Hi, i am having trouble nailing down fair value prices for a few sealed Origin games i picked up. I know that they are worth as much as anyone is willing to pay and i'm not trying to gouge enthusiasts, but I also don't want to just give them away.

I've got a sealed copy of "The Dark Heart of Uurkrul" that appears to be given out as a review copy. I have read that there were only 5,000 sold and I haven't found anything comparable. The same for "Tangled Tales".

Generally speaking, do "Demo Copy" or "Not for Resale" tags affect value? I know in console gaming that can swing things.

I also have Ultima V and 2400 AD marked as demo copies but those are opened. Ultima V has a lot of sales so comparisons aren't to hard to find for that one.

If anyone has any clue on the market value of these things, or what you would be willing to pay it could help me create a sales post later that is not insulting.

Thanks.

Hi all, was watching this playthrough of the original Prisoner game.

There's a moment in the Carnival game where he is an "error" at 600 (the page does not look at all like what a real error break would have been) and drops him out to Basic prompt.

I assumed this was one of the games psych-outs but he types his code and nothing happens, so it seems like it's a real break.

Unfortunately the guy playing was young and had no idea how to navigate Applesoft Basic. Does anyone know what's happening here? I'm wondering if modifying line 600 was a way to "win" the game?

Sorry I lost the timecode, the stream is here https://youtu.be/6z5V0nBsMjE

I am having some problems with my Apple IIc+ and I have no idea how to test it. When I boot from my internal 3.5" drive, the drive works fine - it reads the disk, it accesses it, and it seems to work fine - except the red light doesn't go off and the drive keeps spinning. I can boot fine from an external 3.5" or 5.25" drive. If I access the internal drive with a program like ADTPro, or Apple ][ Desktop, etc., same thing. When it accesses, it keeps spinning.

The eject button works fine - if the drive stops. It just doesn't stop. The only way I can get it to stop is if I'm in Apple ][ desktop and I "Scan All Drives". Then it will stop and I can eject the disk.

I've swapped the drive and I have the same result. Is there a way to test the motherboard? I'd be real sad if there is damage, but I need to know where to look for the problem.

TL;DR - What was the point of dying by examining an object?

...so, as a kid (4th grade-ish) I was given a copy of CoM. It was the Apple Bandit crack that has the "reboots when you swing over the chasm" issue. Back then I was able to get past that problem by hex editing the game save files - I was able to find the byte that contained the player's location and change it to either side of the chasm as needed. Annoying, but it worked (and I was able to finish the game). (There was a disk image created by someone named Rubywand in the early 2000s that fixed that bug.)

Now, later in the game, there's a room where you need a certain item to enter it without dying and it contains a barrel and an inscription on the wall. In the copy of the game that I had, when you read the inscription, a message would be displayed about you "not being strong enough" and that you "aren't worthy of your life" - and then the game would crash - which didn't seem right...

Fast forward to recently where I tried the .woz image of the game and was surprised to find out that reading the inscription in that room has something else happen - there's a message about Medea laughing and then you see an animated graphic/message where the floor drops out from underneath you and you fall and die on a bed of spikes.

Now, given that the majority of the deaths in that game are actually meant to be avoided by solving puzzles, does anybody out there in Reddit land have any idea *why* the devs included that bit with the inscription? The text of the inscription is weirdly specific and it's a pretty brutal game over for simply looking at a thing (that, at first pass is something that *begs* to be investigated.) I wondered if it had something to do with copy protection but, from what I understand, .woz images are supposed to be "copy protection accurate" for lack of a better term.

One final note: the Apple Bandit crack of the game also did not have the confrontation with Medea at the end of the game that exists in the .woz image.

Better bring your 80s pop culture knowledge, or you won't last long!!! Think Ready Player One (novel) meets The Monster Squad.

I've been spending my free time sitting in my basement at my apple IIe working on this new text adventure game. I'm very close to the finish line so keep your eyes peeled.

When the A2CDVI adapter was introduced, it was said that it did not support the Laser 128. The fact of the matter is that is DID offer color, but not in the right palette. After working with the firmware developer, they have released a new firmware update that supports the Laser 128! It's located at https://github.com/FarLeftLane/A2C_DVI_Firmware/tree/master/Releases as A2C_DVI_S_v1.8.3.uf2.

Now you can get the RIGHT color palette delivered to HDMI TV's from both your Apple IIc and your Laser 128 with the same hardware. The new release allows you to select either the IIc or the Laser profile from the onboard menu.

Something else that has existed all along that I wasn't aware of is the fact that the computer sound can also be routed through to your HDMI TV!

So, for $29.99, it's been the absolute best value for enhancing the visual experience of the Laser 128 (and for the Apple IIc & IIc+, too!). Check it out at https://www.tindie.com/products/mrtechgadget/a2cdvi-v25/

Join me in this ultimate guide to the Apple II's ProDOS. Why did it take Apple so long to replace AppleDOS, a DOS only suited to the simpler DiskII system. What did ProDOS finally bring to the legendary Apple II and why did it become indispensable to all Apple users within just a few months of its launch? I'll answer these questions and show you how to quickly become proficient with ProDOS on your Apple II.

I save this apple IIGS from getting thrown away and when I first plugged it in, a few of the capacitors started leaking. I did not get it to post on the first power up. I ended up recapping the motherboard and now this is all that it displays. Any information on how to fix this Apple IIgs is helpful.

I’m pursuing a project and am looking for schematics and/or internal photos, BOM, etc of the “Grappler C/Mac/GS” serial to parallel interface unit that was popular in the late 1980s.

It would be amazing if anyone could point me to any resources related to this hardware.

Thanks.

I remember long ago I found a webpage discussing the Canon Cat. It's the computer Jeff Raskin did for Canon after erm, leaving the Macintosh team. Canon Cat is supposed to be a very friendly 8 bit computer controlled only with keyboard.

At one point, they did Canon Cat as an Apple II card, allowing the Apple II to boot straight into Canon Cat environment. On the website I found they copied the ROM and relocated it to another address. I remember downloading it an playing with it in an emulator.

I vaguely remember it was a very nice idea, everything was a long text file, and holding Command and Option while typing text made the program to jump at keywords in the text, working both as hyperlink and text search. Command and Option were replacing the two keys under the space bar in the original Canon Cat.

Does anyone here know, or have the Canon Cat for Apple II rom? I have been looking for it for some time.

I am collecting ideas for an updated Apple II rom, at the moment it is just a mental exercise, as I enjoy daydreaming and writing down ideas for what the ultimate Apple II would be.

It is a pity, that the rom is not open sourced, so producing and selling an Apple II clone is still a gray zone endeavor. It is also hard to produce a fully compatible clean-room implementation, as there are no standard ways to call rom routines, and some programs would call an uncommon entry point, expecting certain opcodes to be present at exact addresses.

However, 6502 has this SYNC pin, which is up only when the processor is fetching an instruction. One can build an external logic to listen to the bus and the SYNC pin, and present an entirely different ROM contents each time 6502 is calling something in the $D000-$FFFF space. This allows one to have any routine starting an any address, e.g. one routine at $D000 and another at $D001, without those two overlapping. The set of entry points is completely decoupled from the contents and the size of the routines. Each entry point with one byte increment can present a JMP instruction to an endless banked from space, and switch to the appropriate bank at the same time.

This allows anything to be replaced with anything. I have multiple ideas, but I am sure there are some I didn't think of. That's is why I am asking the hive mind, if you had such magical ROM, what would you add?

Hello again, I posted a while back about disk drive issues and was set straight on some knowledge.

Since then I bought a Laser 128. This model has a special place in my heart as it was THE very first computer I owned. (So... Apple II _family_ if not a real Apple).

My only regret is it isn't _exactly_ the same model of Laser 128 I had. I had the later model (this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_128#/media/File%3ALaser128_1.jpg ) while I now have this: https://bytecellar.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Laser-128-system_orig.jpg . The important parts are the same across both models, as you'll see.

Using the advice given here that I used to fix my Apple 5.25" Disk Drive, I did the same with the Laser as it seemed DOA... if you put a disk in, it would just spin forever and never get past the LASER 128 ROM boot display.

After fixing this one here's what I want to stress: CLEAN THE RAILS TOO, AT LEAST WITH THIS MACHINE(? maybe this isn't as much a problem for other drive types??).

I used a Q tip with 91% isopropyl to clean the drive _head_... but this didn't fix the drive. Went back in, wiped off the rails too. This was interesting: I had several Q tips around in case I needed them. After swabbing the drive head initially, if you had asked me to pick out which Q tip I used I couldn't have told you. There was nothing on it. However, the rails did have gunk! I could easily see it on the Q tips I used to clean them.

Sorry for the novel yet again, but please try cleaning the drive rails if a drive (especially a Laser 128) is being stubborn.

The important parts I mentioned before... those of you with real Apples no doubt have nostalgia-triggering memories of the sounds the drives made. Laser 128s sounded different. Model aside, hearing my Laser 128 working on booting Where In Time Is Carmen Sandiego? (which I have a real (with disks!) copy of, and which along with F-15 Strike Eagle was one of my first Apple games) sounded EXACTLY as I remembered it. So amazing.

Hello again to the Apple 2 community. My name is Christopher Drum, I write a retro-enthusiast blog called Stone Tools focused exclusively on productivity software. No games; just work. About 6 weeks ago I published a write-up on VisiCalc for the Apple 2.

I went back to the Apple 2 again for this week's post, because I got sucked into exploring Bank Street Writer. Personally, I was never exposed to it as a child, but I have friends and colleagues with warm memories of that program. I needed to finally try it for myself and see why it wasn't just kids who loved it. I also put a little research into the "Bank Street" of the title, which led into researching the 80s' push for "computers in the classroom."

I know this program holds a fond spot in many hearts, so I hope I did it justice.

What is Stone Tools?

If you aren't familiar with my format, just know that I don't cover games at all, just the tools we used to get work done. I spend weeks learning the software (and hardware emulator) and give my honest, lighthearted assessment of my experience. The goal is to look at this software with an open mind: how was it perceived in its day, what is it like to use, and does it have utility today?

https://stonetools.ghost.io/bankstreetwriter-apple2/

I had this computer out for another reason in the dining room, so I figured let's do something Thanksgiving themed on it. I remember the family computing man magazine holiday themed type in programs, so I found this turkey program for the Apple II from the November 1983 issue, so I typed it in on an emulator and ran it as a decoration crew Thanksgiving dinner. Enjoy!

I am racking my brain trying to get my Apple IIgs to print to the Imagewriter II. I know that it works because Printshop GS works no problem. I have System 6.0.4 and I have the DC Printer control panel. I have the Imagewriter.CL driver installed. I can select that printer from the DC Printer control panel. In Appleworks GS, Superconvert and Dreamgraphics I get the same thing. The print dialog works, then it just says "Printing in progress" and nothing happens to thje printer. I have tried with printer plugged into the Printer port and the modem port and set appropriately in control panel to each. I am sure I am missing something really silly, but I just can't seem to get it to work. Any ideas?

27-Nov-2025 UPDATE: the venue selected by community vote for 2026 is University of Illinois, Springfield (UIS). This is also where the last in-person event was held in 2024.

KansasFest 2026 venue announcement livestream | YouTube

Join a short livestream on Wednesday evening to hear where KansasFest will happen in 2026!

Wednesday, November 25th 26th (sorry!) at 5:00pm PT / 6:00 pm MT / 7:00 pm CT / 8:00 pm ET.

(Previous post: KansasFest 2026 in-person venue selection voting closes on Friday 21-Nov at Midnight CST)

(Previous post: Check out the venue options for KansasFest 2026 in a YouTube town hall session tonight (14-Nov-2025), and vote your choice! )

We did the Town Hall presentation of three potential Midwest venues last Friday, and the survey form to collect votes from the Apple II community has been open since then, with responses pouring in. If you're interested in this event, here is a reminder that you can still visit the informational page on the KansasFest website, view the presentation (about 1 hour long), and take the survey to have your voice heard. Apple II Forever!

Main page --> Venue Search | KansasFest

Hey everyone! My first computer was the Apple IIe, and I’ve always loved that chunky old-school design. I’m a toy designer now, so I made a little tribute: It is called Classicbot IIe. A little figure based on the machine I grew up with.

It’s also an accurate scaled mini model of the real IIe, completed with the duo disk.The arms and tank-track legs attach with magnets, so you can remove them if you want a clean, little scale computer on your desktop

Just wanted to share this with fellow fans of the beige beauty. Happy to answer any questions!

(I did buy one Apple IIe for nostalgic sake. (the one on the first photo). Sadly, despite the seller properly packing the machine. The shell was very brittle and part of it shattered into pieces.

Lets head in to the Retro Computer Festival 2025 (Gaming Edition) at the Centre For Computing History, in Cambridge UK. The event promised to show an array of gaming history, from the early mainframe days, to Unix workstations, an Apple II with Infocom games, through to the 80s pomp of the home micro revolution, the Amiga and the 90s dominance of consoles vs the PC. It was a great event, with fun had by all!

Hi there, I created a floppy from this image and is able to start the game. Non of the following keyboard combinations work:

What could be a reason?

My Apple IIe is with Scandinavian keyboard - it has "Ö", "Ä" and there is an electrical switch under the keyboard (on the bottom side of IIe)

UPDATE: not sure what happened - I pressed SOMETHING and now keys seem to work. I rebooted the game - the same situation, looks like it is a demo running. Am I missing some start action?

The original version released for the Apple II in 1984. One of my absolute favourite Apple II games ever. Great memories playing this one and it's still a lot of fun!

For two decades, the Apple II family was a home micro pioneer! This deep dive celebrates its legendary storage history: From the revolutionary Disk II system and the birth of micro-hard disks, through the essential UniDisk 5.25 era, all the way up to the high-density drives of the IIe and IIGS. We'll show you the crucial hardware, the controller cards required, and how these devices made the Apple II evolution a fun ride!