July 24, 2006

As regular readers may be aware, one of my first machines was an Apple //c. I sold my TI-99/4A and got a //c in April or May of 1984. I was 11. I have particularly fond memories of it and over the years I've owned a variety of other Apple IIs and presently have an accelerated IIgs at home and a //c in the office. The II was really my 8-bit experience.

Given my fondndess for the II, I do worry about my library of 5.25" floppies, most of which are over 20 years old. Only a few have failed, but finding floppies in really good condition is getting harder and harder. That's why I was so happy to come upon the Apple II Game Server. The Apple II Game Server is a Java (v1.5) application that allows you to send games from a Mac or PC directly to an Apple II by way of a serial null-modem cable. No other hardware required. (See pics at the project's old homepage.)

Once you get the Apple II accepting input from its serial port, the Java application takes over and spends about 15 seconds "typing in" the loader program which, when executed, establishes the datalink and presents the program chooser interface on said Apple II. For most of your library, floppies can be completely taken out of the picture. An excellent show of support for the retro scene by author Brendan Robert, self proclaimed Geek and Code Slinger.

Apple II Forever!