Em Maginnis & Quinn Dunki

Open Apple

Technology EN ↓ 100 episodes

An Apple II Podcast

Author

Em Maginnis & Quinn Dunki

Episodes

Open Apple #65 (November 2016) : Alex Lee, What Is The Apple IIgs? 06.12.2016 2:13:07

This month on  Open Apple , we sit down with Alex Lee, purveyor of the canonical IIgs reference site  What Is The Apple IIgs?   We talk about what it was like being one of the brave few with this machine, and that feeling of living in a secret world of incredible graphics and sound that nobody else seemed to know about.

Open Apple #64 (October 2016) : John Brooks, Tiger Learning Computer, Softalk 30.10.2016 1:31:37

This month on  Open Apple , we share an excerpt of an interview with John Brooks, courtesy of Juiced. GS.  John talks about how and why he updated ProDOS, and his experiences getting back into the community.

Open Apple #63 (September 2016) : Kate Szkotnicki, ProDOS 2.4, KansasFest 26.09.2016 1:40:31

This month on  Open Apple , we sit down with Kate Szkotnicki, long time Apple II fan and new addition to the retro community. We chat about her first impressions as a newcomer to the community, and the big splash she made at her first KansasFest. Kate is a cosplayer and frequent attendee of anime and comic cons, so she brought a very fresh set of skills and perspectives to KansasFest. Her pre...

Open Apple #62 (August 2016) : Mark Pilgrim, Passport, Ancient Legends 24.08.2016 1:28:41

This month on  Open Apple , we sit down with Mark Pilgrim, one of the most active software preservationists in the Apple II community. Mark has been spending his free time working on Passport, an automated cracking tool. It automatically detects and defeats copy protection schemes on Apple II disks, producing copyable disks that are otherwise completely intact. This is a boon for preservation...

Open Apple #61 (July 2016) : KansasFest 2016, Chicken Missile Megapodcast 28.07.2016 1:25:31

This month on  Open Apple , as is tradition, we present the megapodcast recorded live at KansasFest. Most of your favorite retrocomputing podcasters attend KansasFest each year, and we all get together in a basement room to record a giant group podcast. This year’s recording includes, in no particular order: Quinn Dunki of Open Apple Paul Hagstrom of Retrocomputing Roundtable and Dr...

Open Apple #60 (June 2016) : Sean Fahey, KansasFest 2016 Warmup 22.06.2016 1:18:33

This month on  Open Apple , we sit down with Sean Fahey of A2Central , major league collector, and member of the KansasFest Committee. It’s not too late to register! Go to kansasfest.org right now. If you listen to this show, you should definitely be there. The Garage Giveaway will be larger than ever this year. You won’t want to miss the amazing pile of free Apple II gear. The other cla...

Open Apple #59 (May 2016) : Amy Kefauver, Lorri Hopping, Stuff4YourGS 01.06.2016 1:40:23

This month on  Open Apple , Kay Savetz sits down with Amy Kefauver and Lorri Hopping. Amy was the editor of Scholastic Microzine, an educational magazine focused on the Apple II. Lorri was a writer and editor for Microzine. They share many great memories creating lessons with computers, the nature of the educational market, and how computers can engage kids in ways that static...

Open Apple #58 (April 2016) : Huibert Aalbers, IIGS Stuff, Taiwanese Ham 04.05.2016 2:07:21

This month on  Open Apple , we sit down with Huibert Aalbers, author of Soundsmith. It’s hard to overstate what a platform-defining piece of software this was for the Apple IIgs. Few people appreciated what the audio system in this computer was capable of, until Huibert unlocked it for the world to hear. Games and scene demos would use his tool for the entire life of the machine. Other music...

Open Apple #57 (March 2016) : Bill Budge! 12.03.2016 1:32:23

This month on  Open Apple , we sit down with legendary Apple II programmer, Bill Budge. In addition to being an icon of Apple II gaming and graphics, he is the number-one-requested guest by listeners of the show. Mike and Quinn are very excited he was able to make some time to talk to them, and hope you agree it was worth the effort. Bill is, of course, the author of such seminal cl...

Open Apple #56 (February 2016) : Peter Lount, Gemstone Warrior, KansasFest 22.02.2016 1:32:10

This month on  Open Apple  we sit down with Peter Lount, co-developer of Gemstone Warrior and Gemstone Healer for the Apple II. Canadian programmer Peter and his partner Trouba broke new ground in video games by combining fast action combat with procedurally generated caves and dungeon content. Gemstone Warrior doesn’t get credit for being the predecessor to Blizzard megahit Diablo, but...

Open Apple #55 (January 2016) : Henry Courbis, UltimateMicro, ProDOS conversions 31.01.2016 1:44:28

This month on  Open Apple we sit down with Henry Courbis, co-proprietor of Ultimate Micro, serial entrepreneur, and Open Source guy. Henry is boldly going where no hobbyist has gone before, by making Apple II hardware his real day job. If anyone can do it, Ultimate Micro can!

Open Apple #54 (December 2015) : Year End Roundtable! 03.01.2016 1:27:22

This month on  Open Apple , we round out the year with our annual tradition of sitting around a virtual table with some friends of the show, discussing whatever comes to mind. Mike and Quinn are joined by Randy Brandt of Beagle Bros fame, Charles Mangin of RetroConnector, and some guy named Carrington Vanston.

Open Apple #53 (November 2015) : David Schroeder, Phreaking, 8-bit Mice 29.11.2015 1:38:29

This month on  Open Apple we sit down with David Schroeder, author of classic Apple II games such as Crisis Mountain, Dino Eggs, and Short Circuit. We talk about the randomness of our passionate brand-loyalty, the logistical realities of early Apple II development, and the magical era of “one-person, one-game”. We get into a lot of the technical details of Crisis Mountain and Dino E...

Open Apple #52 (October 2015) : GEOS! Robert Bowdidge, and more GEOS! 31.10.2015 2:42:13

This month on  Open Apple  we sit down with Robert Bowdidge, one of three interns at Berkeley Softworks who ported GEOS to the best line of 8-bit computers. We talk about what a great place Berkeley Softworks was, along with the power of good tools and proper software engineering. Robert has great memories of the culture there, the GUI technology they had built, and the brilliant pe...

Open Apple #51 (September 2015) : Mike Westerfield, Opus ][, The Byte Works, Merlin 32 01.10.2015 2:12:53

This month on  Open Apple  we sit down with Mike Westerfield, of The Byte Works’ fame. We talk about his adventures writing assemblers & compilers for 8/16 bit computers, and we see what he’s up to nowadays. We talk about small-system compilers, Logo, the perils of open source, and where to go for Byte Works’ products. It’s a compiler and assembler-themed episode of the one...

Open Apple #50 (August 2015) : Rebecca Heineman, Plamen’s Clones, GS/OS Updates 01.09.2015 2:00:59

This month on  Open Apple , we sit down with Rebecca “Burger Becky” Heineman. Becky is a legendary Apple II developer (not to mention many other platforms), and was the keynote speaker at KansasFest 2015. We discuss Becky’s KansasFest experiences then and now, how the community has changed, and what she’s up to now. She has a lot of Apple II gold archived away, and we’re starting to see more...

Open Apple #49 (July 2015) : Laine Nooney, Technowarp, 4am 03.08.2015 2:53:11

This month on Open Apple , we sit down with Laine Nooney, researcher of early computer and software companies. Laine has been digging into the history of such greats as Brøderbund and Sierra On-Line. In particular, they have done awesome research on the infamous Soft Porn Adventure, including behind-the-scenes details on the infamous advertising photo. We talk about broken microfilm projectors, w...

Open Apple #48 (June 2015) : Tony Diaz, KansasFest Memories, Prototypes, and 8-bit DNS 12.07.2015 2:33:34

This month on  Open Apple , we sit down with Tony Diaz- KansasFest committee member, and consummate Apple II collector. With KansasFest just days away, we go deep on Tony’s amazing collection of unique prototypes, documents, peripherals, and the stories that go with them. If there’s a person with deeper knowledge of the early history of Apple Hardware, we haven’t met them.

Open Apple #47.5 (June 2015) : John Brooks via Matt Ownby 31.05.2015 1:27:56

Welcome to a special extra episode of  Open Apple ! Fellow Apple II enthusiast Matt Ownby recently sat down for a chat with John Brooks, author of Rastan on the IIgs. It’s a fascinating conversation with tons of technical detail that you won’t want to miss. They talk copy protection, cycle counting, fast GS sprite rendering, and lots more! A huge thanks to John for taking the time t...

Open Apple #47 (May 2015) : Jason Scott, Kaboom!, Infocom Secrets 28.05.2015 2:17:48

This month on  Open Apple , we sit down with Jason Scott, documentary filmmaker, historian, public speaker, and archivist.

Open Apple #46 (April 2015): Paul Lutus, ReactiveMicro, and KansasFest Keynote 20.04.2015 2:08:40

This month on Open Apple , we sit down with Paul Lutus, author of seminal early Apple II software such as AppleWriter and GraFORTH. We talk about the impacts of software development on society, the value of the individual in the process, and the trials of coding software in the woods.

Open Apple #45 (March 2015): Mark Kriegsman, FastLED, Transwarp GS Clone, and Newsapalooza 28.03.2015 3:09:27

This month on  Open Apple , we sit down with Mark Kriegsman, author of Star Blaster, and a modern Apple II hacker. He has ported the awesome FastLED driver library to the Apple II, so you can drive many hundreds of 32-bit RGB LEDs with your Apple II.

Open Apple #44 (February 2015) : Beagle Bros Reunion Roundtable, Andrew Roughan 28.02.2015 2:09:10

This month on  Open Apple , we sit down with Beagles Bros Randy Brandt, Mark Simonsen Tom Weishaar, and Alan Bird. We share stories of Beagle’s development, poke lots of fun at each other, and check in on where everyone is now.

Open Apple #43 (January 2015) : Happy New Year with Ben Heck! 22.01.2015 1:53:55

This month on  Open Apple , we sit down with Ben Heck, one of our most-requested interviews. We talk about his Apple I replica, his Apple IIgs laptop, and Adam Sandler for some reason. Meanwhile, Mike and Quinn talk about Apple Porsches, Pinball Construction Set, and Western Design Center. In the comedy department, we get back to our roots (making fun of Wizardry).

Open Apple #42 (December 2014) : 2014 Year-End Roundtable, Eric Shepherd, Sarah W., Carrington Vanston 01.01.2015 1:53:16

This month on Open Apple , we close out the year with our traditional Year-End Roundtable discussion. We’re joined by Eric ‘Sheppy’ Shepherd, Sarah W., and Carrington Vanston. We talk about alternate universes, our collective love of the IIgs, and Quinn takes cheap shots at Carrington. It’s the holidays, so Commodore users are given a respite. Well, a bit of a respite, anyway. Meanwhile, Sheppy so...