Apple II Bits

At KansasFest 2016, I presented parallels between classic gaming and modern Steam games. The session was called "Steamed Apples" and was largely based on indie games I’d encountered while researching and hosting the IndieSider podcast.

That podcast ended earlier this month, but not before I discovered several more games reminiscent of Apple II software mechanics and aesthetics. That combined with unused notes from last year’s presentation led to its follow-up at KansasFest 2017: "More Steamed Apples".

Unlike last year, I no longer constrained myself to games available for Mac, Windows, and Linux, as some of the below games are Windows-only (such as Lode Runner Legacy) but were too good a fit to pass up. Also, as I did last year with Plangman, I accidentally slipped one non-Steam game in when I included Leadlight Gamma, which is available from itch.io only.

I’ve recategorized the genres since the presentation to make them a better fit, and to be more consistent with last year’s categories.

As IndieSider has now concluded its run, I don’t expect there will be a third session in this series. But the games included in these tables should be enough for any Apple II user to get their entertainment fix in a modern computing environment.

Text adventures are alive and well, including at KansasFest. Not only did Charles Mangin place in last week’s HackFest courtesy his Inform 7 adventure, but several live-action text adventures have been played at KFest over the years. In 2010, 2014 & 2015, I emceed Parsely adventures, where a human replaces the parser and accepts two-word commands from audience members, responding with the results. Jared Sorensen created the Parsely games, sold online and at game conventions such as PAX East. Although the nearly dozen scripts appear to currently be out of print, that’s about to change courtesy the Parsely Games Kickstarter.

This Kickstarter has already successfully met its crowdfunding goal of $12,000, well before its August 11 deadline. With these funds, Sorensen will publish a hardcover book of the ten existing Parsely adventures, including the three games I’ve brought to KansasFest: Action Castle, Jungle Adventure, and Space Station. plus two original titles. The book will also include two original games, bringing the total to 12. All these can be yours for $15 (PDF) or $30 (hardcopy), with rewards all the way up to $2,500, where Sorensen will fly anywhere in the USA or Europe to run a Parsely adventure for you and your group.

While I’m tempted to buy the ten-pack of books and redistribute them at KansasFest 2018, the product will not be ready until a month later, in August 2018 — and that’s assuming it ships on time, which Kickstarters do not have a good record of doing. But Parsely adventures have already brought so much joy to KansasFest, the least I can do is support their continued existence. Count me among this campaign’s backers!

KansasFest 2017 is this week, and more than a dozen attendees will be arriving with shirts from KFests past to make a group photo happen. While I was looking for examples of previous such photos, I came across this artifact.

Dain Neater snapped this photo outside Avila University at KansasFest 2002. Here I am, chatting with Ryan Suenaga and Steve Gozdziewski. In this moment, Ryan is in his first year as editor-in-chief of Juiced.GS, and Steve is the committee chair of KansasFest.

Legends.

When I think back to those early KansasFests, what I remember most aren’t the sessions or the product reveals; it’s the camaraderie. It’s finally meeting people whom I’d known for years from GEnie or CompuServe and clicking with them immediately. It’s the laughter of delight in being among people who get each other. Ryan and Steve were a big part of that, not only by creating the platforms, but by also being wonderful people to be around. They were weird and quirky and absolutely selfless, and they shaped my early experiences in the Apple II community.

Ryan died on April 24, 2011, at age 44; Steve passed away on December 31, 2016, at 69. I wrote their obituaries for both A2Central.com and Juiced.GS.

Everyone who attends KansasFest was or is at some point a new friend. And with KansasFest 2017 hitting its attendance cap at one hundred Apple II enthusiasts, I look forward to making many new friends this year.

But damned if I don’t miss the old ones.

Like most people reading this blog, I’m a Star Wars fan. Not obsessively so — I reserve that level of dedication for Star Trek. But I’m definitely one of the first people to see any new Star Wars movie, which includes Episode VIII, releasing this December 15, 2017. My enthusiasm’s been especially high after the first official trailer released this past February.

Another fan who resides at the intersection of Apple II and Star Wars fandoms is Wahyu "Pinot" Ichwandardi, and his dedication to that combination outshines us all. Using an Apple IIc, KoalaPad graphics tablet, the Dazzle Draw paint program, 44 floppy disks, and Steve Chamberlin’s Floppy Emu, Ichwandardi recreated the above trailer as 288 monochromatic 8-bit frames.

Cita-cita waktu masih kecil di th 80an: bikin trailer Star Wars pakai komputer Apple bermonitor monochrome, baru kesampaian sekarang. pic.twitter.com/kUV28VB5pq

— Pinot (@pinotski) June 26, 2017

By pressing "Play" on the above two videos simultaneously, you can see how closely Ichwandardi’s work follows the original. A follow-up tweet detailed the process and equipment Ichwandardi used in this three-week endeavor.

Proses bikinnya pic.twitter.com/zPTJmMpMhJ

— Pinot (@pinotski) June 26, 2017

This masterpiece isn’t simply the result of a modern artist deciding to be bohemian by incorporating retro technology into his craft. Rather, it’s a return to form for Ichwandardi: 33 years ago, as an elementary school student, he worked the same magic on Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. While that original work no longer exists, the skills he honed on his Apple II have aged well, it seems.

Remaking Star Wars -The Last Jedi trailer with 1984 tech

My hope is that Ichwandardi will find other impressive ways to use his Apple IIc, and that we’ll see even more art coming from him soon — lest The Last Jedi be the last!

(Hat tip to Yvette Tan via Charles Pulliam-Moore and Brendan Robert)

Earlier this year, I wrote a tribute to an Apple II user who had passed away — something I’ve now done too many damn times. But in remembering Steve Gozdziewski, I also recalled sharing this moment with him at KansasFest 2002:

Many of those pictured had been coming to KansasFest for years (2002 was the event’s fourteenth year, and my fifth), and we spontaneously decided to represent our long lineage by donning the various years’ shirts that we’d happened to bring with us. (We staged a similar shot another year, though I can’t seem to find it in the available archives.)

That got me thinking: why not plan another shirt photo? With this month’s KansasFest being the 29th, it’s unlikely we’ll have representatives from every year — but it’d be fun to try!

So if you’ve ever attended a previous KansasFest and are one of the hundred who are coming to KansasFest 2017, please use the below form to indicate which years’ KansasFest shirts you own. A week from today, July 10, I’ll email everyone their packing instructions to ensure we show up in Kansas City with as complete a set as possible!

Let’s create another photo by which to remember the many years and friends we’ve shared across the decades.