#appleiigs — Public Fediverse posts

#retrocomputing #frogfind #searchengine #apple #iigs #appleiigs #tool130 # marinetti

🍏 1986 Calling: Surfing FrogFind on an Apple IIGS!
As you know, I regularly check the server logs to update the User-Agent parser for FrogFind. Usually, my job involves filtering out aggressive modern web scrapers, adding some obscure 2000s WAP browsers, or analyzing broken headers. But this week, the quarantine log caught an absolute legend.

Someone actually queried the modern web using an Apple IIGS from 1986!

To see a machine that is turning 40 years old actively rendering HTML in 2026 is simply mind-blowing.

The Network Magic: Tool130 & Marinetti 🌐
The User-Agent string in the server log revealed exactly how this vintage beast made its way onto the internet: Mozilla/2.0 (Compatible; Tool130; IIgs).

The TCP/IP Stack: Out of the box, the Apple IIGS obviously didn't ship with native internet capabilities. It connects to the web using Marinetti, a brilliant, community-built TCP/IP stack written specifically for the system.

The Engine: "Tool130" is the specific system tool extension within the Marinetti architecture that handles the TCP/IP protocols. It acts as the vital bridge, allowing early web browsers on the IIGS to talk to the servers of today.

Mission Accomplished 🐸
This log entry right here is exactly why FrogFind was built. We strip away the gigabytes of JavaScript, the bloated CSS frameworks, and the heavy encryption handshakes of the modern internet, returning pure, lightweight HTML. It proves that with a bit of proxy magic and a lot of passion, no computer is ever truly obsolete.

To the anonymous retro-surfer who fired up their Apple IIGS, loaded the TCP/IP stack into RAM, and typed a query into FrogFind: We salute you!

Keep the retro web alive! 🚀

For anyone who is an old school #Apple fanatic, check out these interviews of my good friend and colleague, Jimmy Mensch, who retired from Apple in 2023 (about 6 months before I retired).

He talks about working as an Apple Computer service technician and then starting a long and successful career at Apple working on the #AppleII #AppleIIgs #MacLC #MacOS #MacOSX Rosetta #AppleTV #iCloud, and more.

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One thing I’ve always wondered: Why was the Apple IIc+ not an all-in-one Apple IIgs without slots?

It was really confusing at the time, too. A zero-slot respin of the Apple IIgs logic board (either revision) would have fit easily in the Apple IIc case.

#retrocomputing #appleii #appleiigs

Unix-like OS for the Apple IIGS
These days writing a command-line OS for 8-bit or 16-bit era computers is almost an old trick, but GNO/ME (any relation to GNOME is purely accidental) has the difference of both having Unix-like features like signals, pipes and multitasking, while also having been written back in the day, in the 90s. Author Jawald Bazyar shows it off here
https://setsideb.com/unix-like-os-for-the-apple-iigs/
#retro #appleIIgs #GNOME #os #retro #StupidComputerTricks #unix

@GamesMissed as promised - @burgerbecky's port of Ultima I for the Apple IIGS.

i am fascinated by this one, because i bought it directly from Joe Kohn, who ran Shareware Solutions II as a web (mail) order business in the 2000s. it arrived exactly as you see here: in a white envelope, with manuals printed on a laser printer.

sadly, joe passed away in 2010. but his happy Apple IIGS legacy lives on in the form of a website which carries all issues of his Apple II-centric magazine:
https://wannop.info/SSII/SSII_Index.html

#apple #vintageApple #appleIIGS #retroGaming #retroComputing #ultima #shareware

@a2_4am @ianoid Man, do I love Airball. It was my favorite game on the Atari ST for a while back in 1986.

I have an extremely rare, boxed Apple IIgs version (port done by Jason Harper, who I got this boxed copy from). I interviewed him about it in on my blog. He was ready and willing (and urging) to make a IIgs port of the wonderful Time Bandit, but Michtron / MicroDeal was just floundering and unfocused at the time, it seems.

https://bytecellar.com/2005/04/13/airball_gs_by_j/

#AppleII #AppleIIgs #retrogaming #retrogames #vintagecomputing #retrocomputing #Airball #isometric #blog #interview

Game 30: BuGS (Rand Emonium Software, 2019)

This is a modern recreation of Centipede for the Apple IIGS. It's arcade perfect, has network support, works with a trackball, and is a delightful modern introduction to the power of the IIGS.

#apple #atari #Centipede #appleiigs

https://www.joltcountry.com/index.php/features/bugs-rand-emonium-software-2021

Everything you needed to know about System 6 for the Apple IIgs but were too afraid to ask!

The System 6 Video - Quality Computers (1992)
https://youtu.be/FSyPKvpcXVU

#AppleIIgs #VHS #KFEST

I love this story. Just ran back across it.

"Re-enacting Tron on the Apple IIgs" - Hack A Day

https://hackaday.com/2018/11/14/re-enacting-tron-on-the-apple-iigs/

#AppleII #AppleIIgs #Tron #ghostinthemachine #glitch #programming #games #glitches #errors #hacks #Apple2Forever #vintagecomputing #retrocomputing #blog #tech #vintagetech

Archiving old floppies on the Apple IIgs, I found a small collection (43Kb ShrinkIt file) of demo-ish WIP bits an old friend was working on in 65C816 assembly (ORCA/M) in the early '90s and had uploaded to a local BBS before moving on from the GS. Assuming that's long lost, I'm sharing it here for posterity.

https://blakespot.com/files/AppleIIgs-DemoBits93.SHK

#AppleII #AppleIIgs #vintagecomputing #retrocomputing #asm

Tunes on the IIgs tonight

#AppleII #AppleIIgs #vintagecomputing #reteocomputing #chiptune #demoscene #trackermusic #apple2forever #CRT #ByteCellar #setups #retrocomputers #computers #Amiga

Random screenshot

#vintagecomputing #retrocomputing #AppleIIgs #Apple #AppleII #photo #nemesis #demoscene #CRT #archiving #setups #desks #retrogaming #pixelart

Playing a bit of Leisure Suit Larry tonight... this here is the Apple IIGS version on ScummVM. The soundtrack's pretty nice! 😉

#SierraOnline #RetroGaming #DOSGaming #RetroGames #DOSGames #AppleIIGS #ScummVM #Emulation

I got an eBay hit on a TransWarp GS card for (relatively) cheap (https://www.ebay.com/itm/267258221830)! It's being sold by The Byte Shop (https://byteshop.io/), a Boston-area vintage computer museum/repair shop, and a very cool place!

Wait, this is "For Parts or Repair Only," what's going on ... ? Ah. Crap. The listing is very honest. A previous owner has made a terrible hash of the traces to the CPU socket.

Anyone else brave enough to try this?

#NewEnglandVintageComputing #AppleIIgs #Retrocomputing

Prior to last year, I didn't even know that there had been a Dungeon Master release for the Apple IIgs. In looking through the files, it turns out it had a special "Kid Dungeon" mode? Was that always part of the game, or is it something specific to this edition?

#Retrogaming #AppleIIgs

Just before the Easter weekend, I received the replacement #SCSI card from the very kind eBay seller. I updated them to know it had arrived in good order, but that I wasn't going to be able to try it out for a few days because of guests and festivities.

But I got around to it. AND I INSTALLED IT THE RIGHT WAY 'ROUND THIS TIME.

(I'm never going to forget that I did that ...)

#IIgs #AppleIIgs #Retrocomputing #NewEnglandVintageComputing

Further updates on my continuing adventures in blowing up a SCSI card. The seller received the card I fried and sent this message a few days ago:

"It's good you sent it back. It blew the ROM, the SCSI controller IC, and two of the five logic IC's. I repaired it, and put it in my own computer since I don't want any unseen damage I may have missed to cause you issues later."

The card is due to arrive this week, at no additional charge to me, because they're a nice person.

#AppleIIgs

Hey what’s in the box? Well. It’s what it says it is. An Apple 3.5 drive for the #appleiigs in absolutely beautiful shape. And it works! #appleii.

Finally added a battery holder to my #appleiigs. It’s been driving me nuts to constantly change my slots every time I want to use it.

Well, it turns out that it doesn't matter that my BlueSCSI is due to arrive today, because I went and installed the CIRTECH SCSI card in my IIgs and it let out the magic smoke.

I put it into Slot 7, made sure it was seated, then switched on the computer. There was a weird crackle, a puff of sweet-smelling smoke escaped from the card, and the computer shut down.

#Retrocomputing #AppleIIgs

So, I had missed this because it came out a few months after I finished my Apple IIgs project, but the venerable CiderPress disk editor has a brand new edition and it's real, real nice

https://ciderpress2.com/

#retrocomputing #appleii #apple2 #appleiigs

I thought I'd try getting my Apple IIgs to boot from AppleTalk today.

So far, I have netatalk setup which gets the IIgs booted and am able to login to the share I created.

I copied the contents of a IIgs hard drive image I found to that share, hoping it will just boot from that. But I'm getting this error:

"Cannot load file Start.GS.OS Error=$0046"

Any ideas?

#AppleIIgs #RetroComputing #LiveLaughLocalTalk