Slashdot Mirror

> like Apple 2 and Commodore systems were 8 bit but really didn't have OSes.

Amnesia much? Do you even understand what the acronym RWTS - Read/Write Track/Sector means? Do you even understand what a File System is? Do you understand what a Device Driver is??

I also guess these books are just figments of my imagination:

  * Beneath Apple DOS http://www.amazon.com/Beneath-...
  * Beneath Apple ProDOS http://www.amazon.com/Beneath-...

Gee, I wonder what these programs are?

* Apple DOS 3.2 and DOS 3.3 = Disk Operating System.
* ProDOS/8 = Professional DOS
* ProDOS/16

Maybe you should try reading the source code before making ignorant claims:

"Apple ][ ProDOS 1.7 Operating System Source Listing "
* ftp://ftp.apple.asimov.net/pub...

References:

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A...
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A...

==
Piracy === Disrespect.
Piracy =/= Theft

These ones of course:
ftp://ftp.apple.asimov.net/pub/apple_II/images/disk_utils/locksmith/

Perhaps it was because you didn't read the very good Apple II manuals. You could learn BASIC and even 6502 stuff from them. There was plenty of technical info in them and they were quite clearly written. http://www.classiccmp.org/cini/pdf/Apple/Apple%20II%20Basic%20Programming%20Manual.pdf
ftp://ftp.apple.asimov.net/pub/apple_II/documentation/misc/a2_reference_manual_alt.pdf

I was about 7 or 8 when I learnt BASIC and 6502 machine code from them. Because of that I believe we shouldn't underestimate what kids can learn.

Some cool Apple ][ trivia ...

- Karateka was one of the first games to have cut-scenes. Here is the end-game music in MIDI format =)
http://michael.peopleofhonoronly.com/dev/applewin/karateka/karateka_end.mid

- Conan: Hall of Volta by Datasoft (*) was the one of the first games to use a 1-bit stencil buffer!
http://michael.peopleofhonoronly.com/dev/applewin/conan/conan_stencil_buffer.bmp

- Broderbund games (Drol, Spare Change, Captain Goodnight, Choplighter, etc.) offered smooth animation because they used the (initially) undocumented V-SYNC: (Vertical Blanking) !
RDVBLBAR = $C019 ;not VBL (VBL signal low)

I highly recommend AppleWin for finding out old Easter Eggs =)
http://applewin.berlios.de/

* To see the stencil buffer you need
a) disk image
ftp://ftp.apple.asimov.net/pub/apple_II//images/disk_utils/cracking/the_saltine/Conan%20A.dsk
b) Mount disk A in the first drive in AppleWin
c) press F2 to boot
d) at the intro. screen press F7 to enter the debugger
e) in the debugger type the following commands to view the HI-RES pages 1 or 2 respectively
HGR1
HGR2

You can still play Wizardry, Bard's Tale, Dragon Wars, Wasteland, and others on your Apple computer, even if it isn't 35 years old.

You misspelled slashdot.org.

Including you, 33 miscreants have misspelled it today!

A cricket graph of the number of people who have misspelled slashdot.org over time.

FYI, I like the AppleWin emulator: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AppleWin Also, lots of old Apple II software (.DSK images) here: ftp://ftp.apple.asimov.net/pub/apple_II/

OT, I know.

But, why the hell did so many people misspell slashdot in October?

http://cricket.asimov.net/index.cgi?target=%2Fslashdot-misspellers%2Fslsahdot-org;ranges=y

http://cricket.asimov.net/index.cgi?target=%2Fslas hdot-misspellers%2Fslsahdot-org;ranges=d%3Aw -- from a graph on the misspelling tracker site.

Interesting. Its seems that at 12:21 PM today an enormous amount of people started misspelling slashdot. I wonder why all of the sudden people forgot how to spell.

I'd love to find an emulator and a copy of it.

Play Rocky's Boots on a PC using an Apple II Emulator.

Rocky's Boots was originally designed for the Apple II computer, but can be run nowadays on a PC using an Apple II emulator (such as AppleWin) and a disk image of Rocky's Boots.

Well, until then:

ftp://ftp.apple.asimov.net/pub/apple_II/images/gam es/action/beyond_castle_wolfenstien.dsk.gz

Don't know about Commodore roms, but there's definitely an Apple disk image of it on the Apple mirror:

ftp://ftp.apple.asimov.net/pub/apple_II/images/gam es/adventure/portal/

Emulation links:
http://emulation.net/apple2/

Images:
ftp://ftp.apple.asimov.net/pub/apple_II/images/

Whole bunch of other sites:
http://e.webring.com/hub?ring=apple2

There used to be a really good one out there I used as a resource when I was trying to figure out how to move the images from my PC through the serial port to my Apple //e to write them to the Disk II. If anyone remembers what I'm talking about please link under this post (it showed a boot screen on the homepage then it redirected to their homepage).

Thanks! Hope these links help.

Oh and of course if you want to buy old stuff (as I have done) there is always eBay (They suck by the way because they used to have an Apple II section but it's gone now.)

Want Apple ][ games? *hides pegleg*

-uso.

I am a big proponent of self-motivated learning, so I'm very impressed with you (and your son's) approach. I think ideally, an interested beginner should be introduced to a very simple programming language with relatively instant gratification.

IMHO, part of the problem with modern programming systems is that it requires much work and planning to accomplish anything really significant... much less something significant to a youngster -- "ooo, I just made it say 'Hello World!', how exciting!" :)... probably much the same reason your son started out with Inform rather than C.

I remember a game called Omega by Origin Systems for the Apple IIe from my youth. It was a "high-tech" tank simulation game wherein you programmed a very basic script for a tank and pit your tank against others on a battlefield in automated warfare. I thought it was awesome at the time and probably helped fuel my interest in programming. Once I mastered the basics, I started optimizing my tank scripts to figure out the best way to balance speed of execution with maximum features and intelligence.

A while ago I installed an emulator (AppleWin or ApplePC) and tried out the Omega game again (along with Taipan, Pirates, etc.:)... you can get Omega here.

By modern standards, the graphics are fairly sad, but all that needs to be done is to put a modern face on it... I think the basic idea of a simplified game language is an excellent beginning for learning to program and, perhaps more importantly, for cultivating interest in learning to program.
--
Programmers do it with their 1s and 0s.

classicgaming.com is actually fairly light on Apple ][ games and software. A better bet is the asimov archive, which contains not only games but also a lot of other Apple ][ software. And, one occasionally sees Apple ][ stuff posted to usenet. Though I suppose the lot of it is a big heaping copyright violation, most of the original companies are defunct - which makes the stuff difficult to buy nowadays.

Visit the Asimov.net FTP archive. Emulators, games, practically everything. Fun stuff...

Check out Asimov

-uso.

Nyetscrape 4 does the opposite with ftp.

Try downloading a disk image from Asimov.net and watch. It'll save with the .gz extension, but the file will be the uncompressed 143,360 bytes. *groan*

-uso.
When saving a file, browsers should not touch its contents. That includes newline translation. :(

I've always loved ftp://ftp.apple.asimov.net/pub/apple_II/. "#1 archive of Apple II 8-bit games and utilities in emulator DSK and file formats; plus emulators and emu info " (from callapple.org/). I believe it also has a good ][gs resources, so you'll also be getting a classic 16-bit architecture.

With most Apple ][ emulators, you should be able use the Karateka found at ftp://ftp.apple.asimov.net/pub/apple_II/images/gam es/action/karateka.dsk.

--

But asimov.net hasn't been killed yet. It's right here: asimov.net

-Kriticism

Well that site seems to have died a painful death, but you can still see the statistics at: http://ns2.asimov.net/~cricket/grapher.cgi?target= %2Fslashdot-m isspellers%2Fslsahdot-org&ranges=d%3Aw%3Am%3Ay

ftp.apple.asimov.net is a great place to find Apple II emulators and disk images for Windows/Linux/etc. I've used Applewin for Win9x quite a bit and it works well. I haven't tried any of the Linux ones because when I'm in Linux I don't have time to mess with it(too much work getting done). You could try www.emulation.net if you are running Mac OS. They have dozens of emu's for Mac. acorn-gaming.com has some emulation news/emulator links/etc. Happy Hunting!!

I was really smiling when I saw that AppleWin lets you bring up a disassembly window. Almost brought a tear to my eye :-)

SEAL

You can find a number of Apple II emulators for Linux at ftp.apple.asimov.net/pub/apple_II. However, the IBM PC style 360K floppy drives physically cannot read Apple formatted 5.25" disks, as PC's use MFM encoding and Apple used GCR. Not to worry though, because most of the popular stuff has been put into disk file images that are also available for download. Unfortunately though, I didn't see Oregon Trail on that site, but maybe someone will upload it.

Damn, I should have previewed. :-(

You can find a number of Apple II emulators for Linux at . However, the IBM PC style 360K floppy drives physically cannot read Apple formatted 5.25" disks, as PC's use MFM encoding and Apple used GCR. Not to worry though, because most of the popular stuff has been put into disk file images that are also available for download. Unfortunately though, I didn't see Oregon Trail on that site, but maybe someone will upload it.

Asimov Apple II disk image archive
Yay- Choplifter! Now, if only we had some stuff like Opcode's original (system 6, monochrome) version of Musicshop- that sort of thing, effective but really old programs on the Mac side, because currently I can't legally make Pluses and Classics into little MIDI sequencers and give them away as such...