Willy Byte in the Digital DimensionFacebook friend and Virtual Apple ][ guy himself, Bill Martens, sent word that the site, which allows anyone to play a large range of Apple ][ and Apple IIgs games in your browser, has been updated to version 4.4, and now supports both PC and Macintosh. This has been an Armchair Arcade favorite for a long time now, so this is welcome news.

To play a game, select the disk from the menu. Click on Yes to automatically download the ActiveGS emulator and disk images in Internet Explorer. Click on Install Add-Ons when prompted in Mozilla's Firefox Browser or Safari. The new ActiveGS plugin is compatible with most browsers on both Mac OS X 10.5.x and PC Windows 2K and newer (you will need to install the plugin in order to use the games on the site). Joystick control is through the mouse/touchpad. All of the games on the Virtual Apple ][ website are playable offline as well as online. You can download the disk images to your favorite game right from the website, fire up an emulator on your machine and play them right there on your local PC or Mac (or any other OS that supports an offline emulator for that matter). More news is promised in the coming weeks, but be sure to check it out now!

Apple //c Cable Connection Photo from Brendan Robert's "Apple Game Server"

A2 News and Notes August, 2006

INDEX
* Old Computer, New Clone
* Phoenix Wings
* Solid-State Work
* Another Anniversary
* We're Number 1!
* Prairie Home Changeover
* Plug In, Tune Out?
* Hacking Around
* File Storage
* Software News

By Ryan M. Suenaga, M.S.W. and edited by Howard Katz:

A2 News and Notes July, 2006

INDEX
* Kansas In July
* Phoenix Rising
* Sweet Emulation
* Name That Format
* Apple I Rebirth
* Apples Online
* Name That Game
* More Storage Options
* Software News
* Emulation News
* SignOff

-- By all accounts, KansasFest (aka KFest) was a success this year. Held

A2 News and Notes June, 2006

INDEX
* Cloning Around
* What's My Spec?
* Old Parts, New Owner
* Software Copyright
* Programming For The Masses
* Understanding Apple
* Online Group Kill
* VGA Support
* Color Our World
* KFest

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

Apple //c Cable Connection Photo from Brendan Robert's "Apple Game Server"Anyone who has read my past writings knows that I'm a big collector and a huge fan of playing original games (or code) on original hardware. There are countless solutions for various computer and videogame systems for doing this, and one of the systems that has become particularly robust in its offering of late is the Apple II-series of computers. Between compact flash adpaters, disk drive adapters and countless other often manual and complicated transfer methods, it looks like Brendan Robert has created one of the easiest and cheapest systems to date. While I highly recommend both the Apple II compact flash adapter (dreher.net/CFforAppleII/) and the SVD (www.thesvd.com/ - which is particularly good for multi-system collectors), Brendan's solution seems particularly elegant, though I have yet to try it for myself.