Asimov Uploads..
Chris M
read. I uploaded them to Asimov, about 180 disk images, with about 75
of them being MECC disks (de-protected with MECCOPY.)
// CHRIS
Steve "Usotsuki" Nickolas
*_*
Now all I have to do is wait for them to enter the main archive.
Some of these disks may be disks I've been dying to find for years. T_T
-uso.
Jeff Blakeney
<usot...@verizon.net> wrote:
>Now all I have to do is wait for them to enter the main archive.
And possibly wait for MECC to come along and ask for them to be
removed which they have done in the past.
--
Jeff Blakeney - Dean of the Apple II University in the
Apple II Community on Syndicomm.com
CUT the obvious from my address if you want to e-mail me
Dick Sisco
<CUTjbl...@sympatico.ca> wrote:
>On Fri, 09 Apr 2004 23:33:55 GMT, "Steve \"Usotsuki\" Nickolas"
><usot...@verizon.net> wrote:
>
>>Now all I have to do is wait for them to enter the main archive.
>
>And possibly wait for MECC to come along and ask for them to be
>removed which they have done in the past.
I would be very surprised if MECC objected as the company no longer
exists. They were swallowed up by Softkey International in 1995 and
the company name "MECC" was discontinued the next year, In 1999 the
Minneapolis offices of what had been MECC closed. The last I heard,
Mattel had purchased Softkey International (by then renamed The
Learning Company), but as far as I know, they are not actively in the
software business.
At least one of the motivations for objecting to including MECC Apple
II software on archive sites was the fact that "Oregon Trail" was one
of those titles. MECC was very protective of the title (they were
still producing Mac and Windows versions). They were also still
producing Apple II software until at least 1995 (although there might
have been a small release in 1996, but that would have been just
repackaged National Geographic titles).
I can't promise you that Mattel (or whoever owns the titles now won't
object), but the last employee with an Apple II in his cube and the
only one still paying any attention to the Apple II newsgroups and
archives, left the company in 1997.
--Dick Sisco
(former MECC Programmer)
Chris M
Thanks for the info. Hopefully no one will really care. Lord knows
if MECC has original copies stashed away safely or not-- and the
titles I have are on disks that are just getting older. I'd just like
to see as much Apple II software saved as possible. Lord knows that
many people consider it junk from yesterday and have no problem
throwing them into the local landfill.
// CHRIS
Rubywand
Thanks, Chris. Looks like we can finally remove Odell Lake from the Asimov
Want List.
Rubywand
dj_lx
Can you tell us exactly what the "Asimov" server's internet addrss?
dj_lx
Martin Doherty
Willi Kusche
Martin Doherty <martin....@undisclosed.com> wrote in message news:<8TUjc.29$WN3...@news.oracle.com>...
> ftp://ftp.apple.asimov.net/pub/apple_II/images/
The address actually ends with ".net". The remaining names are
names of directories within the site. "/pub/apple_II" gets you to the
Apple II stuff.
Willi
Obsbedia2
(former MECC Programmer) >>
Cool! What titles did you work on?
JaY
Dick Sisco
On the Apple II:
Time Navigator
Bluegrass Bluff
History Makers
Wonderland Puzzles
The Network Utility
The Copy System
Assembler routines for several others
The 1996 Apple II distribution (9 adapted National Geographic titles
e. g. Zoo Builder, Mamals 1 and 2)
On Mac and Windows:
Odel Down Under
Math Keys (several titles)
Oregon Trail III
I started in 1990, after the "Golden Era" and just before the Mac LC
was announced. I left in 1997, about a year before the Learning
Company (aka Softkeys International) closed the doors.
I'm not sure the National Geographic titles were ever actually
released. If they were, they were only sent to member schools. If
not, 1995 was the last Apple II release with Wolly's Birthday,
Quilting Bee, Get Well Woolly, Flip-Flop and Move Over, Mother Goose.
Sure miss those days.
--Dick Sisco
Obsbedia2
released. If they were, they were only sent to member schools. If
not, 1995 was the last Apple II release with Wolly's Birthday,
Quilting Bee, Get Well Woolly, Flip-Flop and Move Over, Mother Goose.
Sure miss those days.
--Dick Sisco
>>
Hi Dick,
Our district had a district license for MECC and I've laid my hands on
everything they bought for the Apple II, Mac, and IBM, but there are now
National Geographic programs for the Apple II. What are they like and in whose
bottom file drawer do they now reside?
Yep, we have the 1995 titles.
JaY
Obsbedia2
Time Navigator
Bluegrass Bluff
History Makers
Wonderland Puzzles
The Network Utility
The Copy System
Assembler routines for several others >>
Great! Now, I know that you have a life, and this question sounds like I don't
know that you don't still work at MECC, but since you worked on The Network
Utility disk, can you tell me the steps to install it on a single hard drive?
The manual just says to call MECC, which I did, back in '95 or so. The
school's copy of the network utility, on the back of the most current MECC Copy
System disk, was a more recent disk/version than the technical support fellow
at MECC had. He just didn't know how to make it work on a single hard drive
for the Apple IIe in the classroom.
I've gotten the program to install and to install MECC images on the hard
drive, and the MECC Utility program sees them, but crashes each time it tries
to launch them.
Sure would be nice to run the Muncher series off of the hard drive! I'm
getting a new classroom next year (okay, they're refurbishing the old school
office that had a fire in it two years ago), and I still have hopes of setting
up my Apple II network in the classroom.
JaY
Apple II User for Life, except for Arizonia Mix and Yukon Trail--I don't think
I'll ever figure a way through those two MECC programs.
Steve "Usotsuki" Nickolas
> Great! Now, I know that you have a life, and this question sounds like I don't
> know that you don't still work at MECC, but since you worked on The Network
> Utility disk, can you tell me the steps to install it on a single hard drive?
> The manual just says to call MECC, which I did, back in '95 or so. The
> school's copy of the network utility, on the back of the most current MECC Copy
> System disk, was a more recent disk/version than the technical support fellow
> at MECC had. He just didn't know how to make it work on a single hard drive
> for the Apple IIe in the classroom.
>
> I've gotten the program to install and to install MECC images on the hard
> drive, and the MECC Utility program sees them, but crashes each time it tries
> to launch them.
>
> Sure would be nice to run the Muncher series off of the hard drive! I'm
> getting a new classroom next year (okay, they're refurbishing the old school
> office that had a fire in it two years ago), and I still have hopes of setting
> up my Apple II network in the classroom.
>
> JaY
Hm, it'd be nice to try to shove a few MECC proggies onto a 1.44 MB
"Dapple Megadisk", I wonder if it could be done the same way... *_*
-uso.
Dick Sisco
Dinosaurs
Mammals
Plants
Golden Spike: Sacramento to Omaha and Omaha to Sacramento
Zoo Builder
Zoo Keeper (?)
Golden Spike simulated building the transcontinental railroad.
Simpler than Oregon trail and other MECC titles, but of the same ilk.
Zoo Builder was a very simple Sim City knock off and I think Zoo
Keeper was similar.
I don't remember a thing about the Dinosaurs, Mammals, and Plants
programs.
All were mostly BASIC with a few assembly routines. As I recall, the
Zoo series ran assembly out of the language card--just the opposite of
the later MECC programs which ran BASIC in AUX and assembly in MAIN.
One was a compiled BASIC. The Zoos were fast DOS (3.3) based. The
others were ProDOS based I think.
These were titles produced for The National Geographic Society, I
suspect, by three separate free lancers, and most were originally
published prior to 1990. They were available commercially under the
National Geographic Society logo.
MECC purchased them, probably in 1997 and I removed the copy
protection (actually I had put the copy protection on the National
Geographic Disks when I worked for a disk duplicator, so it wasn't a
really hard job), removed the reference to National Geographic, and
tried to get them to work with the Network Utility and on a 3.5" disk.
(I don't think I ever got the Zoo programs to network).
They were supposed to be released to member schools in 1997, but I
don't know if they ever were. If they were, I don't know how many
schools actually got them. This may have been a very limited release.
I'm sure the modified masters are long gone. But there should be
copies of the National Geographic versions floating around. I think
Golden Spike and the Zoo programs were fairly popular.
The actual _last_ release of MECC Apple II software may have been for
the Tiger Learning Computer. Sometime after the end of Apple II
development MECC licensed 5 old titles (including Oregon Trail) to
Tiger Learning who were producing a super inexpensive diskless 6502
Apple II Clone. These titles went into ROM or onto cartridges. I do
recall the machine being sold for about $75 in discount stores. Has
anyone ever seen one?
--Dick Sisco