From A2 News and Notes May, 2006Apple Logo:

INDEX
* Old Hardware Made New, Redux
* Hardware-emulated Apple II
* Apple II Internet
* CFFA News
* Moving In Reverse
* Making Music
* VGA Support
* KFest
* Software News
* Emulation News
* SignOff

Frog Feast - Sega CD Version - 2005 (RasterSoft)File this one under "surprised". It seems that RasterSoft has developed and released Frog Feast on cartridge for the Sega Genesis (Mega Drive compatible), which is also available on Sega CD, SNK Neo Geo CD & MVS, IGM PGM and Capcom CPS-1 formats. Other versions planned include Commodore Amiga CD32, FM Towns Marty, Philips CD-I, NEC Turbo Duo and Atari Jaguar CD, though all of those have preview versions already available for download. RasterSoft has also seen fit to release the source code to several of the versions.

Frog Bog - Original Intellivision Version - 1982 (Mattel)It seems the game was inspired by Mattel's original 1982 classic Frog Bog, which also spawned an Atari 2600 version called Frogs and Flies. It seems though that Mattel itself was inspired by Gremlin's 1978 arcade game, Frogs, which utilized a background overlay. While is some ways Frog Feast is actually graphically less rich than the Mattel version(!), it's refreshing to see a homebrew game inspired by something a bit different than the norm.

Many of us have suspected that the Legend of Zelda smacked of something subversive, and the video below reveals that my suspicions were warranted. Besides the fact that Link's sexuality is an open question, Zelda is actually based on esoteric Satanic and Wacko Jacko rituals, as evidenced by this secret Japanese television commercial for the Super Famicom version:

Alan Kotok, computer game pioneer and contributor to the early computer game SpaceWar!, died today of a heart attack at the age of 64. Though Kotok didn't contribute any code directly to Steve Russell's all-important computer game, he did help out with the critical sine and cosine functions necessary for the game's mechanics. You can read a bit about Kotok at Wikipedia and ZDnet.

Broken Sword: Don't look down!Although there were certainly aspects of Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars that I admired, and others that I enjoyed, I have to admit I found playing through this title an exercise in tedium. The key problem is poor pacing (snail race, anyone?), which amounts to a collosal amount of dialogue to sit through, a somewhat clumsy narrative technique, and what feels like hours spent watching the avatar slowly plod and backtrack across the screen. Compared to similar games like The Dig and Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers, Broken Sword just doesn't make the cut.

Dell XPS: I could soo see this on my desktop...Adrian Kingsley-Hughes of ZDnet has a blog up about buying a Dell XPS vs. building one yourself. You've probably heard the same advice I've heard over the years regarding building your own PC vs. buying one from Dell (or wherever). Some people will swear you're much better off with a "storebrand," usually making a case for warranties (i.e., if it doesn't work, you can easily send it back) or compatibality/configuration issues (i.e., no matter how much you think you know, you'll get something wrong, and the system won't ever be completely stable). Plus, there's the argument that a big company like Dell or Gateway can buy in mass bulk and thus get individual components much cheaper than a private builder, thus driving down the cost of the system exponentially.

History of Commodore Computers PosterOver at The Vintage Computer Forums, user "billdeg" posted about the current availability of his new poster, which was three years in the works, "History of Commodore Computers". While it's not really all-inclusive, it's apparently of a very high production quality, hits the important points and would be a nice addition to any enthusiast's collection. Of course, it also gives me an idea to put something similar together for my 200+ system collection, but since that would probably take me years to get to, I suggest you plunk down the money ($19.99 plus shipping and handling, which is not bad for a "homebrew" full-size poster) for this Commodore-specific one now... ;-)

Do you remember ROB the Robot for the classic NES? Now you can get a robot for your Nintendo DS. Even if he's not nearly as cute, he can do a lot more things! Check out DS ROBOT, a prototype that lets you do some pretty neat things with your DS: