Ken Gagne | Open Apple

Open Apple #32 (Nov 2013): Bill Martens, history, Apple founders, and WOZPAK

Posted on Nov 2, 2013Feb 8, 2022 by Ken Gagne

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:59:09 — 66.3MB) | Embed

This month on Open Apple, Mike and Ken chat with Bill Martens of Call-A.P.P.L.E. Preserving our community’s software and documentation is important not just to the users, but to the people doing the preserving; Bill explains why. We look at how the media can never get enough of Steve Jobs, examining his early career and denoting his boyhood home as a historical landmark — but Woz gets his time in the spotlight too, on panels about Atari, the Jobs movie, or a Homebrew Computer Club reunion. Highlighted eBay auctions include the ten rarest and most expensive games and yet another Apple-1. Finally, Brian Wiser joins us to discuss The WOZPAK Special Edition, a book that made its debut at KansasFest 2013 alongside its creator, Steve Wozniak.

Click past the jump for links mentioned in this episode.

Introduction (0:00 – 11:07)

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Send voicemail to Open Apple

Posted on Oct 15, 2013Feb 8, 2022 by Ken Gagne

Open Apple is an audio podcast. We don’t have readers; we have listeners. We’re always thrilled to hear from our listeners via any medium, but it doesn’t seem fair to ask you to shift gears to write an email in response to what you heard.

That’s why you can now send audio feedback to Open Apple right from our website. Just click the send voicemail button to the right, and if your computer has an inbuilt microphone and JavaScript enabled, you’ll be prompted to start recording. You can listen to and re-record your message before submitting it, if you like. Open Apple will then have the option of replying to your message via private voicemail, or playing your message on the air during our next episode.

We look forward to hearing from you — literally!

Open Apple #31 (Oct 2013): Brendan Robert, Lawless Legends, Texas, and Wayne Green

Posted on Oct 11, 2013Feb 8, 2022 by Ken Gagne

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:30:58 — 51.5MB) | Embed

This month on Open Apple, Mike and Ken chat with Brendan Robert of the Java Apple Computer Emulator (JACE) and Apple Game Server. Innovative cross-platform tools are being used to bring Lawless Legends, an original 8-bit RPG, to the Apple II and Commodore 64; as part of the programming team, Brendan takes us behind the scenes. He lives in a lawless land himself — the Old West of Texas, where gaming icons Ion Storm, Zynga, Lord British, and Rooster Teeth reside. But when it comes to games, sometimes you can’t do better than Tetris, of which there are many new and devious deviations. We get rid of old toys, like a SCSI CD-ROM 7-disc changer and a LANceGS card, so we can all have room for new toys, like A2CLOUD, Apple2Pi, BenchmarkeD, AppleIIWorks Envoy, and Final Cut Pro X. And sadly, Wayne Green of InCider and Byte has passed away; we remember his magazines fondly.

Click past the jump for links mentioned in this episode.

Introduction (0:00 – 11:50)

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Charles Mangin’s Apple IIe newsletter signup station

Posted on Oct 1, 2013Feb 8, 2022 by Ken Gagne

In July 2011, Ryan Vesler of retail store Homage found the site Apple II Bits and contacted its owner, Open Apple co-host Ken Gagne with a request:

I have a retail store in Columbus that sells classic t-shirts with
nostalgic artwork.
I would like to build some kind of Apple II looking computer that
collects email address for our mailing list (and maybe allows people
to sign up for a free prize pack)
Thinking about having some kind of Mac Mini operate inside an old
shell. I was wondering if you would be interested in working with us.
We could price something out and see if it’s worth your while…

Ken put Ryan in touch with Charles Mangin, about whom Ken had blogged back in 2010. Years later, on the September 2013 episode of Open Apple, Charles related the product of the resulting collaboration.

Charles did indeed embed a Mac mini inside an Apple IIe for Ryan’s store in Columbus, Ohio. The display screen for signing up for Homage’s newsletter, though powered by a Mac mini, is designed to look like it belongs on the green phosphor screen. It fits right in with the store’s variety of nostalgic memorabilia, from an NBA Jam arcade cabinet to a Hulk Hogan cardboard standup.

Photos are courtesy Ryan; see more shots of his store at Columbus Underground.

Nice work to all parties involved in reminding the the public of Apple’s roots!

Open Apple #30 (Sep 2013): Charles Mangin, Jobs movie, Tetris, and S-Prize

Posted on Sep 2, 2013Feb 8, 2022 by Ken Gagne

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:49:59 — 61.1MB) | Embed

This month on Open Apple, Mike and Ken chat with Charles Mangin, the mad scientist who puts Mac Minis inside Apple II cases and inventor of the RetroConnector. It’s our first show since KansasFest, and we share our highlights and favorite products and announcements from the show. The Steve Jobs film is now out, and Ashton Kutcher and Steve Wozniak have words while critics publish their own mixed reviews. However, we have nothing but praise for Walter Isaacson’s biography, and Steve Wozniak gets his own moment in the spotlight courtesy interviews with the Verge and Game Informer. We’re super-psyched that Eric Shepherd has established the S-Prize — how big will the pot grow before some enterprising programmer claims it?

Click past the jump for links mentioned in this episode.

Introduction (0:00 – 7:46)

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Video: Speaking with Steve Wozniak at KansasFest 2013

Posted on Aug 11, 2013Feb 8, 2022 by Ken Gagne

Happy 63rd birthday, Steve Wozniak! And thank you again not only for taking the time to attend KansasFest 2013, but to speak with Open Apple.

If you haven’t already heard our 20-minute interview with Woz, go listen now. But some things are better seen than heard, which is why we’re now offering a ten-minute video excerpt from the interview. In this video, taken from the second half of our interview, Woz talks about how he left Hewlett-Packard to found Apple, how he acquired the chips for his early inventions, and how impressed he is by what KansasFest attendees are doing with the Apple II.

You can watch the video on YouTube, stream it below, or download it. Enjoy!

Speaking with Steve Wozniak at KansasFest 2013

Posted on Aug 2, 2013Feb 8, 2022 by Ken Gagne

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 21:41 — 12.0MB) | Embed

While attending KansasFest 2013, Steve Wozniak — inventor of the Apple-1 and Apple II and co-founder of Apple Computer Inc. — takes a moment to speak with the Open Apple podcast about Steve Jobs, Randy Wigginton, and the Apple II.

Be sure to listen to the story of how we got Woz to KansasFest, and watch the video of this interview, too!

Open ANTIChertz at KansasFest 2013

Posted on Aug 2, 2013Feb 8, 2022 by Ken Gagne

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 48:08 — 26.7MB) | Embed

Mike Maginnis and Ken Gagne, the hosts of Open Apple, join forces with Carrington Vanston of 1 MHz and Kay Savetz of ANTIC, for one massive retro computing roundtable at KansasFest 2013. We chat about the convention’s two surprise guests — Steve Wozniak and a working Apple-1 — and how both came to be there, as well as our favorite sessions and games of the week, including Michael Sternberg’s tournament of Martin Haye’s Structris.

It wasn’t long before Mike and Ken ditched the two other guys for the most amazing guest ever. Be sure to listen to our interview with Steve Wozniak!