Open Apple #65 (November 2016) : Alex Lee, What Is The Apple IIgs?

This month on Open Apple, we sit down with Alex Lee, purveyor of the canonical IIgs reference site What Is The Apple IIgs?  We talk about what it was like being one of the brave few with this machine, and that feeling of living in a secret world of incredible graphics and sound that nobody else seemed to know about. Alex walks us through the history of IIgs emulators, and all the ways that the IIgs Finder was actually better than the Mac. He also talks about the legal challenges of running an archive site like this, which luckily are not too serious for this obscure machine. We finish up with talk of the future of the site, and the difficulty of finding some really rare software packages- help contribute content! Alex is also working on an Apple IIgs coffee table book. Help encourage him to finish it, because we all want to buy it very very badly. Just saying. Keep listening, because you won’t want to miss Alex casually dropping the phrase “Late nineties and early naughties” in his charming Australian accent. Tune in as well to pine along with Quinn for the never-to-be Ultima VI. Our apologies for this episode being a bit late. Combinations of illness, holiday commitments, and technical difficulties all conspired against us this month. More information on everything discussed in this episode, after the jump. * Apple II Scans – Mike’s repository of Apple II documentation and related media.* What Is The Apple IIgs? – Alex Lee’s wonderful site, including all the games we discuss.* Retro Hour with Lord British – An interview on how he loved the II a bit II much.* Simulating a Burroughs 220 on an Apple II – Michael Mahon expands his KFest showing.* Nox Archaist: Shattered Sword – Vignettes showing off their engine progress.* New editions – This and this are fresh from Call A.P.P.L.E.* ADTPro 2.0.2 – A new update to everyone’s favorite imager and bootstrapper.* System 6.0.3 bug – Antoine Vigneau identifies a big auxtype problem.* Huibert Aalbers – Recovered software, and the story behind it