Computing

Retro Challenge – Summer 2014

Dagen Leave a comment
My awesome homemade logo
My awesome homemade logo

I’m entering the “Retro Challenge – Summer 2014” contest just for fun and to be motivated to finish a lot of projects I’ve had almost complete for some time now.

I’m going to try to post daily progress on a number of Apple II related projects. I’ll post a lot of code on my github site.  I’ll be trying to finish an iPad version of my 65xx CPU reference app.  There will be lots of demos, and maybe a game or two.  I might even go so far as to do my first PCB etching for a retro hardware project.  Stay tuned to this page for daily updates!!

*fingers crossed*

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Apple II Game – Flapple Bird

Dagen Leave a comment
Flapple Bird for the Apple IIe
Flapple Bird for the Apple IIe

A while back, there was a post on a popular internet forum for retro computing about Flappy Bird. You know, that game that went viral and subsequently got pulled by the author. Anyway, it turns out that people had made versions for pretty much every old 8-bit computer under the sun… except one. There was no Flappy Bird for the Apple II! This upset me. The Apple II was and is extremely popular. We couldn’t let ourselves be so underrepresented. I decided to take action.

 

UPDATE: I’ve released a new version with support for the Apple IIc and a Mono “green screen” mode

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vim syntax higlighting for 65816 Assembly Language

Dagen Leave a comment
VIM editing 65xx Assembly!
VIM editing 65xx Assembly!

Recently, I’ve been working on a little demo for the Apple II and I finally got around to wiring up some tools to be able to write my code in vim and then compile and run my code side-by-side in xkegs using Merlin 16+. I put together a vim (vi) syntax highlight file that has (I think) all of the 65c02 and 65816 opcodes plus some Merlin directives. It’s probably not complete, but I find it works well and is extremely useful for me.

 

Click here to download the latest version of the syntax highlighting file, along with a README that describes how to install it.

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KansasFest 2010 redux – Apple II programming

Dagen Leave a comment
Created using Javascript tracing tool.
Created using Javascript tracing tool. Exported to AppleSoft BASIC.

I have a bad habit of getting things 90% complete and then never finding the momentum for that last 10%. I did a presentation for the annual Apple II convention, KFest back in the summer of 2010. I also released a fairly buggy Apple IIgs game while I was there. I intended to fix some bugs in the game’s code and add a bunch of extras to my presentation package and then my life kind of went pear shaped. Now, over a year (and a missed KFest) later I decided I need to just put this stuff out, and move on with my life, and start some new Apple II projects. So I’m making this post which is a general collection of my presentation and game. It has my presentation notes, all of my presentation code, all of the code and assets for my game and a little info about it all.

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Apple IIgs Fire Demo

Dagen Leave a comment

I finally got around to hammering out a little demo to keep me warm on these cold winter nights.

The code is a bit of a mess but it was mostly a test to see if I could do it and pull off a convincing version of the classic Fire Effect so prevalent in 1990’s demos. It uses 16 bit registers and maybe a few 65816 opcodes but it should be pretty easy to port it to the IIe.

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Retro Apple Bonanza

Dagen Leave a comment
Family Portrait II
Family Portrait II

I decided as a birthday present to myself that I would finally get an older Apple II computer. I have a couple of old IIgs’es I play with regularly these days as well a IIc that was missing the power brick. I did the whole “items wanted” thing on Craigslist in hopes that someone nearby would sell me one on the cheap.

The first two replies were promising but their descriptions of the systems were a little vague and when I asked for more information I got no response. The third response sounded great: an Apple II+, Apple IIe and Apple IIc all with monitors and all “quite clean”. She was willing to let them go for $80. Not a great price and not a horrible price. Either way, I couldn’t get a deal like that through eBay because the shipping on the monitors alone would have to be at least $50.

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