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Posts with tag appleii

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!

BlueFlash: Bluetooth for the Apple II


Never say die to the old Apple II. A hacker named Vinchysky has melded a Disk ][ controller card with a Xilinx FPGA, which in normal-person-speak means he's enabled you to plug a Bluetooth dongle into an Apple II.

The hookup itself is basically just a USB connection, so you could conceivably transfer in any files you wanted from either a USB drive or a Bluetooth connection to any PC (or any Mac, or any iPhone... or anything with Bluetooth at all... Mind boggled yet?). The writeup of how Vinchysky created it is interesting, while a little on the technical side. Then again, the guy is working technical magic, so we'll let him have his jargon.

And the best part is that we're told this thing will be offered for sale-- he's planning to send them out at a tidy $160, within the next few weeks. If you've got an Apple II sitting around that you're just jonesing to get hooked up to a Bluetooth device, this is what you've been waiting for.

[via MacBytes]

Apple leads PC World's 50 Best Tech Products of All Time

Everybody likes lists and rankings; there's just something that fascinates people about them, and they're always good for an argument or, as the case may be, selling magazines. Squarely in this latter camp is PC World's list of the Best 50 Tech Products of All Time, which editor Harry McCracken writes in to tell us features seven Apple products, more than any other singe company. These are:
  • #2 - Apple II (1977)
  • #6 - iPod (2001)
  • #14 - Mac Plus (1986)
  • #21 - iTunes 4 (2003)
  • #30 - OS X (2001)
  • #34 - Original Airport Base Station (1999)
  • #41 - Hypercard (1987)
One thing that jumps out of this list to me is that only one of them, Hypercard, came out of Cupertino during the period that Jobs was gone from Apple (well maybe the Mac Plus, too). In any case, it clearly shows how much Apple has been on a roll since Jobs' return. I also think that at least one more product should be there: the original Powerbook 100, which more or less established the notebook computer form factor we have to this day. So let the debates begin, dear TUAW readers, what did the PC World editors screw up?

Widget Watch: Apple][Go

My grammar school memories are filled with many happy hours spent in the computer lab staring at a green monochromatic Apple ][e with dual floppy drives. I can't tell you how many times I died of dysentery, or where the heck Carmen Sandiego was but I had a great time. Now, my misspent youth is only a keystroke away, waiting in the Dashboard. Apple][Go puts the power of an Apple ][ onto your modern day Mac.

Now, the needed ROMs and disk images are not public domain, so make sure you have the proper rights to use them and then meet me in 1985.

Blast from the Past: Apple II Commercial with Dick Cavett

It's the "appliance for the '80s". Or so Dick Cavett would have had us believe. This is an actual Apple II commercial from waybackwhen(TM), pointing out all the advantages an Apple computer could make in our lives. Like balancing the budget. And tracking recipes. Fortunately, the commercial's writers had a pretty good sense of humor and there's a nice comic punch at the end.

Check out the two external floppy disk drives, that awful keyboard and the teeny screen in the big case.

Apple II game server

I was just looking into buying an Apple II for a nefarious project of my own when Eliot, of Hackaday, sent us a link to this post. An Apple II game server? How sweet is that? All you need is the Java program, a null modem cable, and the ability to make the Apple II accept serial commands.

After that, you're good to play any game that is on the Apple II on the connected computer.

You'll excuse me while I try to track down a cheap Apple II in mint condition.

Flickr Find: Old Apple wrench

How's this for vintage Apple hardware? While looking through the Macintosh Flickr group, I came across this gem that fits in perfectly with our vintage Mac theme. The photographer, jotefa, writes that it's a 5mm wrench that came with the serial interface card for his Apple ][. Hold on to that, jotefa. It's pretty cool.

Rig of the Day: Blast from the past



Here's one for Apple's pending anniversary. Flickr user and TUAW reader jcburns posted this shot of his desk circa 1985. Note the Apple ][, Mac Plus, IBM Electronic Selectric typewriter and floppies! Enlarge the picture up to see "1984" on the desk calendar. That was a pretty sweet setup back in The Me Decade.

"Mid-80s tech center" posted by jcburns.


If you'd like to see your own rig featured here, simply upload photos into our group Flickr pool. We'll select an image every day to highlight.

PodBrix to offer Wozwear T-shirts

The folks at PodBrix have done it again. PodBrix occasionally releases limited-run, Apple-themed Lego minifigs. Previous releases have included Woz, Steve delivering a keynote and "Mr. Brix," which is a small figure that attaches to your headphone cord. On January 17th at 9:00 PM EST, they will release the Wozwear 6502 T-shirt. According to PodBrix,

"...the Wozwear 6502 and is a custom made shirt featuring an image of our previous Woz minifig holding a 6502 processor chip. The interesting aspect is that we use an actual 6502 processor chip and attach it to the shirt with a magnetic clasp."

Here's the best part: It's a working chip, and if removed from the shirt and popped into an old Apple machine, it would work (you may remember that this is the chip used in the Apple II's).

These things usually sell out in a matter of minutes (they sold out of 270 Woz minifigs in less than two minutes in August), so have your credit card and mouse ready. Podbrix will make 300 Wozwear 6502 shirts available for $34.99US each starting at 9:00PM EST tomorrow night. Good luck.

[Via Cult of Mac Blog]

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