Good News and Bad News...
There's good news and bad news. First, the good news: Qkumba has begun applying his talents for wrangling software to work in ways never originally designed, and we now have new ha…
News
Alex Lee's site news and write-ups from the original What is the Apple IIGS? archive. 195 posts, 1999 to 2020.
Good News and Bad News...
There's good news and bad news. First, the good news: Qkumba has begun applying his talents for wrangling software to work in ways never originally designed, and we now have new ha…
KansasFest 2020: IIGS Summary
KansasFest 2020 is over. This year had more attendees than ever, with 459 people registering a week before it started. This was made somewhat easier by the fact that it exclusively…
Last 1% of Pegasus Pascal Found. An extra 0.0.1 version found for Express
Antoine, despite not being an ORCA based IIGS developer, figured out the missing PrintMgr.pp file from Pegasus Pascal can be replaced from an ORCA install. Hoorary! Pegasus Pascal…
Pegasus Pascal Found! 99% of it Anyway
Petar Puskarich has dug deep into his personal archives to find the full version of Pegasus Pascal , which Ken Burtch used to develop his IIGS shareware games Quest for the Hoard a…
Mass Stickybear / Optimum Resource Updates
Antoine's back with a vengeance. Being something of a fan of the efforts of Optimum Resource / Weekly Reader Software, the makers of Stickybear and Antoine's all time favourite gam…
Additions, Additions, Additions
Antoine's back! And he's been cracking! We now have fresh cracks for Anthony Beckett's recently Applesauced disk images for: Tales of the Arabian Nights , Read-a-Rama , Aesop's Fab…
Late Christmas Gifts 2: New Packaging Scans, Manuals and more to come...
Fellow Melbournite Anthony Beckett, who I've had the pleasure of meeting, has in his posession a sizeable collection of boxed Apple IIGS software, that he's been steadily archiving…
Late Christmas Gifts 1: BOOTi & Floppy Emu Reviews
Happy New Year everybody! I'm trying to re-start my old tradition of late Christmas gifts to share, absent last year as I was simply too busy to keep up. I received a new BOOTi car…
GSTape Archive Updated to v2.1.3
Petar Puskarich has also found, searching among his long lost archives, his personal updated copy of GSTape , v2.1.3, the SCSI tape backup software. This newer version could be the…
Music Studio Bonanza!
Petar Puskarich has recently found his copy of the previously unarchived v2.0.1 update for the Music Studio 2.0 . Addtionally, Petar remembered how to install and successfully run…
KansasFest 2019 Roundup
IIGS and gaming related KansasFest 2019 highlights. Let's go! Marinetti v3.0b11 , the TCP/IP stack of the IIGS, is available thanks to Andrew Roughan as an update from a ShrinkIt a…
Goodies Before KansasFest
All eyes will soon be turned to KansasFest once again to find out what everyone's been doing with their Apple II's since last year's biggest get-together of all things related to A…
Sifting Through Applesauce to Find Little Golden Nuggets
If you haven't heard about John Keoni Morris's Applesauce yet, well, it's THE best way to create disk images. Why? It records a disk image at the magnetic flux level. To cut a long…
How to copy 32meg Disk Images to a Compact Flash card? Watch and Learn!
I've created this video to help anyone and everyone with a Micro Drive Turbo , Micro Drive , CFFA1 & 2 or Focus drive controller in getting What is the Apple IIGS? 32meg disk image…
Pelican / Toucan 8-bit Creative Titles Now With Documentation
A couple of years ago Antoine and 4am nailed archiving a sub-genre of creative 8-bit software released by Pelican Software and later handled by Toucan software . I've also collated…
Updates and the Current State of Solid State Storage
Following on the last series of updates, Antoine's now been able to scan the tricky manual for Color+ , one of those ones that goes recto/verso when you disassemble it and have to…
Welcome to 2019! And Updates Galore!
It's been awhile between drinks! In fact, I missed my usual Christmas fanfare entirely. I've been changing career, skilling up to become a User Experience Designer and that hasn't…
Disk Image Updates
Qkumba's been busy with more ProDOS conversions of classic 8-bit games and I've included them, as I do all updates, on my collection of 8-bit games on a 32meg ProDOS formatted disk…
Miscellany Menagerie
Apologies to everyone who's submitted new and interesting items to What is the Apple IIGS? and only now seeing them being included. No more delays – let's get down to it! Qkumba's…
A Development Version Sword of Sodan is now Archived! It's playable, although bugs remain...on the IIGS...right now!!!
I was cautiously optimistic when Rich Walter posted in the Apple IIGS Enthusiasts group on Facebook that he'd found the 3.5" disks that friend Jimmy Huey had in storage for over 20…
And now...The Secret History of Mac Gaming
I backed a Kickstarter project last year – a book entitled ' The Secret History of Mac Gaming '. I received the book about a month ago and completed reading it in the last week. It…
Clip Copy Plus Finder Extra Released
Clip Copy Plus is a new Finder Extra that could just make your day! Ever wished the System 6 Finder would let you use copy, cut and paste for file management in the same way that W…
Christmas Gifts #2 8-bit 3.5" Disk Based Educational Software Additions
We've got some new additions for 8-bit educational software on 3.5" disk ! Antoine has found several more titles - Little Shopper's Kit and Time Liner , both by Tom Snyder Producti…
Patentedly Tardy Christmas Presents Not Only Late, But Fewer As Well! Happy New Year!
Merry Christmas!...for last year. Where does the time go? My family, so time well spent, but it just goes so fast. The first of my annual late Christmas gifts (now more tuncated th…
Diversi Tunes Music Library Overhauled
With a discussion taking place on the specific Apple IIGS Enthusiasts Group on Facebook, Mitch Spector has taken it upon himself to provide a near full (only missing one disk) coll…
Lost Apple IIGS Eduware Title Archived! Microtype, The Wonderful World of PAWS
Microtype, The Wonderful World of PAWS has come as a complete surprise for a piece of IIGS specific educational software. I'd never heard of it until Antoine archived it, although…
8-bit Database Apps! The Original Print Shop on 3.5" Disk As Well!
Thanks to me digging deep into some awesome CD-ROM based archives that Belgian basde François Michel (not to be confused with François Michaud in France) sent to me way back in 200…
Post KansasFest 2017 Miscellanea
After KansasFest 2017, directly or completely unrelated, we've got quite a few updates thanks to a large pool of people. Antoine's submitted a bunch of interesting stuff, as usual…
IIGS Programs that AREN'T Hard Drive Installable – Can We Change That?
Since the major success we've had thanks to Marco Verpelli and qkumba in patching so many ProDOS based 8-bit eduwares so they can run from a large ProDOS volume/hard drive, I'm put…
8-bit Eduware on 32meg Disk Image
With the recent addition of so many 8-bit educational titles (see the Pelican / Toucan archives ), I've decided to finish up a ‘beta' version of a 32meg image including nothing but…
Pelican / Toucan Software Collection Published by Queue
This is a big haul of creative 8-bit educational software on 3.5" disk , most of which was not previously archived on either 3.5" or 5.25" disk formats. This collection is from the…
MECC Collection - run classic eduware titles from a hard drive as well as GS/OS!
Marco Verpelli has created something incredibly good - over 150 8-bit MECC titles, including classics Oregon Trail, Number Munchers and Odell Lake, all running from hard drive imag…
New Hardware Archives or It's the Best Time Ever to Buy a IIGS Sound Card
WITA2GS? now includes archives for new sound card products the 2soniq (offering stereo output) and 4soniq (offering surround output) by Manila Gear and the Dark Sound (providing st…
Appleshare via Ethernet - Now on an Apple IIGS!
Some great, unexpected news! You can now connect to Applesharing servers via Ethernet on a IIGS with an Uthernet I or Uthernet II , or a LANceGS card! This has been a wish list ite…
Gertrude's Secrets Updated with v1.4 and Now Hard Drive Installable
Thanks to another recent 3.5" disk image by François Michaud and copy protection removal thanks to Antoine, we now have version 1.4 of Gertrude's Secrets . This classic edcuational…
My Paint v2.0 Archived with a new Art Disk
Thanks to François Michaud imaging his original rare copy of My Paint v2.0 , we now have a working archive of this newer version that sports an updated interface and compatibility…
Xenocide Archive Updated with Infinite Lives Patch and a Word on Cheats
Thanks to Pen Helm, we have a new patched version of Xenocide that gives you infinite lives – no excuses not to see the entire game now. Just download the .zip archive for the new…
Ninja Force Releases First New Demo for 20 Years – Kern Kompetenz
Ninja Force recently attended and competed in the Revision 2017 Demo Scene Party in Germany in the Oldskool category with their brand new 'Kern Kompetenz' demo. Representing our fa…
Application Fresh Cracks
Last but certainly not least in this series of fresh cracks from Antoine Vignau , we cover applications. Not only do we have different, more unique cracks, we've also found some ne…
Hardware Updates
Manila Gear and Reactive Micro team up! As part of their new partnership Reactive Micro will handle distribution as Manila Gear releases their new 2soniq card, their scaled down so…
Fresh(er) Cracks of Educational Software
As part of some fresh cracks Antoine, or as his cracking alter ego is known 'LoGo', did back in 2016, there were quite a few Educational titles. Some revealed some newer versions,…
Terrapin Logo Plus Added
Thanks to 4am (who's keeping an eye out for 8-bit releases on 3.5" disk) we now have Terrapin Logo Plus on archive, including the disk image and manual. Revisit your Logo coding sk…
Expanding Your IIGS Game Cracking Playset - More Uncracked Images
After imaging all my original IIGS games from the one box I'd kept them...I realised my more recent acquisitions (stuff I've bought off eBay for the past 15 years) the disks were s…
Captain Blood Now Playable on ROM03 models!
On the Apple IIGS Enthusiasts Group on Facebook , Matt Reichart asked if Captain Blood was still incompatible with IIGS ROM03 models and Antoine checked...it is. Or was. Antoine's…
Futureshock 3D Now Playable with a Joystick!
Dagen Brock and Antoine Vignau have patched the game Futureshock 3D so it can be played with a joystick. Why is this particularly news worthy? Futureshock 3D is only fully playable…
Patented Post Christmas Gift 6 - Fresh Cracks from Logo & TRex + New Uncracked Disk Images
This has been a long time coming and I apologise to Antoine for the delay in sharing them with everyone. Basically, Antoine has created fresh cracks for many IIGS games over the la…
Patented Post Christmas Gift 5 - 8-bit on 3.5” Disk Updates
8-bit on 3.5" Disk Updates - I've scanned the manuals for the classic Broderbund games Airheart and Wings of Fury from my own collection. We also have 3 more ProDOS compatible vers…
Patented Post Christmas Gift 4 - New System Add-ons
Thanks to Antoine for imaging a range of disks from the Shareware Solutions II collection , we've found some additional items to include amongst the INITS, CDAs, NDAs and CDevs of…
Patented Post Christmas Gift 3 - ViaTerm II
ViaTerm II may well have been the first IIGS specific communications program developed and ironically, it's the last one to be archived (thanks to Andrew Roughan (disk imaging/pack…
Patented Post Christmas Gift 2 - SoundSmith v2.0b
SoundSmith v2.0b has been released! Thanks to Antoine Vignau , this has not only been restored (from Huibert Aalbers badly damaged hard drive), but also given new features to take…
Patented Post Christmas Gift 1 - System 6.0.4
System 6.0.4 is out! The ' illuminati ' have been busy and there are some nice updates here: Fixes to filetypes of SCSI drivers and other system extensions after being discovered i…
Knights of Legend Has Fresh Disk Images...But challenge to get 3.5" Installer Working Remains
The Knights of Legend archive now also includes recently made disk images by Jeremy Barr Hyde . Using Passport to crack original disks, we now have some nice new clean cracked disk…
Gold Rush Disk Images Taken Offline
Sunlight Games , a German games developer, has informed me they have owned the intellectual property rights to Gold Rush , the 1989 3D animated adventure game by Sierra, for the la…
Open Apple Podcast Guest Spot with Yours Truly
If you're not already subscibed to the Open Apple Podcast , the most regular podcast devoted to the Apple II, well, you've now got another reason to check it out. I recently joined…
More 8-bit on 3.5" Disk Software Added and Just in Time for Christmas
Antoine has procured even more never before archived titles: Wordbench - an 8-bit comprehensive word processor by Addison Wesley that came on 2 3.5" disks (as well as multiple 5.25…
Jigsaw Deluxe Recovered and Released After 27 Years
Antoine Vignau , never to shy away from a challenge, has been able to restore the contents of Huibert Aalbers ' old hard drive; the same drive used during the developement of his p…
Updates! 8-bit Games Collection! Ultima III Box Scan! KidTalk new version! Computer Eyes GS Newer Driver!
I've been making some updates to my 8-bit collection of games , thanks to newly released ProDOS conversions of some classic 8-bit games by qkumba. I received feedback that booting…
Day 5 of Apple IIGS 30th Anniversary Celebrations: Illustrating the Past
Am I continuing Apple IIGS 30th anniversary celebrations? Yes, yes I am. Depite this update coming much later than the previous ones (which weren't all on consecutive days as I'd o…
Day 4 of Apple IIGS 30th Anniversary Celebrations (Star Saga One Completely Documented)
This is something I've been working on for a while and I'm pleased to share it with everyone now that it's complete. Herbert Fung, over a year ago, was very generous in sending ove…
Day 3 of Apple IIGS 30th Anniversary Celebrations (including the 28th Anniversary of the Apple IIc+)
Alas, this is more than a day late, but I ran into some work/technical/toddler issues that prevented me from getting it out on time. But the good news is that day 3 is here! And to…
Day 2 of Apple IIGS 30th Anniversary Celebrations
Our second day of IIGS 30th anniversary celebrations involves helping out and then subsequently interviewing the person behind all those excellent Pangea games' graphics - Dave Tri…
Happy 30th Anniversary Apple IIGS!
On this day 30 years ago, Apple released a new computer that was equal parts new and old, pushing and pulling, wonderful yet flawed. This photo is actually the cake from my 40th bi…
Genie & Delphi Archives Via MacGUI Vault
David Finnigan, of MacGUI.com , has been able to restore the file and message archives of the Genie and Delphi services that were great resources for Apple II users back in the '90…
Alien Mind crack now ROM03 compatible and a single volume for CFFA3000!
A long time ago (that it feels like it could be from a galaxy far, far away) the French United Crackers Klan cracked the classic IIGS only game Alien Mind . This crack had to circu…
Obscure Educational 8-bit titles on 3.5" Disk Added to the Archive
Leaving no stone unturned, Antoine has been able to provide some fairly obscure (read, I'm not 100% sure what these programs do) educational software that was developed for 8-bit A…
Roger Wagner Publishing Title Updates and Tweaks to the System Add-ons and 8-bit Games 32meg Images
Mike Maginnis, of the Open Apple Podcast and apple2scans opened a can of worms when he shared on Twitter that he'd scanned the manual to Macromate, a classic desk accessory for the…
More Manual Mania
Time for some more manuals to provide a useful written background to all these apps and games we have on archive. François Michaud has kindly submitted manual scans for the databas…
4Soniq Card Details Emerge
Jon Co, one of the Australian developers of the 4Soniq card recently announced at WOzFest /// now has an official press release with details of the card. Go to their site to check…
Kaboom! goes version 1.02 to support new 4Play Joystick Card
WOzFest /// was held in the mancave of Sean McNamara in Sydney Australia last night and not just being a gathering of Apple II enthusiasts and a plethora of hardware to be played w…
The Work of the French United Crackers Klan Now Fully Archived
Thanks to the hard work of Antoine Vignau, the complete works of the French United Crackers Klan , AKA 'The FUCK', AKA, Miami Software has been fully archived. Including the IIGS g…
Springboard Publisher Archive Added
Thanks yet again to Antoine, we have a full disk image archive of Springboard Publisher and all of its accessories (that we know of) including a scan of the original packaging. I h…
Celebrating Apple's 40th with Some Updates!
It's been 40 years since Apple first became an official company and naturally, we shouldn't expect too much fanfare from the company itself in regards to its previous efforts . So…
Skate or Die and Pirates now ROM03 compatible! Marble Madness can now be finished!
Antoine's been creating fresh cracks (all of which I hope to collate to include in this archive but at the moment I'm pressed for time as I've started the process of moving house)…
More Manuals and That's How You Finish Ancient Glory
To my surprise, I came across the fully packaged 5.25" disk editions of original Math Blaster and Spell It amongst my retro collection in storage in the old family home. I've scann…
Monte Carlo – now playing from System 6 and a Hard Drive Near You
Antoine's been doing overtime with a series new cracks from the originals of IIGS software that he has...which we'll be collecting on the site. But in the meantime, here's not only…
Patented Late Christmas Presents
It's that time of year again where I plan to add content to What is the Apple IIGS? but am almost always late in doing so to tie it into some holiday cheer. Anyways, without furthe…
More 8-bit on 3.5" Disk Additions
4am continues his sterling archiving work, which has also included 3.5" disk versions of the original Spell It! , Grammar Gremlins and Alge Blaster Plus! They've been included on W…
Kaboom! Archive Added
I've just added the rather excellent Kaboom! Bomberman clone for the IIGS by NinjaForce to the illustrious best of freeware and shareware games category, where it now rightfully re…
GEOS Archive Added
I'd been playing around with GEOS, the 8-bit suite of productivity apps and almost operating system by Berkley Software when Mike and Quinn of the Open Apple Podcast dedicated a wh…
Music Construction Set - Classical Music Data Disk Added
Blake Patterson asked on the Apple II Enthusiasts Facebook group whether any more Music Construction Set disks were made available by Electronic Arts and Garrett Meiers has been ab…
8-bit on 3.5" Disk Educational Titles Updates
If you've not come across the great work by 4am , cracker extraordinaire, then you've got a treat in store. The mysterious figure has spent at least the last 12 months procuring or…
Miscellany Mélange Part II
In addition to Antoine providing full archives for the two Reading Magic titles, he's now hacked both Flodd the Bad Guy and Jack and the Beanstalk to be hard drive installable! Yes…
Miscellany Mélange
This is a long overdue collection of updates and I apologise to everyone who's submitted these additions that it's taken this long to get them onto the site. Firstly, Andrew Rougha…
Fun for the Whole Family! Zany Golf Now Available with Unlimited Strokes!
A little while ago, Matthew P. Ownby hacked Zany Golf so his kids could see more, if not all, of the classic IIGS game. I derided him as lame (in jest of course) hinting that any t…
System 6.0.2, System 6.0.3…and counting?
If you follow other sources of Apple II news ( Call A.P.P.L.E , A2 Central ), you'll already have heard that System 6.0.2 got released, followed shortly by System 6.0.3. What, you…
Burger Becky Releases Mindshadow for the IIGS
KansasFest 2015 is only just wrapping up now (keep track of what's exactly been going on via the KansasFest YouTube channel ) but during all the excitment, Burger Becky Heineman re…
Space Ace Source Code Released!
After Burger Becky's video cast, she's now uploaded the source code to her reworking of the IIGS version of Space Ace , allowing it to be hard drive installable. Would this be enou…
Burger Becky Videocast Ahead of KansasFest 2015
Rebecca Heineman, programmer behind IIGS classics Tass Times in Tonetown , the Bard's Tale I and II , Neuromancer , Crystal Quest , Dragon Wars , and Out of this World , has record…
A new IIGS Demo Scene Emerging + NinjaTracker Released
Could the IIGS demo scene start up again in a place where we've never seen anything done for the IIGS before? A new Brazilian production called 'Look Behind You' by Shadow Memory h…
Kaboom! Released and OzKFest Looms!
Although I had my doubts that it would never happen, I still kept hope that Kaboom! , Ninjaforce's longtime gaming project for the IIGS, would officially see the light of day. That…
Lots of Contributors Contributing Manual and Box Scans as well as Missing Software!
This update has involved more volunteers for new content than any other update! Thanks to everyone involved to help keep plugging the gaps in the archive! Antoine Vignau has provid…
Merlin 32 Released for Easy Cross Platform Development! Tarot Added to the Archive!
Antoine Vignau, the most upstanding citizen of the Apple IIGS community, has been able to provide a disk image, box scan and complete manual (in French) for the rare card game Taro…
Happy New Year! RAM Pro Scan Acquired
Happy New Year everybody! Following another discussion on the Facebook Apple II Enthusiasts group, Steve Eggers shared his joy and woe of obtaining a IIGS, but the monitor dying on…
It's Christmas Time!
Happy Holidays everyone! I hope you'll have some enjoyable time off as I've been having, spending time with my young new family. Luckily, I've found just enough time to share some…
Programming Additions and Time Out for a Baby
We've got some programming related additions to the site. Andrew Roughan let me know that Merlin 16+ was missing complete documentation, as the 8/16 manual was missing - that has n…
Major Apps Update - New Apps! Updated Apps! New App Manuals and box scans!
At last, I've found time to finally unleash the last of the application related content additions I archived a good 12 months ago amongst Tony Diaz's collection - a veritable corna…
Beef up your IIGS Based HyperMedia and 3.5" Disk Labels with Software From Triad Venture
Getting back to what I had archived when I visited Tony Diaz's place and rummaging through his extensive collection (which was about this time last year! How time flies!) I've got…
Word Attack Plus French Found! Complete GNO/ME Documentation! Pegasus Pascal Demo Found! More Carmen Sandiego Updates!
I'm pleased to announce that thanks to Petar Puskarich's archive and Antoine Vignau's deprotection skills, we now have the elusive Word Attack Plus! French program in our archive.…
More IIGS Educational Software from Orange Cherry and Unicorn Now Archived
Thanks to Petar Puskarich and his recovery of archives he made back in the mid '90s, we've got some new 2image additions to What is the Apple IIGS? – some of which I've been hoping…
More 8-bit 3.5" Disk Additions – Math & Me, Stickybear Spellgrabber and Battletech
As I write this, KansasFest 2014 is still progressing and as always, I'm jealous I can't be in attendence thanks to the tyranny of distance! But as some small consolation, I can ad…
Control Finance Like It's 1995! Your Money Matters and Financial GeniuS archived!
Getting back to finally being able to properly archive some of the application software I found within Tony Diaz's collection, we have some more IIGS rarities to include. Apart fro…
8-bit version of Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego on 3.5" Disk Found!
Thanks again to Antoine Vignau, we now have another rarity catalogued and archived - Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego on 3.5" disk . This ISN'T the IIGS specific version, rath…
Search Now Working Again here on WITA2GS?
For an uncertain period of time, the search feature of the site stopped working - but now it's back, better than ever. Try it out - it's a great, quick way to find any application,…
Another Educational Journey Into Music Uncovered - Music Shapes
After the recent unearthing of previously unknown IIGS software Sound Discoveries , we've found another piece of IIGS specific educational software that allows you to play and expe…
Gertrude's Secrets v1.3 3.5" Disk Image Archived
Thanks to Stavros Karatsoridis, who recently spotted I added an archive for Gertrude's Secrets , but no 3.5" disk image, we've been able to fill the gap with v1.3 of the educationa…
Buckets of New Content
We've got a bevy of miscellaneous updates - let's roll them out... Michael Shopshin's been able to provide a disk image of Bank Street Writer Plus on 3.5" disk and Antoine's been a…
Sound Discoveries – A Discovery in itself!
Even after all this time, we're still finding IIGS software that's never been archived. A little while ago (yes, I'm still catching up with posting IIGS software and documentation…
Author of the book Iconic, the Photographed Visual History of Apple Products, Personally Drops Off a Copy
Last Monday, I had the rare pleasure of Jonathan Zufi visiting my abode (luckily it's on one of the days I work from home) and personally deliver a copy of his book ' Iconic ', the…
Jack Nicklaus Greatest 18 Holes of Major Championship Golf - All Course Disks Now Available!
Who'd have thought that finding serveral complete golf courses, each with 18 holes, would be a hard thing to locate? It is when it's for the IIGS, and Antoine Vignau, the shyest ma…
More Manuals for Hardware and Software!
Andrew Roughan has been able to scan a whole bunch of rare manuals and submit them to the site. We've got new documentation for hardware OctoRAM and the Supersonic Stereo Card and…
Shufflepuck Cafe Now ROM03 Compatible!
Antoine and Olivier have done it again! The boys of Brutal Deluxe have been able to patch the unreleased IIGS version of Shufflepuck Cafe to enable it to work on ROM03 machines! Ho…
8-Bit 3.5" Disk Additions: Neuromancer, Death Sword, SSi Collection 1
Joo Jun emailed me to say he'd found some additional 8-bit games on 3.5" disk: Neuromancer , Death Sword (otherwise known as Barbarian in Europe) and a homebrew collection of some…
How Many Apple IIGS Went into Production? You Can Help Find Out the Answer!
Apple kept sales of their machines fairly close to their chest in the 80s, at least with the Apple IIGS - although it's been said the IIGS outsold the Mac in its first year of prod…
Gaming Manuals Added For The Lost Treasures of Infocom, Halls of Montezuma, The Black Cauldron, John Elway's Quarterback and Superstar Ice Hockey
There's been a backlog of scanned manuals from Antoine Vignau, most generous man in the Apple II universe, that I've had a hard time sorting due to lack of time in my behalf. But h…
Questron II now fully playable from a Hard Drive (or any large volume ProDOS partition)
In the pursuit of being able to prepare every IIGS application, game or educational software to run from a hard drive / large ProDOS volume, I've been able to add another one to th…
Record Winning Bids on IIGS Games on eBay
In the space of a week, not just once, but twice have we seen new record amounts paid for winning bids on IIGS games at auction on eBay. Firstly, $203.50 for the unheard of game Th…
Gaming Update Bonanza!
Hot on the heels of the educational and hardware related finds made amongst Tony Diaz's collection, we now turn our attention to gaming related finds - and there's quite a lot of n…
Newly Archived Hardware & Drivers
As part of my archiving efforts amongst Tony Diaz's collection, I also came across some interesting hardware: At last, I found not one but two Thunderware Lightning Scanners – I'd…
Educational Software Updates Via California
Welcome to the first of some fairly hefty content updates - this edition focusing on Educational software. In September I made a trip to California to take up Tony Diaz's offer fro…
More OzKFest Goodies
Here are some more post OzKFest goodies: Andrew Roughan suggested I include third party toolsets on the System Add-ons volume (originally featured in my ‘ System Extensions... ' bl…
OzKFest – Quick Report
Well, I'm back in Melbourne after spending a glorious weekend in Brisbane in the company of other fans of the Apple II. It was loads of fun, not to mention a novel way to talk abou…
KansasFest Begins Again, as does OzKFest. Sweet 16 v3.0 Released! IIGS Sales Demo Added.
Hi all! It's that time of year again, where KansasFest kicks off as the best place to be for an Apple II afficiando. Not so much if you don't live in the on the American continent…
More Manuals – Out of this World, Kaleidokubes, Maps! Maps! Maps!, Thunderscan Read Me First and the ProTERM 3 box for good measure
Antoine's dug even deeper and found some more manuals previously unarchived: Kaleidokubes (which reveals there's a version 2 – which I've now updated for the 2image archive and the…
Wings & Kangaroo Manuals now available. Dungeon Master Demo Fixed!
Antoine's found some missing manuals and scanned them to include in the archive here. Wings , the alternative launcher application, can now be more fully appreciated through its ri…
Updates Big and Small
We now have pull down navigation links to the 8-bit programs on the 8-bit 3.5" disk categories; for games , educational warez and at last, applications as well (although it's a mod…
Mr Sprite and Brutal Deluxe's Cross Platform Development Tools Plans
Brutal Deluxe has released another asset in their set of cross platform development tools for the IIGS - Mr Sprite . It's a useful utility on several levels that makes the preparat…
Homebrew Helpings: Lots of Courses for Mean 18
Sorting through many miscelleous archives forwarded on from Antoine as he comes into contact with random collections and images each disk from them, I came across 8 disks worth of…
Hard Drive Image with Multiple Versions of ProDOS and GS/OS now ROM03 Compatible
This is something that I'd been meaning to do for a while, but the motivation was lacking. Going through my working IIGSs kept in storage at my father's place, I now know I have tw…
Manuals for Mini Putt and GATE; Styleware Font Library; New Unreleased Rumours Roundup
Frank Rossi has submitted scans for the manuals of Mini Putt and GATE , as well as scans for disk labels for California Games, Neuromancer, Mini Putt, 4th & Inches and GATE. Disk l…
Some Classic IIGS Games Now Hard Drive Installable! Plus, More Icons!
I'm a pretty happy camper at the moment. After buying IIGS games like Mean 18, World Games and Winter Games some 25 years ago, I can now finally play them from a hard drive, thanks…
The Treehouse Found!
Brian Picchi has turned up another rare Apple II soft – The Treehouse ! Quite possibly the last production to ever come out of your favourite 8-bit Apple II publisher and mine, Bro…
Now at a Store Near You – Every item from the Bard's Tale I and II
Fans of the Bard's Tale I and II for the IIGS? (which incidentally are definitive versions featuring the best graphics and sound across all platforms the game was released for.) Cl…
A Belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year – Goodies Inside!
I'm going to have to invent a word for delivering gifts after Christmas. Let's just ignore my tardiness for another year and get on with these late presents! Father Christmas, or a…
Pangea Software Celebrates 25 years of Game Development via YouTube Video
Pangea Software, who started on the 8-bit Apple II, but first gained attention through the IIGS and its commercial game Xenocide as well as its 24 hour games and shareware games Or…
Accrued Updates: Hostage Box and docs! Plus many more docs! Mad Libs Box! The Joy of Hard Drive Image Submissions! MultiScribe GS Returns!
Right, submissions have been accumulating over the last couple of months and it's time everyone's hard work to archive the IIGS was enjoyed by all! Antoine Vignau (did you REALLY t…
Major Update to System Add-ons
This is easily the biggest update to the System Add-ons 32 meg volume. Apart from the new additions listed below, some duplicates have been removed, others put into more suitable c…
IIGS News Summary
What's been going on in the Apple IIGS world? Well, here on the site, if you follow the forums, you'll see a request was made by cbee as to locating two of John Carmack's earliest…
(Fashionably Late) Easter Updates
Apologies to everyone for not getting these updates out sooner (particularly to those who contributed), but at last, What is the Apple IIGS? has some new content! Andrew Roughan ha…
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year...no, for 2011 of course!
Well, it WAS that time of year again. You know, Christmas. But I've been so busy with my new job in the UK and in the lead-up to Christmas, had no time to prepare my usual Christma…
Christmas Presents!
This year, thanks chiefly to the efforts of Arnaud Brossard , we have some Christmas cheer to spread around the Apple II community. Never wanted to dip your toes into the waters of…
Thanksgiving Updates
Why not give an American holiday a spin for providing some much needed updates to ‘What is the Apple IIGS?'. Happy Thanksgiving! Firstly, thanks to Arnaud Brossard at www.apple-iig…
Sweet 16 v2.1.3
Sheppy continues to update Sweet 16 and fix those lingering bugs. Version 2.1.3 fixes speed control and further improves emulation performance for PowerPC based Macs. The recent di…
News Roundup
Apologies for the lack updates, life has been very busy. I picked a bad time to not have time, because there's been lots of news: Pre-KansasFest, the web browser based online Apple…
Welcome to 'What is the Apple IIGS?' v3.1!
You might notice some improvements around here: The content management system has been updated to Silverstripe v2.3 and with it, a new search feature, so you can quickly find that…
KansasFest 2009 Finishing Up - Sweet 16 v2.1 announced
KansasFest , the regular, annual Apple II get together is coming to a close in Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.A. Eric Shepherd has announced that Sweet 16, the Apple IIGS emulator for…
The Diary of an Apple II Genius
Wade Clarke wrote in to let me know about the blog of Jordan Mechner , creator of two of the most seminal Apple II gaming classics: Karateka and Prince of Persia . Mechner kept a d…
A Little Bit of This and a Little Bit of That
Just a couple of new inclusions: Peter Wong sent in a scan for TML BASIC , beating Paul Zaleski by a week. Sorry Paul! :-) Also, in my quest to obtain scans of the covers of everyt…
Many New Hardware Inclusions
Welcome to the next round of content additions to 'What is the Apple IIGS?'! The disc controllers hardware category now includes scans of each of those expansion cards, plus some n…
Splat! Found and Adventure Alive M.I.A.
Following a request from Michael Stephens for the Splat ! source level debugger on comp.sys.apple2 , Andrew Roughan sprang into action and found his copy, which had been reclassifi…
New Content Additions
I'm very pleased to say that, thanks to Brian Wiser, the InCider/A+ magazine cover collection is now complete with the additions of the March, May and July 1993 issues. Also, in th…
IIGS Tune Treasure!
Jim Maricondo has done the Apple II community a wonderful service. Apart from being the brains behind the wonderful Twilight II screen saver and together with Bill Martens, the Gol…
IIGS Programming Alumni News
I was delighted that Dr Ken Franklin, author of the brilliant One Armed Battle , Plunder! and Milestones 2000 added to the comments to the blog entry regarding the upcoming coffee…
Big Content Additions!
I'm VERY happy with the many contributions that arrived during my holiday! It seems I was after most of these since I started the archive 10 years ago - much thanks to all concerne…
Christmas Bonanza!
Happy Holidays everyone! I've assembled a fairly big update to the hardware section. Thanks to Ewen Wannop , the archive now holds a scan of the Applied Engineering DataLink 2400 i…
Making KEGS-OSX Easier to Use...by a Comic Book Hero?
Paul Laroquad recently got in touch and let me know about version 0.4 of his KEGS Slot Droppers for Mac OS X. 'Tha what?!' you're probably thinking. Well, the KEGS Slot Droppers ma…
32 Meg ProDOS Partition Updates
Hi all! I've done a little housekeeping with the 32 meg ProDOS partitions : I added a few useful conversion utilities to SoundSmith, as well as its full documentation. I also added…
Hover Blade and Subversion Scans
Delving deep into the boxes of my Apple IIGS collection in my parents' attic, I found my original Hover Blade manual and have scanned its cover as a 1-bit TIF, as this is the only…
eBay Action...in Australia?
Newsworthy for this site at least, eBay Australia was a flurry of activity this past week. An Apple IIGS with 1.25meg of RAM, an Apple High Speed SCSI card, SCSI hard drive and two…
Everything Old (well, a couple of things) is New Again
Two Apple IIGS classics have recently been re-released for the 21 st century. Hyper Studio 5 has been released for Mac OS X, jointly developed by Roger Wagner and Software Mac Kiev…
InCider, II Alive and A+ Cover Collection Complete!
I'm very happy to announce that all three collections of InCider, II Alive and A+ are now complete in relation to their cover scans. Thanks to Wayne Bibbens at Wayne's Computer Sto…
Brian Greenstone Interview
John from the Retro Mac Cast let me know of their interview with Brian Greenstone (who basically is Pangea Software) in their 91st episode to talk about the games he's done over th…
New Game surfaces: Subversion
George Rentovich has let me know a couple of times via email that 'What is the Apple IIGS?' has always been missing the game 'Subversion', a title I had never heard of. However Geo…
Happy Birthday Apple IIGS!
On this day in 1986, the Apple IIGS was first released. But good luck trying to get one: supply of the machines dribbled slowly into the market and most of the Apple faithful had t…
Utility Updates and Orbizone Goodies
Greetings Programs! First of all, I need to note that Tony Costa should have been thanked at the time of relaunching the site. He provided innumerable scans of packaging such as th…
Quick Updates
Just a couple of quick updates: the RAM-GS card by Sequential Systems has been added to hardware and Mark Percival has kindly given permission to include all versions of Micol Adva…
Updates to the Site
The first batch of updates has arrived: Robert Spitz reminded me that I already had scans that he submitted for the CMS SCSI Card , the original Apple SCSI Card and the Apple SCSI…
Sweet 16 v2.0 Beta 17 is Released!
Good news everybody! After first demonstrating the emulator at Kansasfest in July Eric 'Sheppy' Shepherd has now publicly released the latest beta version of Sweet 16 v2.0 . After…
Welcome to version 3.0!
This has a been a long process, combining new graphic design, new archives and content, a content management system, a forum (which requires registration, which should reduce that…
Sweet 16 Makes Progress
Eric Shepherd has been making very good progress on updating Sweet 16 for MacOS X - finally perhaps paving the way for user friendly IIGS emulation on a contemporary operating syst…
The Lone Entry of 2005
Another year ticks over! Just a quick message to say that I'm still alive and kicking, although work on this archive isn't - but that's mainly because nobody has contributed anythi…
Two New Archives
Hello again! That's right, the Fairway's back, bigger and better than ever before, now on a brand new server together with two new Apple IIGS archives! French speaking IIGS users r…
Minor Updates
Some minor updates: I've added a pop up menu on the home page so you can quickly jump to your favourite Apple IIGS games! External links now open a new browser window and I've adde…
Old School Updates
Some updates! Dan Chisarick has sent in heaps of game box scans: California Games, Deja Vu 1 and 2, Hacker II, Omega, Test Drive 2 California Challenge and Supercars. Big thanks to…
The Fairway Version 2.0
Welcome to the Fairway v2.0! New in this update is a new user interface, large sized game box images, a pre-installed version of System 6 on a 4 meg 2image volume, character disks…
Minor Updates
New thumbnails for Manhunter New York, GBA Basketball, Impossible Mission 2, Superstar Ice Hockey (thanks David Graton) Life & Death and Aaargh! (thanks Gary Boettcher). There is a…
Ultima I Archive Removed
I have been asked to remove Ultima I from the Fairway as it is currently being prepared for re-release by Shareware Solutions II . I have done so. Sorry for the lack of updates, bu…
Bernie v2.6 Released
Bernie ][ the Rescue 2.6 has been released. Apart from even cooler integration between the Mac OS and GS/OS, mouse support has been improved, now allowing Teenage Queen to be playe…
New Year Goodies
Lots of little goodies for the new year. Brutal Deluxe programmer, Antoine Vignau, has written a crack for Gold Rush, so playing the game no longer requires the manual! Antoine has…
3427 Unique Visitors!
Hard Code, owner of Inwards, has informed me that the Fairway has received 3427 unique visitors, which I'm very glad to say has surpassed my expectation of just how popular the Fai…
ShrinkIt Archive Additions and other Udpdates
The ShrinkIt! archive is now online! Owners of real Apple IIGS machines are now able to download each archive to use on their real equipment. It is recommended that when downloadin…
Full Metal Planete
Added the virtually unheard of game, Full Metal Planete. Added better thumbnail images for Arkanoid II, Bubble Ghost, Dark Castle, Defender of the Crown, Final Assault, Jigsaw and…
Bernie ][ the Rescue v2.5 and iGS Released
Bernie ][ the Rescue 2.5 has been released! The new version supports better integration between GS/OS and the Mac OS, i.e. you can now simply drag and drop files between the Mac an…
The Fairway's New Home
As you may have noticed for the past two weeks, the Fairway has moved to its new home at Inwards. Thanks bigtime to Hard Code for hosting the archive on Inwards. Thanks also for he…
Server Issues and Updates
Sorry about the archive not being enabled over the weekend. Server problems beyond my control I'm afraid. Anyway, to compensate, I'm going to keep download access enabled from now…
Archive Temporarily Disabled
Bad news I'm afraid. The archive has had to be temporarily disabled, with demand outweighing expectation, as downloads have exceeded a point where the connection for succeeding dow…
Minor Updates and...Crash Bandicoot?!?
Added better thumbnail game boxes for Black Cauldron (thanks Paul Lunga), Man Hunter: New York (thanks Tyler Van Tighem), Roadwar 2000 and Battle Chess (thanks Willie Yeo). Finally…
Minor Updates
Added better thumbnail game box images for Dungeon Master, Neuromancer, Balance of Power, Questron 2 and Transylvania 3 thanks to Mary Sauer. Also added better thumbnails for Spiri…
Minor Updates
Added ChessMaster 2100, Shanghai II, The Secrets of Bahras and the rare, unreleased game Project Neptune. Thanks to Ton for ChessMaster and Bahras and thanks goes to someone who no…
Minor Updates
Added Mixed Up Mother Goose and Gold of the Americas. I've updated all links to external pages so that they won't appear in the right hand frame for the Fairway (I hate frames as m…
Minor Updates
Added the difficult to find Spirit of Excalibur. I also added Future Shock 3D, which I believe is also an unreleased game. And for the hordes of IIGS emulating Bridge players, I've…
Minor Updates
Added Ancient Glory to the archive. Also added a good, totally working copy of Dream Zone on 2image! Much thanks goes to Ton for that. I've noticed different people have sent me co…
Minor Updates
I've updated the link for the Bernie compatibility list (thanks Henrik) and the links to Huibert Aalbars IIGS homepage from the pages Laser Force and Jigsaw, which are devoted to h…
Sarien URL
Oops. Forgot to include the URL for the Sarien AGI Interpreter . I've also cleaned up some layout problems, which were effecting both Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer separ…
Time for some News
It's time for some news. Thanks to everyone for the compliments since the page's public announcement during Easter. It's really made the site worthwhile. Just remember, I'm open to…
The Site Officially Opens!
The site opens! Please both enjoy and contribute to the Apple IIGS Gaming Memory Fairway to help make it one of the most comprehensive gaming archives available.