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4am

@4am.bsky.social
3.7K followers 189 following 8.4K posts

gopher://sdf.org:70/1/users/a2.4am he/him

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The Halo-Halo Librarian 🇵🇭🇺🇲👩🏽‍💻📚 @infoandhalohalo.bsky.social · 25/07/2025
I just verified my age by referencing green screen Apple IIes.
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4am @4am.bsky.social · 25/07/2025
Oh hey, I released that. @jmechner.bsky.social sent me his personal collection of floppy disks for imaging about 9 years ago, and this unreleased game was part of it.
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Sasha's Retrobytes 🏳️‍⚧️ @sharkabytes.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
Apple IIe City Skylines at Night. 💜 This is my first time playing the unreleased Apple IIe original version of D/Generation, one of my favourite proto-survival horror-ish games. Going to sit here and take in the twinkling metropolis for a while before moving on.
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4am @4am.bsky.social · 31/05/2025
This is called an attempted murder.
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4am @4am.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
I can't explain it, but Print Shop *deserves* this font. (based on the amazing "Kablammo" github.com/Vectro-Type-...) #AppleII #retrocomputing
black and white Print Shop sign with old-school Apple logo and Blammo font sampler
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4am @4am.bsky.social · 15/01/2025
Fraction Action (1985, unpreserved, PACE encrypted protection check of wobbly flux timings, cracked by qkumba) archive.org/details/Frac... This is one of the oldest titles on Macintosh Garden's "most wanted" list of unpreserved vintage Mac software. Now preserved! #retrocomputing
archive.org
Fraction Action (san inc crack) : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
Fraction Action is a 1985 educational game developed by David Howard Flatman and Ray Tripamer, and distributed by Unicorn Software. It self-boots and runs on...
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4am @4am.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
This broke me.
Our next-door neighbor texted us, saying that she would actually be able to make it to a meeting next week with our landlord with a shared beef we’re having with them. Originally she thought she would have to work during the time the meeting was scheduled. She works at a school in the Palisades. Her school burned down. So had her sister’s house. I saw my neighbor right before we left. I told her I would be back on Friday. I had a flashback to my last day in the VICE office in March 2020, when they sent us home for COVID. I told everyone I would see them in a week or two. Some of those people I never saw again.
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4am @4am.bsky.social · 04/01/2025
The next version of Total Replay will show super hi-res artwork while loading a game on supported hardware. This works on the 16-bit Apple IIgs and any 8-bit Apple II with a VidHD card — even an Apple ][+! More than ⅔ of the games have artwork [thanks Alex L, Andrew R, et al.] #retrocomputing
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4am @4am.bsky.social · 26/12/2024
The Print Shop (clean crack, full write-up) archive.org/details/TheP... Read: archive.org/download/The... #AppleII #retrocomputing
title screenshot from "The Print Shop" by David Balsam and Martin Kahn, ©1984 Pixellite Software, presented by Broderbund Softwareflux visualization of "The Print Shop" disk side A
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4am @4am.bsky.social · 26/12/2024
The Print Shop (clean crack, full write-up) archive.org/details/TheP... Read: archive.org/download/The... #AppleII #retrocomputing
title screenshot from "The Print Shop" by David Balsam and Martin Kahn, ©1984 Pixellite Software, presented by Broderbund Softwareflux visualization of "The Print Shop" disk side A
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Steven Rich @datab.ae · 05/11/2024
remember that every dog you see with an “I voted” sticker is evidence of extremely serious voter fraud by those dogs
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4am @4am.bsky.social · 05/11/2024
She has not voted, because she is a dog. She eats blueberries and takes naps and looks cute. But 100% of her humans — a group that now spans three generations — have voted, some for the first time.
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4am @4am.bsky.social · 05/11/2024
The election ignorer
Photo of brindle French bulldog lying in a blue dog bed, burying her nose in the bed
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Julia Evans @b0rk.jvns.ca · 04/11/2024
I feel like half of programming is remembering how weird stuff works and the other half is setting things up so that you do not have to remember the weird stuff
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Ryan "UnionToTuple" Cavanaugh @searyanc.dev · 28/10/2024
Please check your kid's Halloween candy carefully. My kid accidently ate a UTF-8 mismatched surrogate pair last year and we spent three hours in the ER pumping �s out of his stomach
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fuckface "squeaky" from:me @skeet.best · 31/10/2024
Worf in jeans / he's directing all the Star Trek scenes / but the actor's name is Michael Dorn / maybe in this one he'll fight a Gorn / I'm really torn
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4am @4am.bsky.social · 31/10/2024
Apropos of nothing, "Worf In Jeans" has the same cadence in my head as the way Billy Joel sings "Uptown Girl." Do with this information what you will.
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Brendel @brendelbored.bsky.social · 31/10/2024
It’s Halloween post your Worfs in jeans
Worf wearing Jeans
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moof @antimoof.bsky.social · 30/10/2024
omg, Stickybear is Mavis Beacon's fursona!?
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weeder @weeder.bsky.social · 30/10/2024
Just learned that Mavis Beacon isn't a real person, pretty shook up
Box art of Software Toolworks Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing software featuring A MODEL with no typing tutor experience not named Mavis Beacon
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karanormal activity 💜 @deadontheoutside.bsky.social · 29/10/2024
if they have bread in the Cars universe i bet it's bumpernickel
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Keeby @keebyart.com · 28/10/2024
EPIC GAMER COMIC 27
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ceej @ceej.online · 28/10/2024
I do not want to "allow Zoom to access my microphone." I want to drive the little replica steam train that chugs around the park
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David Buchanan @retr0.id · 28/10/2024
it's funny when people assume I haven't heard of DRM before
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4am @4am.bsky.social · 27/10/2024
The sandwich not-haver
Photo of brindle boxer mix sitting on the floor looking up at the camera and the sandwich beyond the camera (not shown)
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4am @4am.bsky.social · 08/10/2024
Zara, who did nothing wrong, would like you to know that this is her bone (it is not her bone), her tennis ball (also no), and her rubber fish thing (jury is still out)
overhead photo of brindle French bulldog lying in a light blue dog bed
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Eric’s Edge @ericsedge.com · 26/10/2024
New t-shirts just dropped in my store. #HyperCard ericsedge.threadless.com
ericsedge.threadless.com
Eric's Edge | Featuring custom t-shirts, prints, and more
Eric's Edge Shop
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Popcornbender Spatch @spatch.bsky.social · 26/10/2024
I love the range of Apple II hi-res graphics complexity on display here and across eight years, even Also 4am's continuing work on good old computer stuff is legendary
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4am @4am.bsky.social · 26/10/2024
Probable (short for "ProDOS-bootable") is my new 496-byte Apple II utility to run DOS 3.3 programs on ProDOS: github.com/a2-4am/proba... Probable runs on any Apple ][ with 64K and is compatible with all ProDOS drivers. Most DOS programs can quit gracefully back to ProDOS by pressing Ctrl-Reset.
title screenshot from "Stickybear ABC"title screenshot from "Bumble Games"title screenshot from "The King's Rule"title screenshot from "Write It Right"
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Frank Cifaldi @frankcifaldi.bsky.social · 25/10/2024
The moment I became the Joker is when someone in charge of copyright law watched my GDC talk about how it's wrong to associate emulation with piracy and their takeaway was "emulation is associated with piracy."
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Thomas “Scary” Fuchs 🎃👻💀 @thomasfuchs.at · 24/10/2024
🕹️👾 Hey new peeps, check out my Retrocomputing starter pack! go.bsky.app/VEZLtHP
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Mateusz Fafinski @calthalas.bsky.social · 23/10/2024
Mistakes happen! If you forget to insert that one sentence in a paragraph the solution is easy. Just draw a dude in a hood and he will pull the missing text to the right place with a piece of rope! Walters Ms. W.102 Book of Hours, late 13th/early 14th C. www.thedigitalwalters.org/Data/Walters...
A figure in a late medieval manuscript drawn on a margin. They are pulling a missing piece of text on a rope and pointing to a place where it should be inserted.
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Adam McG @hulkintosh.bsky.social · 23/10/2024
Always remember to wear sunblock when you go outside.
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Emmy @emmfoolery.bsky.social · 21/10/2024
"Cool! Retro streamers! I love old games!" Don't ruin this for yourself.
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🏳️‍⚧️Jet Set Willært (Critical Kate) @katewillaert.bsky.social · 21/10/2024
Okay, I’m following the Starter Pack with an Expansion Pack. Tell me who should be in it who was not in the prev one, and who researches the history behind games — not just reviewing or summarizing old games — or is preserving materials that aid in such research. (You may nominate yourself.)
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Paul Rickards @paulrickards.bsky.social · 20/10/2024
Yes! I captured the output from the printer in Virtual ][ and then printed it to my ImageWriter II over AppleTalk with Netatalk’s pap. 😎 Although I had to change some of the line feeds to carriage returns to get it to work right: s/0A/0D/g s/0D0D/0A0D/g #RetroComputing #VintageMac #VintageApple
A print on an ImageWriter II with sheet feeder. A print from a dot matrix color printer with red heart border, green tiled printers with rainbow paper, and blue text that says TIL THE PRINT SHOP FOR APPLE IIE SUPPORTS IMAGEWRITER II COLOR.
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Paul Rickards @paulrickards.bsky.social · 20/10/2024
TIL The Print Shop for Apple IIe supports the ImageWriter II color ribbon! 😍 Wonder if it will work to capture the output from Virtual ][ and redirect to my real ImageWriter II. Did The Print Shop ever support ImageWriter over AppleTalk? #RetroComputing #VintageMac #VintageApple #ThePrintShop
A print with magenta hearts border, a grid arrangement of printers in green with rainbow printed on the paper, and the text in cyan on top "TIL THE PRINT SHOP FOR APPLE IIE SUPPORTS IMAGEWRITER II COLOR"
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Paul Rickards @paulrickards.bsky.social · 20/10/2024
Doing some thinking and printing today. #RetroComputing
The THINKING and PRINTING screens from The Print Shop on the Apple II, large black block letters on top of a continuously zooming rainbow color rectangles. The text below it says <ESC> TO PAUSE.
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fbf4976 @fbf4976.bsky.social · 20/10/2024
Mixing it up: fast lo-res screen fill demo for the Apple II. The demo itself was done in Integer BASIC; the subroutine that does the actual fill is coded in assembly. 🎉 #apple2 #appleii #retrocomputing #assembly #basic #graphics
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Kris Wolfheart @kriswolfhe.art · 19/10/2024
thinking of the most efficient way to fit 17 boxes into the smallest possible larger box and getting so pissed off I punch a hole in my wall
a diagram of the most efficient way to fit 17 squares into a larger square, found by john bidwell in 1997
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Cabel Sasser @cabel.panic.com · 19/10/2024
i hope this isn’t super creepy but sometimes when i get my old 90’s video game magazines from @gamehistoryorg.bsky.social i sometimes google random people and see what they’re up to today. it’s oddly comforting as we’re all on a similar life journey also sometimes i might email them
an ad for “scary larry’s ghost town” which was a 1-900 number — meaning you paid for every minute you were on the phone — adventure game.a close up of winners, including honorable mention to Korey Philpotan email from Korey Philpot saying “ scary Larry’s Ghost Town was a one 900 number puzzle and my parents HATED it!”
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shaunc @shaunc.bsky.social · 18/10/2024
And for the Apple II -- screen memory was just a block of memory. The algorithm made a beeline for the edge of the screen and then start filling the rest of memory.
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shaunc @shaunc.bsky.social · 18/10/2024
One of my first jobs ~1980: translating prototype educational games in IBM PC Basic into machine language on Apple II (6502). One game had "fill" functionality for American states. I solved w/ the usual recursive algorithm. Except that artist had left a pixel out in border of a coastal state.
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Caræsten 🇵🇸 @cara.city · 18/10/2024
imagine you show up to a fortune teller and she’s reading your fortunes with this setup
A video printer with a printout of the Justice card, an Apple IIc showing the same screen as the printer, some sunflowers
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Adam McG @hulkintosh.bsky.social · 18/10/2024
Today’s purchase: an Apple IIe with some neat interface cards.
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Thomas “Scary” Fuchs 🎃👻💀 @thomasfuchs.at · 18/10/2024
Bet you didn’t know that there were computers 34 years ago that could run Unix (specifically what is basically an early version of what modern Macs run), Windows and Mac OS at the same time. #retrocomputing
NeXTstation Color running SoftPC and a Macintosh emulator and of course NeXTSTEP; all at the same time.
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4am @4am.bsky.social · 18/10/2024
Nailed it.
screenshot from "Transylvania" with caption "From the ground rises an ethereal being: 'I am the Ghost of Transylvania Future. Save game 1-9?'"
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4am @4am.bsky.social · 18/10/2024
Reverse engineering the 5-bit text format used in Transylvania (1985, Polarware, Apple II) in preparation for changing the prompt from 3 save slots to 9 because I love you
game text is stored compressed similar to ZSCII
5 bits per value, $00..$1D are index into table 1 (lowercase letters)
$1E & $1F shift to table 2 & 3 then use next 5-bit value as index

save:

old prompt
Save 1,2,or 3?"

new prompt
Save game 1-9?"

$95B0 = 73 F0 FB 3F 1F B2 13 E7 E5 FD FC 9C 00
 covers part we want to change starting with "1"

|--73----||--F0---| |--FB---||--3F----||--1F---||--B2----||--13---| |--E7---||--E5----||--FD---||--FC----||--9C---| |--00--|
0 11100 11111 10000 11111 01100 11111 10001 11111 01100 10000 10011 11100 11111 10010 11111 11011 11111 00100 11100 00000000
   1C    1F    10    1F    0C    1F    11    1F    0C    10    13    1C    1F    12    1F    1B    1F    04    1C

00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 1A 1B 1C 1D
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
      a  b  c  d  e  f  g  h  i  j  k  l  m  n  o  p  q  r  s  t  u  v  w  x  y  z     .    table 1
      A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z  [  ]    table 2 (shift=$1E 11110)
      cr !  "  #  $  %  &  '  (  )  ,  -  /  0  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  :  ;  ?  <  >    table 3 (shift=$1F 11111)

 1,2,or 3?" --> 1C   1F 10   1F 0C    1F 11    1F 0C    10    13    1C    1F 12    1F 1B   1F 04
                spc    1       ,        2        ,      o     r     spc     3        ?       "

 game 1-9?" --> 1C   08   02   0E   06   1C   1F 10   1F 0D   1F 18   1F 1B   1F 04
                spc  g    a    m    e    spc    1       -       9       ?       "
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4am @4am.bsky.social · 17/10/2024
Here's a teaser of my and qkumba's next project: Adventure Replay. A pack of Apple II graphic adventure games, patched to launch from a hard drive. Search by name or browse by year. Each game lovingly patched with enhanced input routines, additional save slots, and of course no copy protection.
title screenshot from "Adventure Replay" showing title screen and items "Search," "Browse", "About," and "Quit" and disabled items "Options" and "Help" which aren't ready yettitle screenshot from "Adventureland" while browsing other games including Cranston Manor, Pirate Adventure, and Mission Impossibletitle screenshot from "Masquerade" while browsing other games including Death in the Caribbean, Claymorgue Castle, and QuestProbe/The Hulktitle screenshot from "Crimson Crown" while browsing other games including Transylvania, Oo-Topos, and The Coveted Mirror
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