Date: Mon, 18 Feb 2013 11:33:29 +0000
From: Ewen
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: ByteBagger 1.0.4 update
I have just posted an update to ByteBagger to my website:
http://www.wannop.info/speccie
There are a number of small bug fixes, and some changes to the way the
cursor is handled in the Hex data field.
There is also an addition to expand Find into Find/Replace.
Check the Version.History file included in the archive, and the PDF
manual, for more details.
Cheers - Ewen
--------------------
Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2012 10:31:27 +0000
From: Ewen
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: ByteBagger & SAFE2
SAFE2 Update & ByteBagger first release
Announcing the first release of the ByteBagger NDA.
ByteBagger is an NDA that lets you view the raw data from either the
data or resource fork of any file, and search for target strings within
that fork using either Hex or ASCII data.
ByteBagger optionally allows you to edit the data using either Hex or
ASCII data fields, and then write the changed data back to the file.
ByteBagger can change the filetype and auxtype of a file.
ByteBagger has a low memory impact, so can be used while other memory
intensive apps are running.
ByteBagger is supported directly by SAFE 2.2.6 onwards.
SAFE 2.2.6 Update
There have been several bug fixes, which are listed in the
Version.History file included in the archive.
There are also a number of new features and interface improvements, of
which the main new features are:
Reworked the 'Retrieve File' download function to a 'Download Linked
File' function. This now allows downloads from both FTP and HTTP
servers.
The Home and Away file lists are now sorted, are targetable, and can be
navigated using the character or arrow keys.
You now move an item in the Favourites editor directly with the arrow
keys.
The Balloon NDA is now directly supported for automatically unpacking
downloaded files.
If you double click a file name in the Home folder, SAFE2 will now send
out an IPC call to see if any NDA can handle that file.
SideClick is supported for many of the dialogs, for instance to allow
copying of full paths and URLs.
Encoded characters in a command string will now be decoded before
sending.
To get either of these applications, and their PDF manuals, as well as
my other software, go to:
http://www.wannop.info./speccie
--------------------
Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2012 00:02:14 -0600
From: Rob
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: ISO cd formatted to HFS
ISO cd formatted to HFS to use in Cider Press for PC users to copy files to
use in your IIGS emulator or on your real IIGS with cd-rom.
If any PC users are interested, I have created an ISO cd formatted to
HFS, no partitions, but works in Ciderpress for storing files and ready
to burn to a real cd. The compressed file size of the empty disk is
only 648 kb.
This is not PC software. It is a blank cd formatted to HFS so PC users
can use Cider Press to copy Apple II software to. Due to it being in ISO
format, they can use their own burning software to make real cd's out of
to be used in a cd-rom on a IIGS. It can also be mounted in a drive using
Virtual Clone drive on a PC and used in any IIGS emulator on a PC or Mac
that can mount .iso files.
This file can be downloaded from:
www.chebucto.ca/Services/PDA/AppleGSMiscellaneous.shtml
--------------------
Date: Mon, 19 Nov 2012 14:06:03 -0800 (PST)
From: Antoine Vignau
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Brutal Deluxe Software releases Window Capture
Paris, Nov. 19, 2012 - Brutal Deluxe Software releases WindowCapture. It
is a utility focused on screen capture. It has been designed to help in
Graphic Resources catching (backgrounds, sprites, animations, palettes)
from games running under emulators.
Unlike Windows native Screenshot functionality (PrintScreen key),
WindowCapture captures only the content of a window (not the whole
screen) and save the results as image files on disk (file name is auto
incremented). No need to enter a graphic program anymore to paste and
save. WindowCapture can grab only a small area of the window (remove
unwanted borders). Based on the number of colors available in the
picture, it will save the image as GIF (256 or less) or BMP (True Colors).
WindowCapture can take One Shot or Record the screen and take pictures on
a regular timing (up to 100 pictures / second). This latest feature is
useful to get all the sprites used for an character animation.
WindowCapture is part of the Brutal Deluxe's Cross Development Tools
Project, a full set of utilities available on Windows (and other)
platforms to enable the creation of new Apple IIgs software : 65c816
Assembler, 65c816 Disassembler, 65c816 Simulator, Graphic File Converter,
Resource Catcher...
WindowCapture is Windows only and can be found at
http://www.brutaldeluxe.fr/products/crossdevtools/windowcapture/
Antoine Vignau & Olivier Zardini
Brutal Deluxe Software
http://www.brutaldeluxe.fr/
--------------
Date: Thu, 2 Aug 2012 12:33:14 -0700 (PDT)
From: BLuRry
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: JACE 2012-08-02 build released
https://sites.google.com/site/brendanrobert/projects/jace
+Re-architected underlying memory event handler model to include CPU
opcode/operand memory accesses. This makes it much easier for anyone to
extend the emulation by registering events to be triggered by CPU
executes to specific addresses.
+New memory heatmap view added to metacheat (press END to activate) --
this lets you see active reads/writes/executes in memory as they happen.
This is a really powerful feature that I hope you folks will enjoy. This
makes is crazy easy to reverse-engineer some programs to see what makes
them tick. I'll update the metacheat doc page on the website with some
screenshots and instructions at some later point. In short, configure
metacheat (from config panel). Press END to activate. Green = reads.
Red = writes. Yellow = R/W. Blue = execute. Purple = SELF MODIFYING
CODE. Big chunks of green probably indicate lookup tables of some sort.
Big chunks of blue = program code. Flickering pixels = game variables
which may or may not be safe to mess with.
Did I mention that the heatmap also tracks the last instruction that read
a byte as well as the last instruction which wrote a byte? I think the
way of looking at this is I started small and then threw in a
commercial-grade kitchen sink!
+Fixed graphics glitches in hires mode. This caused annoying artifacts
on the boundary between alternating hi/lo bit bytes in hires modes and
I'm very happy to say the darn bug was squished after being prevalent for
so long.
+Improved RGB Mode 7 support to auto-detect RGB mode. This implements
the spec as laid out in the Video 7 patent as well as the Apple RGB
manual, with the exception that 160-column mode is not implemented and
will be treated as a regular 140-column mode. Reset also causes the RGB
mode to flip back to plain 140-column mode again.
+Fixed Disk ][ bug that caused hangups in programs like Apple Desktop ][.
+Ancient debugger panel (F10) now fixed so that breakpoints happen as the
instruction is executed, not afterwards. This lets you set the
breakpoint on an instruction and see what the disassembly of that is,
instead of it stopping too late. Fixing this also empowered me to fix
the Disk ][ bug as well as using the heatmap to see where the infinite
loop was executing.
This is a very stable release! I really hope you guys enjoy this. The
only remaining bugs I know about are the incomplete mockingboard
emulation, but with the visual heatmap (which works as a visual debugger
really) it should make it easier for me to see what is going on.
--------------------
Date: Sun, 22 Jul 2012 12:31:21 -0400
From: David Schmidt
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: ADTPro 1.2.2 Released
This release understands ShrinkIt-shrunk disk images, and treats them like
any other disk image. To be clear, ADTPro won't create new SDKs - but it'll
unpack existing ones and write them to a real disk of appropriate size.
Going the other way - from real disk to image - ADTPro will always create
normal DOS-ordered (for 5.25" disks) or ProDOS ordered (for anything else)
disk images.
Other bug fixes include 5.25"-send bit corruption introduced in 1.2.1 and
more conservative speediboot margins due to reports of failures in the
field.
http://adtpro.sourceforge.net
1.2.2 - July 22, 2012
New functionality:
[Server] ShrinkIt "SDK" disk images are recognized and dealt with
as any other disk image
Bug fixes:
[Client] A bug was introduced in 1.2.1 due to an assembler upgrade
that made many DOS 3.3 image sends fail to send correctly
[Client] SOS version volume display function regularly crashed
[Client] Speediboot pauses longer after serial reset to give
various machines enough time to recover before sending out the
first download request.
--------------------
Date: Sun, 15 Jul 2012 08:11:20 +0100
From: Ewen
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Reclassification of Spectrum & Other Titles
Reclassification of Spectrum and other Titles
As my contribution to KFest '12, I am reclassifying all my commercial
software. From now on, all my commercial titles that have been sold by
Syndicomm are now Freeware, and can be downloaded either from Syndicomm
at no cost, or from my own web site:
http://www.wannop.info/speccie
The titles include:
Spectrum 2.5.3 Deluxe disk image
Spectrum 2.5.3 floppy disk set
The original SAM script set for Spectrum
The Bernie ][ The Rescue Starter Kit
The TABBS CD File Archive
If you require Spectrum, or the other titles on disk, Syndicomm will
still be able to supply you with shipping costs only. Check out the
Syndicomm web site for further details:
http://store.16sector.com/
Ewen Wannop
Apple ][ Forever - Spectrum does everything else!
--------------------
Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2012 01:02:59 -0400
From: David Schmidt
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: ADTPro 1.2.1 Released
This release has a couple of snazzy things that folks won't need to see very
often:
The bare-metal bootstrapper works in about 1/3 the time it did before. It
now shifts the serial hardware into high gear to transmit the bulk of the
code in binary rather than via text on the screen. Much the same way as
Blurry's Apple Game Server.
There's a video of Speediboot(tm) in action here:
http://youtu.be/1xworYThmMI
The OSX version of the sever has an "installer" whereby the user drags the
ADTPro folder to the Applications folder. Much the same way as lots of OSX
installers, like Mozilla.
http://adtpro.sourceforge.net
1.2.1 - April 12, 2012
New functionality:
* Serial now bootstraps from bare metal in 1/3 the time it used
to take with Speediboot(tm) technology
* [Server] Mac OSX has a prettier "installer" via the DMG - just
drag/drop the ADTPro folder to Applications
Bug fixes:
* [Server] Improve serial error recovery for two different
scenarios: 1, by waiting (much) longer before timing out to
allow for problemtatic/errorful block reads, and 2, flushing
the serial port after things like checksum errors
--------------------
Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2012 00:53:17 -0700 (PDT)
From: TommyGoog
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Re-engineered: Wizardry III, Legacy of Llylgamyn
Recently I completed a rather interesting project that I'd like to
share with the Apple][ community. I re-engineered the two main
executable files, WIZARDRY.CODE and WIZUTIL.CODE, for "Wizardry III,
Legacy of Llylgamyn" into Pascal code.
The .dsk images for the source code have been uploaded to ASIMOV:
ftp://ftp.apple.asimov.net/pub/apple_II/images/games/rpg/wizardry/wizardry_III/Wizardry_iii_SourceCode.zip/Wizardry.code
Wiz3A.DSK
Wiz3B.DSK
Wiz3C.DSK
Wiz3D.DSK
ftp://ftp.apple.asimov.net/pub/apple_II/images/games/rpg/wizardry/wizardry_III/Wizardry_iii_SourceCode.zip/WizUtil.code
Wiz3U.DSK
There are also the "extended listing" files for the Pascal compiles
and the the 6502 assemblies:
ftp://ftp.apple.asimov.net/pub/apple_II/images/games/rpg/wizardry/wizardry_III/Wizardry_iii_SourceCode.zip/Wizardry.code
WizardryListing.txt
WizAssm6502.txt
ftp://ftp.apple.asimov.net/pub/apple_II/images/games/rpg/wizardry/wizardry_III/Wizardry_iii_SourceCode.zip/WizUtil.code
WizUtilListing.txt
WizUtilCopyProt6502.txt
I'm hoping by posting here that I might start a dialog with others
concerning my findings in the code. If no-one is interested, then
this may turn into a long monologue from me. I'd like to share some
or all of the following (in no particular order):
1. My technique and approach to re-engineering the files.
2. Explanation of how parts of the code work.
3. Explanation of the data files in the game (such as SCENARIO.DATA).
4. Differences in the various "versions" of Wizardry III (for example:
May 1983 compared to Aug 1983).
5. Bugs or software defects that I found in the code (or that you might
find).
6. Anti-piracy (copy-protection) technique used.
If there is a better forum or website (or Google Group) to present
this information, please let me know.
--Tommy
----------------
Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2012 16:11:16 +0100
From: Ewen
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: SNAP and SAFE2 updates
After extensive feedback from testers, I have made many minor changes to
SNAP, and fixed some bugs in SAFE2.
SNAP 1.1.3, and SAFE2 2.2.5, have been uploaded to my server at
http://www.wannop.info/speccie
Please read the Change.List & Version.History files in the archives for
more details.
Cheers - Ewen
-----
From: D Finnigan
Subject: Re: SNAP and SAFE2 updates
SAFE2 Version History:
2.2.5 30th March 2012 - Bug Fix
Fixed a bug with editing Favourites, where the list could get trashed if you
sorted and deleted an item.
If you check the box by the Name: of a Favourite entry, it will clear the
checkbox for any other Favourites.
Corrected the tab order for fields in the Edit Favourites dialog.
Fixed a bug where inserting a disk while starting up, could corrupt the home
directory list if connected disks were being displayed as the default.
Change List for SNAP 1.1.3 - 30th March, 2012
Some minor cosmetic changes.
Two custom fonts, SNAP.8 & SNAP.10, must be installed for the displays, so
that key presses are correctly interpreted. These fonts are provided in the
archive. The option to choose Spectrum.8 for the displays has now been
removed. The SNAP.8 & SNAP.10 fonts have the same character set as a
standard Macintosh font. Some characters that are not in the ISO-8859-1 set,
will either be substituted, or will be discarded.
Fixed a bug that trashed the dialog if you choose to delete a server.
Fixed a bug where after rebuilding the 'Full Group List', it would not open
the first time you selected 'Build Groups List'.
Fixed a bug where you could select multiple entries in the 'Full Group List'
display if you held the shift key down.
Fixed a bug which filled the 'To:' field with garbage if you selected a
'Reply By Mail'.
Fixed a bug which did not automatically open the current Log File in the
display.
If 'Reply By Mail' was selected, the Reference string at the start of the
message was being incorrectly formatted.
In a group message count list, if a group does not exist, now says 'Bad
Group'.
Fixed a problem, where you could sometimes select more than one entry in a
list, and so double-clicking failed.
If you paste text containing LFs or CRs into boxes such as Keywords, they
will be converted to comma delimiters before sending.
Fixed a bug that could crash SNAP, if you chose to edit a saved post, were
prompted that you were not online, and aborted.
Added a Delete button to the Archived messages list. This lets you easily
delete a message from the archives.
Added an Open menu item, that is active from the groups and message header
lists.
The 'Mark Last Read' flag was not being respected. Fixed.
Fixed LineEdits so they will not show spurious Ctl characters.
The Clipboard is now preserved if you Followup, Reply By Mail, or Forward a
message.
Mail and Messages are now sent using the ISO-8859-1 character set. This will
ensure compatibility with other mail and news readers. Mouse text, and other
IIgs exclusive font characters are ignored, and will not appear in the
messages that are sent.
Clipboard is now preserved round various dialogs.
Path: will only be added to outgoing messages if one exists.
MIME-Version: 1.0 is now added to outgoing messages.
The Subject field will now be correctly decoded if it contains encoded
characters.
When posting a message, if the Reply-To: field has been set, this wil be
used, otherwise the default name set in the servers preferences will be
used. This is the same name that is used to prime the reply-To: field.
Accents should now be correctly preserved across all fields and text.
Fixed a bug where the day was showing incorrectly in message header lists.
Fixed a bug where the Reference: entry in a saved message was showing
garbage.
Fixed a bug that could cause corrupted body text with some servers that sent
small packets of data.
(yes, we were busy)
--
]DF$
Mac GUI Vault - A source for retro Apple II and
Macintosh computing.
http://macgui.com/vault/
-------------------
Date: Tue, 6 Mar 2012 17:02:46 +0000 (UTC)
From: D Finnigan
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2, comp.sys.apple2.programmer
Subject: PLASMA: Proto Language ASsembler for Apple
David Schmenk has released PLASMA, a combination virtual machine and
assembler for the 6502.
"Introduction: PLASMA is a combination of virtual machine and
assembler/compiler matched closely to the 6502 architecture. It is an
attempt to satisfy a few challenges surrounding code size, efficient
execution, small runtime and fast just-in-time compilation. By
architecting a unique bytecode that maps nearly one-to-one to the higher
level representation, the compiler/assembler can be very simple and
execute quickly on the Apple II for a self-hosted environment."
"A modular approach provides for incremental development and code
reuse. Different projects have led to the architecture of PLASMA, most
notably Apple Pascal, FORTH, and my own Java VM for the 6502, VM02. Each
has tried to map a generic VM to the 6502 with varying levels of success.
Apple Pascal, based on the USCD Pascal using the p-code interpreter, was a
very powerful system and ran fast enough on the Apple II to be interactive
but didn't win any speed contests.
FORTH was the poster child for efficiency and obtuse syntax. Commonly
referred to as a write only language, it was difficult to come up to speed
as a developer, especially when using other's code. My own project in
creating a Java VM for the Apple II uncovered the folly of shoehorning a
large system into something never intended to run 32 bit applications."
"The ultimate target is to have a complete IDE available for the Apple II."
Read More at Mr. Schmenk's web site:
http://schmenk.is-a-geek.com/PLASMA.html
--
]DF$
Mac GUI Vault - A source for retro Apple II and
Macintosh computing.
http://macgui.com/vault/
--------------------
Date: Tue, 31 Jan 2012 10:04:36 -0800 (PST)
From: Antoine Vignau
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Brutal Deluxe releases Fishhead, the Caped Copier
Dear All,
Brutal Deluxe Software is proud to introduce Fishhead, the Caped
Copier, to the Apple II community.
Fishhead is a GS/OS desktop file copier application. It offers several
features which make it a powerful software for diskette and file
preservation purposes:
- Attributes preservation
All copied files keep their original date, time and other
attributes (e.g. invisible or locked) information
- Batch mode
Removable devices can be ejected and Fishhead will wait for the
next medium to be inserted before copying it, and so on
- Error handling
Fishhead does not stop on read errors, it copies as much data as
possible
- History log
The program displays and saves a log file including the result for
each copied file from the source disk
Fishhead recursively copies files from a selected volume by chuncks of
256 bytes. The main idea is to recover as much data as possible from a
bad medium. Fishhead has been tested (for months) on an Apple IIgs ROM
01 and ROM 3, with Appleshare (localtalk, netatalk) under System
6.0.1.
Visit their website at http://www.brutaldeluxe.fr/products/apple2gs/fishhead/
Comments and ideas are welcome,
Antoine Vignau & Olivier Zardini
Brutal Deluxe Software
http://www.brutaldeluxe.fr/
--------------------
Date: Sun, 29 Jan 2012 15:05:22 +0000
From: Ewen
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: SNAP Update
Announcing: SNAP - Speccie's News Acquisition Program
Update release v1.1
This is an update release of SNAP, which fixes a multitude of bugs, as
well as introducing many enhanced features. Please read the manual fully
to see what has changed, and what has been been enhanced. A IIgs
readable manual is included with the archive package, or alternatively,
download the enhanced PDF manual.
SNAP is an online NNTP News Client for the IIgs
SNAP accesses Usenet and NNTP news servers, right from your IIgs
desktop.
SNAP gives you multiple server configurations, with custom Group lists,
allowing you to easily tailor your daily news fix.
SNAP lets you Post messages, or Followup existing messages.
SNAP will optionally Forward or Reply to a message through a normal SMTP
mail account.
SNAP is ideal for accessing the A2Central, or CSA2 news Forums.
SNAP requires a IIgs running Marinetti 3.0b3 or later.
SNAP works best with a direct connection to the Net, such as that from
an Ethernet card.
SNAP is available from http://www.wannop.info/speccie/
--------------------
Date: Wed, 18 Jan 2012 06:56:44 -0800 (PST)
From: Ivan X
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Introducing A2SERVER
Hello world,
I am very happy to announce A2SERVER, which is a ready-to-go, easy-to-
use file and network boot server for Apple II client computers. It's
basically Netatalk running in a virtual machine, without the
configuration pain. You can read all about it at:
http://appleii.ivanx.com/a2server/
I'm expecting that issues will come up, so consider this a soft-
launch, and send me an email if you have questions or comments. I'd
like to make A2SERVER as easy to use as possible and have the web site
be as useful as possible so I'd welcome the feedback.
Thanks to Steven, Geoff, Antoine, and all the others here who have
been so helpful in answering my questions and helping me put this
together.
Cheers,
Ivan.