Open Apple #56 (February 2016) : Peter Lount, Gemstone Warrior, KansasFest

Sunday, February 21st, 2016 | Episodes

This month on Open Apple we sit down with Peter Lount, co-developer of Gemstone Warrior and Gemstone Healer for the Apple II. Canadian programmer Peter and his partner Trouba broke new ground in video games by combining fast action combat with procedurally generated caves and dungeon content. Gemstone Warrior doesn’t get credit for being the predecessor to Blizzard megahit Diablo, but it should. Peter talks about tuning his rendering engine, including rewriting huge chunks of it overnight to meet a deadline. What’s your reality resolution?

Tune in to hear Mike complain that Gemstone’s monsters are too smart for him, and hear Quinn choke on the most important Apple II announcement of the year. We talk a lot about solid state drives, marvel at underground ‘zines, and bask in the awesome glory of Brutal Deluxe’s tape collection. Audio is still the “best” way to move data after all these years. “A bold statement,” you say? “Nonsense,” you cry? Listen and decide.

Meanwhile, Ultimate Micro continues to kick butt by reverse engineering all that sweet Applied Engineering hardware, Quinn makes terrible “card” jokes, and we catch up on lots of feedback.

Breaking the fourth wall on segment bumpers- good idea, or great idea?

More information on everything discussed in this episode, after the jump.

Computer History Museum – Well worth the visit, but strange gaps in the collection.
Quinn goes viral – Here’s the post that started it all.
Tech Crunch synopsis – They’ve corrected some details since it was first posted, at least.
Gemstone Warrior – Play it here online, courtesy of Call-A.P.P.L.E.
Visual 6502 – See our favorite chip run live.
Gemstone Synthesizer – The game played through a Roland synthesizer.
KansasFest registration – run, don’t walk! Your chance to hang with your Apple II pals.
LCD for your IIgs – an older solution, but still viable.
Floppy Days – Randy Kindig discusses TI-99/4A upgrades. Trust us, it’s relevant.
F18a for Apple II – An awesome graphics subsystem you can add to your II.
I’m fEDD Up – Version 2, now with 800k support.
Crazy Cycles 2 – Just when you think French Touch can’t do more with video modes.
Floppy Emu model B – A slick new solid state storage option from Big Mess of Wires.
Old Tech New Tech – A new ‘zine from a former Beagle Brother.
PoC||GTFO – Apple II copy protection overview in an underground ‘zine.
Marina for Uthernet II – The newest ethernet option now supported by Marina TCP/IP.
Brutal Deluxe tapes – Even more tapes added to their huge collection of early software.
RamWorks III schematics – Ultimate Micro continues to give back to the community.
Joe’s Computer Museum – A nice place to hang your hat.
Sprite Castle – A great show about the Commodore 64, if you’re in to that for some reason.
How II – Charles Mangin’s Apple II video cast.
Chris Torrence – Another great Apple II show.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:32:10 — 69.1MB) | Embed

Tags: Antoine Vignau, Apple IIGS, Beagle Bros, Brutal Deluxe, Charles Mangin, Chris Torrence, Computer History Museum, David Finnigan, Floppy Days Podcast, Floppy Emu, French Touch, Gemstone Healer, Gemstone Warrior, How II, Joe's Computer Museum, KansasFest, Marina, Peter Lount, RamWorks III, Sprite Castle, SSI, Uthernet II, Visual 6502, Warren Earnst

1 Comment to 'Open Apple #56 (February 2016) : Peter Lount, Gemstone Warrior, KansasFest'

Wade
Mar 12, 2016 9:44 PM

Eternal listener, occasional commenter.

I got Gemstone Healer as a xmas present back in 86 or 87, and I was really glad to suddenly (about 30 years later) hear its creator on the podcast, so thanks in particular for this episode.

Now I’d like to offer some tech advice. During Ken Gagne’s reign of terror, the podcast was eventually sometimes or always Levelated:

http://www.conversationsnetwork.org/levelator

This is a free tool which irons out levels on an audio file, especially designed to make amateur podcasts easier to listen to. I’ve been doing some A/Bs and, for instance, the Gemstone episode was too hard to listen to even in a low noise environment (walking on a quiet suburban street) in its raw form – too much level and voice variation. I had to ride the volume dial on my ipod. I levelated myself a copy and after that it was a much more comfortable experience. So my suggestion is – please levelate regularly. All you do is prepare your podcast as usual, then drop it in levelator. Give it a shot!

Thanks