If you think the Apple II is a challenge, try programming for the Atari 2600. 128 bytes RAM, 4K ROM, two hardware sprites. And no frame buffer; "video memory" consists of a couple dozen registers. The graphics chip is one-dimensional; to draw a picture you must refresh its registers after the electron beam draws each scanline. It literally uses the phosphor on the TV screen as the frame buffer.
You can do "racing the beam" tricks with midframe graphics changes on many machines, Apple II and C64 and Amiga and even a DOS PC, but it's required to even display a picture with the 2600.
I'm not suprised by the price either. The same thing happened with floppy disks. You'd think they'd be really cheap, but in reality they're more expensive than CDs sometimes. The demand is lower, so not as many are made, and they don't get the benefits of scale to cut the price.
Anyway, there is a huge resurgence of interest in these kinds of old machines, which frankly: still work, even if their users have all died or moved on to other things.
Old computers can still teach every new generation a lot of things about the world, so instead of pitching that stuff out folks, consider the oil-debt of what it took to build (i.e. a lot) before your relinquish the right to make it boot.
My old machines still provide hours of mirth and adventure. I could put one on the 'net, but then again a big reason to have this machine is entirely not to have it on the 'net! :)
Shepherd is an author of many fine Apple II and Apple IIgs apps, including the excellent IIgs emulator Sweet16 [2]. Now, he's a technical writer for Mozilla. Awesome guy.
Diaz... runs Apple2.org [3], and I'm ashamed to admit I'm not aware of anything else he's done for that community. If anybody else could fill in, feel free.
[1] - http://a2central.com/3234/syndicomm-changes-management-maint...
[2] - http://www.sheppyware.net/software-mac/sweet16/
[3] - http://apple2.org
“…while at present I'm not encountering any shipping delays, orders can take some time to ship. If you have a need to get an order processed quickly, please say so in your order comments!”
Just say so in the comments? I’m not sure I’ve ever seen that before online anywhere! :D
They are "a retro game publishing business".
http://www.8bitweapon.com/store.htm
It is a sample-based music sequencer, which is fairly amazing considering the audio hardware in the Apple II was only capable of producing a "click" when a bit of memory got poked. (Getting that clicker to play back waveforms is all a matter of clicking at the right times.)
I bet it’s way better than the old one!
http://store.16sector.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&#...
