SharewareShareware SolutionsSolutions IIII An Exciting Apple II Journey Into The Future Volume 4, Issue 2 Post-KansasFest, 1998 KansasFest ’98 Countdown To Kfest the act, borrowing Ewens group held for any previous Kfest in at of Spectrum testers to put least one very significant man- In the weeks and months that NiftySpell through its paces. ner. In prior years, no one aside led up to KansasFest 98, the from the small Kfest Coordi- Apple II development communi- The Apple II development com- nating Committee had much in- ty literally worked around the munitys hard work paid off for put into the planning of the clock preparing for the annual the 60 Kfest attendees who event, and certainly, no one out- Apple II midsummer conference were treated to more product side of the committee was in- that has been held each year demonstrations and previews of volved in setting up the sched- since 1989 in Kansas City. As upcoming releases than in any ule. But, in the Spring of 1998, July approached, many IIGS previous KansasFest. As con- the Kfest Coordinating Commit- programmers and developers firmed by the events at Kfest tee set up an Internet-based worked many long hours and 98, the Apple II is alive and Kfest mailing list to which any- had many sleepless nights well and continues to flourish in one with the ability to receive e- while trying to complete their its third decade of service! mail could subscribe. And sub- many projects in time to stun scribe they did! the assembled masses at Avila There were basically two differ- College. Many of those program- ent types of sessions that were The Kfest mailing list not only mers succeeded beyond anyones conducted at Kfest 98: demon- made it easier for those who wildest dreams or expectations. strations and/or hands-on tu- needed a ride from the KC Air- torials of already existing prod- port to Avila to become matched The pace of Apple II develop- ucts, and new product introduc- with those offering rides, but it ment has never before reached tions. The demonstration and provided an open forum in which quite such enthusiastic heights tutorial sessions of existing each and every participants as it did during the early Sum- products were conducted by pro- input was solicited and ulti- mer; beta test teams were as- grammers, electronic techni- mately valued. As an example, sembled and new versions of cians and power users who en- planning for the first ever Kfest software were compiled at a thusiastically shared their inti- programming contest, dubbed dizzying rate. The Internet was mate knowledge of the inner HackFest, was conducted via the abuzz with quite a few private workings of the products they Kfest mailing list and that and highly secretive mailing demoed. On the other hand, the proved to be participatory de- lists and listservs dedicated to many new product demos were mocracy at its finest. Addition- the testing of new or updated conducted by the actual pro- ally, many of those who con- Apple II software. While Ewen grammer or publisher of the ducted sessions at Kfest were Wannop directed a Spectrum new software, and it was these able to determine in advance update beta test, Richard Ben- sessions that were most respon- just what people were interested nett assembled a team to beta sible for setting the overall tone in learning, and were able to test an updated Marinetti, and of Kfest 98 as a dazzling show- tailor their sessions in order to Geoff Weiss managed a Spec- case for new and exciting Apple meet the stated needs of the trum Internet Suite team of II software; at least a dozen Kfest attendees. beta testers. Mike Westerfield new IIGS products made their conducted field tests of GSoft debut at KansasFest 98. The Kfest Coordinating Com- BASIC, while Eric Shepherd mittee Cindy Adams, Jerry supervised a team to test his The Planning Committee Cline, Steve Gozdziewski, Max brand new WebWorks GS Jones, Stan Marks, and Ryan HTML editing program. Share- The planning sessions for Kfest Suenaga acknowledged all the ware Solutions II even got into 98 were different from those help they received by printing Shareware Solutions II 1 Shareware Solutions II the following proclamation on thing quickly became abundant- the cover of the Kfest program ly clear: one of the true super- Volume 4, Issue 2 guide: Special thanks to the stars of Kfest 98 was Bernie ][ publishers, writers, and all The Rescue. Shareware Solutions II is pub- those who have worked so hard lished by Joe Kohn, 166 Alpine to make this years KansasFest As I strolled in and out of peo- Street, San Rafael, CA 94901- a reality, and to Syndicomm for ples dorm rooms, I was literally 1008. the use of their RTCs on Genie dumbstruck by the number of and Delphi. The Kfest 98 mail- speedy Macintosh PowerBooks Publisher/Writer: Joe Kohn ing list was maintained by that were spotted in dozens of Proofreader: Jane Kos Devin Reade. rooms. At first, it was more than slightly disconcerting to see all Entire contents of Shareware Preliminary Events those Macs at an Apple II event, Solutions II copyright (©) 1998 but it didnt take long for it to by Joe Kohn. All rights are On Wednesday afternoon, July dawn on me that those PowerPC reserved. Nothing may be re- 22, 1998, Apple II owners from Macintosh systems were in printed or reproduced, in whole such far away places as Great reality, the next generation of or in part, in any media without Britain, Australia, the Nether- the Apple IIGS computer! the prior written consent of Joe lands, and Sweden joined their Kohn. American and Canadian breth- Bernie ][ The Rescue is the IIGS ren to check in at Avila College. emulator from the Swiss pro- Available by subscription only, Although an overwhelming ma- gramming team of Andre Horst- several options are available: jority of those checking in had mann, Henrik Gudat and Urs attended previous Kfest confer- (Cody) Hofstrasser and a month A) The first 24 issues: $75 for ences, first time attendees were before Kfest began, they had US/Canada; $100 elsewhere. treated as if they were visiting released the v1.3 update that dignitaries, especially in light of signaled Bernies transition into B) The next 6 issues/Renewal: the fact that several of them a nearly full-blown IIGS system $25 for US/Canada; $40 else- had traveled more than 5,000 whose capabilities and speed where. miles to attend the greatest surpassed those of a real IIGS Apple II event ever held. system. Watching Bernie boot Make all checks payable to Joe up into System 6.0.1 in 2 to 3 Kohn. US Funds Only. No That first night, almost 40 of us seconds was indeed a wondrous charge cards, purchase orders or attended the traditional, yet sight to behold! COD orders will be accepted. very informal and unofficial opening ceremonies at the world According to Henrik Gudat, run- This newsletter was created famous KC Masterpiece restau- ning Bernie ][ The Rescue on the entirely with an Apple IIGS. All rant. In addition to enjoying latest Macintosh G3 systems articles written in AppleWorks heaping platters of barbecue can result in IIGS system Classic. Page Layout prepared ribs, chicken and beef, many of speeds of up to 50 Mhz. Com- in AppleWorks GS. Printing us were simply delighted when pared to a stock IIGS running at was done on a Hewlett-Packard we were joined by one of those less than 3 Mhz, a standard LaserJet IIP Plus, connected to responsible for KansasFest be- TransWarp GS operating at 7 the IIGS courtesy of Harmonie. coming an Apple II institution: Mhz, or a souped up modified The use of TrueType fonts is the former editor of Resource Zip GS running at 14 Mhz, courtesy of WestCode Soft- Centrals beloved Open-Apple Bernie ][ The Rescue really has wares Pointless. publication, Dennis Doms. taken the IIGS to speeds that were simply unimaginable and E-mail Addresses: After dinner, we returned to the unattainable before. So, as dis- CIS: 76702,565 Avila dormitory to renew old concerting as it was at first to DELPHI: JOE_KOHN friendships, make new friends, see dozens of Apple IIGS fa- GENIE: JOE.KOHN and to see what Apple II natics running Macintoshes, it INTERNET: [email protected] goodies people had brought with was like a dream come true to them. Wandering through the see those computers running http://www.crl.com/~joko corridors that first evening, one GS/OS seven times faster than 2 Shareware Solutions II Post-KansasFest, 1998 even my speedy TransWarp he first became interested in 65816, the chip that is the heart GS equipped Apple IIGS. computers when he attended and soul of the IIGS computer, the Air Force Academy in the for use inside the human body, Bernie ][ The Rescue has be- mid-1970s. Although his pri- as its low power consumption come, according to many of mary tool at the time was a was ideal to use in medical de- those with whom I spoke at slide rule, and his first pro- vices such as Pacemakers. Kfest, so stable and so powerful gramming projects were created that its no wonder that a large using punch cards, his (and our) He told us that the first time he percentage of the hands-on ses- world changed with the intro- had ever seen an Apple IIGS sions offered during Kfest 98 duction of the microcomputer. computer, it was merely a big were actually conducted using circuit board with wires sticking Mac computers running GS/OS, Mikes introduction to micro- out everywhere.