Category Archives: Apple II

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 , , | 4 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

As God Is My Witness, I Thought Turkeys Could Fly

Posted on November 19, 2018 by Blake Patterson

When it comes to the holidays, I get rather sentimental as well as nostalgic, these days. Holidays as a kid are some of the best memories any of us have, really. And having been an avid computer geek during the … Continue reading →

Posted in Apple II, Atari, Holidays, TI-99 | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments