Since 2010, the KansasFest Committee has recognized members of the Apple II community who have made significant contributions to the Apple II, either in promoting or developing for the platform during its active years, or in helping to advance or preserve the Apple II since its production had been discontinued.
I’m pleased to announce the 2013 winners:
- Randy Wigginton: Apple employee #6, contributed to original development of RWTS, which was the foundation of Apple DOS for the Disk II. He was responsible for the adaptation of Microsoft’s 6502 BASIC for use on the Apple II, creating the influential and long-lived Applesoft BASIC. He later wrote MacWrite for the original Macintosh.
- Steve Wozniak: Co-founder of Apple Computer, Inc. Created the Apple-1, which was the start of the company. This developed into the Apple II platform, which was one of the longest-lived 8-bit computer platforms. He later created the Disk II, a low-cost adaptation of Shugart’s 5.25-inch floppy disk drive for the Apple II. Both products together propelled Apple into the Fortune 500, and funded the development of the Apple III, Apple Lisa, and Macintosh computers.
- Antoine Vignau: Member of the French Apple IIGS programming group, Brutal Deluxe. He was originally part of the French software cracking group, Hackerforce. As part of Brutal Deluxe, has created numerous programs for both the 8-bit and 16-bit Apple II platforms, and even into the 2000s and 2010s has continued to be active. Also maintains an archive of names and WAV files of Apple II cassette software titles. Has been a writer for Juiced.GS magazine.
- Olivier Zardini: Member of the French Apple IIGS programming group, Brutal Deluxe. As part of Brutal Deluxe, has created numerous programs for the Apple IIgs platform.
- Carl Knoblock: Has been a serving member of the KansasFest community for many years, helping coordinate transportation to move attendees travelers to and from the Kansas City airport.
- Mike Maginnis: Co-host of the monthly Open Apple podcast, and the weekly No Quarter podcast (about classic arcade games). Staff writer for Juiced.GS, a quarterly Apple II magazine. Involved in scanning the full run of several Apple II publications, including Computist, AppleWorks Forum, Softalk, and ON THREE.