Open Apple #53 (November 2015) : David Schroeder, Phreaking, 8-bit Mice

This month on Open Apple we sit down with David Schroeder, author of classic Apple II games such as Crisis Mountain, Dino Eggs, and Short Circuit. We talk about the randomness of our passionate brand-loyalty, the logistical realities of early Apple II development, and the magical era of “one-person, one-game”. We get into a lot of the technical details of Crisis Mountain and Dino Eggs, so you might pick up some tips for your own Apple II projects! David also has great memories of the economic and design realities of the time, where everyone was scrambling to figure out what a computer game was, and what players really wanted. Game developers are still fighting that battle, but at least we have a definition of “video game” now.

We’re sharing David’s games in the show notes below, with his permission! In exchange, he asks that you patronize, share and support Dino Eggs: Rebirth.

After that we jam through some quick news, bask in the fallout (see what I did there?) of the GEOS episode, and we get down and dirty with rodents. Do you have the GS with the bigger Em Bees? Trust us, you want the bigger Em Bees.

You might notice that we’re continuing to tighten up the show. Let us know how you feel about this trend in our show length! Do you like the shorter episodes? Miss the epic three hour monsters? Email us at feedback (at) open-apple (dot) net. We have social media too, but we can never remember which ones.

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

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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.

Click past the jump for links mentioned in this episode.

Introduction (0:00 – 19:36)

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