AppleIie
Latest
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.
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]
Turn your Apple IIe into a Linux terminal
As he even points out, this isn't the first time this has been done, but Quag7 has written up a very detailed, simple, and often hilarious (I feel the same way about Michael Bay!) guide for converting that old Apple ][e you've got sitting around into a Linux serial terminal. In this case, he runs a serial connection between a modern (everything is relative here) Gentoo distro and the ][e using ADTPro as a go-between. Hook up ADTPro on both, get the serial hooked up and running on both, install a term program on the ][e and then make sure everything can talk to each other (at 9600 baud-- remember baud? Oh those were the days), and voila, you've got an Apple ][e that can run a Linux distro. Why would you want to do this? No idea.But why else do we do this kind of crazy stuff (like hook an Apple ][e up to a game machine, or even an actual Mac)? We do this, my friends, because we can.[via Waxy]
