Not Everyone Gets It

Posted on March 19, 2011 by Blake Patterson

Posted in Just Rambling | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

I Have a Chip on my Shoulder

Posted on March 14, 2011 by Blake Patterson

It just occurred to me that six months have passed and I’ve not posted about the new tattoo I had inked. Geek tattoo, that is — the best kind. And this, after reaching out for help from readers to choose the proper squid (TAITO says it’s a squid) to use for my Space Invaders tattoo I had inked back in ’08.

So, I was talking to my long time friend Chris Bernick (who is now the backend guy for AppShopper) and tattoos came up in the conversation. I don’t remember the specifics, but he said something that made it occur to me just how awesome it would be to get “a chip on my shoulder.” And, what better a chip to have emblazon upon my skin than the venerable 8-bit MOS Tech 6502, heart of the Atari VCS, Apple II, Commodore 64, Atari 800, and various others?

And, so, here it is, in all its glory.

Now, despite planting the seed that sprouted into this majestic bit of body art, Chris has harshly criticized my new tattoo because of the fact that it’s supposed to be a likeness of the 6502, but sports a mere 14 pins, while the standard 6502 DIP sports 40 pins. I just felt that 40 pins seemed too complex — would require too intricate a design.

At any rate, I love it and am proud to walk the earth for the rest of my days with a most notable (8-bit) chip on my shoulder.

Posted in Just Rambling | Tagged , , | 10 Comments

‘ActiveGS’ for iOS: Boundless Mobile Apple II Goodness

Posted on March 13, 2011 by Blake Patterson

Last week I wrote a post about FTA’s recent iOS release Active GS – Best of FTA [App Store]. (I wrote one for TouchArcade too, actually.) The app is a collection of Apple IIgs demoscene productions from FTA and associated groups, wrapped in an iOS port of the group’s ActiveGS Apple IIgs emulator. ActiveGS is a front-end for KEGS and is perhaps best known as the web plug-in that powers the Virtual Apple ][ website which allows anyone with a modern browser to play Apple classic games on the web.

Developer Olivier Goguel has been kind enough to provide me with a build of the “full” version of the app, that can pull down and play every disk image online over at Virtual Apple ][, to test out on my iPad 2. And, I don’t think I need to explain to anyone reading this website just how awesome this app is.

I put together a little video of me running through a few of the available Apple II disk images on the iPad 2. Have a look.

I considered posting this over at TouchArcade but, since this version of the app will never hit the App Store, it would just seem cruel…

Posted in Apple II, Handhelds | 1 Comment

iPad 2 Launch Day at the Apple Store in Clarendon, VA

Posted on March 12, 2011 by Blake Patterson

Yesterday was iPad 2 launch day and, of course, I was there to grab Apple’s most powerful iOS device by far. I got about 2 hours of sleep last night, as I just couldn’t put the thing down. I’ll post more about my reactions to the iPad 2 in a bit but, until then, read my thoughts on the first iPad and just go get get one in your hands for a few minutes at an Apple Store.

The point of this post is to share a little video I shot, edited and posted while waiting in line at the Clarendon Apple Store in Arlington, VA. The line formed at around noon, and when this video was taken there were a little over 200 people in line. But, before the store swung its doors wide at 5 p.m., the line got to near 300 people. (I was about 15th in line.)

The line was so long that I had to abbreviate the stroll. Do please pardon a bit of whimsy in the audio track…

So, how was your iPad 2 launch experience?

Posted in Handhelds | 1 Comment

FTA Releases Apple IIgs Emulator in the iOS App Store

Posted on March 8, 2011 by Blake Patterson

Long-time readers may be aware of the fact that I’ve long been a big fan of the demoscene. I saw my first true demoscene production (or “demo”) the night I received my mail order Amiga 2000 back in 1989. I called up The Board, a local BBS run by Myron Sothcott, and downloaded a demo called Raster Magic by Megaforce. From that moment, I was hooked.

I had that Amiga for a few years, but had recently been an Apple IIgs user, and a few friends of mine were still rocking the IIgs, among them @ArnoldKim of MacRumors, TouchArcade and AppShopper and @ChrBerni of AppShopper. They were quite impressed with the Amiga demos I showed them and were thrilled when Apple IIgs demos started to appear on the scene.

The IIgs demoscene was a smallish one, and without question the most prominent demogroup for the platform was a French group known as the Free Tools Association or FTA. Arnold, Chris and I engaged in a bit of friendly ribbing of the platform rivalry sort — me with the Amiga and those guys with the IIgs. Of course, the Amiga was vastly superior from a technical perspective, but the IIgs was a nice machine and these guys were among the faithful. (The GS actually had much nicer audio hardware, but it was hobbled by a mere 64K (kilobytes) of audio RAM as compared to the Amiga’s 1MB.) And it was FTA demos with which they countered my volleys. The Amiga demos I had to show were clearly more technically impressive, but FTA’s demos were polished beyond most anything I’d seen on the Amiga. (I didn’t admit this at the time, mind you.)

FTA hasn’t faded away into nothingness like so many demogroups of yore. They have been hard at work on ActiveGS, a front-end for the Apple IIgs emulator KEGS, perhaps best known as the web plug-in that powers the Virtual Apple ][ website which allows anyone with a modern browser to play Apple classic games on the web.

FTA has recently released an iOS version of ActiveGS bundled with a number of demos and games of theirs and associated groups [App Store]. It’s a free app that provides a means for folks to see these GS programs running “live”, as opposed to in video form, which just isn’t the same. And, it’s a very interesting release in a way that I won’t here discuss, as I like the app available for all to download…

See FTA’s best loved demo, Modulae, running under PC emulation.

I recently covered this release over at TouchArcade, and will grab a bit of it to further set the stage.

FTA and the associated groups Apple Chemical Software (ACS) and Second Sight Software were well known in the pre-web online Apple II communities for their to-the-metal, assembly-coded demos, games, and utilities that pushed the Apple II to its limits. Among the included productions are Nucleus and Modulae, probably the most well loved and beautifully executed demos to be found on the IIgs, as well as the playable demo of the group’s take on the pseudo-3D shooter Space Harrier. Those checking out this collection who have no Apple II in their past should note that the Apple IIgs, which was released in 1986, is an 8/16-bit computer that runs at 2.8MHz — and that’s in “fast” mode.

FTA has shown a version of the app chock-full of IIe and IIgs games and demos…

…but that version isn’t likely to land in the App Store anytime soon. No surprise, there. But I’d encourage anyone reading this to grab FTA’s app and spend some time exploring something new or walking down memory lane.

Posted in Apple II, Handhelds | 3 Comments

Vintage Computer Festival East 7.0 Is Just around the Corner

Posted on March 7, 2011 by Blake Patterson

My friends over at the Vintage Computer Festival East just reminded me that the VCF East 7.0 is just around the corner, May 14-15, 2011 in Wall, New Jersey.

The event, which is entirely indoors, is held rain or shine and admission is a mere $10 for one day or $15 for both days — and is free for those aged 17 and younger. Hours are 10am – 6pm on Saturday and 10am – 5pm on Sunday.

I’ve got to get up there one of these days and, if all goes well, I’ll make it this year. Here’s hoping.

Have a look at some past exhibits, to see what VCF East is all about. The event’s Yahoo Group can be found here.

Posted in Multi-Platform | Leave a comment

Video Games Live! – An Epic Event for Gamers

Posted on March 6, 2011 by Blake Patterson

As I type this I’ve just returned home from the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, which I covered for TouchArcade. I also attended the Apple iPad 2 press event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts on Wednesday where — surprise! — Steve Jobs unveiled the next version of the leader of the tablet market that his company created.

GDC is the biggest and most significant conference of the year in terms of its relevance to TouchArcade as well as the sheer amount of good times to be had among the greatest of great people.

It was an epic week, as expected — and I may make a dedicated post regarding the conference — but the purpose of this post is to share some media that I collected at the Bethesda, MD showing of Video Games Live!, which I attended with the two Imangi guys, Keith Shepherd and Natalia Luckyanova at the Strathmore last weekend, a day before heading off to GDC. What a way to kick off the conference week!

I will borrow some text from the event’s website to convey just what Video Games Live! is all about. The event is…

An immersive event created by the game industry featuring the best game music performed by top orchestras and choirs combined with synchronized lighting, video, live action and audience interactivity. The first and most successful video game concert tour in the world.

And, that seems an apt description. It was an insane event with plenty of folks in cosplay where awesomeness abounded. Have a look at a few clips I grabbed during the event.

And here’s a gallery of photos from the event. I can’t recommend Video Games Live! highly enough to anyone who considers themselves a true gamer.

Posted in Gaming | 1 Comment

Of a Dancing Baby and a Pocket Reference

Posted on February 24, 2011 by Blake Patterson

Just a quick one here. I dug out my Apple Newton MessagePad 2100 the other night to take a video to share around of the Dancing Baby app put together by Arnold Kim (of MacRumors.com) back in 1997 or so. The app is basically a custom movie player of sorts that plays back a pre-processed video of one of the early memes.

While I had the Newton out and powered up, I puttered around the various drawers full of apps and stumbled upon my only real effort in NewtonScript, The Vintage Computer Pocket Reference. It’s basically just a little reference app that lets you choose make and model of a computer and see various details about the system. Sadly, I never finished it, having moved on to some other project that usurped my interest.

I put a couple of screenshots up the other day and I see they’ve gotten some attention, so I thought I’d point them out here.

I did most of the development for this rather simple application in late 2004 on my old snow white G3 MacBook, which gave up the ghost long ago when I inadvertently emptied a glass of water into it. It connected to the MessagePad by way of a Keyspan USB-to-serial adapter that’s currently keeping my Apple //c tied to the world.

While it’s quite unlikely that I will soon be jumping back onto this app, I do still have the code, I just verified. Here’s a snippit. And here’s the setup I used for development:

It’s with some shame that I admit to not putting my Newtons to frequent use, but I do love to pull them out every so often and play around with a bit of the bleeding edge from the good old days. I don’t think it makes my iPhone jealous.

Posted in Handhelds | Leave a comment

A Pixellated End of the World I Don’t Want to Miss

Posted on February 15, 2011 by Blake Patterson

Today I ran across an amazing video by Patrick Jean of onemoreproduction that depicts the end of the world in oh, such pixellated goodness. I have to say, this would be a pretty awesome way to go.

If this is how it goes down, please let me be here to see it!

Posted in Just Rambling | 1 Comment

Damn, It Feels Good To Be a Gangsta!

Posted on February 1, 2011 by Blake Patterson

Friends, at long last, I have left my 10 year day job as a web developer at the AFL-CIO in Washington DC and joined the lucky ranks of the self-employed. (No details now on the reasons for my leaving — I’ll write a book one day.)

I am now working full-time with TouchArcade, the iOS game news and reviews website that I co-founded with Arnold Kim (of MacRumors) back in February of 2008, in the capacity of writer, editor, and back-end programmer.

Arnold and I attended Macworld San Francisco in January of 2007 and together saw Steve Jobs introduce the iPhone to the world during what might be the most important keynote in Apple’s history. What we saw introduced on that day was so far beyond expectation that it was literally jaw-dropping. It was an amazing two hours, and in leaving the keynote hall at Moscone West, there could be no mistake — we had indeed witnessed The Jesus Phone.

In the five months that passed ever-so-slowly until the iPhone was released, there was plenty of time to consider what was on the way (for both users and every other smartphone maker in the land), and the only thing that I found wanting from the coming device was support for third-party apps — real, native apps. Shortly after the iPhone’s launch on June 29th, Steve Jobs took care of that by announcing that an iPhone SDK would be made available in early 2008.

Word of a proper development system, taken with a look under the iPhone’s hood, left little doubt that the iPhone and iPod touch would soon become very powerful mobile game machines (which they have). And so, in late February 2008, around the time of Apple’s iPhone Software Roadmap event where the iPhone SDK was revealed, Arnold approached me about joining him in starting an iPhone gaming website, and TouchArcade was born. (And my long-running iPod news site, iPod Hacks, died…)

For the first year or so, it was just Arnold and me. I worked on articles for the site as time outside the day job permitted, and Arnold focused a significant portion of his time on the site, as well. Eventually, we began taking on freelance assistance with the site and, thanks to its steady rise in popularity over the years, we’ve grown to staff several full-time writers and editors in addition to freelancers.

Once the App Store went live, TouchArcade quickly became a large and active community for iOS gamers, and it’s done nothing but grow ever since. It’s wonderful to finally have the opportunity to make TouchArcade my entire professional focus and do the work that I so enjoy, having been an avid gamer my entire life. (When I got my first Atari VCS, it was the latest and greatest thing around…)

We have big plans for TouchArcade in 2011, and it’s with a huge smile on my face that I move forward and focus my full efforts on taking the premier iOS gaming website to the next level.

Posted in Just Rambling | 12 Comments