game Server Online, including such classics as Choplifter, Centipede, Defender, Galaxian, Mario Bros. and the ever-popular Ms. Pac-Man. Using an iPad to serve up those games to the Apple //e ties the current generation of Apple chic with the classic computer of the past. Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/kenfagerdotcom/, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Happy birthday, Apple Lisa and the Apple IIe
A happy belated birthday to the Apple Lisa and the Apple IIe! As of January 19th they both turned 30 years old. The two computers pretty much launched Apple and chances are that, without either, none of us would be using our MacBook Airs, iPads or iPhones today. As someone who is barely older than Apple's two 30-somethings, I never had a chance to use either (my first computer was a Commodore 64), but Macworld has a nice history of the two. Both computers were unveiled at Apple's annual shareholder's meeting in 1983. It's crazy to think that at the time the Apple Lisa cost US$9,995, or a whopping $23,000 in today's dollars. For that price you got a lot of plastic, some floppy drives and a 5MHz processor. Compare that to the $499 you pay today for an entry-level iPad with a touchscreen and 1.4GHz A6X processor. For those of you interested in learning even more about the Lisa and Apple IIe be sure to pick up Walter Isaacson's biography on Steve Jobs. Both computers feature heavily in the opening chapters and the history behind each is fascinating.
The Game Archaeologist and the veteran of Kesmai
Aaand we're back! Did you miss me? No? Not even a little bit? Aww, you know how to make me feel all kinds of appreciated! Even though it's been quite some time since we finished up our two-part series on the Kesmai company and its incredible (and little-remembered) role in powering up the MMO genre, I wanted to return to take the topic for one last spin. A fellow blogger, Wilhelm "The Ancient Gaming Noob" Arcturus, backs his nickname up by providing memories and stories from gaming eras well before many Massively readers' time. Since he actually played several Kesmai titles back in the day and lived to tell the tale, I wanted to pick his brain before we moved on to other titles. So join me in welcoming Wilhelm and his magical clockwork nostalgia retrieval system!
Apple II drum sequencer surfaces for chiptune composers
No, this isn't a recycled news item from the 1980s -- it's 2011, and MJ Mahon and 8 Bit Weapon have just announced the release of the Apple II DMS Drummer, a wavetable-based drum sequencer for Apple II-era machines. The monophonic synth reproduces eight drum sounds like bass, snare, rim shot, hand clap, tom, hat open, hat closed and "lazer," along with a sequencer that lets you plug in up to 16 drum patterns across 256 slots. Seems like just the thing for chiptune composers hankering for a way to make authentic eight-bit drum tracks using vintage Apple hardware. System requirements call for an Apple IIe, IIc, IIc+ or IIgs with 80-column capability and a 5.25-inch floppy drive -- you know, pretty modern stuff. A limited demo version is available, but if that doesn't satisfy, you can either buy it on a floppy for $14.95 or download a .dsk disk image for $9.95. Oh, and neither require a time-traveling DeLorean to go back to 1985. [Thanks, Seth]
AppleCrate II parallel computer made from Apple IIe motherboards
In what's probably the coolest custom-built machine I've seen in ages, computer enthusiast Michael J. Mahon has built a parallel computer made out of 17 Apple IIe motherboards. As you can see the "AppleCrate II" looks like a big crate of motherboards stacked on top of each other -- and that's pretty much what it is, along with some very clever networking and custom boot code. This is actually his second computer built using old Apple motherboards. The first we covered five years ago; it also used spare Apple IIe boards, although those were a slightly different version. I'll let the image of Mahon's latest creation speak for itself, but if you've got some extra motherboards and some free time, Mahon details how he built his latest wonder over on his website. What's it good for? Well, in addition to blinking its status lights like a Cylon, it can play Beatles songs in 16-part polyphony -- so that's something. [via BoingBoing]
iPad used to replace Apple IIe data cassette, feels seriously underutilized (video)
You know how we much love our old Apple IIe around here, and whether it's being used to create chiptunes or as an 8-bit Twitter station, we're always tickled when the venerable home computer makes an appearance. When an artist named Stewart Smith asked a Mac software developer called Panic to run some software on their in-house Apple IIe, he provided them with the source code as an audio file -- but he failed to supply them with a cassette player to load it from. The solution? Panic played the program off its iPad. As you can see from the video below, this isn't just any old program either -- it's a homebrew video for Jed's Other Poem (Beautiful Ground) by Grandaddy. Thanks for amusing us, guys. And thanks for reminding us how much we enjoy The Sophtware Slump.
Apple IIe hacked into Twitter station, still looks better than most digiframes
This project has all the hallmarks of a classic hack: obsolete hardware, a somewhat frivolous function, and thrilling 8-bit graphics. As you can imagine, getting to the point where this Apple IIe could display Tweets was no mean feat! Custom 6502 assembler code on the PC sends Twitter updates (and user avatars dumbed down to 8-bit) over a custom USB-to-joystick port interface on the Apple. One can even save the data to a 5.25-inch floppy -- you know, because most Tweets are worth archiving for later, even if you must do so in a dead storage format. See it in action after the break!
Found Footage: Twitter on an Apple IIe (kind of)
Here's a great video from technabob that shows an Apple IIe displaying archived Tweets from a 5.25-inch floppy disk, complete with lo-res graphics. Here's how it works. Modder Yergacheffe uses a PC for interacting with Twitter. He hacked together a PC-to-Apple IIe interface for moving data to the Apple from the PC's USB port. Next, he wrote some custom 6502-assembler code that displays Tweets on the Apple IIe and also converts users' Twitter avatars into those gorgeous, chunky lo-res graphics. Finally, tweets are saved to the floppy for later playback. Too busy to attend to Twitter? Capture the action and play it back later, retro-style. We love it.
Apple II Digital Music Synthesizer available now for 8-bit die-hards
The last time we had occasion to feature 8 Bit Weapon in this space, our man Seth had hacked his Nintendo Power Pad into a music controller. Now the team is back with something a little less strenuous -- but no less musical -- for all of you budding chiptune artists out there. The Digital Music Synthesizer for Apple II is a wavetable synthesizer designed specifically for live performance. Not only does this bad boy come with ten voices (including bass, trumpet, square wave, sawtooth wave, and sine wave), but sequences can be recorded for a later time. But wait, there's more -- there is no monitor required. If you've ever had to lug an Apple II monitor to a dank performance space on a weeknight (and who hasn't?), you understand what a sweet setup this is. Supports your Apple IIe, IIc, IIc+, or IIgs computer with 80-column capability and at least one 5.25" floppy disk drive. Get yours now for $19.95 -- but not before checking out the demo after the break.
Apple Disk ][ enclosure used to house Mac mini, enhance lives
digg_url = 'http://digg.com/apple/Apple_Disk_enclosure_used_to_house_Mac_Mini'; We're still debating whether or not a new Mac mini really is just around the bend, but one thing's for sure -- this version is the gnarliest we've ever seen of the current iteration. In an exercise that will undoubtedly go down as one of the most incredible Apple mods of all time (okay, so we only partly believe that), Sir Charles Mangin has managed to squeeze a Mac mini into a ridiculously old disk ][ enclosure. Best of all, he even managed to align the single slot with the DVD drive in the mini, giving it a totally seamless look from the outside. We know, this will only serve to drive the secondhand prices of disk ][ cases through the roof, but at least you've found a new reason to love the mini that has served you so well for so long, right? [Via technabob]
Twitterers remember their first Mac
Reader Sam K. (thanks!) noticed the fun on Twitter -- lots of folks are sharing their memories of the first Mac they bought/used with the #firstmac hash tag, and boy is it fun reading through them. The responses are all over the place, from the old ][e (technically my first computer ever at school, though the first one I actually owned at home was a Tandy Color Computer my Dad bought from one of his coworkers) and //c up to the old iMacs and even a few people who can only claim iPod as the first Apple product they used. The first Mac I actually owned was much later than my first steps into BASIC -- when I needed a laptop a few years ago, I picked up a 12" Powerbook G4 and have been straight OS X ever since. It's great to read this stuff, because you can see just how Apple has shaped people's lives. I was amazed to hear all of the emotion in the calls to Steve on our talkcast last week, but looking at something like this Twitter feed (to put your own memories in, just mark a tweet with the #firstmac tag somewhere in there) really shows you how dedicated Apple's products have made the company's customers. These people have all bought a Mac, whether it was a Mac SE (errrr, a Mac Classic?) or a MacBook Air, and never looked back since. Very cool. And while we're at it, is it possible that you're on Twitter and haven't yet started following us? If not, jump in and do so now!
30 years of Apple in three minutes
Megan's great roundup of Apple history from the other day wasn't enough nostalgia for you? It should have been -- wow there was a lot of old Apple stuff in there. But just in case your itch for the days of Apple yore isn't yet scratched, here's a great little video compilation of every Apple product from the last thirty years, squished into three minutes and set to Fiona Apple's cover of "Across the Universe."The IIe! The PowerCD! The QuickTake! And even those early notebooks, which look so blocky today, were impressive in their time. Unfortunately, this video won't tell you much about what these products all were, but just the sight of some of these old units is enough to make the memories come flooding back for us old Apple fans. The iPhone and the iPod are so much hipper, it seems, compared to the units of Apple's past -- you think we'll ever look back with such nostalgia on the first touchscreens we got? A product like the Newton was so charming because it was so quirky, but the iPhone is sleek, popular, and impressive. Do you think future generations will look back at today's Apple products with the same fondness?Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
GeForce 9-Series motherboards maybe coming to the Mini
I think that at this point, the Mac mini has moved up into the ranks of the TRS-80 and the Apple IIe as one of my favorite computers of all time. Though it's been rumored dead more times than disco, it's still puttering along as the tiny little computer that could, racking up (we assume -- the mini doesn't carry with it any of the sparkle of the iPhone or the raw beauty of the MacBooks, and so Apple is relatively mum on info) enough sales to keep moving. And there might even be new life in store: Peter Cohen over at MacWorld suggests that after the recent MB and MBP updates, the mini is last in line to ditch the old Intel integrated motherboard design.Sounds great to us. The mini's so under the radar that you wouldn't even expect Apple to announce an upgrade for it -- it just sort of slipped up to Core Duo 2 the last time it got upgraded, like a cute little baby bear following the family. And it's a versitile little cubby, too, from taking it out to sea to turning it into a Mac Pro mini.What a great little computer. We hope that the Nvidia GeForce 9-series motherboards do find a home in there, and (more than anything else) that Apple sees fit to remember their roots and keep creative computing with the tinest Mac alive.
