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Jeroen W. Pluimers on .NET, C#, Delphi, databases, and personal interests

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Archive for the ‘Apple ][’ Category

More Apple ][*, //* II* and classic Macintosh hardware upgrades

Posted by jpluimers on 2025/11/14

The mini micro classic Apple emulators related post last week became way too big, so here is the classic Apple 2/Macintosh hardware upgrade part follow-up I announced in Some notes on mini/micro Apple //e emulators.

Last week, I mentioned [Wayback/Archive] ARC Javmaster – YouTube. Let’s continue from there for an even bigger post (:

Javmaster actually has a shop at [Wayback/Archive] Welcome to the 8-bit stuff store – 8 bit stuff cool retro computer 3D gadgets and geekery with a lot of interesting (mainly Apple ][ era related) retro things like:

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Posted in //e, 6502, Apple, Apple ][, Classic Macintosh, History, Macintosh SE/30, Power User, Retrocomputing | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Some links on the Apple IIc Plus (Apple IIc + on the boot screen) likely the rarest from the Apple II series

Posted by jpluimers on 2025/05/16

A while ago I bumped into this video about likely the rarest model in the Apple II series: the Apple IIc Plus:

[Wayback/Archive] Apple IIc Plus – the rarest and fastest Apple II! – YouTube

Returning to one of my favorite subjects – the Apple II – I decide to finally repair a broken Apple IIc Plus gifted to me a little more than a year ago. This machine was the final true hardware revision to the Apple II line, coming in 1988, and the last standalone machine in the line released. It was also the fastest, with a 4Mhz CPU (vs. 1Mhz in most other Apple II’s, and 2.6Mhz in the IIGS). But it was a problematic machine for Apple, with a concept that had been watered down to the point of, well, pointlessness.

The market wanted it even less than it wanted the original IIc (which was my first computer – the one in the thumbnail is my original machine). Still, it is an interesting computer for its accelerated CPU, and its somewhat anachronistic nature at the time of its launch.

It has a cool demo of Flight Simulator II demo mode (which back in those days crashing the plane – demo modes luckily improved from there :) at both 1 Mhz and 4 Mhz. It indeed is not smooth, but a lot faster.

The problem back in those days with acceleration is it would not just improve render speed, but also increase clock time speed. It made most games almost impossible to play in accelerated mode.

If I ever get one, I need to replace the 110V power supply with a 240V/110V auto-switching one as per [Wayback/Archive] IIc + 240v Power:

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Welcome to #AprilApples! Apple II Computer event celebrated in the month of April

Posted by jpluimers on 2025/04/01

AprilApples Apple II Computer Event LogoLast year, ][ got rebranded into , so I wish you a happy retro-month filled with April Apples!

[Wayback/Archive] Welcome to #AprilApples! Apple II Computer event celebrated in the month of April

Consider using the [Wayback/Archive] #AprilApples Style Guide with logon on the right, plus Garamond and/or Motter Tektura typeface when possible to really give tribute to the Apple ][ era.


Last year, a big surprise was that Apple Computer put a PDF version of the famous Apple Pascal Poster on the Internet Archive.

So today is a great day to give that more traction and link to it:

A year before, during April][, a remake of that poster got done on AppleFritter: Home[Wayback/Archive] Apple pascal poster, remade | Applefritter

Via [Wayback/Archive] Javmaster@bsky.social: “http://appril2.com/ ” – Mastodon

Fonts:

Images (I used a solid CSS brown background so you can see the difference between the regular logo and the outlined logo):

--jeroen

Posted in //e, 6502, Apple, Apple ///, Apple Lisa, Apple ][, Classic Macintosh, History, Power User | Tagged: , , | Leave a Comment »

Embedding a Floppy Emu in a standard APPLE II Floppy Disk Drive – YouTube

Posted by jpluimers on 2025/03/25

Interesting modification: [Wayback/Archive] Embedding a Floppy Emu in a standard APPLE II Floppy Disk Drive – YouTube

STL: [Wayback/Archive] FermuAssembly.STL – Google Drive [Wayback] FermuAssembly.STL

Buttons: [Wayback/Archive] 3/4/5-Bit Independent Button Module MCU External Button Module Micro Switch Button Board Bluetooth-compatible Power Amplifier – AliExpress 502

--jeroen

Posted in //e, 6502, Apple, Apple ][, Development, Hardware Interfacing, History, Power User, Retrocomputing | Leave a Comment »

Applesoft BASIC in JavaScript

Posted by jpluimers on 2025/01/23

Not my first BASIC (which was on calculators: The calculators that got me into programming (via: calculators : Algorithms for the masses – julian m bucknall)), but the first BASIC on a machine with a real keyboard was Applesoft BASIC on an Apple II:

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Posted in //e, 6502, Apple, Apple ][, Applesoft BASIC, BASIC, Development, History, Mastodon, Power User, SocialMedia, Software Development, Twitter | Leave a Comment »

Identity Crisis | Apple II Programs: Susan Kare’s “Happy Mac” on an Apple II

Posted by jpluimers on 2024/09/04

The re-imagined iconinc Happy Mac by Suzan Kare on the computer she got before even becoming employee #10 at Apple in 1982 [Wayback/Archive] Identity Crisis | Apple II Programs

Identity Crisis

Via [Wayback/Archive] Short Programs | Apple II Programs “Susan Kare’s “Happy Mac” on an Apple II

At age 70, Susan is still alive and kicking, and even around on Twitter as [Wayback/Archive] Susan Kare (@SusanKare).

Inspired by a search because of [Wayback/Archive] Ron’s Computer Videos 🧍‍♂️🖥️ 📼 on X: “I wonder if Susan knew that Steve used her desk?”:

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Ends in a few hours: The Jordan Mechner Prince of Persia Challenge! | ThecePlay

Posted by jpluimers on 2024/07/15

Memories of the Apple ][ and //e past, though I won’t participate (my eye hand coordination is mediocre at best, so even completing a game will be a challenge:

[Wayback/Archive] The Jordan Mechner Prince of Persia Challenge! | ThecePlay

Via [Wayback/Archive] Jordan Mechner on X: “@sarsij @sujoygolan Hi, you can play 1990 @princeofpersia in your browser or in emulation via @internetarchive. Links are posted here (for @TwinGalaxies Prince of Persia challenge, with prizes–ends midnight tonight)”

More links:

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Posted in //e, 6502, Apple, Apple ][, Games, History, Power User, Retrocomputing | Leave a Comment »

The Blast-RADIUS bomb logo reminded me of “Kaputt” in the original Castle Wolfenstein game

Posted by jpluimers on 2024/07/12

There is a Blast-RADIUS exploit that makes many uses of RADIUS vulnerable as they depend on MD5, and MD5 collisions have been sped up considerably. Basically only RADIUS TLS seems safe now.

The Blast-RADIUS logo on the right reminded me about using grenades in a game 40+ years old, so lets digress: Archive.org is such a great site, with for instance the original Apple ][ Manual of Castle Wolfenstein by MUSE Software (the manual is written in Super-Text which they also sold):

The PDF from [Archive] Instruction Manual: Castle Wolfenstein from Muse Software : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive is at

[Archive.org PDF view/Archive.is] archive.org/download/1982-castle-wolfenstein/1982-castle-wolfenstein.pdf

Screenshot

The trick in that game when entering a room full of SS-officers was to throw a grenade into a chest of grenades in the middle of that room, then quickly leaving the room, waiting a few seconds then re-entering that room.

Not many moves further, you would find the chest with the war plans and find the exit, then finish the game.

Back to Blast RADIUS

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Posted in 6502, Apple, Apple ][, Authentication, Hashing, History, md5, Power User, Security | Leave a Comment »

ApplesSoft BASIC code which includes assembly language: Twitter bot AppleIIBot could run it!

Posted by jpluimers on 2024/03/20

This was a trip down memory lane where I was totally unaware that you could embed 6502 assembly language inside AppleSoft BASIC code.

It turns you can, and even better: the Twitter bot named AppleIIBot could execute it too!

Though I bumped into AppleIIBot during winter 2021, I published the BBC equivalent last week (see BBC trip down memory lane – 8bitkick/BBCMicroBot: Runs your tweet on an 8-bit computer emulator) as that one got released earlier.

For the moment it is down because Elon blew up Twitter and shut down on 2022-11-05, but hopefully – like the BBC equivalent – it will resurface on a Mastodon instance somewhere in the future.

Luckily all old Tweets with code and rendering are still there, though you need a Twitter account to view them: Elon broke the feature of anonymous access seeing all messages in a thread.

Below the signature are the full Tweets that led me into it; the texts are these:

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Posted in //e, 6502, Apple, Apple ][, BASIC, Development, History, SocialMedia, Software Development, Twitter | Leave a Comment »

New in box: Super Serial Card – Apple Computer

Posted by jpluimers on 2023/07/24

Still need to test this out, but I got a new in box “Super Serial Card – Apple Computer

Details: Apple II serial cards – Wikipedia

Apple Computer’s Super Serial Card, sometimes abbreviated as “SSC”, is the most well known communication card made for the Apple II. Apple called it “Super” because it was able to function as both of Apple’s previous cards, the Apple II Communications Card for modem use and the Apple II Serial Interface Card for printer use. A jumper block was used to configure the card for each of the two modes. The card has a maximum speed of 19,200 bit/s and is compatible with both ROM revisions of the Apple II Serial Interface Card. Reliable communications at 9600 bit/s and higher required disabling of interrupts. The card can actually run at 115,200 bit/s as well, using undocumented register settings; but speeds between 19,200 and 115,200 are not possible using this technique. The Super Serial Card was released in 1981 and utilizes the MOS Technology 6551 ACIA serial communications chip.

Manual: [Wayback] a2_Super_Serial_Card_user’s_manual.pdf via [Wayback/Archive.is] Apple II Super Serial Card – Google Search

Image:

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