Apple II Bits

One of my favorite Juiced.GS articles series is "Behind the Scenes", in which a hardware or software developer writes in his own words how their product came to be. These articles can look at the hardware production, language selection, beta-testing process, or books read — anything that shows the reader how the author got from Point A to Point B. In the last 11 years, Juiced.GS has gone behind the scenes of 35 products, starting with Mark Percival’s DiskMaker 8 and continuing to such releases as Slammer, 73H 0r3g0n 7r41L, Nox Archaist, and Lawless Legend’s Outlaw.

Last year in Volume 22, Issue 2, Jesse Blue of Apple IIGS programming group Ninjaforce took us behind the scenes of Revision, an annual demoparty held in Germany. It was here in 2017 that Ninjaforce showcased the first demo they’d released in 20 years, Kernkompetenz. This article was classified in Juiced.GS as "Event Coverage", as it wasn’t about the actual development of the demo. But shortly after the article’s publication, Jesse published a complementary video that reveals the software’s secrets.

This 23-minute narrated slideshow starts with a four-minute overview of the Apple IIGS’s hardware capabilities, followed by a demo of the, uh, demo. Jesse then continues with tables and diagrams that explain how Kernkompetenz works its magic. Whether you’re an experienced programmer or are just casually interested in the inner workings of this 16-bit machine, the video is an easy-to-follow guide to Ninjaforce’s latest demo.

Still haven’t tried Kernkompetenz yourself? You can download it from their website, or watch a video.

(Hat tip to Blake Patterson)