PK-232 Checkout & Alignment

I acquired an old AEA PK-232MBX controller for amateur radio digital communication. I already have a more modern Raspberry Pi running Direwolf, but the prospect of creating a 1980s/1990s vintage station with an Apple II is irrationally appealing. The opportunity to combine two hobbies, amateur radio and retro computing, is interesting. I purchased my PK-232 …

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Forgotten Software: Yet Another Star Trek

I’m pleased to share yet another “Star Trek” themed game.  I wrote this during middle school as part of a book report.  Game play is terrible and amounts to firing weapons repeatedly with no strategy, but I was proud of it at the time. I wrote most of the game in BASIC with a machine language …

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Forgotten Software: My Summer Reading Log

I’m pleased to share “My Summer Reading Log” by Georgiann Flowers, my 3rd grade teacher at Woodland Elementary School.  To the best of my knowledge, she never published this software outside her classroom, and nobody has archived it online.  This BASIC software for the Apple II tracks a student’s summer reading progress, including titles and …

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Programming the F18A: Tiles

In the first part of this series, we learned how to program the F18A using the AmpArcade library.  We looked at loading the library, initializing the video hardware, and changing the backdrop color.  While a good first step, that’s hardly interesting.  In this part, we program the tile layer.  The tile layer is versatile and …

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Programming the F18A: Getting Started

This is the first part of my tutorial on programming the F18A installed in an Apple II.  I cover installing the card and finding software.  Future parts will cover more interesting topics, such as the tile layer, sprites, and F18A-specific features. Throughout, I’ll use VDP (Video Display Processor) to refer to the original TMS9918A, F18A …

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AppleTi and F18A at KansasFest

Years ago, I outlined interfacing the F18A, a TMS9918A Video Display Processor (VDP) clone with VGA output, to the Apple II.  I never followed through, but somebody on the AtariAge forum recently completed a design and released a PCB.  The “AppleTi” board is a functional clone of the E-Z Color Graphics Interface.  The AppleTi board …

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ImageWriter II: Essential hardware for every system

Back when my Apple IIc+ was my only computer, I really wanted an ImageWriter II printer.  This was “the” printer to own.  It was reasonably fast, compatible with nearly all Apple II software, and printed in glorious color.  Unfortunately, I was a kid with no job, and an ImageWriter II cost over $500.  Needless to …

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