Jordan Mechner | Open Apple

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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.

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Introduction (0:00 – 10:32)

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:46:42 — 55.2MB) | Embed

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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