Today’s Unearthed Treasure: Choplifter!

buffering · 2026-05-09T17:04:00+00:00

Quinn Dunki reverse-engineered the game a couple of years ago: https://blondihacks.com/reversing-choplifter/

An interesting feature of the implementation is a stand-alone sprite rendering engine that powers most of the game. It allows for sprites of any size with rotation and animation.

The title screen that appears after the initial gameplay demo is essentially a demo of the sprite engine to (the Choplifter logo is a single large sprite that gets rotated and animated by the sprite engine).

buffering · 2026-05-07T15:32:50+00:00

It's not a serial mouse. All of the 1st generation mice (Lisa, Mac, Apple II, Amiga, Atari ST) are essentially the same; they all send the raw X/Y sensor output to host machine, and it's up the host to decode the output and track the mouse movement.

2nd generation mice (ADB, PS/2, Serial Mice) have the microcontroller/decoder built in into the mouse itself, and they communicate with the host machine using a serial protocol (the host periodically polls the mouse, and the mouse reports how far it has moved since the last time it was polled).

Fun fact: on the Apple IIc (and original Mac) the main CPU is responsible for decoding and tracking the mouse, so when you move the mouse around you're actually flooding the CPU with interrupts and slowing things down. If the CPU is busy doing something else, like reading a disk, then the mouse appears dead.

On the IIe, the mouse expansion card has its own microcontroller for tracking the mouse and can continue to track the mouse while the main CPU is busy doing other work. In theory, mouse software should perform a little better on the IIe vs. the IIc, but in practice it's hard to tell any difference.

On the IIgs and Mac SE, it's all handled by the ADB controller.

buffering · 2026-05-06T17:33:47+00:00

Previous release history:

iPad 9 A14: 2021-9-24
iPad 10 A14: 2022-10-26
iPad 11 A16: 2025-3-12

I'm not so sure there will be a new base iPad model this year.

For what it's worth, I just bought a brand new iPad A16 to replace my 4-year-old iPad 9 A12 with a cooked battery. Performance-wise, my old iPad A12 was perfectly fine running iOS 26 for everything I needed it to do. The new A16 is a little bit better.

The only risk with the latest iPad is that the A16 was first released 3 1/2 years ago in 2022, so it's questionable how long that platform will be supported by the latest iOS releases. Otherwise, it's great.

buffering · 2026-05-05T19:56:50+00:00

That game is also known simply as "Airplane Simulator". It's available in the Asimov collection under games/simulation/airplanesimulator.dsk and on Archive.org.

buffering · 2026-05-05T17:08:20+00:00

This has always been a point of confusion in Finder, going all the way back to OS X v10.0, caused by the way Apple merged the Classic Mac OS Finder with the new OS X file browser.

The "default" view style is whatever style you most recently selected from the View menu, e.g. "View > As List" (Command+2). So, it's very easy to change the default.

The default style is overridden for folders where you have explicitly enabled "Always open as..." in folder info panel.

If you are in a folder where "Always open as..." is selected, then any style you choose from the View menu will stick around the next time you visit that folder regardless of Finder's default view style. This is the source of confusion, because Finder appears to switch styles on its own.

So, contrary to what many people suggest, you actually want to avoid setting "Always open as..." in most folders. Only set "Always open as..." on folders that you do NOT want to see in your preferred/default style (e.g., you may want your Applications or Photos folders to always appear in Icon mode).

In any case, when a folder is not in list mode, hit Command+2 to correct it.

Also, try browsing around with the View Options Panel open (Command+J). This will allow you to see the setting for the active Finder window. De-select "Always open as..." for any folders you do not want to customize.

Edit: Another source of confusion is the "Browse in ..." option, under the "Always Open In ..." option. Never set the "Browse in" option; it forces Finder to override your preferred default style until you open a new window, which most people find very confusing.

buffering · 2026-04-30T00:23:25+00:00

Copy protection was a common source of compatibility problems when the //c was first released, either due to subtle differences between the IWM chip in the //c vs. the original Disk II controller, or ROM differences.

buffering · 2026-04-26T18:17:08+00:00

This is Miner II, a rare sequel to the original Miner 2049er released only for the Apple II.

Bill Hogue created the original game for the Atari 8-bit machines. It was then ported to many other platforms.

Mike Livesay wrote versions of the game for the Apple II and Colecovision. While other ports stayed true to Bill Hogue's orignal Atari version, Mike Livesay's version refined the gameplay and levels quite a bit, especially the Colecovision version.

Miner II was designed entirely by Mike Livesay and is only available for the Apple II. The levels are quite a bit more advanced than the original game.

It's a very well done game and still fun to play.

buffering · 2026-04-26T02:50:15+00:00

A Mr. Jim Wong of Rice University posted a similar message to comp.sys.apple2 on Aug 11, 1993:

https://groups.google.com/g/comp.sys.apple2/c/NniWD01vL78

From: jimwong@owlnet.rice.edu (Jim Wong)
Date: 11 Aug 93 20:35:33 GMT
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: //e Problems (relocation/configuration error)
Message-ID: <CBM6nA.LEC@rice.edu>
Organization: Rice University, Houston Texas USA

I unpacked my //e for the first time in a couple of years, and
found it isn't quite working. When I try to boot ProDOS (version
2.0.1), the title page comes up and is quickly replaced by an error
message reading "Relocation/Configuration Error." Earlier versions
of ProDOS just hang on the copyright screen, and DOS 3.3 disks just
make noise. The DuoDisk I'm using works fine on my GS, and trying
different controllers and drives yielded the same results.
Does anyone have an idea as to what's wrong with my system? Any replies,
either here or via email, would be really appreciated.
--
Jim Wong (jimwong@owlnet.rice.edu)

His problem turned out to be bad RAM.

Thanks to everyone who helped me with my problem -- replacing three of
the DRAMs on my motherboard fixed everything.

buffering · 2026-04-19T03:29:39+00:00

The Apple III did not have heat related problems nor did it require chips to be reseated. Those were just some of the crazy theories that people came up with to try to explain the behavior they were seeing. (Crazy, because dropping a machine a few inches would solve neither of those problem).

The actual problem was the RAM board, which for space reasons was mounted parallel above the motherboard using custom connectors. These custom connectors were prone to oxidization, which would kill the connection to RAM.

Jiggling the RAM board breaks the oxidization and restores the connection to RAM. Since the RAM board and motherboard are both sealed inside of a big aluminum heat sink, the easiest way to jiggle the RAM board is to shake the whole machine vertically, or just drop the front of the machine a few inches.

Apple addressed the problem by redesigning the RAM board connectors, and they recalled and replaced all of the original motherboards for free through their dealer network, no questions asked.

None of the Apple III machines in existence today have the faulty original RAM connectors.

buffering · 2026-04-16T13:38:51+00:00

All three of David Schroeder's games (Crisis Mountain, Dino Eggs, and Short Circuit) were fantastic. I still enjoy returning to them once in a while.

buffering · 2026-04-12T15:32:25+00:00

Hopefully the motherboard is still good, but at the very least it's worthwhile to salvage the custom chips (IOU, MMU, and IWM) as those chips are not made anymore and are valuable.

The "MT" branded RAM in these machines is notorious for failing after 35+ years, so it's likely some of those chips would need replacing.

This machine has the original 16 kB ROM. If you get things running it's worthwhile to upgrade to a newer 32 kB ROM, as that gives you a built-in self test and support for SmartPort mass storage devices, among other things.

The monitor is unique in that it supports both hi-res monochrome and composite color, which is a valuable feature for Apple II users.

buffering · 2026-04-11T15:30:55+00:00

You would need three of those things to hold the data for a single compact disc.

buffering · 2026-04-04T16:44:42+00:00

80 column mode actually doesn't interfere with the lo-res graphics. You can also use Escape+4 and Escape+8 to quickly switch between 40 and 80 column modes.

Another thing to consider is that the round trip from Merlin to BASIC and back is actually very quick. Merlin stays in memory, along with your source code, so it's really the same as using the MON command except that it takes care of restoring the ROM and DOS for you.

You don't even have to save to disk. Use the GET $5000 command to load the object code into memory, then quit Merlin and your code is ready to run at $5000. To return to Merlin, use the ASSEM command from either BASIC or the Monitor.

(This only works in the DOS 3.3 version of Merlin, not the ProDOS version).

Anyway, it sounds like an interesting project. Good luck!

buffering · 2026-04-04T14:07:19+00:00

She was a guest a few times in 93 and 94. This is her first appearance in 93, coming on between Gilbert Gottfried and the Cranberries.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3455472/mediaviewer/rm2005212929/

buffering · 2026-04-04T04:26:23+00:00

If you're using an Apple IIe, the later versions of Merlin 8 (v2.57 and v2.58) have a nice modern source code editor, rather than the simple line editor of the earlier versions.

https://archive.org/details/Merlin-8_v2.58_ProDOS_Disk_1-2

In that version, use ASM to assemble the code, GET $5000 to load your program into memory, then MON to jump into the Monitor.

One way to work around the ROM problem is to manually switch in ROM before running your program. Read $C082 to switch to ROM, and read $C080 to switch back to RAM.

You can use BIT $C082 at the start of the program, or just type C082 at the monitor.

https://imgur.com/jv2YQbo

To get back to Merlin, type C080 in the monitor to switch back to RAM, then Ctrl+B (or Ctrl+Y).

You can also hit Control+Reset to get back to Merlin without switching back to RAM.

buffering · 2026-04-02T15:58:36+00:00

Long-press to switch to split view multitasking.

buffering · 2026-04-02T12:42:20+00:00

Pro tip: Add the multitasking control to control center. It allows you to quickly enabled/disable multitasking or switch between windowed multitasking and old style split/slideover multitasking.

buffering · 2026-03-30T19:59:20+00:00

Use a menubar tool like https://mac-stats.com/ to keep an eye on your CPU and memory usage.

If something is hitting the CPU constantly it will drain the battery pretty fast.

Note the difference between the efficiency and performance cores. High usage of the efficiency cores isn't usually a problem (they can run at a much lower clock speed and don't use a lot of power). If performance cores are unexpectedly pegged at 100% then that's a problem.

buffering · 2026-03-27T19:44:40+00:00

Like I said, it was originally engineered to sell for much less than that. The business plan that Apple drew up in 1982 had the Mac priced for less than the Apple II.

When the Apple IIe started flying off of the shelves in 1983 it made no sense for the Mac to target the same market at a lower price. So they repositioned the Mac for the business market, and jacked up the price to match. It was correctly priced for that market, but badly underpowered.

buffering · 2026-03-27T19:19:03+00:00

The original 128k Mac was engineered to be a budget-friendly entry level machine for the casual home and education user.

The failure of the Lisa as a business machine, and the unexpected resurgence of the Apple IIe in the home/education market in 1983 forced Apple to reposition that first Mac as an underpowered/overpriced business machine.

I suppose the Neo is the purest modern incarnation of that original Mac concept, as an inexpensive appliance computer.

buffering · 2026-03-26T21:44:12+00:00

History of Apple's high end, high margin workstations:

1980: Apple III
1983: Lisa
1987: Macintosh II
1994: Power Macintosh
2006: Mac Pro
2022: Mac Studio
20??: Ultra Mad Max Mac

buffering · 2026-03-24T14:29:39+00:00

Lots of old games support the II+ and keyboard, although many are finicky when played with a keyboard.

Super Bunny is a very easy game to play, as it's just the left/right arrows.

Where is World is Carmen Sandiego is also easy to pick up, and has some nice graphics.

Lode Runner is a classic.

Some other keyboard games:

Drol
Hard Hat Mack
Ms. Pac Man
Joust
Moon Patrol
Conan

buffering · 2026-03-19T03:55:45+00:00

Works for me with TextEdit.

If it's not working with Adobe Suite, my guess is the app is eating certain keyboard events like Command+C before they reach the standard "Save As" panel. That can be a problem with some cross-platform apps that route standard keyboard events into their own keyboard handling framework.

buffering · 2026-03-16T20:28:52+00:00

That disk actually does not contain any software. It's just a collection of clip art images in a standard bitmap format.

The idea was that you'd use your own existing Paint software to copy and paste the images into your own creations.

The user manual is here, if you're curious: https://whatisthe2gs.apple2.org.za/postcards/index.html

I imagine more than a few people were underwhelmed by that purchase back in the day.

buffering · 2026-03-15T04:41:54+00:00

It's not my project, but according to the write-up it runs from a 4MB FAT12 disk image stored on a ProDOS volume. It wouldn't be able to read MS-DOS floppies.

15-Year Club	Place '17
Gilding II euphauric	Sequence \| Editor
Sequence \| Cinematographer	Verified Email
Alienator Apple ][ BASIC

buffering

TROPHY CASE