This month on Open Apple, we sit down with Mark Lemmert, co-founder of 6502 Workshop. Him and his partners (Mike Reimer, Bill Giggie, Robert Padovan, Gordon Mackay, and Galactagog) have been building Nox Archaist, a brand new story-driven tile-based role-playing game in the classical Ultima style. They’re pushing the hardware as far as they can with this new engine, working to break new ground in scope, story, animation, sound, and music. Early builds look great, and we’re really excited to see more!
Mark’s journey with the Apple II parallels a lot of us. The machine sparked an interest in programming, and a fascination with RPGs and tile engines in particular. Nox Archaist is the fulfillment of that childhood dream to build such a game from scratch. Mark shares his war stories (that many of us can relate to) of strewing our childhood computers with half-baked game engines that were doomed from the start. As he and his team are proving, it’s never too late to revive and achieve that dream.
KansasFest 2017 registration is now open! Early bird rates in effect as of this posting, so don’t wait. Attendance is limited to 100 this year. Sign up now! Mark will be there and likely demonstrating Nox Archaist, so you won’t want to miss that.
Meanwhile, Mike and Quinn yammer on about new hardware, new old games, old new games, and of course Woz. Also back this month is the controversial Softalk segment. Read along with us in issue #4!
More information on everything discussed in this episode, after the jump.
- 6502 Workshop – The team building Nox Archaist.
- Using Assembly Language (PDF) – By Randy Hyde, the book that got Mark started.
- Hi-Res Graphics and Animation Using Assembly Language – Does not appear to be online.
- Dogfighters of Mars 2 (demo) – Get it now before his dropbox limit is hit!
- Manila Gear 2soniq – Now distributed by ReactiveMicro.
- KansasFest Registration – Early bird rates in effect. 100 person limit! Go now!
- WozFest PR#6 announced – If you’re on the bottom of our blue rock, you should go.
- Light Cycles 3D – A game killed in 1977 is finally released! Better late than never.
- MIDI to Mockingboard – Tom Porter has a nifty conversion tool.
- Woz on why he likes computers – It’s Woz! He’s saying stuff!
- Softalk #4 – Follow along with us as we re-live 1980 one periodical at a time.
- SFX Audio – Promo for Tom Porter’s Apple II sound library.
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Tags: 2Soniq, 4Soniq, 6502 Workshop, assembly language, Bill Martens, Call A.P.P.L.E., Dogfighters of Mars, Hi-Res Graphics, KansasFest, Light Cycles 3D, Manila Gear, Mark Lemmert, MIDI, Mike Maginnis, Mockingboard, Nox Archaist, Open Apple podcast, Quinn Dunki, Randy Hyde, SFX Audio, Softalk, Tom Porter, UltimateApple2, WOzFest
6 Comments to 'Open Apple #70 (April 2017) – 6502 Workshop, 1st-Person Lo-Res, Softalk #4'
Apr 18, 2017 10:48 PM
Great podcast as always. I’ll be at Kfest showing off Alien Downpour and whatever else I’m working on. I hope to get a tournament going.
Apr 19, 2017 6:12 AM
For those who have played DogFighters of Mars 2… or heard about the SFX Multi-Tasking Audio engine… here are a bunch of SFX enabled demos for you to try… notably is the V2 of SFX Breakout but there are others. Requires 128kb for the sound… but no external chips. (IIGS may play too fast or slow.. SFX was designed for IIE and IIC). https://www.dropbox.com/s/l96wnziadli9wm3/Super%20SFX%20Demos.zip?dl=0 Thanks- Tom
Apr 19, 2017 6:33 AM
Slight correction… DogFighters of Mars (2012) was made by Brian Picchi… and shame on you, you’ve had him on your show. Bundled together with 2 other games, Applesoft Action and Surf Shooter. The disk image to those… https://www.dropbox.com/s/gmr2x3ln027ofy0/DogFighters%20of%20Mars%20%231%20%28%2B%20Others%29.do?dl=0
Apr 19, 2017 4:31 PM
Hi-res Graphics and Animation Using Assembly Language has been scanned by the french Apple II Enthusiast François Michaud. See
http://www.quartdepomme.fr/quartdepomme/PDF___Other_documents.html
Apr 20, 2017 6:10 AM
I hope one day my daughters get to shake Woz’s hand. He cracks me up with videos like this. It’s like they invited him to a studio and asked him to speak briefly on how he got into computers (and we know Woz can’t say no). An hour later, and after some exhaustive editing, he’s suddenly promoting this Japanese company. You’re right: It’s Woz! And he’s saying stuff! I’m so there.
Apr 27, 2017 10:47 PM
In response to the Softalk segment and the topic of barcode-readers and numeric keypads, I thought I’d chime in. Over the years, I’ve seen a number of Apple II, TRS-80, and C-64 machines used as point-of-sale devices. While I doubt the manufacturers of barcode-readers or the numeric-keypads sold tons of them, I’m sure the business folks that used their micros in their stores were primary customers. A niche business, to be sure, but as I listen to you two go through the old ads, most of those ads were also from niche businesses.
I can also remember seeing what looked like Apple II text mode monitors in A&W and Dairy Queen fast-food outlets that tracked how long it took orders to be fulfilled.