Filed under: Cult of Mac, Retro Mac
Apple II: Put the Zoid back in Zoidberg
Dr. John Zoidberg is my TV Boyfriend. My husband knows, accepts, and understands. So imagine my surprise when TV Squad's Richard Keller posted about how Futurama's Zoidberg got his name. Sure, yadi yadi background stuff and then...Apple II assembly language? Wow cool!
Futurama creator David X Cohen wrote Zoid back in the rocking '80s, when Brøderbund was a gaming force to be reckoned with--although it never actually was released to market. Instead they passed on the software and Cohen was forced to entertain us with cryogenics and one-eyed mutants and, well, you know the rest of the story. "Zoid" inspired the name for my darling Zoidberg, the Dr. McCoy with a mail order medical degree.
Now here's where it gets interesting and TUAW-ish. Cohen still actually has his original Zoid game on a 5.25-inch floppy disk and, according to TV Squad, wants to find someone capable of ripping it for use on an Apple II emulator. Any volunteers? We at TUAW have no idea how to get in touch with Cohen but, hey, we thought we'd throw this one out there and see if we can make Internet magic happen!
Now open your mouth, and lets have a look at that brain!
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Simon Arch said 2:06PM on 12-20-2007
Small correction - it's on a 5.25" diskette. :)
I totally understand your Zoidberg love though. He's easily my favourite character on Futurama as well. I'd love to see this game.
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Brandon Martinez said 2:19PM on 12-20-2007
Whoop Whoop Whoop Whoop Whoop!
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two-shots said 2:27PM on 12-20-2007
If anyone out there has a handle on getting an Apple II game ripped and emulated, I have a friend on the Futurama production crew who can probably get it from/to X Cohen. Let's make some geek magic happen!
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Frank said 2:34PM on 12-20-2007
i have an apple ][ stored in my basement that worked just fine when i fired it up several years ago, but (1) i'm not sure how to use it any more, and (2) even if i did, i'm not sure just how i'd go about porting something so old to something more recent. any ideas out there??
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Romeyn Prescott said 2:44PM on 12-20-2007
I have a IIgs Woz with both a 5.25 and 3.5 drive sitting here in my office. As far as I know, it all works. Copy contents of 5.25 to 400k 3.5, then on to an SE with a 400/800 drive and transfer to an 800k disk or, better yet, a plus with Ethernet and then AFP it off the 400k.
I could probably do this...
mgworek said 2:43PM on 12-20-2007
here is a emulator that also helps you port the game if you have a apple ][
http://www.xs4all.nl/~gp/VirtualII/
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Kenji F said 2:45PM on 12-20-2007
I've got a working //c in my room, with an extra floppy drive.
I could send them if needed.. but the bad part is that I'm in Chile.
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Greg said 3:04PM on 12-20-2007
"It's finfungus... I didnt have the heart to tell him...he'll be floating belly up by morning!"
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Lumpy Dog said 3:55PM on 12-20-2007
OH YOUR GOD OH YOUR GOD OH YOUR GOD! Johnny Z is my best friend. There's absolutely nothing funnier than a planet of stereotypical Jewish lobsters. Irony is wonderful. Also, if you look throughout Futurama, there are more digs aimed at Windows, and subtle boosts toward Mac than I can count. I tried looking them up, but all I can remember are the '1984' ad parody and the scrolling ticker on the galactic stock-exchange. Perhaps other people remember? Well, if you'll excuse me, I'm going for a scuttle. Whoop whoop whoop!
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Dan S. said 4:13PM on 12-20-2007
>> Johnny Z is my best friend.
Why should I believe you? You're Hitler!
Very subtle reference, from my favorite episode:
http://www.gotfuturama.com/Multimedia/FrameGrabs/3ACV15/Grabs/pic00200.jpg
Lumpy Dog said 4:49PM on 12-20-2007
Noo! Eva Braun, help me!
Fritz Laurel said 4:23PM on 12-20-2007
I did this a few years ago when I transferred all my own code from Apple II to a Mac-based emulator.
I went through a mostly convoluted method, but it looks like the Virtual ][ guy(s) (as someone else mentioned) have a more direct route:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~gp/VirtualII/A2V2Help/A2V2Help.html
Looks like it involves transferring a disk from an Apple II to a Mac via a serial connection and maybe a //c would be easiest for this b/c the serial hw is built-in.
Cheers,
FL
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Dan said 7:00PM on 12-20-2007
David X. Cohen is currently repped by CAA. Perhaps TUAW can find a volunteer and contact him via his agent (they have a ton of time these days).
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mdw said 7:35PM on 12-20-2007
"The president is gagging on my swim bladder! What an honor!"
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Dan said 2:05AM on 12-21-2007
I could probably do this. I can copy it onto my Apple IIGS and then use one of the macs in my collection to make a disk image.
http://home.windstream.net/dc71414/
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Rhywun said 8:35AM on 12-21-2007
Neat. Zoidberg was never my favorite, but he did move up a few spots recently after I started paying more attention to him. Some of his wry comments just crack me up & his humor is totally different from the other characters.
"Hooray! Somebody's finally paying attention to me!"
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Doug McIntosh said 12:55PM on 12-21-2007
One question would be whether the 5.25" floppy would even read after this much time. Twenty-plus years is a LONG time for a 5.25" floppy...
Another factor would be whether it was DOS 3.3 or ProDOS-based. The Disk OS becomes less important if Zoid doesn't do any disk access for "levels", etc, but it will still help to know. I believe there are more utilities for transferring ProDOS disks than Apple DOS (DOS 3.x) disks.
Those two factors will be the most important in determining the Port-ability of David's game, Zoid.
Having said all that, I believe there was a utility to transfer Apple ][ floppies to a Mac using a Serial connection (Super Serial Card or Apple II GS -> an "old skool" Mac with RS-422 (serial) ports.
I have the following to help:
Apple ][+ with Super Serial Card and 5.25" floppies.
Apple ][ GS (but I think that step can be skipped)
PowerMac 8500, up and running MacOS 8.6 and 9.1 (yes it has serial ports)
PowerMac G5 in the same network as the 8500, running OS 10.3.9 and OS 9.2.2
LOTSA Apple ][ Assembly language and DOS knowledge.
Experience with RS-232 RS-422 connections on Macs.
Now all I need is that floppy... ;-)
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Doug McIntosh said 1:00PM on 12-21-2007
Also, sorry for the crosspost, but this thread has several suggestions on porting Apple ][ floppies to Macs:
http://macslash.org/article.pl?sid=04/07/15/047252
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