Show #5 (June 2011): Brian Wiser, museums, magazines, and Ultima

Monday, June 6th, 2011 | Episodes

This month in Open Apple, Mike and Ken are joined by Brian Wiser, an unsung hero of the Apple II archivist movement, as well as a director and producer of films related to Joss Whedon’s Firefly television show and Serenity movie. Ken reports on his trip to the Vintage Computer Festival East 7.0, Mike notes the changing of the guard at Syndicomm, and Brian brags about the Apple employees he’s met and the museums he’s visited, after which Mike and Brian chat about their favorite Apple II publications. We all lusted after the Ultima trilogy on eBay but were dismayed by two other auctions that were not what they seemed. Classics that need to be remade, those that are being remade, and those that were and failed are our gaming topics of the month.

Congratulations to Brian Sturk, who named the game as Lode Runner! He won a 20% or $50 discount off one ReactiveMicro.com order. Next month’s winner gets a $20 credit at the RetroFloppy store, courtesy David Schmidt.

Click past the jump for links mentioned in this episode.

Introduction (0:00 – 10:18)

II News (10:19 – 46:51)

Retroviews (46:52 – 59:24)

Apple Pickings (59:25 – 1:18:28)

Name the Game (1:18:29 – 1:37:57)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:38:49 — 51.9MB) | Embed

Tags: A+, Apple-1, AppleCrate, Applied Engineering, AUSOM, Beagle Bros, Bob Bishop, Brian Wiser, Browncoats Redemption, carrying case, Comic-Con, Computist, Done the Impossible, Elite, employees, Eric Shepherd, Fire in the Valley, Firefly, France, GraFORTH, Hitchhiker's Guide, inCider, InfoAge, Insoft, iOS, Karateka, La Défense Musée de l'Informatique, Legends of Zork, Lode Runner, Logo, Lost Classics, MARCH, Mark Simonsen, Melbourne, Microzine, Mike Swaine, Mockingboard, museums, NadaNet, Nibble, Paris, Passport, player pianos, Ray Borrill, remakes, Ron Wayne, rsuenaga, Ryan Suenaga, Serenity, Shareware Solutions II, SSII, Sweet16, Syndicomm, System 6.0.1, Take1, Tony Diaz, Treasure Chest, Ultima, VCF, Vince Briel, Visible Computer, Zork

5 Comments to 'Show #5 (June 2011): Brian Wiser, museums, magazines, and Ultima'

Dean Phares
Jun 6, 2011 1:47 PM

Reference Battlestar Galactica, it depends on which version of Galactica you’re talking about, as far as a full run. The original version from 1978, which I prefer over the “re-imagined” version, ran for only one season on ABC 1978-79.

I don’t know if you’ve ever watched the original, granted it is kind of cheesy, but at the time it had a $1 million dollar an episode budget, which was unheard of in television at the time. But there are significant differences between the original and the remake.

Brian Wiser
Jun 6, 2011 7:43 PM

I enjoy both the original BSG, that I grew up watching, and the new version. For that matter, I’m a big fan of many series like Max Headroom, The 4400, Babylon 5, Kyle XY, Star Trek, Smallville, Supernatural, Dresden Files, Doctor Who, Alias, Whiz Kids, etc. There’s a lot to enjoy out there, but sadly not enough hours in the day :-)

Richard Thompson
Jun 12, 2011 8:31 AM

Wow, what a great episode and stroll down memory lane. I was a Computist junkie in the late 80s. I even got published in #63 (pg 22)

Don Jordan
Sep 10, 2011 11:19 PM

Listening to the Show 5 podcast and had never heard of FireFly. I did a search on Netflix and all 14 episodes are available on line. Started watching them this weekend.