Episode 12: Martin Haye has created a M0N5T3R

On this episode, we talk with Martin Haye about his experience writing an assembler/disassembler for the Apple /// as his HackFest entry at KansasFest 2015. Martin is an experienced Apple II programmer, who decided to spend KansasFest familiarizing himself with the Apple ///. After initial forays into SOS didn’t go well, and realizing that in order to write assembly language programs on the Apple /// it would be useful to have a system monitor more like the one familiar from the Apple II, and a mini-assembler for 6502 code as well, Martin dug into the ROM code and wrote M0N5T3R, a small mini-assembler and disassembler for the Apple ///. And it boots instantly, too! Although it’s small, it was written in the space of a couple of days as part of the HackFest contest (and won second place!) at KansasFest. But he learned a lot from the experience, and we learned a lot from talking to him about it. Martin also gave us some first-hand descriptions of his trip to the Stanford archives of Apple documents (which we had discussed a bit in the previous episode). We also talk of one of the first e-books, written on an Apple /// and uploaded to The Source in real time, and an Apple /// found in the woods.

Some interesting links:

• Martin’s video demo of M0N5T3R booting
• DTCA3DOC-085 Apple /// boot ROM listing
• DTCA3DOC-193 Inside the Apple /// Computer ROM
• Archive guide to the Stanford collection
• KansasFest
• DSK file of M0N5T3R as of KansasFest 2015
• Computerworld: “First all-electronic novel published” (Jan 31, 1983)
• Burke Campbell: Prophesy to the Wind (blog post about e-book)
• An elegant computer for a more civilized age (Ryan Powers found an Apple /// in the woods)