You might think that software created in a few sleepless distracted days wouldn’t be amazing and noteworthy. And, you would be wrong. This year’s HackFest entries show incredible skill and creativity.
The entries include:
Martin Haye: Invoking Apple III Satan Mode, an assumed-to-be-impossible way to access Apple III hardware from Apple II programs.
Ivan Hogan: An assembly language game making use of the text screen. Jump on the lines without touching the heads!
Jeremy Rand: ColourGo, an implementation of the casual game Chameleon Run, using Apple Hi-Res.
Russ Ross: An implementation of the classic casual game 2048, using the text screen.
Rob McMullen: Fujirun, an assembly language game based on Amidar. Save the Apple from the Atari interlopers!
Alain Zanchetta: Hacking Sargon II to take input not from the keyboard, but from another copy of Sargon II connected by serial port.
Alex French: Rendering particles on the Apple IIgs in Super Hi-Res, while playing nice with GS/OS.
Charles Mangin: You Are a Grue – A text adventure written in Inform 7.
Kevin Savetz: A version of the Simon game, with custom-made button controllers hacked on-site to interface with the joystick port.
The winners were:
Rob McMullen: Winner for sheer scope, the level of polish, and the embracing of modern community tools.
Charles Mangin: Winner for stretching outside his comfort zone, creating something clever, and refusing to give up when his first idea failed.
Alain Zanchetta: Winner for the creativity of his idea, and embodying a true hacker grit in the project.
Martin Haye’s NakedOS is a new Disk II operating system for the entire Apple II line of computers. In this session, its creator covers the project’s rationale, design goals, API, disk format, Super-Mon integration and finally a few decision points and caveats for programmers considering NakedOS for their projects. Find it online at bitbucket.org/martin.haye/super-mon/
Martin Haye’s Super-Mon is a set of fancy extensions to the Apple II system monitor. This fairly technical session follows the creation of a small but interesting assembly language program that demonstrates the concepts and capabilities of Super-Mon.
P2E is a Martin Haye’s Apple II emulator that runs on all iOS devices, along with desktop computers and probably Android as well. Written and highly optimized in Javascript, it’s capable of emulating an Apple IIe at full speed on iPhone 3GS and above, including graphics and disk drive support. This session briefly covers (1) the technology involved, (2) innovative features such as quick transfer of disk images from PC to emulator and back, and easily searching and loading disks from larger online archives of freely available software, and (3) possible future directions.
Recorded on July 23, 2011, by Ken Gagne and made available under a Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0) Creative Commons license.
P2E is a new Apple II emulator that runs on all iOS devices, along with desktop computers and probably Android as well. Written and highly optimized in Javascript, it’s capable of emulating an Apple IIe at full speed on iPhone 3GS and above, including graphics and disk drive support. In this session, Martin Haye will briefly cover 1) the technology involved, 2) innovative features such as quick transfer of disk images from PC to emulator and back, and easily searching and loading disks from larger online archives of freely available software, and 3) possible future directions.
The incredibly open nature of the Apple II for development, down to the inclusion of schematics in every box, encouraged a generation of users who were also program mers. By contrast, today we have the walled garden of iPhone OS, where Apple judges all. Between these polar positions is the Macintosh. How have Apple ? and Apple users ? evolved over the years? Has using computers become more or less creative? What tradeoffs have we made between accessibility and empowerment? How do the Apple II and its users measure up in modern times? Panelists: Ivan Drucker (IvanExpert), Martin Haye (California Digital Library), Mike Maginnis (The Computist Project). Moderator: Ken Gagne (Juiced.GS).
Super-Mon is a set of fancy extensions to the Apple II system monitor. This fairly technical session will follow the creation of a small but interesting assembly language program that demonstrates the concepts and capabilities of Super-Mon.
NakedOS is a new Disk II operating system for the entire Apple II line of computers. In this session, its creator covers the project’s rationale, design goals, API, disk format, Super-Mon integration and finally a few decision points and caveats for programmers considering NakedOS for their projects.
