Macrosoft at KansasFest 2010

I presented a tutorial introduction at KansasFest 2010 on the Mindcraft Macrosoft programming language, a macro assembler package that allows the programmer to achieve machine language speed with a high-level Applesoft BASIC-like syntax.  Macrosoft and its companion Assembler run on you favorite 8-bit Apple II.  The presentation was well received, and several people left motivated …

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Hackfest Day 1

The annual KansasFest HackFest is on!  I’ve heard rumors of Wizardy cracking and a Rockhurst text adventure.  I’m learning Complete Pascal, learning IIGS toolbox programming, and, just in case I run out of things to do, using those skills to write a graphical Apple II/KFest trivia adventure.  I have Complete Pascal running and am ready …

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Saying “Hello” with Macrosoft

Following the model of Eric Shepherd’s “Some Assembly Required: Hello World” article on A2Central and my last post on the Mindcraft Assembler, I’d like to present the traditional “Hello World” program for 8-bit Apple II using Macrosoft. Macrosoft allows the programmer to achieve machine language speed with a familiar BASIC-like syntax.  Technically, Macrosoft is a macro …

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Saying “Hello” with the Mindcraft Assembler

Following the model of Eric Shepherd’s “Some Assembly Required: Hello World” article on A2Central, I’d like to present the traditional “Hello World” program for 8-bit Apple II using the Mindcraft Assembler. Slide the Assembler disk into your drive or run the BOOT.SYSTEM program.  Press “E” to enter the editor.  Press “enter” once to get a “!” …

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Low-Res Life for the Apple II

Conway’s Game of Life is mathematical exploration into artificial life.  The game consists of a grid of cells, and each cell is either alive or dead.  A simple set of rules relate the cells alive or dead in the current generation to the previous generation.  The interesting thing about the Game of Life is that …

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