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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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Structured Applesoft online supplements

Structured Applesoft screenshot

Shortly after Ivan Drucker joined the Juiced.GS staff last fall, he shared with me a concept he was working on: Structured Applesoft. It’s a new way of programming in a familiar language that makes the programs easier to develop, read, and edit, all without requiring new software, routines, or patches.

Structured Applesoft screenshot

Ivan started detailing the concepts of Structured Applesoft in the December 2009 issue and finished in March 2010. The limits of the print edition prevented him from fully outlining all the guidelines he’d devised, though, so we decided to save some of the more esoteric ideas for online, where interested parties could explore them without pushing out more general-interest topics from the print edition.

In the process of crafting this final installment, Ivan found an obscure error with some of the code that was printed in this week’s issue of Juiced.GS. Though a correction will appear in the June issue, we decided to include this update with the other content that was already intended for our Web site.

The correction and two supplements are now available online. You can view the material as a Web page or as a Juiced.GS-style PDF. Ivan has also provided a sample program that demonstrates these Structured Applesoft concepts. Links to these pages have been added to the issue links for Volume 15, Issue 1.

We hope you find these files to be useful elaborations on this approach to BASIC programming. Thanks to Ivan for pursuing this topic so thoroughly!

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Volume 15, Issue 1 now shipping

Volume 15, Issue 1 (March 2010)

Volume 15, Issue 1 coverIt’s nearly the end of the calendar year’s first quarter, which can mean only one thing: another issue of Juiced.GS has shipped to all domestic and international subscribers!

The 24-page March issue features several in-depth articles, including Mike Maginnis’ review of the iDisk card; the first of a four-part tutorial on transferring files to and from an Apple II; the conclusion to Ivan Drucker’s guidelines for programming in Structured Applesoft; and more. There were more engrossing articles than could fit into our usual 20-page format; I hope nobody minds the extra content.

One of this issue’s articles is a collaborative effort by members of the Apple II community who came together to commemorate Joe Kohn, who passed away earlier this year. If you’re a subscriber who can’t wait for your issue, this tribute is being offered as a free PDF download; if you aren’t a subscriber, then I invite you to share these memories of Joe.

There will be additional online content posted soon, as Ivan’s Structured Applesoft article touches upon some complex concepts that will be elaborated upon in bonus material he’s crafting for our Web site. Look for his sample code to be listed in the issue links as soon as it’s ready.

The Juiced.GS staff worked hard and had fun putting together this issue. I regret only that their hard work in helping ensure the issue is as accurate and polished as possible means they won’t have the pleasure of reading it for the first time when it arrives in the mailboxes later this week. The least I can do is buy them a drink at KansasFest — though in the case of associate editor Andy Molloy, I’ll pay that debt sooner than that. With our deadlines behind us, we can focus on having fun on the PAX show floor when we meet up in Boston tomorrow for a weekend of fun and games.

Enjoy the issue! Questions, comments, suggestions, or concerns? Please email us, or leave a comment on the blog!