Category Archives: Apple II

The French Touch Releases “Pure Noise” Music Disk for Apple IIe + Mockingboard

Posted on May 10, 2016 by Blake Patterson

The French Touch is at it again. Grouik of The French Touch has just contacted me to let me know about the Apple II demo / hacking group’s latest production, Pure Noise, a music disk for the 128K Apple IIe. It requires a … Continue reading →

Posted in Apple II, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Mockingboard Sings a Few New Songs

Posted on September 7, 2015 by Blake Patterson

I remember feeling that one of the coolest things about my Apple IIe setup back in 1986 was the 6-voice sound card with which I outfitted it. The Apple II line (aside from the IIGS with it’s superb Ensoniq DOC … Continue reading →

Posted in Apple II, Atari | Tagged , , , , , | 8 Comments

Bmp2DHGR Revisited: A Slideshow Running on Real Metal

Posted on March 22, 2015 by Blake Patterson

Last month I published a post about Bill Buckels’ Bmp2DHGR, a command-line utility for modern systems that converts high-color source images into Apple II graphics files supporting every graphics mode of the 128K Apple IIe and //c. The most interesting … Continue reading →

Posted in Apple II | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Bmp2DHR: The Best Apple II Graphics You’ll See This Week [UPDATED]

Posted on February 7, 2015 by Blake Patterson

I brought home my first Apple IIgs in the fall of 1987. That was year that CompuServe released the initial GIF specification (along with clarification that the “G” is soft). Up until then, the graphics files worth looking at existed … Continue reading →

Posted in Apple II, Multi-Platform | Tagged , , , , , | 9 Comments

An Apple II Anecdote: Fun with the AST RamStakPlus

Posted on November 10, 2014 by Blake Patterson

Here’s a quick little little anecdote from my Apple II past that I thought I would share. I was trying to mentally sort a bit of the computer chronology of my past in the shower this morning (no waterproof serial … Continue reading →

Posted in Apple II | 4 Comments

A Rare Glimpse of a Memorial Apple Prototype Display at frog

Posted on September 3, 2014 by Blake Patterson

This morning I was chatting with folks in one of my long-time IRC hang-outs, DALnet’s #macintosh channel, as I have done most days over the past 15 years. While there, another regular, Dan Lieberman, revealed to me that he used … Continue reading →

Posted in Apple II, Macintosh | 5 Comments

The Apple //c Makes It to the Office…Again

Posted on August 8, 2014 by Blake Patterson

After three years of working for myself at home, I’ve returned to the world of enterprise web development. I’m back in an office these days (starting this past December, actually), working as the Senior Front End Developer for the NCTA … Continue reading →

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

Apple Shows Its True Colors in Recent Mac Video

Posted on July 31, 2014 by Blake Patterson

Upon returning to Apple in 1997, Steve Jobs set forth to pull the company back from the brink and turn it into the most influential company in the world. And in the course of his 14 year (second) reign, he … Continue reading →

Posted in Apple II, Macintosh | 5 Comments

Magazine BASIC: “Hacker’s Rap” Circa 1984

Posted on July 3, 2014 by Blake Patterson

The other night I was flipping through my boxes of Apple II floppy disks looking for the driver software for my Apple //c’s Cricket! soundbox (that story’s coming soon, I promise) when a certain floppy caught my eye. It was … Continue reading →

Posted in Apple II | Leave a comment

“BASIC Week” Fun Over at /r/RetroBattlestations

Posted on September 15, 2013 by Blake Patterson

Last week was BASIC Week over at one of my haunts, /r/RetroBattlestations. Retro guy Chris Osborn (@FozzTexx) created a BASIC program that renders out the subreddit’s logo along with Snoo (Reddit’s mascot) to the computer screen. Chris provided ports to … Continue reading →

Posted in Apple II, Multi-Platform, r/Retrobattlestations | 6 Comments