Bill Martens | Open Apple

Open Apple #77 (March 2018) – Kay Savetz & Carrington Vanston, Eaten By A Grue

Posted on Jul 17, 2018Feb 8, 2022 by Quinn Dunki

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This month on Open Apple, we sit down with Kay Savetz and Carrington Vanston of the Eaten By A Grue podcast. Eaten By A Grue is a game-by-game style of podcast where the intrepid hosts are playing every Infocom game. They both play the game, then discuss it in detail, with and without spoilers. They discuss the amount of cheating required, how mapping was done, the quality of writing and puzzles, and so on. The show has a very nice structure wherein they discuss the show with no spoilers to the halfway point, so that you can stop and go play it yourself if you are so inclined. If not, you can keep listening and hear gory details of all the puzzles.

Kevin talks about getting beasts into bed, and other reasons not to play these games on real hardware. Meanwhile Carrington gets his feelies on and brags about how he has so many original copies of Infocom games that he sits on them for fun.

Meanwhile Mike and Quinn debate dubious silicon valley histories, wedge computers, and competing with other 8-bits in BASIC. Tune in to hear us malign our guests, misremember important names, and get super pedantic about connector nomenclature for no conceivable reason. You won’t want to miss a moment of the drama.

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

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Open Apple #70 (April 2017) – 6502 Workshop, 1st-Person Lo-Res, Softalk #4

Posted on Apr 18, 2017Feb 8, 2022 by Quinn Dunki

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:44:08 — 80.7MB) | Embed

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.

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Open Apple #62 (August 2016) : Mark Pilgrim, Passport, Ancient Legends

Posted on Aug 24, 2016Feb 8, 2022 by Quinn Dunki

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:28:41 — 62.3MB) | Embed

This month on Open Apple, we sit down with Mark Pilgrim, one of the most active software preservationists in the Apple II community. Mark has been spending his free time working on Passport, an automated cracking tool. It automatically detects and defeats copy protection schemes on Apple II disks, producing copyable disks that are otherwise completely intact. This is a boon for preservation of software that has only been (poorly) cracked by hoodlums of the past, or is previously uncracked. The latter is very common with educational software, business packages, and other things that the old crackers weren’t interested in. Mark’s skills and perseverance are making it possible to use more and more Apple II software on sites like Archive.org and VirtualApple.

KansasFest 2017 will be July 18th-23rd at Rockhurst University!

Meanwhile, tune in to this show and listen to Quinn and Mike bumble through news of various festivals, discuss lots of new hardware, and utterly fail to be respectful of the passing of a computer science legend. We’re sorry, Mr. Papert- you will be missed, and Logo touched all our lives.

There are a record number of amazing announcements of hardware and software this month. You won’t want to miss Passport, Ancient Legends, 4soniq, CP/M Turbo 7, SD-MIDI, and more. It’s an incredible month for spending money on your Apple II.

Go download Passport and archive all your floppies. Start now, or you’ll be up very late.

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

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Open Apple #47 (May 2015) : Jason Scott, Kaboom!, Infocom Secrets

Posted on May 28, 2015Feb 8, 2022 by Quinn Dunki

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:17:48 — 106.7MB) | Embed

This month on Open Apple, we sit down with Jason Scott, documentary filmmaker, historian, public speaker, and archivist.

We talk about the importance of a nuanced appreciation of history, the flavors of sadness in comment threads, whom not to trust with special data and the nature of humanity, and failing at life.

Don’t miss Mike Hate Sponge Delicate Snowflake Maginnis’s sigh to end all sighs. Join us to learn how to take care of your capacitors, how to count your cycles, and how to do TCP/IP on your 8-bit Apple II.

Want to troll your cable company, accelerate your IIe, or play Bomberman on your GS? Tune in and find out how! More information on everything discussed in this episode after the jump.

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Open Apple #43 (January 2015) : Happy New Year with Ben Heck!

Posted on Jan 22, 2015Feb 8, 2022 by Quinn Dunki

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:53:55 — 89.1MB) | Embed

This month on Open Apple, we sit down with Ben Heck, one of our most-requested interviews. We talk about his Apple I replica, his Apple IIgs laptop, and Adam Sandler for some reason. Meanwhile, Mike and Quinn talk about Apple Porsches, Pinball Construction Set, and Western Design Center. In the comedy department, we get back to our roots (making fun of Wizardry).

There’s potato chips, there’s troll pits, there’s 3D printing, and all kinds of other wandering off topic this month, so be sure to stay tuned for none of that.

We’re looking forward to a great new year with the Apple II, so join us as we kick off what is sure to be an awesome 2015!

Wews!

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

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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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