Re: Any A2 software in development?

[spec@vax2.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector)]

>I'm just curious, does anyone know of any software (besides the TCP/IP
>stuff) that's in development?

    Other than TCP/IP and projects related to it? Not a very much,
however, there are a few sprinklings of projects around...

    Ninjaforce is working on KABOOM!, an Apple IIgs port of the
popular game Bomberman. It supports up to 4 players and should
be top-notch quality in terms of animation, graphics and music,
or at least I can safely assume so based on NFC's previous work
and the sample screen-shots on their home page. This will surely
be professional quality, the same level of excellence you expect 
from (most) game consoles. It should be ready by spring.

    Wolfenstein 3D is another game project, which is pretty much
completed -- and to my surprise, they have *finally* announced a
what _may_ be a solid release date -- just over 2 weeks away!
This too will have top-notch graphics as the graphic artist from
NFC stepped in to completely redo them. I guess I was a little
too premature in saying it fell into permanent limbo. :)

    Other projects include: A major update to SuperConvert, as
well as GraphicWriter III and Spectrum. Then there is GSBasic
being worked on by ByteWorks, and Mike Hackett's FaceLift for
the Second Sight video card. Then there's an update to Twilight 
II in the works and probably a few other odds and ends I've
probably missed (feel free to add them here).

>Or, have we as Apple II users finally hit rock bottom?

    Well the above projects mean there is still some life and
activity left in the machine, but it is still a far cry from
the level of software development going on with other orphaned
platforms out there. New software releases for the Apple IIgs
have become very, very rare, and virtually non-existent for
8-bit Apple II's these days. Quite often I feel like we have
finally hit rock bottom, or just a few feet away from it.

Mitchell Spector
spec@vax2.concordia.ca