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Ultima V MIDI with hidden arrangements

Submitted by S.Elliott on November 20, 2023 - 11:58am

For preservation:

A collection of MIDI files extracted from Ultima V in 1995, copied through a MIDI cable to a Roland SCC-1, saved for decades on a 3½" floppy disk, reproduced here on a GS-compatible Roland MT-120.

A full performance is recorded here, and on YouTube.

Artifacts hidden inside the MIDI data reveal hidden arrangements and sound effects that were not reproduced during game play -- including percussion and sound fx that were probably reproducible only on the original composer's equipment.

DAN ][ THE FUTURE: Boosting your favourite 80s machine to "8.59 jigobytes"

Submitted by MacFly on November 6, 2023 - 4:12pm

Dan2TheFuture4b.jpg

Imagine in 1980-something you started your Apple ][, /// or //e - and you had 8 gigabytes of storage... Mind blowing?

Well, if you have a DAN][ Controller card, you can now easily boost your 1980s machine to 8GB. In decimal numbers, the maximum usable storage now supported by the DAN][ Contoller is actually 8.59GB. That would certainly have spooked Doc Emmett Brown in 1985 - though he'd have pronounced it "8.59 jigobytes", of course... But no need to accelerate to "88 miles per hour". All it takes is a simple firmware update.

Tags: 
BTTF DANII APPLE2 APPLE3

The Brain Board II: Bringing Integer BASIC and Apple 1 emulation to your Apple IIe/II+ with a single card

Submitted by skate323k137 on November 1, 2023 - 12:55pm

20231101_121426.jpg

I have released an updated ROM for the Brain Board II, with the focus on making it a true dual purpose card. This allows a user (especially with known good Applesoft BASIC roms / IIe system ROMs in their system) to bring Wozaniam (Apple 1) mode and Integer BASIC to a system with one card, and also always leave the systems own ROM space usable. This is nice if you have a system already nearly full of expansion cards and your ROM version is happy as-is, since previously to have both integer and applesoft BASIC with this card, you had to disable your system ROMs entirely.

Tags: 
Apple II

UNCLE BERNIE'S CODEBREAKER GAME

Submitted by rob101 on October 29, 2023 - 1:26pm

A preview of the the readme.md file that will be hosted on GitHub, along with my Python implementation of the game known as UNCLE BERNIE'S CODEBREAKER GAME

Tags: 
games

Apple /// Reset Logic & Apple II Emulation Flaws

Submitted by MacFly on October 8, 2023 - 4:18pm

AppleIII_Reset_Schematics.png

I recently ported software from the Apple II to Apple III and encountered an interesting topic. It's a corner case, but in my opinion a typical example. It shows how the Apple III design was sometimes (maybe unnecessarily) complicated. And how features introduced Apple II compatibility issues.

Tags: 
6502 APPLE III NMI RESET

The (not so) subtle differences between 6502 assemblers...

Submitted by MacFly on July 25, 2023 - 6:24pm

Oh man... I was not aware of the pitfalls when switching between different 6502 assemblers. Until now, when I tried to reuse an old assembly listing (from Apple II assembler/editor) with the ca65 cross-assembler...

Carefully compare the definition of the > and < operators to obtain the low or high byte of an 16bit address - in these two excerpts from the respective manuals...

Using the "Phi1 Echo" to distinguish disk controllers

Submitted by S.Elliott on July 1, 2023 - 5:49pm

capture328.png

Apple hid a quirky feature inside its disk drives, a full-loop signal path via addressable latch Q1, via stepper phase-1, via the motor control board, via the write-protect switch, via the analog board in the disk drive, via the shift-right input into the data register, and back onto the bus.  This signal path can be used to distinguish between the various Apple II disk controllers.
  • Apple Disk II controller prints 2 inverse bytes: 7F 00
  • Micro Sci A2 controller prints 2 inverse bytes: 80 00
  • (untested guess) IWM in Apple //c: A0 20
  • (untested guess) IWM in Apple //c+: AF 2F [EDIT: this guess was wrong]
Tags: 
hardware

INFOCOM FONT

Submitted by Khaibitgfx on May 20, 2023 - 4:59pm

Infocom Font RC 1003.pdf

The first working(-ish) homemade MMU

Submitted by frozen signal on April 30, 2023 - 7:42am
Back in early march, I dug out my old Apple IIe computer from my parents's garage. That was a fantastic find and I wanted to play again all those games from my childhood. Unfortunately, the computer did not power on. While searching on the internet, I was sidetracked while reading on the MMU and IOU and their lack of replacements. And then I foolishly though that attempting to re-create the MMU and the IOU with a FPGA would be a good idea. Surely, it can't be that hard...
Tags: 
apple IIe MMU

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