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Open Apple #55 (January 2016) : Henry Courbis, UltimateMicro, ProDOS conversions

Posted on Jan 31, 2016 by Quinn Dunki

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:44:28 — 78.1MB) | Embed

This month on Open Apple we sit down with Henry Courbis, co-proprietor of Ultimate Micro, serial entrepreneur, and Open Source guy. Henry is boldly going where no hobbyist has gone before, by making Apple II hardware his real day job. If anyone can do it, Ultimate Micro can!

We talk massive modem phone bills, phreaking, warez, and statutes of limitations. You know… for a friend. Henry talks about how hardware first appealed to him, and how he has leveraged his hacking and resourcefulness into development of powerful & complex modern products. Henry is a nexus of collaboration in the Apple II hardware community, and helping to make a lot of things happen. Henry makes cloning the Transwarp GS sound easy, and goes into lots of detail on exciting upcoming UltimateMicro products.

Listen in amazement as Quinn is unable to realize that “qkumba” is a play on “cucumber”. Listen to Mike badger Henry for a Phasor clone, and listen to Quinn’s not-so-subtle attempt to be a beta tester for the IDEA2c. We’ve got emulators, we’ve got hardware vendors, we’ve got crackers, and we’ve got phony museums about to get sued into oblivion. Come on down!

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

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Show #24 (Feb 2013) eBay auction results

Posted on Feb 21, 2013 by Ken Gagne

In the February 2013 episode of the Open Apple podcast, Mike and Ken reviewed several eBay lots. The results of those auctions are below.

Title	Starting bid	End date	# Bids	Sold
Pravetz 8C Bulgarian clone of Apple IIe	$290 (Buy It Now)			Still available
Apple IIc prototype	$3,700 OBO	Dec 06, 2012 21:11:36 PST		Best offer accepted

Open Apple #24 (Feb 2013): Jimmy Maher, book publishing, jOBS, and C64

Posted on Feb 7, 2013Aug 2, 2014 by Ken Gagne

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:42:01 — 55.0MB) | Embed

This month on Open Apple, Mike and Ken chat with Jimmy Maher, the historian behind the renowned blog The Digital Antiquarian. A published author, Jimmy provides us with his perspective on the pros and cons of going with a publishing house over the recent trend in retrocomputing toward self-publishing. We gripe about the Steve Jobs film sacrificing historical accuracy for mass appeal and recommend some alternative movies that get it right. We’re still loving iOS as a platform for classic gaming ports, from the adventure game Transylvania to the recently released Lode Runner Classic. Speaking of platforms, which is better: the Apple II or the Commodore 64? The answer may not be as obvious as you think! Finally, we offer a cautionary tale to vintage computer collectors whose inventory may be at the mercy of an avaricious landlord.

Click past the jump for links mentioned in this episode.

Continue reading “Open Apple #24 (Feb 2013): Jimmy Maher, book publishing, jOBS, and C64” →

Show #15 (May 2012) eBay auction results

Posted on Jun 3, 2012Jun 27, 2012 by Ken Gagne

In the May 2012 episode of the Open Apple podcast, Mike and Ken reviewed several eBay lots. The results of those auctions are below.

Title	Starting bid	End date	Sold
Wizard and the Princess reprint from Sierra	$300 (Buy It Now)		Still available
Wizardry I: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overload	129.95 (Buy It Now)	Apr 30, 2012 16:22:43 PDT	Did not sell; item has been relisted, relisted, relisted, relisted, relisted, relisted, relisted, relisted, relisted, relisted, relisted, and relisted
Prototype ROM 3 Apple IIGS	$450 (Buy It Now)	May 05, 2012 18:04:50 PDT	Did not sell; item was relisted and sold for $107.50 after 13 bids
Appe III Logic boards — guaranteed to not work!	59.99 (Buy It Now)	May 18, 2012 18:07:03 PDT	4 sold

Open Apple #15 (May 2012): David Finnigan, new books, CRPGs, and prototypes

Posted on May 7, 2012Aug 2, 2014 by Ken Gagne

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:33:00 — 48.0MB) | Embed

This month on Open Apple, Mike and Ken chat with David Finnigan, proprietor of the Mac GUI Web site and author of the upcoming book, The New Apple II User’s Guide. Our eyes are caught by another new book release, The Best of Creative Computing: Volume 3, as well as the upcoming biopic based on Steve Jobs, in which actors have been cast to play Apple’s two co-founders. Prince of Persia is still big news, with the source code for Jordan Mechner’s classic Apple II game having been salvaged, released, and modified, while classic games like Leisure Suit Larry, Dungeon Master, and even Repton are enjoying literal and spiritual remakes. On eBay, we crack open the case to examine broken Apple III boards and prototype Apple IIGS boards.