up to something

#Commodore64 >> #AppleII

(Let the war begin!!)

#TextsFromThe80s
#HashtagGames

Hey there, fellow retro-tech nerds! The @mediaarchaeologylab has posted its open call for practitioners-in-residence in the lab for the next season, which begins in September. Submit your proposal by May 15!

Please boost for reach.

https://mediaarchaeologylab.ghost.io/practitioner-in-residence-open-call/

The theme for the 2025/2026 residency is Counter Computing: Alternative Imaginaries.

Lab director Lori Emerson describes it this way: "We are interested in any form of artistic and/or scholarly practice that engages counter-computational practices, such as glitching, hacking, tinkering, queering, subverting, (un)making and (re)imagining. Through such experimentation, we encourage you to explore how our relation to (and imagination of) technology can be remade to envision alternative pasts, presents and futures."

The lab is asking interested parties to submit a proposal for an up-to-4-week residency that includes full access to the lab and its resources, and logistical support. Residents are expected to produce a public lecture, demo, video, performance, or exhibition as part of the residency. Examples of previous technical reports can be seen at https://mediaarchaeologylab.com/projects

Get to it, my peeps! We'll see you in the lab starting in the fall.

We're making important changes to our privacy policy that you should be aware of.

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/oregon-trail-is-changing-so-that-we-share-less-of-your-private-dysentery-information

All the Adventures is starting to wind down on 1982. Sherwood Forest is the last Apple II graphical game left!

Dale Johnson of the extremely difficult Madventure and Palace in Thunderland returns with something that seems to be a little bit easier ... so far.

https://bluerenga.blog/2025/04/01/sherwood-forest-1982/

Managed to compile an MD5 program with cc65 on the #AppleII and it actually works! It takes forever to calculate, but what matters is it gets the hash right.

Program was found here: https://gunkies.org/wiki/Md5.c

(Also I hate that cc65 programs aren't re-entrant and have to be loaded from disk again.)

Glider for Apple II

https://www.colino.net/wordpress/en/glider-for-apple-ii/

Product list from Polarware (formerly Penguin Software), January 1988. Lists "The Spy's Adventures in Asia", Africa, and Australia as "coming soon." The series was steamrolled by the success of Carmen Sandiego, and none of those three ever shipped (c.f. http://graphicsmagician.com/polarware/spyadventures.htm )

"Mom can we go to the arcade?"

"We have arcade at home."

Arcade at home:

Here is a collection of Apple II programs that offered an in-app backup utility to make exactly one protected backup of the master disk: <https://archive.org/details/wozaday?sort=title&and%5B%5D=subject%3A%22hasbackuputility%22>

There are at least six distinct implementations here. It was A Thing. I dissected the most famous of these (The Print Shop) here: <https://archive.org/download/ThePrintShop4amCrack/The%20Print%20Shop%20%284am%20crack%29.txt>

in my 1337th post on Renga in Blue, I give the finale of Dan Kitchen's early game Crystal Caverns

https://bluerenga.blog/2025/03/16/crystal-caverns-estate-landlord/

A new convention dedicated to the #appleII community appears!

INIT HELLO will be held at the System Source Computer Museum near #baltimore #maryland on 26-27 July 2025!

https://init-hello.org/

in which I embark on an atmospheric text adventure from Dan Kitchen's early days, Crystal Caverns

(Dan Kitchenwent on to be one of the original Activision programmers with games like Ghostbusters and River Raid II)

includes some early history of electronic LCD games

https://bluerenga.blog/2025/03/11/crystal-caverns-1982/

Kansasfest, which was planned to return in Kansas this year, has been cancelled and replaced by an online-only event. The staff apologized and announced changes in the KF organization committee. (source: Apple2infinitum) #appleII #retrocomputing #lgbtq

Kansasfest, which was planned to return in Kansas this year, has been cancelled and replaced by an online-only event. The staff apologized and announced changes in the KF organization committee.

(source: Apple2infinitum)

When the news of the location dropped, a lot of people from the Apple II/retro community announced they would not attend it anymore because of the recent Kansas anti-trans bills.
(KF took place in Illinois last year)

Testing an upcoming crack on real hardware, as one does.

…and now that I’m on… are there any Apple II resources / users on #globaltalk I should know about? Fate, it seems, (you know, the ancient hardware roulette…) has steered me to using my Mac LC as my AIR and as this machine is equipped with a IIe card (and a real IIe sits next to it), I’d love to explore some 8-bit #AppleII goodness… (Netbooting, anyone?)

Learning piano, as one does

#AppleII AppleIIplus #retrocomputing #apple2 #apple2plus