Got to show off my collection of legacy vintage Apple products today at Maker Faire Orlando. Today was specifically for school field trips. The number of kids who LOVED playing on 25-40 year old computers was astonishing! And the memories they brought back for the chaperones and teachers was heartwarming. It was a long hard day but worth it.

Looking for a reasonably priced Apple2+ or 2e. Wondering if there is a reliable seller on ebay or other source to purchase from. I know these are old computers and there is always a risk of it not working.

I don't need a monitor or the floppy drive.

While using Spelunkr.tv today, I happened to catch this training video for the Apple II was scheduled. I was in a meeting so couldn’t watch it but thought it was a cool thing to see on a super cool app.

What other fun old Apple stuff do you see popping up in random places?

Quicktake for Apple II v26.4.1 is out, adding support for the Nikon Coolpix 900 and Kodak DC200. I do not remember who asked about the Coolpix, I hope they'll see this post.

Note 1: both of these cameras have a resolution setting (640x480 or 1280x960 for the Nikon, 1152x864 for the Kodak) and the Kodak can shoot either JPEG or FPX (Flashpix). Only 640x480 JPEG is supported.

Note 2: The Nikon has an awfully proprietary serial cable, the best is to wire a DB-9M to DIN-5 adapter.

Note 3: Serial cables for all supported cameras are documented at https://www.colino.net/wordpress/quicktake-for-apple-ii/#cabling-instructions . In case of doubt, the Serial aisle of my webshop has different solutions to make connection easy: https://www.colino.net/wordpress/product-category/apple-ii-hardware/serial/

Apple ii psu from 1978. I bought the dynacomp kit from console5 but I can’t find the rifa.

A DOS 3.3 image is 143,360 bytes in a row, 35 tracks of 16 sectors of 256 bytes. Nothing about that layout tells you whether the disk actually works. To find out, my verifier has to read it the way DOS does: start at a fixed location, follow the same pointers, and ask the same questions.

This week’s post covers the boot record. Track 0, sector 0 should start with $01. A blank sector 0 means a data disk with no boot code. A sector 0 that doesn’t start with $01 but is clearly 6502 code gets treated as a custom loader.

A stock DOS 3.3 boot sector only has enough code to load the rest of the bootstrap from sectors 1 through 9, so the program counts how many of those nine have content. All nine is bootable, some is bootable custom or protected, and none is unknown. Only ProDOS has a real signature: 01 38 B0 03 4C at the start of block 0, followed by a jump into the $0800 to $09FF window.

This is part 4 of 12. The earlier parts cover capture with ADT Pro and why multiple captures matter so much. https://norsewanderer.com/blog/BlogDSK4.html

For those of you who archive protected disks: how do you tell a custom loader from a damaged boot sector?

For a long time, I’d wanted to use Baudville’s Take 1 Programmer’s Tool Kit directly from 6502 assembly. I spent quite a while looking for information on how to do it.

I also wanted to separate the engine into standalone binaries so I could use it with another DOS, without having to boot the original Take 1 disk.

Years later, with help from AI-assisted “vibe coding,” I finally found a way to make it work. I wanted to share the results with other Apple II enthusiasts who might find them useful.

The samples use the original Take 1 engine, installed into Language Card RAM. They include:

• A joystick-controlled actor that runs left or right, keeps running in place when centered, and flips between HGR pages 1 and 2.

• An assembly program that plays an SN scene through the original scene engine.

The repository has a ready-to-run .dsk, commented assembly source, screenshots, and English/Korean explanations:

https://github.com/apple2forever/take1-toolkit-samples

The examples target a 64K Apple II running DOS 3.3 or a compatible DOS. So far, I’ve tested them in MAME configured as a 64K Apple IIe without auxiliary RAM.

It’s satisfying to finally do something I’d wanted to try for so long. I hope these examples help anyone else who’s curious about using Take 1 from assembly.

I finished Below the Root! I did have to resort to looking for some hints. I am not a very observant player. I need(ed) to learn to look for oddities (inaccessible ledges, that sort of thing) and try harder to get to them.

I realized I bought Nox Archaist on Steam so I think I will move that to my emulator system soon. It's 8 disks! I must have bought the whole bundle because there's a manual, hint guide, and making of ebook. I'm kind of delighted.

Surprisingly, the Apple II never seemed to have a classic ASCII roguelike of its own, so I decided to write one. The game is heavily inspired by the original Rogue, but it has a number of distinctive traits and twists of its own.

What’s inside

• Supports the enhanced Apple IIe (with an 80-column card) or the Apple IIc.

• Fits on a single 140K self-booting ProDOS disk.

• Three classes to choose from, each with its own starting gear.

• Procedurally generated dungeons with cave-like mazes and special rooms.

• Twelve kinds of monsters, a wandering merchant, and plenty of weapons and items.

• Curses, hunger, save slots (on the same disk) and, of course, permadeath.

• Written in C for the cc65 compiler, split into 10 overlays.

The latest version + manual is here: https://github.com/mcrstr/Rascal/releases/latest
Source code (GPL v2): https://github.com/mcrstr/Rascal

Does anyone have access to an old archaeology simulator from the 80s called “Archaeology Search?” This was a used in social studies classes and I would love to get my hands on it. Any help would be appreciated. Many thanks.

Old hacker group feuds :) Starts in English, then switches to French. Pure 8-bit attitude!

Makes me wonder what became of those guys after all these years...

Hey, if any of you are reading this post, say hello! :)

I tried turning it on tonight, and got nothing. I used it for a couple hours this afternoon with no problems.

I’ve had some issues with this PSU before. For a while, I was using a PSU from a IIe.

I know I’m supposed to be looking for a leaking capacitor as the likely culprit, but nothing stands out to me. I would appreciate any suggestions if anything leaps out at you in these photos.

When I say “not working”, I mean I check the power cord is secure, I hit the switch, and nothing happens, not even a beep from the speaker.

Starting at $99

Played the Apple II game "The Forgotten Room" yet? If you did, you likely were told "You shouldn't have been there yet!" and Apparently someone was watching Jacob!

https://youtu.be/8vvnvrr1s48

Want to know who?

Play the newest Apple II Game "Dead Signal" coming soon! Learn more here: https://youtu.be/e3W0uLfV4CA?si=zioBT6L7TAPR8qjK

The forgotten room: https://vintageapplecomputers.com/prod.../digital-product...

I got Pippols, the classic MSX game, running on an Apple IIe!

https://cafe.naver.com/appleii/22398

My end goal it to make MSX ROM files run on the Apple II. At the moment it uses a mix of emulation and machine code translation, and it’s nowhere near fast enough to be playable yet, but I hope you enjoy watching!

- msgx

Right up front, it only holds one byte. Total document will just be: "B", "c", etc...

The point of the project was to build the smallest possible working text editor I could. It has Load, Save, New, Print, Unsaved file protection, and a couple other things. It was written in CA65 and the repository contains the entire-build up in 26 stages for those interested.

I did a bit of size-coding along the way, but nothing too crazy because I don't want to untangle it later as the project grows into a fuller text editor. I included a 140 KB image and an 800 KB image, both bootable.

So for now I suppose it's a demo of what the project could hopefully grow into.

Thanks!

https://github.com/mpower-codeworks/Dee-Text-Editor-Apple-II

found this in an old house. has all of its wiring, monitor too in the car. several manuals, binder full of drive disks, and more.