Ed Olson's Nostalgia Collection
Apple II/IIGS Programming
I grew up programming the Apple IIGS, first in BASIC, then assembler. I joined a programming club called the Imperium Programmer's Guild (IPG), where I spent a lot of time learning how to write code (and then, in university, unlearning a lot of those habits). However, I credit the time I spent laboring over 65816 assembly with my interest in computer architecture and algorithms.
- Ecomaniacs (img)
A game written for a high school project, Ecomaniacs puts you in
charge of a business, managing production, wages, and marketing. As
leader of the Blue company, you compete with the evil Red
company. Vaguely in the spirit of SimCity. A couple lame easter eggs:
click on the "About" panel in the lower left with and without the open
apple key. Written by Edwin Olson and Andy Petersen.
- Prince Cupric II (img)
Somehow satisfying another high school project requirement, Prince Cupric II is a action arcade game where you, a Copper ion, are in search for various reagents. At least, that's how I passed it off as educational. Basically, you run around a maze
(careful not to fall off), getting the "good" blobs, and avoiding the
"bad" blobs which are chasing you. Written by Edwin Olson.
- KansasFest '93 Demo (img)
This was my first demo, written for the
IPG. It contains a number of cheesy effects, namely a Max Headroom
style animation of John Sculley. This demo is "infamous" for its
extremely slow loading... Lots of "hidden" messages....
- KansasFest '92 "Pre-Hello" (img)
Wow, pretty terrible. But note the red/white/blue border effects. Be impressed :P .
- Happy Graduation, Ryan (img)
I wrote this as a graduation present for another member of the IPG. Some more cheesy border effects and some photos of the gang.
So far, kegs has proven to be a solid Apple2GS emulator. Try it out. I'm hoping to find some of the lost titles, and perhaps source code as well. Other titles that I remember
writing: King of the Vandals (a very early multiplayer BBS game), a
computer grading program, TelepromptIt...
School Videos
For two years, my high-school friends and I took honors interdisciplinary classes taught by (Tom) Siebold and Bjork (did I spell those correctly?) We did a number of videos for projects in that course, and I've been trying to dig them up over the years. They were shot with
(typically) a single camera, and edited using a homemade audio mixer
and two VCRs using the "pause" method (which explains why the sync is
nearly lost at every scene edit.) We used my Apple2GS and custom software for title effects. The videos are mostly awful, but are archived here for the continuing shame and laughable embarassment of the participants. We had more fun producing them than you'll have watching them!
- Marco Polo Visits the Looney Bin (153M mpeg1) (504M mpeg4)
An
absolutely ridiculous video, nominally educational in nature (at
least, used for a class project), about Marco Polo visiting an Asylum
with Alexander the Great, Tiber the Lame, and Caligula (who were all nuts, mind you!). Cast and crew: Edwin Olson, Jon Wieman, Andy Cosgrove, Tyson Midboe. (C) 1994.
- Sloths (42M mpeg1) (118M mpeg4)
Another school project. We were asked to produce a propaganda film designed to stir hatred for a fictional group of people. This is the result. Cast and crew: Edwin Olson, Andy Cosgrove, Jamie Rau. (C) 1993.
- Cassandra (176M mpeg4)
Yet another school video, this time about Cassandra of Greek legend. Cast and crew: Edwin Olson, Alan Wahlstrom, Audrey Blue, Heather Foesch, Dawn Larson, Amy Gilroy, Andy Cosgrove, John Waldock (C) 1993.
- The Circus (248M mpeg4)
Fred Roger's younger, neglected brother Ed (played by me, naturally), visits the circus for some reason. Notably, in this movie, we realized that our educational content was stupid and boring. Cast and crew: Jon Wieman, Andy Cosgrove, Audrey Blue, Edwin Olson, Anita Hardy, Heather Foesch.
- The Janitor (297M mpeg4)
A janitor, in a flash of intuition, solves a problem left behind on a professor's chalkboard. (This movie predates Good Will Hunting). We were attempting to be a little more sophisticated than the other movies--with mostly wretched results. Production values were also a bit higher: we used a tripod AND an honest-to-god video editing studio. Note the completely gratuitous Hitchcock zoom at about 8 minutes. Cast and crew: Audrey Blue, Anita Hardy, Edwin Olson, Tyson Midboe, John Parker (C) 1994.