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

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.

Click past the jump for links mentioned in this episode.

Introduction (0:00 – 8:33)

• Randy Brandt’s homepage
• Randy’s fried Beagle Bros Apple IIGS
• MS Challenge Talk podcast
• Mike Willegal’s homepage
• A conversation with PCB designer Howard Cantin
• Brain Board with Wozanium Pack
• Apple-1 Mimeo Project

User Login (8:34 – 15:35)

• David Finnigan’s Mac GUI City
• Usenet Archive
• GeoCities “Neighborhoods”
• Macintosh SE/30
• Microsoft QuicKBASIC

II News (15:36 – 1:17:52)

• The New Apple II User’s Guide book by David Finnigan
• Glenn Jones’ Uthernet
• Amazon CreateSpace print-on-demand service
• Steve Weyhrich’s Apple II History
• KansasFest
• KansasFest committee
• David Greelish’s Kickstarter
• The Best of Creative Computing: Volume 3, by Kay Savetz & David Ahl
• New Jersey-based non-profit Beyond the Walls
• Ashton Kutcher to play Steve Jobs
• Josh Gad to play Steve Wozniak
• Noah Wyle impersonating Steve Jobs at Macworld 1999
• Double Fine’s Tim Schafer goes indie with Kickstarter
• The lost Steve Jobs tapes (1985–1986), also available via the Fast Company iOS app
• KansasFest alumnus Stan Marks passes away
• Jack Tramiel, founder of Commodore, passes away
• The Apple II from Commodore? It almost happened
• Jordan Mechner Q&A (begins at 1:49:24) at PAX East
• Prince of Persia ported to Commodore 64
• The geeks who saved Prince of Persia’s source code from digital death
• Prince of Persia source code on GitHub
• The original Prince of Persia for Xbox 360
• Hacks and ports of Prince of Persia
• Jordan Mechner’s Deathbounce
• Al Lowe revives Leisure Suit Larry via Kickstarter
• Why funny games need a kickstart: an editorial by Al Lowe
• Repton remake for iOS (with YouTube gameplay video)
• ActiveGS
• Legend of Grimrock (not Grimlock) available on Good Old Games
• Shadowgate Classic for Game Boy Color
• The CRPG Addict and its GIMLET ranking system
• Alex Lukazi’s WALTR robot
• Brian Picchi’s Applesoft Action & Dogfighters of Mars
• Daniel Kruszyna’s DRIFT demo disk

Apple Pickings (1:17:53 – 1:32:27)

• Vintage Micros
• Appe III Logic boards — guaranteed to not work!
• Prototype ROM 3 Apple IIGS
• Wizardry I: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overload for Apple II + III
• Brian Fargo’s Kickstarter for Wasteland 2
• Wizard and the Princess reprint from Sierra (see also Wikipedia)
• Juiced.GS, a quarterly Apple II journal
• Mac GUI Vault