Category Archives: Apple II

Fun With System Power Monitoring on the Apple IIe

Posted on June 4, 2022 by Blake Patterson

One of my favorite vintage systems in the “Byte Cellar” is my 128k enhanced Apple IIe. It is also one of the most frequently used; I fire it up for IRC or BBS sessions several times a week, and game … Continue reading →

Posted in Apple II | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

A Colorful “Peek” at the Graphics Performance of the Apple II

Posted on March 12, 2022 by Blake Patterson

This week Apple held a special event in which it announced a variety of new hardware and services, chief among them being a new model in the Macintosh lineup, the Mac Studio powered by the equally new 20-core M1 Ultra … Continue reading →

Posted in Apple II | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

BBSing in the Snow Is the Best Way to Login

Posted on January 11, 2022 by Blake Patterson

I logged into my first dial-up electronic Bulletin Board System in the spring of 1986 at the house of a friend I was visiting. His family had an Apple IIe setup with an Apple Modem 1200, the kind that sat … Continue reading →

Posted in Apple II, BBS, Down Memory Lane, Just Rambling | Tagged | 6 Comments

Full Motion, Double High-Res Video Playback on the Apple IIe

Posted on May 9, 2021 by Blake Patterson

A big part of enjoying the vintage computers in my collection is, of course, reliving fond memories of olde by using the systems as I did so long ago: playing the favorites of my gaming past and using applications that … Continue reading →

Posted in Apple II | 1 Comment

VidHD and “Total Replay”: Two Great Tastes That Taste Great Together!

Posted on November 14, 2020 by Blake Patterson

Over the past few months I’ve been enjoying my Apple IIe in a few new ways, and that’s something that feels pretty nice to be able to say, here in 2020. Back in 2018 I became part of the hardware … Continue reading →

Posted in Apple II, Gaming | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Apple //c Scene From ’80s Bond Film “A View to a Kill” Perfectly Re-Created With Applesoft BASIC

Posted on April 29, 2020 by Blake Patterson

When I think back to the ’80s (as I do quite often), part of that lovely feeling I am conjuring is formed from various stand-out movies of the time. Among those, one that I recall enjoying best is the James … Continue reading →

Posted in Apple II | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Firing Up the Apple //c for “Not x86 Week”

Posted on January 26, 2020 by Blake Patterson

As I write this, it is the last day of “Not x86 Week” over at Reddit’s r/Retrobattlestations. As one might guess, this week’s competition is to display a vintage system based on any CPU other than an Intel 8086 or … Continue reading →

Posted in Apple II, r/Retrobattlestations | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

A Bit of History Regarding “Tunnels of Armageddon” for the Apple IIgs

Posted on September 6, 2019 by Blake Patterson

In 1989 I wrote a letter (envelope, stamp, and all) to game publisher California Dreams asking a technical question about the game Tunnels of Armageddon for the Apple IIgs. But, they never wrote back. I was thinking back on this … Continue reading →

Posted in Apple II, Gaming | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

A Look at the Short-Lived 3-Inch Compact Floppy Disk

Posted on February 25, 2019 by Blake Patterson

I was recently listening to the latest episode of Retro Computing Roundtable podcast during which there was mention of a 3-inch floppy disk. No, not 3.5-inch, but 3-inch. These disks are known as Compact Floppy Disks (also “CF2”) and were … Continue reading →

Posted in Apple II, Atari, DOS / Win PC, Multi-Platform, Tandy / TRS-80 | 6 Comments

‘Twas No Post, But Poetry! (At 300 Baud)

Posted on February 25, 2019 by Blake Patterson

It is not every day that BBSing moves a man to poetry…. But, there are occasions where it does, as reddit user u/droid_mike proved this past weekend as r/Retrobattlestations‘ BBS Week IV competition drew to a close. The competition rules required … Continue reading →

Posted in Apple II, BBS, r/Retrobattlestations, Tandy / TRS-80 | 2 Comments