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

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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Convention corrections for July 2013 episode

We hope everyone has enjoyed listening to the July episode of Open Apple. Unfortunately, we got a few facts wrong during the “II News” segment of that show. Since some of the affected events will be occurring before our August show airs, we want to issue the following two corrections immediately.

First, we discussed that none of the show’s hosts or guests would be attending Vintage Computer Festival Southwest 3.0. It turned out there’s a good reason for that: VCF Southwest 3.0 is not being held. VCF SW 3.0 occurred in August 2012, and there is no VCF SW 4.0. We did not realize that the information we were referring to was a year old. Our apologies to anyone we misled into thinking there is a retrocomputing event in Arlington, Texas, next month, when there is in fact none. Any Open Apple listeners who nonetheless try to attend will find little to report. Thanks to Michael Sternberg and David Greelish for the heads-up.

Second, OzKFest is occurring exactly as detailed in our episode, but we want to give credit where due. Andrew Roughan has done a great job promoting OzKFest, and as a result of his marketing efforts, we have associated his name with the event — but, as he points out, he is not the prime coordinator. OzKFest would not be possible without the leadership of Steven Kazoullis and the assistance of Alex Lukacz and Jon Co, as detailed on the site’s “About Us” page. Organizing such a gathering is a great undertaking, and every contributor deserves to be acknowledged.

Fun fact: OzKFest is being held in Brisbane — specifically, Kurilpa Hall. And Mt. Keira Fest, the gathering of Apple II users in 2009, was named after its venue, which also began with a ‘K’. That makes OzKFest the second Australian ‘K’ Fest!

We apologize for these oversights and extend our thanks to our eagle-eared listeners for keeping us accurate.

Open Apple #13 (Mar 2012): Andrew Roughan, Marinetti, Karateka, and e-books

Andrew Roughan

This month on the Open Apple podcast, Mike and Ken chat with Andrew Roughan, Australian Apple II user and curator of the Marinetti Open Source Project. From Jordan Mechner at PAX East 2012 to John Romero at KansasFest 2012 to Nolan Bushnell at GameFest, we’re all about attending conventions and chasing luminaries. We squabble over how to pronounce “Karateka”, look forward to new Monkey Island and Wasteland games, and eagerly consume iBooks for Apple II users on our iPads. On eBay, we get a previously untold tale of an extravagant Australian lot, then take a small jump north to look at an Apple II J-plus, before marveling at how astounded major press outlets were over your typical Bell & Howell.

Click past the jump for links mentioned in this episode.

Introduction (0:00 – 10:32)

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