Open Apple #27 (May 2013): Daniel Kruszyna, demoparties, iSteve, and clones

Resistance - Apple IIgsThis month on Open Apple, Mike and Ken chat with famed demo programmer Daniel Kruszyna, aka krüe. We chat about @party, the upcoming fourth annual demoparty to be held in recently beleaguered Boston, and how even non-programmers will find plenty to like. The first of three movies based on the life of Steve Jobs is now available for free online streaming — what’s the popular verdict on iSteve? There’s still more CFFAs coming from Rich Dreher, and they’ll work on even an original Apple-1, of which Mike Willegal is making yet more replicas. Speaking of clones, we found a “Redstone” Apple IIe clone in Australia that looks like a PC XT and is certainly no Tiger Learning Computer.

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Introduction (0:13 – 4:56)

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Open Apple #17 (July 2012): Rich Dreher, Apple-1, Atari, and Robert Tripp

Rich Dreher at KansasFest 2012

This month on Open Apple, Mike and Ken speak with Rich Dreher, developer of the CompactFlash For Apple (CFFA) card. The first batch of CFFA3000 cards sold out in 2011, and the second batch is now shipping with similar sales numbers. Rich takes us behind the scenes of the product’s success before dishing on other II hardware developers Vince Briel and Mike Willegal. We look at the astronomical numbers rare Apple-1 computers are fetching on eBay and at Sotheby’s and celebrate HyperCard turning 25 while Atari turns 40, though Mike objects to the latter. David Finnigan’s new book is out, and Robert Tripp is hot on his heels when an updated and digitized version of the classic What’s Where in the Apple — and we have the exclusive interview with Bob! All this content and all these guests make for our longest episode ever, perfect for listening to while you drive to next week’s KansasFest.

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Introduction (0:00 – 19:36)

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Show #9 (Nov 2011): Melissa Barron, Britannia Manor, floppy drives, and iOS

Melissa Barron

This month in Open Apple, Mike and Ken talk with Melissa Barron, the Apple II community’s famed tapestry artist. The three relate their experiences exploring the past and future of computer media at conventions and museums in Chicago and Rochester, exploring the methods used to create and preserve history. Further tributes are made to Steve Jobs, while Mike Westerfield reclassifies old BASIC tools and releases new ones. Lord British’s Texas mansion is up for sale — a fitting home for Vintage Computer Festival Southwest? We debate various models of floppy drives and are wary of fake and expensive Apple II computers on eBay but excited about new e-books and iOS apps of interest to retrocomputing enthusiasts.

Congratulations to Todd Holcomb, who named the game as Spy’s Demise! He won an autographed copy of Bob Bishop’s Bomber on cassette, courtesy Mike Maginnis.

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Introduction (0:00 – 11:40)

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