Apple II Bits

Last month I blogged about classic gaming inspirations, a session I presented at KansasFest 2009. It’s a pretty simple setup: I present to the audience a self-running YouTube video of an Apple II game, after which they watch me play a few minutes of a Mac game that’s similar, with my narration consisting of comparisons and contrasts. Each year, I prepare to draw far more parallels than the time allows, which is great, because it gives me fodder to revisit the topic next year.

This year gave me the opportunity to address many of the games I’d planned for 2009 as well as add several new ones that have been released since then. I still focused on Macintosh gaming, but this year also listed at least one PC-exclusive game and presented no online Flash equivalents. Click the checkmark to visit the Web site that offers that game for download.

Apple II	Equivalent	Mac	PC	iOS
Lemonade Stand	Lemonade Stand	✓	✓	✓
Arkanoid	Phoenix Ball	✓
Arkanoid	Ricochet Infinity	✓
Asteroids	Maelstrom	✓	✓
Asteroids	Argonaut 2149	✓
Rampart	Castle Combat	✓	✓
Ultima III	Ultima III	✓
Ultima IV	xu4	✓	✓
Ultima V	Ultima V: Lazarus	✓	✓
Akalabeth	AkalabethApp			✓
Adventure	Adventure	✓	✓	✓
Bubble Bobble	Bub & Bob	✓
Dark Castle	Return to Dark Castle	✓
King's Quest	The Silver Lining		✓

As before, I ran the session without Internet connectivity or emulation; all Apple II games were represented using previously downloaded YouTube .FLV video files. Those files are compiled into this playlist:

I also captured a video of the session itself. It’s available on Vimeo, but the sound isn’t great — especially when the audience’s enthusiasm for my topic requires me to ask if I can have my session back!

I still have more games to present next year, if anyone is interested. If you enjoy these sessions or have titles you’d like to see demonstrated, please comment here!

I heard of BBS: The Documentary before I knew of Jason Scott. I reviewed the film for my first issue as editor of Apple II publication Juiced.GS and thought a good follow-up would be to interview its creator. My first interview with Jason ran in December 2006, though it wasn’t until the inaugural ROFLCon in April 2008 that I got to meet the man himself. I found him colorful, knowledgeable, opinionated — and, most of all, passionate. He’s somebody I found worth keeping tabs on, which is why Computerworld publishes my second interview with him today, the week that his second film, GET LAMP, debuts. Less than half of what Jason and I discussed fit into Computerworld‘s print edition, just like the “PAX cut” of his film shown at KansasFest was only an excerpt of his larger work. Fortunately in the latter case, the final product will be shipped free to all KansasFest 2010 attendees by the end of next month. I can’t wait to review Jason’s latest accomplishment for Juiced.GS.

It is actually not typical for this keynote speaker to put his audience to sleep.

I have not sought to complete my familiarity with Jason’s non-cinematic productions, so it was by happenstance that I recently stumbled across an MP3 recording of “Apple II Pirate Lore“, a presentation he gave in 2003:

[This is an] overview of the Apple II Piracy Community of the early to mid 1980’s, presented at the 5th Rubi-Con Conference in Detroit Michigan. Subjects covered include the unique aspects of the Apple II microcomputer architecture and culture, the methods of removing copy protection from software packages of the Apple II, and a very large helping of trivia. To illustrate some aspects of the “crack screens” and other Apple II graphics, an Apple II clone and several programs were provided. Speech delivered on March 29, 2003.

The file is almost exactly 46 minutes in length and discusses the stratification and traditions of early computer users and hackers. What generalizations can we make about Apple II users, and what motivated some of its users to become hackers? What language and practices existed within that subset of users? Jason delivers his speech eloquently while using but not relying on visuals, making his presentation surprisingly effective as an audio-only recording.

Most important to me, this presentation clarifies why Jason made a great keynote speaker at KansasFest 2009. Sure, Apple II users are part of a broader retrocomputing community of which Jason is a member — but his experience with the Apple II is personal and memorable. This small bit of knowledge quickly transformed my perception of him from that of an outsider to that of a peer.

When interviewing Jason about GET LAMP for Computerworld, he told me, “A lot of my stuff was slow-simmering and is now coming to a boil.” I’m glad to see the fruition of more of his work, because I know the Apple II community to which be belongs will benefit.

This week marks the 21st annual KansasFest, a week-long computer convention dedicated to the Apple II. My first year in attendance was 1998, making this my lucky 13th consecutive KFest. And boy, am I lucky!

Though every year’s KansasFest brings with it different attendees, sessions, and opportunities, it is never any less a blast year to year. We’re missing the physical presence of regulars Ryan, Sheppy, and Bruce, among others — but in their stead, we have six first-time attendees, including Krue, who I previously met at last month’s demoparty, as well as our keynote speaker, Mark Simonsen. Each person is obviously thrilled to be here, and the enthusiasm they have for the platform and community bring much to the KansasFest experience.

For better or worse, many of us are spending as much time working as we are socializing. The two dozen sessions on this year’s schedule require much preparation for which we found little time on our pre-KFest lives. I was scheduled to give four sessions this year and offered to fill an empty slot with a silly fifth — all in addition to video-recording all other sessions, and emceeing the annual dinner banquet with an activity recommended to me by KFest committee member Andy Molloy. There’s much material for me to prepare, memorize, and test.

But in the end, it’s worth it. KansasFest comes but once a year and is every Apple II enthusiast’s opportunity to recharge their retrocomputing batteries for another year. The more people who invest in KFest, the greater the return on the investment. With all the contributions to KFest 2010 from people on-site and off, I’m looking forward to this year’s event keeping me going for awhile to come.

In January of last year, Darren Gladstone posted a blog to PCWorld.com entitled “Classic Apple II Games That Inspired Today’s Greats“, though it wasn’t until three months later that I found it. Wanting to spread the word of the Apple II’s influence, and under the content-sharing agreement between PCWorld and my own employer, I reposted the blog to Computerworld.com. For some reason, that republication got noticed more than the original, and sites like Virtual Apple experienced a noticeable increase in traffic.

That same blog post got me thinking not just about classic Apple II games, but also their modern analogues on the Mac or online. I started drawing mental comparisons, similar to the Life & Death / Trauma Center similarities I’ve already outlined here. As the list grew, I decided to present my findings at KansasFest 2009. To streamline the presentation by remaining within a single operating system, I downloaded YouTube videos demonstrating the gameplay of Apple II classics and had their Mac or online equivalents ready to show. I didn’t have time to make all the comparisons I’d prepared, but here are those that were showcased:

Apple II	Equivalent	Mac	iOS	Flash
Montezuma's Revenge	Midnight Mansion	✓
Conan: Hall of Volta	Midnight Mansion	✓
Robotron	Grid Wars	✓
Lode Runner	Android	✓	✓	✓
Qix	l1neum	✓
Choplifter	Chopper	✓	✓
Solstice	Alien8	✓
Shadowgate	Malstrum's Mansion			✓
Oregon Trail	Thule Road Trip			✓

Click on the checkmark in the appropriate column above to find that version of the game. Note that Grid Wars is listed but no longer available from its official source due to a potential copyright infringement with the popular video game Geometry Wars. Grid Wars’ Wikipedia entry suggests alternatives.

I’ve compiled a YouTube playlist demonstrating the gameplay of the above Apple II games:

The session was better received than I anticipated. I didn’t think anyone would enjoy watching me play games, but the trip down memory lane paired with modern gaming somehow seemed to resonate. In hindsight, the only game I should not have included was Solstice, as it turned out to be for the Nintendo only and was never released for the Apple II — no wonder my audience didn’t recognize it!

The positive feedback from my 2009 session has motivated me to revisit the topic later this month at KansasFest 2010. I have nearly a dozen more games to compare and contrast, but I welcome your suggestions. What Apple II entertainment software would you like to find an equivalent for on a modern platform?