Google Groups no longer supports new Usenet posts or subscriptions. Historical content remains viewable.
Dismiss

Apple II emulator for iOS?

2,247 views
Skip to first unread message

limtc

unread,
Sep 19, 2010, 7:30:22 AM9/19/10
to
It seems that Apple has relax the rule enough that the C64 emulator
with BASIC is now allowed for App Store! An Amiga emulator is coming
soon too from the same developers.

Anyone now willing to port Apple II/IIGS emulators to iOS (especially
now iPad or iPhone 4 have higher resolution than Apple IIGS)? I am
willing to pay for it... and more if it comes with good Apple II
software...

sicklittlemonkey

unread,
Sep 19, 2010, 9:17:40 AM9/19/10
to
On Sep 19, 11:30 pm, limtc <thyech...@gmail.com> wrote:
> It seems that Apple has relax the rule enough that the C64 emulator
> with BASIC is now allowed for App Store! An Amiga emulator is coming
> soon too from the same developers.

Here's one link:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/18/as-apple-relaxes-app-store-rules-c64-emulator-for-ios-gets-basi/

> Anyone now willing to port Apple II/IIGS emulators to iOS (especially
> now iPad or iPhone 4 have higher resolution than Apple IIGS)? I am
> willing to pay for it... and more if it comes with good Apple II
> software...

The problem for an Apple II emulator will be Applesoft copyright being
shared by both Apple and Microsoft.

Cheers,
Nick.

mmphosis

unread,
Sep 19, 2010, 2:48:53 PM9/19/10
to
On Sep 19, 4:30 am, limtc <thyech...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Anyone now willing to port Apple II/IIGS emulators to iOS (especially
> now iPad or iPhone 4 have higher resolution than Apple IIGS)? I am
> willing to pay for it... and more if it comes with good Apple II
> software...

* I am downloading the iOS SDK
* my Intel-based Mac is awaiting delivery of a part.
* I have no plans to acquire an iPad or iPhone 4

- Xcode 3.2 requires an Intel-based Mac running Mac OS X Snow Leopard
version 10.6.4 or later. (the upgrade from Tiger is $29, and more
upgrade$ may be required in subsequent years)
- Apple may require that I subscribe, possibly $99/year (and subject
to change of terms)
- You understand and agree that Applications developed using these SDK
materials cannot be installed or used on an iOS Product
or submitted to the App Store unless You enter into a separate iOS
Developer Program Agreement with Apple and comply with
the Program Requirements.
- An Application may not download or install executable code.
Interpreted code may only be used in an Application if all scripts,
code and
interpreters are packaged in the Application and not downloaded. The
only
exception to the foregoing is scripts and code downloaded and run by
Apple's
built-in WebKit framework.
- An Application may only read data from or write data to an
Application's designated container area on the device, except as
otherwise
specified by Apple.
- If Your Application includes or will include any other content, You
must either own all such content or have permission from the content
owner to
use it in Your Application.
- If Your Application includes any FOSS, You agree to comply with all
applicable FOSS licensing terms. You also agree not to use any FOSS in
the
development of Your Application in such a way that would cause the non-
FOSS
portions of the Apple Software to be subject to any FOSS licensing
terms or
obligations.

limtc

unread,
Sep 20, 2010, 5:25:04 AM9/20/10
to
On 9月19日, 下午9时17分, sicklittlemonkey <nick.westg...@gmail.com> wrote:

> The problem for an Apple II emulator will be Applesoft copyright being
> shared by both Apple and Microsoft.

Oh, that's bad.

I thought Commodore 64 Basic is also from Microsoft - so this is
probably not an issue for Microsoft (or Apple). The big issue will be
the Apple ROM.

M.O.B. i L.

unread,
Sep 20, 2010, 12:40:34 PM9/20/10
to

I think Commodore bought off BASIC from Microsoft and then developed it
on their own.

limtc

unread,
Sep 27, 2010, 8:51:05 PM9/27/10
to
After Commodore 64 (and soon coming Amiga) emulator for iOS, now comes
ZX Spectrum for iOS!

http://toucharcade.com/2010/09/27/elite-to-bring-zx-spectrum-elite-collection-vol-1-to-the-iphone/

Really needs an Apple II/IIGS emulator for iOS if possible...

dealcash

unread,
Oct 28, 2010, 11:56:43 AM10/28/10
to
On 28 sep, 02:51, limtc <thyech...@gmail.com> wrote:
> After Commodore 64 (and soon coming Amiga) emulator for iOS, now comes
> ZX Spectrum for iOS!
>
> http://toucharcade.com/2010/09/27/elite-to-bring-zx-spectrum-elite-co...

>
> Really needs an Apple II/IIGS emulator for iOS if possible...

lets go to my blog to run Apple II emulator on your Ipad :
(in french) :
http://galamoon.blogspot.com/

limtc

unread,
Oct 28, 2010, 9:20:35 PM10/28/10
to
On 10月28日, 下午11时56分, dealcash <dealc...@yahoo.fr> wrote:

> lets go to my blog to run Apple II emulator on your Ipad :
> (in french) :http://galamoon.blogspot.com/

Oh, if I saw your post earlier I will get iDOS! I never thought of
that!

iDOS is no longer available... sign.

dealcash

unread,
Oct 31, 2010, 6:43:39 PM10/31/10
to

you can download it here : http://galamoon.blogspot.com/2010/10/jouer-250-jeux-apple-ii-sur-son-ipad.html
(first link)
but you have to use an jailbreaked iphone or ipad.

Michael AppleWin Debugger

unread,
Dec 19, 2010, 6:50:36 PM12/19/10
to
Almost none of the applications (games) I'm interested in use Applesoft.

It shouldn't be _that_ hard to create a new .ROM ... Hmmm, this sounds like a fun project ... ;-) Of course there is that DOS 3.3 thing too ... again, another project.

Michael

Steve Nickolas

unread,
Dec 20, 2010, 5:02:24 PM12/20/10
to

I did one but it lacked a BASIC (used Applesoft; mostly worked with
Integer also).

My last (.15) version seems to be lost, but .14 survives, might be a bit
buggier.

-uso.

amanda....@gmail.com

unread,
Aug 29, 2019, 2:00:14 PM8/29/19
to
I'm new at this, can someone tell me is this emulator for apple II https://www.retrostic.com/emulators/apple-2/applewin is ok for playing the old roms?

David Schmidt

unread,
Aug 29, 2019, 2:08:08 PM8/29/19
to
On 8/29/19 2:00 PM, amanda....@gmail.com wrote:
> I'm new at this, can someone tell me is this emulator for apple II https://www.retrostic.com/emulators/apple-2/applewin is ok for playing the old roms?

AppleWin is a great emulator for Windows to run Apple II software (we
generally don't call disk images "ROMs", unlike many other retro
communities). The latest AppleWin can be found here:
https://github.com/AppleWin/AppleWin

James Davis

unread,
Aug 31, 2019, 12:27:42 PM8/31/19
to
AppleWin is the best Apple II emulator available!

Ewen

unread,
Sep 1, 2019, 2:42:36 AM9/1/19
to
> AppleWin is the best Apple II emulator available!

If you only use Apple products, then Sweet16 is the best Apple II and
IIgs emulator available!

James Davis

unread,
Sep 1, 2019, 12:38:29 PM9/1/19
to
Okay.

I should have said:

AppleWin is the best Apple II emulator available!--For me, running on Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit).

Bobbi Webber-Manners

unread,
Sep 1, 2019, 8:03:09 PM9/1/19
to
I wonder how good AppleWin can be. I run Linux wherever I can, and I have been trying to use Linapple, which claims to be a port of AppleWin to Linux. I have found quite a lot of bugs and issues in Linapple, to the extent that I can't really use in on my Raspberry Pi 4 (which lives inside my //e). Maybe AppleWin is in better shape. I am not sure how long ago Linapple forked from it ...

On the Linux side, GSPort is very good, but it is a IIgs emulator not //e. When I need a //e emulator, MAME seems to be the best I have found on Linux, but it is not very user friendly. Also MAME uses stupid .CHD compressed hard drive files and writes to a 'diff' file rather than updating the image.

I would love to have a good //e emulator for Linux, of the same quality as GSPort. However I don't think I have the time and energy for such a project. The main thing lacking from GSPort on Linux is full-screen mode. I think that works on Windows though (or maybe on Mac OS too.) Maybe one of these days I will try to see what it would take to implement full-screen mode on Linux.

Michael AppleWin Debugger Dev

unread,
Sep 3, 2019, 1:05:02 PM9/3/19
to
> I wonder how good AppleWin can be.

It is good, but it can always be better! Though the same could be said for any [Apple] emulator. It really depends on what you are doing and if/how well the emulator supports it. Broadly ALL emulators can be categorized in 3 areas:

* Hardware support
* Software support
* UI QoL / UX (User Interface Quality of Life / User Experience)

That is, my short, incomplete list of judging emulators would include:

* How easy to use is it?
* How easy is it to compile out-of-the-box?
* How many features does it support out-of-the-box?
* How accurate as it? NTSC, quarter track disk support, cycle accurate timing, invalid opcodes, etc.
* How much can you customize it?
* How good is the debugger?
* How many peripherals does it emulate?
* How fast is it?

Every emulator has strengths and weaknesses. There are certain things in AppleWin that blow all the emulators out of the water and certain things that AppleWin sucks at. Every year the bar gets slowly raised. i.e. Emulators that don't support the half-pixel shift are archaic. The 2010's was the decade of accurate NTSC rendering in Apple 2 emulators. The 2020's will be the decade of bit-accurate disk nibble support.

/rant on

Most Open Source programs *suck* because you can't *easily* compile the dam thing. Many developers don't want to waste their time spending hours figuring out the dependency hell and jumping through hoops to get it to build.

/rant off


> I run Linux wherever I can, and I have been trying to use Linapple, which claims to be a port of AppleWin to Linux.

If LinApple does what *you* need -- great!

However, LinApple is an *unofficial* fork of AppleWin ~2007 (IIRC) sans certain features -- such as the debugger has been *completely* stripped -- which may or may not be important to you; if you *need* the debugger you are SOL. There have been many features and bugfixes added to the official AppleWin emulator in the last 10 years!

Someday we'll get around to it (*) -- a proper SDL port/rewrite so we can run natively on Linux and MacOS -- until then the best way is to use Wine or a VM to run the official AppleWin version -- if you need proper NTSC rendering, .woz support, etc.

Michael, AppleWin Developer


(*) /cue Round Tuit -- https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/round_tuit

Michael AppleWin Debugger Dev

unread,
Sep 3, 2019, 1:07:13 PM9/3/19
to
> https://www.retrostic.com/emulators/apple-2/applewin

Amanda, that's a mirror -- which may (or may not) be out-of-date.

The official AppleWin site is:

* https://github.com/AppleWin/AppleWin/

Cheers
Michael, AppleWin Developer

messd...@gmail.com

unread,
Sep 4, 2019, 2:09:30 PM9/4/19
to
On Sunday, September 1, 2019 at 8:03:09 PM UTC-4, Bobbi Webber-Manners wrote:
> Also MAME uses stupid .CHD compressed hard drive files and writes to a 'diff' file rather than updating the image.

If you create the CHD as uncompressed (-c none), MAME will write back to it directly.

And the newly released 0.213 supports raw and .2MG hard disk images, plus it writes directly back to both.

Antoine Vignau

unread,
Sep 5, 2019, 4:35:34 AM9/5/19
to
Michael,
Thank you. That is so true! Your message summarizes what I think about emulators.
For instance, in IIgs emulation, Sweet16 is great in UI and host integration but is less accurate in emulating the original machine than keGS and its children (no 3200 support, no border support, P16 pgms keep on crashing) but it is so easy to exchange data with the host that developing onto it is fine.

I remember I had to patch The Flaming Bird Disassembler to make its 80-col display run fin on Sweet16. The program was running flawlessly on a real machine.

I would say that a test phase on a real machine is mandatory as emulators cannot be trusted at 100% (yet).
Also, thanks to people like you who make emulators more accurate each day.

Antoine.nodebugger.fr

Bobbi Webber-Manners

unread,
Sep 8, 2019, 7:35:46 PM9/8/19
to
I didn't know about "-c none" ... that is pretty handy. Also looking forward to updating to 0.213.

Brian Patrie

unread,
Sep 8, 2019, 7:39:53 PM9/8/19
to
On 03/09/2019 12.05, Michael AppleWin Debugger Dev wrote:
> Every emulator has strengths and weaknesses.

That's why i (and i assume meny others) used multiple emulators.

My daily driver is GSplus, partly because i can do IIgs stuff in it, but
it also runs well under Linux.

When i need to paste a path to a disk image (especially a non-140k
image), i use KEGS, because it has a convenient GUI dialogue for that.
(The F4 dialogue can't accept pasting).

When i need to print to a file (e.g. list an AppleSoft programme), or i
want scanlines, i use AppleWin (under Wine), because printing to a file
is easy. I also mostly like its debugger. (I would probably use it
more regularly, if Wine ran it better.)

But i ramble. :)

Steve Nickolas

unread,
Sep 9, 2019, 5:50:18 PM9/9/19
to
I'll admit I haven't eaten my own dogfood very much in years. For a short
while I had the best freeware Apple ][ emulator, but AppleWin very quickly
surpassed it. xD

I did consider trying to rewrite AppleWin from scratch, the way my first
emulator originated as a rewrite of ApplePC. (ApplePC had some bugs;
qkumba's patch fixes at least some of them. A rewrite of AppleWin would
aim at portability rather than bugfixes.)

I mainly use 3 emulators: AppleWin, MAME and ApplePC, in that order.

-uso.

Michael AppleWin Debugger Dev

unread,
Sep 10, 2019, 1:32:43 PM9/10/19
to
Hey Steve

I used to use ApplePC before switching to AppleWin. (Even wrote a keyboard patch for ApplePC.)

What feature(s) of ApplePC do you use that aren't being met by AppleWin if you don't mind me asking.

Cheers,
Michael

Steve Nickolas

unread,
Sep 10, 2019, 3:55:24 PM9/10/19
to
Mostly obscure stuff - I hacked my configuration to use EDM instead of
the regular ROM, I've had somewhat better luck printing from it than from
AppleWin (might be pilot error here), and sometimes I just prefer the user
interface. Mainly, though, it has to do with swapping larger disk images
around like floppies - it's certainly easier to do it in ApplePC.

Also one of my computers is an original Pentium and runs MS-DOS 5 and
Windows for Workgroups 3.11, so... ;p

-uso.
0 new messages