Apple II Bits

More than a decade ago, I found myself wishing the Apple II community had a music video as cool as Comic Bakery’s Commodore 64 song.

In recent years, Steve Weyhrich has amply filled that niche with his numerous KansasFest parody music videos. But somehow, another contender flew under my radar.

Joe Strosnider hosts Joe’s Computer Museum, a lively YouTube channel filled with reviews of Apple II peripherals, repair tutorials, and tribute videos. Joe — whose license plate happens to be "6502" — in also an active member of the Apple II Enthusiasts group on Facebook, where I missed his September 2016 post debuting a unique and creative addition to his videography: the music video “So Many Things“.

This original composition is a tour de force of everything we love about the Apple II and all the amazing things it can do. It even features callouts to the Facebook group and to KansasFest (though, to the best of my knowledge, Joe’s not yet made that annual sojourn). Full tech specs and lyrics are listed in the video’s description.

Shoutout to Joe for this awesome contribution to the Apple II’s music video library! Take that, Commodore 64.

Back in November, with no scripting and little forethought, I shot an unboxing video. Those outside the tech world may be unfamiliar with the genre, which is essentially a step-by-step documentary of the opening and unpacking of a new product. My product was the Nintendo Wii U, a video game system released on November 18. Much to my surprise, viewers were enthralled with the product and my stream-of-consciousness narration — that, or I had really good SEO. Either way, the video is now nearing a staggering one million views. Despite being only 1.4% of the videos on my YouTube channel, this single video accounts for 78% of my channel’s total views.

Not that popularity makes me an expert, but I decided to revisit the genre when I purchased Zéphyr, a new, physical game for the Apple II. Once my copy arrived via international mail from Brutal Deluxe, I touted it, my Canon Rebel T2i DSLR, and my tripod to my office, where resides my Apple IIGS, and recorded my experience with the game. The camera is good for only ten minutes of consecutive video, which was more than enough for the six cuts I shot, which when edited together happened to add up to exactly ten minutes.

It’d be disingenuous for me to not acknowledge the influence of Brian Picchi, aka TanRu Nomad, who has produced dozens of excellent video reviews of Apple II hardware and software. His reviews are more stylish and edited than my "start rolling and see what happens" approach, so there really is no comparison between the two — otherwise, I’d lose! (Horribly.) But the idea that one could produce a video about the Apple II and have fun doing it was enough of a precedent for me to try. (Now if only I could get the hundreds of views he does!)

Although the Zéphyr video was openly posted to YouTube, it was primarily promoted on Facebook, where users were invited to "like" Juiced.GS‘s Facebook page to view the video. I don’t know if anyone found that "fan gate" cumbersome or pretentious, but I received no complaints. Nonetheless, I figured two weeks later, the promotion has run its course, and I won’t be cutting into the page’s appeal by sharing the video here.

There aren’t many opportunities to shoot unboxing videos of new Apple II products, especially one of a sort that aligns with my YouTube channel’s other gaming content. I enjoyed this experience, even if there won’t be another one like it. I hope the Internet enjoyed it, too!

Given the number of friends I’ve made through the Apple II, and my involvement with Apple II magazines, podcasts, and conventions, it’s a rare day that I’m not thinking or doing something with or about the computer or community. Sometimes, that means a relaxing weekend proves exhausting, leaving me no time to write the blog post I owe Apple II Bits every Monday. So today, I thought I’d outline in roughly chronological order what I’ve done from sundown Friday to sunup Monday that kept me from smithing anything remotely engaging for this blog:

• • Stayed at work until 7:30 PM on Friday to finish a floppy preservation project I’d been working on for months, finally made possible courtesy the Uthernet
• • Mailed my registration for the Vintage Computer Festival East 7.0
• • Coordinated VCF housing with Andy Molloy
• • Discussed VCF travel with Mike Willegal
• • Inventoried my back issues of Juiced.GS to determine what I need printed to bring to VCF
• • Burned some Friends for Life CDs
• • Mixed new voiceovers for Open Apple
• • Wrote two short pieces for inclusion in an upcoming Juiced.GS Concentrate
• • Reviewed submissions for a Juiced.GS tribute to Ryan Suenaga
• • Published a lost blog post by Ryan Suenaga
• • Wrote a blog post about VCF
• • Copyedited a press release
• • Recorded an episode of Open Apple
• • Received some Open Apple marketing material from a freelance designer
• • Commented on the Apple /// Enthusiasts group on Facebook so that its activity level would qualify it for an upgrade
• • Called Ivan Drucker to chat about VCF & Juiced.GS
• • Calculated how much postage on Juiced.GS has gone up since the USPS’s April 17th price hike of packages weighing more than an ounce
• • Coordinated a time to play Risk Factions and Worms Armageddon with Andy
• • Wrote this blog post!

Is it any wonder I’m tired? Despite needing to edit Open Apple this evening, I think I need to disconnect for a bit and enjoy a bike ride. Too many apples a day is not good for one’s health!