Category: News

News and announcements for Juiced.GS.

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The March 2011 issue in-depth

Volume 16, Issue 1 (March 2011)

As announced yesterday, the first issue of the sixteenth volume of Juiced.GS is now arriving in all subscriber’s mailboxes, having been mailed four days ago.

The most striking feature about this issue is the full-color cover. The past year has been good to Juiced.GS, and we’ve reinvested that fortune back into our print publication. The cover sports artwork by artist and Leadlight game designer Wade Clarke, who not only gave Gamebits permission to reprint his piece but who also did some custom revision for our purposes. The product of his effort also marks the first Juiced.GS cover to feature artwork, instead of a photograph or screenshot.

The story that goes with this cover is Ivan Drucker’s review of Leadlight, framed in the larger context of the potential and struggles faced by the interactive fiction genre. This in-depth piece represents Juiced.GS‘s first Apple Core feature.

Another first is Martin Haye’s introduction to the Apple II. Our retrocomputing community includes many enthusiasts who are dusting off their Apple II for the first time in decades, or even acquiring their first Apple II machine from eBay. Martin welcomes those new to the hobby or interested in joining by looking at likely places to get Apple II hardware and software, kicking off a three-piece series that will review everything one needs to know to get an Apple II up and running.

By contrast, this issue also includes the last installment in another series, that being what the Juiced.GS staff have familiarly been referring to as “the file transfer series”. Directed by Ewen Wannop, this five-part series has featured contributions from almost every one of our staff writers, describing ways to exchange files between an Apple II and a Mac, Windows, or UNIX machine, and what to do with the files once they’re there. This series has been literally years in the making; now that it’s done, we’re reviewing all the changes that have occurred in retrocomputing technology since we first outlined the series, so that we can start revising it for its next iteration.

Finally, occasional contributor Peter Neubauer returns to our pages with an exclusive interview with Alan Floeter, creator of Macrosoft and The Assembler. Look for exclusive bonus content from this profile tomorrow on the Juiced.GS blog.

My Home Page, DumplinGS, Random Numbers, and a full-page, full-color advertisement for KansasFest round out this issue’s twenty pages. These stories are indexed in our exhaustive online database and this issue’s own page, with additional resources listed in the online issue links.

With this issue under our belt, we’re hard at work on the next. Be sure to get yours by subscribing today!

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Enjoy Juiced.GS Volume 16, Issue 1 (March 2011)

Volume 16, Issue 1 (March 2011)
Volume 16, Issue 1 (March 2011)

Behind this publication’s first-ever full-color cover, you’ll find a review of text adventure Leadlight and the larger interactive fiction industry it represents; an interview with Alan Floeter, creator of Macrosoft and The Assembler; an overview of Mac, Windows, and Linux utilities for managing Apple II disk images and files; an introduction to the retrocomputing hobby; and much, much more!

Check out this issue’s links to online resources for more related content.

Don’t be left out — sign up for a 2011 subscription!
Get the latest Apple II news, reviews, interviews, and how-tos,
delivered right to your mailbox.

Now available: the entire 2010 volume at a discounted rate!

Not sure what to think? Check out our sample content!

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Striking at the core of the Apple

Pick up any magazine, and by its nature, it’ll have a cover story. It could be anything from a review of a groundbreaking new product to a profile of a famous individual to coverage of a recent event.

Juiced.GS publishes all these kinds of stories and more, but there’s one story that’s uncommon in our pages: the feature. The subjects of feature stories can be as diverse as any cover story, but what distinguishes them are original research, many interviews, and the tying together of several disparate threads into a long story that’s in-depth yet of broad interest.

That’s not something that Juiced.GS has done much of, which is why the cover story of our March issue is so exciting. It takes a topic familiar to all retrocomputing enthusiasts users — text adventures — and examines its evolution not only on the Apple II but on other classic and modern hardware, looking at the triumphs and challenges the genre has faced both thirty years ago and today. Everyone from Eamon Adventurer’s Guild founder Tom Zuchowski to current-day interactive fiction spokesperson Andrew Plotkin spoke to Juiced.GS on this subject, resulting in a comprehensive review of the IF scene.

Juiced.GS has a taxonomy by which stories are filed, such as MusinGS (interviews), Cover ][ Cover (book reviews), and My Home Page (editorial). I scrolled through the Juiced.GS index, trying to find an existing category for this cover story. The closest matches I could find were the unimaginative “Cover story” or, in one instance, the similarly uninspired “Feature”.

As we hope to publish more feature stories, the staff decided to create a new genre of Juiced.GS article: “Apple Core”. These stories are meaty, in-depth pieces that go to the heart of what it means to be an Apple II user with elements to which all Juiced.GS readers can relate. As Apple Cores may require more research than, say, a subjective review or a one-on-one interview, we’ll be limited to publishing one or two Apple Cores a year.

As always, we welcome your feedback on this direction as well as your suggestions for additional topics to pursue under this banner. In the meantime, we hope you enjoy the first Apple Core.

… but this story won’t be the first thing you notice about the new issue.

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The December 2010 issue in-depth

Volume 15, Issue 4 (December 2010)

As announced yesterday, the sixtieth issue of the world’s longest-running Apple II publication has now shipped to all domestic and international subscribers.

Though the cover photo may suggest we’ve strayed from our focus of Apple II coverage, Mike Maginnis’s piece on the Apple III is right in line with our mission statement. Rather than tread old ground by reviewing what made this machine Apple Computer, Inc.’s first commercial failure, Mike dissects the technological advances that debuted in the Apple III and were eventually incorporated into models of the Apple II. It’s a great piece about the overlooked origin of aspects of our favorite computer.

Perhaps the issue’s most substantial piece is an interview with Wayne Bibbens, who has been selling Apple II hardware and software for more than twenty years. After being featured in the documentary Welcome to Macintosh, reviewed in our December 2009 issue, Wayne’s phone has been ringing off the hook! Rather than get in the queue for his attention via phone or email, Juiced.GS associate editor Andy Molloy drove to Bibbens’ store and got a personal tour and interview, complete with photos.

This issue’s installment of our five-part series on transferring files between the Apple II and a modern computer covers the reading of physical media (floppy disks, hard drives, CD-ROMs, and CompactFlash) as well as how to convert those same volumes into disk images. It was a fun challenge to get the wisdom and expertise of Tony Diaz, Ivan Drucker, Mike Maginnis, and myself all into a single article!

Hot on the heels of the KansasFest 2010 debut of Slammer is a behind-the-scenes look at its creation by its inventor, Ivan Drucker. This utility makes it possible to executes monitor commands from within Applesoft programs without requiring any external routines.

Martin Haye provides Juiced.GS with what could be the first piece of fiction we have ever published. His short story of two detectives puzzling over the disastrous consequences of an innocuous PEEK command is a fun read for programmers and budding sleuths alike.

Our regular columns round out this issue. In the quarterly editorial, I talk about how my academic pursuits have influenced Juiced.GS, and vice versa. DumplinGS reveals the KansasFest 2010 keynote speaker and looks at other recent events in the Apple II community, while hinting at content to be found in our March issue. Eric Shepherd’s back-page column makes a call for the tools necessary to support a thriving Apple II development community. Interested in being a part of this project? Drop us a line!

The envelope in which your December issue will arrive includes a reminder of whether or not you’ve renewed for 2011. If you haven’t, you can use the enclosed order form to ensure you receive another four issues of the last Apple II publication still in print. If you missed the 2010 volume entirely, all four issues can now be purchased for only $16, which includes shipping anywhere in the world. This volume is also now included in our print bundle and “Everything Juiced.GS” bundle.

Online resources referenced in this issue are indexed in the issue links. I think this issue marks a new record — I counted 35 URLs! Since not all our readers have easy or any access to the Internet, we do try to provide offline alternatives whenever possible. But so much commerce is conducted online these days, and print space is at such a premium, that it’s impractical and nearly impossible to offer a postal address and phone number for each and every resource. I will continue to accommodate requests for this information, as has happened with the occasional postal letter to the editor.

This issue is also indexed in our exhaustive online database and is outlined on its own page.

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Enjoy Juiced.GS Volume 15, Issue 4 (December 2010)

Volume 15, Issue 4 (December 2010)
Volume 15, Issue 4 (December 2010)

This issue features an interview with Apple II retailer and collector Wayne Bibbens, who was featured in the documentary Welcome to Macintosh; an analysis of technologies introduced in the failed Apple III that were more successfully deployed in the Apple II; a comprehensive guide to accessing ProDOS disks on modern computers, and how to convert those volumes to disk images; a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of Ivan Drucker’s Slammer; and much, much more!

Check out this issue’s links to online resources for more related content.

Don’t be left out — sign up for a 2011 subscription!
Get the latest Apple II news, reviews, interviews, and how-tos,
delivered right to your mailbox.

Now available: the entire 2010 volume at a discounted rate!

Not sure what to think? Check out our sample content!