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Thanks, yes that makes sense. Other than getting the files into a .dsk, it's also about having a simple workflow (a la 8bitworkshop) but offline. I've just installed that 8-bit Unity package, it turns out to be a series of C libraries for cc65 + a collection of free software utilities (sprite editors, music editors, emulators to test.... not all necessary but at least it's all together). Probably the way to go unless somebody shows me a good VS Code extension

Thanks! I had to use SHIFT + INSERT for it to work. Now I just need to get cc65 to output machine language in a compatible format so I can paste it...

Does this only work for BASIC, or are you able to paste machine code as well? I've been able to import (and export) BASIC programs from a text file into a .dsk using CiderPress. Tinkering a bit more with 8bitworkshop, I suspect it doesn't implement DHRG... the below gives me a blank screen when the same commands on emulator shows vertical lines: __asm__ ("sta $C050" ); // TURN ON GRAPHICS __asm__ ("sta $C057" ); // TURN ON HIRES __asm__ ("sta $C052" ); // TURN ON FULLSCREEN __asm__ ("sta $C05E" ); // TURN ON DHR __asm__ ("sta $C00D" ); // TURN ON 80 COLUMNS

I've been tinkering with 8-bit workshop and it's pretty nice to quickly try small changes to a program: https://8bitworkshop.com/v3.9.0/?file=cosmic.c&platform=apple2 But it doesn't seem very easy to export a file to .dsk, which is something I'd want to do eventually. On the other hand there's cc65 (which I think the website uses internally) but then it's 100% command-line based. Does anybody have a good example of VS Code integration for Apple II dev? So far I've only found a VS Extension for BBC Micro development and a thread on Atari Lynx (below) I've also found this 8-bit Unity tool, that claims to be able to compile across several 8-bit systems. Has anybody tried using it for Apple II development? https://8bit-unity.com/

Does anybody has any good IDE / toolchain recommendations to use form a Windows machine? There's the 8bit workshop (which has an Apple II mode) but I'd prefer something offline. It uses cc65 as compiler, so I suppose I can pair that with Notepad++ or Studio Code... For graphics, this might be useful: https://github.com/Pixinn/Rgb2Hires

Found it! Its called Ultra Checkers https://www.mobygames.com/game/apple2/ultracheckers

Does anybody know the name for this game? I've found this nice-looking checkers program among my old Apple II disk dumps, but the disk is an Italian compilation... so I don't trust the name on it ("DAMA INTERNAZIONALE")

It could be a form of copy protection. The writer of CiderPress wrote an interesting article about it: https://fadden.com/apple2/cassette-protect.html Maybe separate the wavs into a "_WavOnly" folder for now, and later on we could validate them (test on real hw and/or an emulator - but I think only Mac ones support .wav loading)

Found it, and I have the same problem. I think binary files require an extra parameter to load... but no idea how to determine it (maybe it's in the game manual..)

Where I grew up there were no (official) computer stores, and nobody with an Apple II at home (friends had C64 or MSX)... Aside from a handful of boxed games (gifts from relatives that traveled abroad), it was all about digging into boxes of compilation diskettes that my parents got from coworkers. It was pretty fun in retrospect because you'd never know what you would find in there. It never occurred to me back then to transfer files to reorganize them, though... Lucky Ciderpress makes this really easy (and we can also easily have one boot disk per game now)

Where did you get the tape from? I can't find it online.

Thanks! I put together templates to streamline the tape conversion (attached) Copy the template with the desired filename and open it in CiderPress For Applesoft BASIC games, replace "FROMTAPE" by your new import For Integer BASIC games, replace "GAME" by your new import After that, disks should boot directly into the game. I've also included the "HELLO" basic files for each in case you want to change the name of the imported file. tape_conversion_templates.zip

You can do it with Ciderpress ( https://a2ciderpress.com/ ) but I haven't yet worked out a nice way to package games that use Integer BASIC. For the simple case (Applesoft BASIC), you just need a blank disk and a HELLO basic program to boot: Create a new .do file in Ciderpress (DOS 3.3 140kb) From the "Actions" menu of Ciderpress, select the Import Wav function Select the program to import - usually it's the 2nd one (first one is some binary code) Give it a relevant name e.g. COLOR for Color Demo Write a text file called HELLO.txt, where you write "10 RUN COLOR" In CiderPress, go again to the "Actions" menu and select the option to import a text files as BASIC, name it "HELLO" Close the archive and test it with AppleWin If it worked it will boot the file (in this case "COLOR") directly. But if it needs Integer BASIC, you will get an error saying "LANGUAGE NOT AVAILABLE" I saw somewhere a compilation disk that loads integer basic; if I find it again it could be used to house these Integer BASIC files. Also, it's probably easier to make one compilation disk with several tape programs rather than making a disk for each one, at least initially.

Yes, I understand.... my first collection was from dumping all my floppy disks about 15 years ago, I still have it as it is with one folder per batch of dumping session I sometimes dig to it and I'm still surprised to rediscover some games I had forgotten about, such as, recently, the original "Oregon" (without graphics) and Dynasty (a hammurabi-type game). Last year I put together a list of what i consider the best apple II games (highly subjective), which is mostly the games that I remember or that left a mark from magazines. That one is more organized (and per year), I've been slowly improving it by adding games I feel are worth highlighting (e.g. early games from famous programmers).

I had a deeper dive into the archive and I would suggest trimming down the Asimov part at least; there are 2 huge "TABBS" dmg files (in /Public Domain/misc) which contain mostly BBS stuff taking 900 MB, and there are other large files which don't have games but scanned manuals and utilities. Those have their place in an Apple II collection for sure... but if the intention is to make this game oriented, you could probably reduce the size in half Perhaps you could split into two archives, one the curated list and another one the "mine" of unexplored archives... Edit: I've found many dsk versions of wav tapes in here, including the couple of color demos from the Misc folder: \_Comp\cowgod.org (collection).zip\Apple II Cassette Software\

I really like the idea of having games per release date, especially for long lifespan systems. Early games are really different to end-of-life titles. What I haven't yet worked out is the way I prefer to browse them... (which I experiment with my own curated lists) I like separating arcade ports in a separate folder (along with clones that are identical in gameplay), to distinguish from Apple II exclusives I'd also separate any games that need saving to disk to play fully (adventures, RPGs, etc), to make it easier to preserve my saves. With Ciderpress and Beautiful Boot, I've been wondering if I should make my own compilations (e.g. for games from same publisher, or games with similar gameplay) There is no right or wrong way for this, and it's highly subjective, so I'm happy to read everybody's thoughts on your own preferences

The DE-10 would not become obsolete even if new hardware were to be adopted. The MIST is still viable as an FPGA platform for smaller systems, but it's hard to recommend it since the price point is close to a DE-10 Nano. And the DE-10 can do significantly more than MIST's custom board: Built-in HDMI scaler ~5x the FPGA space Network support Barebones Linux OS to control the FPGA and handle all kinds of USB controllers A successor board would be a more marginal upgrade, for example: Faster built-in SDRAM (custom made ones are capped at ~140Mhz) More FPGA space That's about it; things like a richer graphical interface could be done in current hardware (i.e. that is not the bottleneck, and personally I do like the barebones approach of MiSTer's OSD). TL;DR: the possible upgrades would not prevent the old board from still running existing cores as well as today (with low latency and high accuracy compared to the original systems)

There are more and more third party cases out there for MiSTer that are pretty cool: https://rnsksoftronics.com/rsk202/ They aren't cheap, though. And I wish they had an option to put the MT32-Pi inside the case.

It's been a while but I strongly suspect the load time has to do with the actual number of game ROMs on the card (not size), and it's doing something stupid for each one it loads. You can try reducing the game count and see if it helps.

Here's a nice Mockingboard demo: http://fr3nch.t0uch.free.fr/NSCT/NSCT.html It's a "port" of various chiptunes from the Atari ST into Apple II mockingboard

I think that needs a special cable... unfortunately I don't have one of those monitors so I can't test and make sure. I have seen some videos of people running Commodore monitors with MiSTer, though.

Thanks guys I got a second one out, less focused to MiSTer this time (albeit related, because a relevant core came out recently). I'll probably go back to do a MiSTer-specific video at some point. Anything in particular that you'd like to see covered?

The Alice started as a clone of the MC10, but later models evolved from it. Here's some context:

I did a small feature of the early days of computing in France as a way to give context to the Alice. Enjoy!

Made a small video explaining MiSTer and FPGA gaming via how the hardware evolved. Been showing it to friends and people who've been asking me what MiSTer was, but were not very technical.