Open Apple #53 (November 2015) : David Schroeder, Phreaking, 8-bit Mice

In show #53 of Open Apple, the only Apple II podcast, Quinn & Mike chat with David Schroeder about his games, Crisis Mountain and Dino Eggs, and take a look at ESPN's minidoc on phreaking.

This month on Open Apple we sit down with David Schroeder, author of classic Apple II games such as Crisis Mountain, Dino Eggs, and Short Circuit. We talk about the randomness of our passionate brand-loyalty, the logistical realities of early Apple II development, and the magical era of “one-person, one-game”. We get into a lot of the technical details of Crisis Mountain and Dino Eggs, so you might pick up some tips for your own Apple II projects! David also has great memories of the economic and design realities of the time, where everyone was scrambling to figure out what a computer game was, and what players really wanted. Game developers are still fighting that battle, but at least we have a definition of “video game” now.

We’re sharing David’s games in the show notes below, with his permission! In exchange, he asks that you patronize, share and support Dino Eggs: Rebirth.

After that we jam through some quick news, bask in the fallout (see what I did there?) of the GEOS episode, and we get down and dirty with rodents. Do you have the GS with the bigger Em Bees? Trust us, you want the bigger Em Bees.

You might notice that we’re continuing to tighten up the show. Let us know how you feel about this trend in our show length! Do you like the shorter episodes? Miss the epic three hour monsters? Email us at feedback (at) open-apple (dot) net. We have social media too, but we can never remember which ones.

More information on everything discussed in this episode, after the jump.

David H. Schroeder – His personal site, including info on Dino Eggs: Rebirth.Dino Eggs: Rebirth – A modern take on the classic- vote for it on Steam Greenlight!Gamasutra Blog – David’s series of articles on his development of all these games.Crisis Mountain – Play it yourself!Dino Eggs – Definitely play it yourself!Short Circuit – Shut up and go play this right the hell now!Ho! Ho! Ho! Family Christmas Games – A lesser-known work of David’s- a fave of his!Happy Birthday To You – Reference to David’s SoftDisk birthday game. We weren’t able to find an actual copy of this, but if anyone knows the SoftDisk issue this was in, let us know.Fallout 84 – Woulda, coulda, shoulda. Much like Fallout itself, an alternate history.Phreaking Mini-doc – A look back at Woz’s Blue Boxes, on ESPN for some reason.Ultimate Micro 8MB Cards – So many megabytes! All the megabytes!Review of UM’s Card – Dagen Brock gives us a (very) quick tour.Call A.P.P.L.E. Magazine is back! – They never really left.Juiced.GS – Reigns supreme as the longest continuously published Apple II Magazine.Mouse Programming – A talk Quinn gave at KFest about mouse differences and such.The post Open Apple #53 (November 2015) : David Schroeder, Phreaking, 8-bit Mice first appeared on Open Apple.