KansasFest
KansasFest is an annual event for Apple II computer enthusiasts. Previously held every July at Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Missouri, but now held in Springfield, Illinois, KansasFest typically lasts five days and features presentations from Apple II experts and pioneers, as well as games, fun events, after-hours hallway chatter, late-night runs out to movies or restaurants, and more. A number of important new products have been released at KansasFest or developed through collaborations between individuals who likely would not have gotten together. Some of the most notable have been the introduction of the LANceGS Ethernet Card, and the Marinetti TCP/IP stack for the Apple IIGS.
Due to COVID-19, the 32nd and 33rd annual KansasFests were virtual-only, held July 24–25, 2020, and July 23–24, 2021, respectively. The 34th annual KansasFest was held July 18–23, 2023, at Rockhurst University. In March 2024, it was announced that the 35th annual KansasFest will be held July 16-21, 2024 at the University of Illinois Springfield. For 2025, KansasFest was originally planned to be held July 15–20 in Wichita, Kansas — marking the first time KansasFest would be held in Kansas — but was cancelled and transitioned to an online-only event to take place July 18-20, with the KansasFest Committee apologizing for the lack of "due diligence to ensure it met the needs of all attendees" and citing the Kansas SB 180 legislation which bans any identification of a gender other than the gender recognized at birth raising "serious concerns about the safety and inclusion of some members of our community".
History and organization
Resource Central
Vendor fairs were part of the earliest days of the microcomputer revolution. The Apple II had its debut at the first West Coast Computer Faire in April 1977. The popularity of this faire spawned other similar computer events elsewhere in the country. In the early 1980s, some of these vendor fairs became more computer-specific. For the Apple II computer, it began with AppleFest '81, sponsored by the Apple group in the Boston Computer Society. These festivals spread to be held in various places in the country, and Apple Computer became involved, even to the point of sending executives to give keynote addresses, and holding sessions for developers.After the introduction of the Apple III, Lisa and Macintosh computers, Apple II users and developers were feeling increasingly isolated and ignored by Apple Computer. Tom Weishaar had started a newsletter, Open-Apple about the Apple II, and in it he provided information about the computer, how to use it, product reviews, and more. With time, he created a company named Resource Central to oversee the newsletter and other products available to sell to subscribers. Frustrated by Apple's diminishing emphasis on the Apple II, Weishaar planned a developer's conference that would specifically focus on the Apple II and Apple IIGS. The first event was held in July 1989, and was called the A2-Central Developer Conference, billed as a chance to "meet the people who will make the Apple II's future".
The conference brought together programmers, hardware developers, and Apple sent out a number of members of its Apple II group to participate in the meeting. What made it different from many similar meetings was the way in which the accommodations were handled. Resource Central, which was based in Overland Park, Kansas, arranged for the meeting and housing for many of the attendees at Avila College, a Catholic institution located in Kansas City, Missouri, not far from Overland Park. One of the unanticipated effects of this arrangement was that the college dorm environment encouraged interaction between participants in a way that would not have happened in a hotel. Nearly all who made the trip to the conference found it a significant and positive experience, and were more than ready to do it again the following year.
Resource Central continued to host these annual summer meetings, changing the name to the A2-Central Summer Conference. By the third meeting in 1991, its attendees had informally given it the name, "KansasFest", a portmanteau of "Kansas" and the "AppleFest" events held elsewhere in the country. Resource Central's sponsorship and management lasted through six KansasFest July conferences, the last being held in 1994.
KansasFest continues
Due to Apple Computer's decision to discontinue production of the Apple IIGS in late 1992 and the Apple IIe in late 1993, and the rise of the Macintosh and of computers running MS-DOS, the Apple II market began to rapidly diminish. At Resource Central, finances became a problem during 1994, and a crisis hit the company at the start of 1995. Declining renewals of the A2-Central newsletter and other products the company sold could no longer sustain the business, and it was necessary to shut down in February of that year. This put into doubt the prospects of continuing the annual KansasFest meeting. To rescue it, a committee was formed amongst previous attendees, coordinated online via GEnie. By spring of 1995 they had secured Avila for a two-day meeting, and had enough who had committed to come that KansasFest 1995 could be held.From 1995 through 2004, KansasFest continued to be held at Avila. In the earlier years, it served as an annual rallying point for the Apple II community, as it found itself in a world shrinking in resources that would support it. Like Resource Central, other businesses that dealt with the Apple II also found it difficult to survive. The online homes for direct-dial Apple II access were having problems with either Y2K or transition to the World Wide Web, and were phasing out their text-based access. Although the annual KansasFest event was coordinated on those online services, the physical meeting provided a recurring connection point.
By the time its second decade began in 1999, KansasFest was becoming as much about preservation of the past as it was about advancing the Apple II platform. The conference began to also have sessions covering computing on the Macintosh, Newton, and Palm computers. Attendees were often not programmers or developers, but increasingly were those who enjoyed retrocomputing or had a nostalgic connection with the Apple II. It was also a venue for demonstration of new uses for the Apple II that had never been previously considered. For example, Michael Mahon showed off his AppleCrate parallel processing Apple II in 2007, with a number of Apple IIe boards connected together, updated to a seventeen board system by the following year. A programmer, David Schmenk wrote a first-person maze game in 2007, "Escape From The Homebrew Computer Club" using 16-color lo-res graphics, something that could have been run on an Apple II in 1977 if anyone had thought of it. He demonstrated this game at KansasFest in 2011.
Furthermore, the committee began to seek out keynote speakers from outside of the immediate community, to increase interest in the event. This trend began in 2003, when Steve Wozniak agreed to speak to a turnout that was double that of the previous year. Other speakers have included David Sztela, Lane Roathe, Jason Scott, Mark Simonsen, and Bob Bishop.
Starting in 2005, the event began to be held at a new venue, Rockhurst University, nine miles to the north of Avila, and still in Kansas City, Missouri. Though attendance reached an all-time low of 28 in 2006, it has been steadily climbing since. Fans of the Apple II computer come from all over the United States, and have come from Canada, Australia, Great Britain, France and Germany.
Committee / Corporation
From 1995 through 2014, a volunteer group each year took it upon themselves to arrange the facility for the following year's event, send out invitations, promote the event, and make sure that there were speakers, sessions, contests, and places to go outside of the meeting area.In 2015, the committee officially incorporated KansasFest, better defining the organization in order to continue to steer the event into the future. In 2020, KansasFest became a 501(c)(3) organization.
Events
Advancing the platform
Important contributions to the Apple II have made their appearance at KansasFest. In 1996, a meeting between Richard Bennett of Australia, Ewen Wannop of Great Britain, and Geoff Weiss of the United States set the groundwork for the announcement at the 1997 meeting of the Marinetti control panel for the Apple IIGS. This system extension made possible TCP/IP connections to the Internet. Also in 1997, some of the first Apple II web sites began to appear, and by the following year KansasFest had its own web site. In the next several years, it was common to see release of a CD-ROM collection of Apple II files of various kinds. In 2000, an Ethernet card called LANceGS for the Apple IIGS was demonstrated, and plans were made for a post-Delphi text-based contact point for Apple II users on the Internet, Syndicomm Online.Recurring
Most years have one or more contests. These have included:- HackFest - participants are given a focused period of time while at the event to create from scratch a program that does something cool.
- Tie One On - wear the most unusual or crazy tie at the banquet
- Door Decoration - being a college dorm, the doors can be decorated any interesting way desired
- Bite The Bag - a contest of agility in picking up a paper bag by biting it, with only one extremity touching the floor
- Games - Contestants attempt to achieve the highest score on classic Apple II games, such as GShisen or Lode Runner.
- Exhibits - demonstrating products or retro Apple II-related items
Dates and milestones
| Event | Dates | Speaker | Keynote Title/Topic | Important Events | |
| 1st | Jul 21-22, 1989 | Bill Mensch | Beyond The 65816 | Called "A2-Central Summer Developer Conference"; formation of Apple II Developer Association | |
| 2nd | Jul 20-21, 1990 | Fern Bachman, Jim Merritt, Jim Mensch, and Greg Branche from Apple | Apple IIGS System Software Update | Called "A2-Central Summer Conference" | |
| 3rd | Jul 16-21, 1991 | Roger Wagner | "Why The Apple IIGS Is Such A Freakin' Great Machine" | First time it was referred to as "KansasFest". First broken bone. Held at the NOMDA conference center, with housing and meals at Avila. System 6.0, HyperCard IIGS v1.1, Ethernet card, and SuperDrive card announced. | |
| 4th | Jul 21-26, 1992 | Tim Swihart | State of the Apple Address | 15th anniversary of Apple II. Sessions at NOMDA, housing at Avila. Resource Central takes over APDA materials. | |
| 5th | Jul 22-24, 1993 | Mike Westerfield | "Amateur Programming for Fun and Profit" | Apple II's "Sweet Sixteen" party. First year of "Bite the Bag" and Tie One On contest. | |
| 6th | Jul 21-23, 1994 | Randy Brandt | "Confessions of a Primordial Programmer" | Called "ICONference"; held entirely at Avila. | |
| 7th | Jul 27-29, 1995 | Roger Wagner | The Impact of Computers on Education / Personal History With The Apple II | First post-Resource Central event. | |
| 8th | Jul 17-21, 1996 | Gary Utter | The Future Of The Apple II Community | Gary Utter's Declaration of Independence from Apple, Genie, and any other company, that it was time for Apple II users to take control of their own destiny. Demo of Gus Apple IIGS emulator, and Wolfenstein 3D for the IIGS | |
| 9th | Jul 30-Aug 3, 1997 | David Kerwood | Apple II and Telecommunications | First demonstration of Richard Bennett's Marinetti TCP/IP CDev for the Apple IIGS. Early demo of Apple IIGS emulator ''Bernie ] and The Apple II in France | |
| 30th | Jul 16–22, 2018 | Return of the Bite the Bag Contest | |||
| 31st | Jul 15–21, 2019 | Mark Pelczarski | Penguin Software: The Graphics People | ||
| 32st | Jul 24–25, 2020 | No keynote | First virtual conference, due to COVID-19; 513 people registered; sessions streamed over Zoom with discussions on Discord | ||
| 33st | Jul 23–24, 2021 | No keynote | Second virtual conference; 470 people registered | ||
| 34th | Jul 19–24, 2022 | Robert Woodhead | 50* Years of Doing Weird Things with Computers | First hybrid conference with 43 on-site / 255 virtual attendees. | |
| 35th | Jul 18-23, 2023 Jul 29-30, 2023 | Wendell Sander Bob Consorti Dave Ottalini | Apple /// memories, On Three, Washington Apple Pi /// SIG | ||
| 36th | Jul 16–21, 2024 Jul 27–28, 2024 | Rich Williams Rob Gemmell Jordan Mechner | Held at University of Illinois Springfield, marking the first time in the event's history it's not been held in Kansas City, Missouri | ||
| 37th | Jul 18–20, 2025 | Dan Bricklin John Conrad |
Apple II Forever awards
Starting in 2010, the KansasFest Committee began to award members of the Apple II community who had made significant contributions to the Apple II, either in promoting or developing for the platform during its active years, or in helping to advance or preserve the Apple II since its production had been discontinued.| Year | Recipient | Contribution | Significance |
| 2010 | Mark Simonsen | Involved in Beagle Bros and founding of Software Touch | Helped take Beagle Bros out of the hobbyist arena and into productivity software, with TimeOut enhancements to AppleWorks and the upgrade to AppleWorks 3.0 in 1988. |
| 2010 | Tom Weishaar | Writer, programmer, publisher | Wrote software for Beagle Bros, an early slide display program called Frame-Up and a DOS speed up package called ProntoDOS. Took over the DOSTalk column in Softalk magazine after Bert Kersey concluded his run with it. After the fall of Softalk magazine, he started the very influential Open-Apple and A2-Central newsletters, as well as several disk-based publications for the Apple II under the name Resource Central. His work focused on the intermediate and advanced Apple II user. He helped enhance the management of the A2 and A2Pro Roundtables on the online service GEnie starting in 1988. Promoted developer interaction and synergy through the A2-Central Developer's Conference beginning in 1989. This event ultimately developed into KansasFest. |
| 2010 | Tom Vanderpool | Apple II user group leader, Resource Central | Open-Apple and A2-Central contributing author, helped with many aspects of Resource Central product sales. |
| 2010 | Dennis Doms | Writer, editor with Resource Central | Open-Apple and A2-Central contributing author, helped with many aspects of Resource Central efforts. |
| 2010 | Ellen Rosenberg | Editor with Resource Central | Editor at A2-Central, Managing editor at II Alive. |
| 2010 | Ken Gagne | Editor Juiced.GS, blogger, Open Apple podcast, former KansasFest public relations and committee member | Writer, blogger; editor of Juiced.GS magazine from 2006 until the present; co-founder of Open Apple podcast, and co-host from 2011 until March 2014; former KansasFest committee member and public relations director. Responsible for helping keep Apple II topics current and relevant. |
| 2011 | Bob Bishop | Programmer, Apple R&D co-founder | Wrote some of the first Apple II hi-res graphics games, released on cassette, and the first Apple II program to generate human speech and record speech. Wrote software that controlled nine Apple II computers used in the game show Tic-Tac-Dough when it returned to television in 1978. Together with Steve Wozniak, he helped form the first research and development department at Apple Computer. |
| 2011 | Ryan Suenaga | Writer, programmer, KansasFest committee | Writer, contributing articles to many Apple II publications. Editor of GEnieLamp A2, The Lamp!, Juiced.GS from 2002 through 2006, and A2 News and Notes. Started one of the earliest Apple II podcasts, A2 Unplugged. Tireless promoter of KansasFest and related Apple II activities. Contributed several software programs to the Apple II community. He died in April 2011. |
| 2011 | Eric Shepherd | Programmer, writer, operator of Syndicomm Online, publisher | Programmer with multiple utilities to his credit, as well as some major efforts including the port of Wolfenstein 3D to the Apple IIGS, and the port of the Apple IIGS emulator Bernie ] drive for the Apple II. Both products together propelled Apple into the Fortune 500, and funded the development of the Apple III, Apple Lisa, and Macintosh computers. |
| 2013 | Antoine Vignau | Programmer, Writer | Member of the French Apple IIGS programming group, Brutal Deluxe. He was originally part of the French software cracking group, Hackerforce. As part of Brutal Deluxe, has created numerous programs for both the 8-bit and 16-bit Apple II platforms, and even into the 2000s and 2010s has continued to be active. Also maintains an archive of names and WAV files of Apple II cassette software titles. Has been a writer for Juiced.GS magazine. |
| 2013 | Olivier Zardini | Programmer | Member of the French Apple IIGS programming group, Brutal Deluxe. As part of Brutal Deluxe, has created numerous programs for the Apple IIgs platform. |
| 2013 | Carl Knoblock | Member of Apple II community | Has been a serving member of the KansasFest community for many years, helping coordinate transportation to move attendees travelers to and from the Kansas City airport. |
| 2013 | Mike Maginnis | Blogger, podcaster, writer | Co-founder and co-host of the monthly Open Apple podcast and the weekly No Quarter podcast. Former staff writer for Juiced.GS, a quarterly Apple II magazine. Involved in scanning the full run of several Apple II and Apple III publications, including II Computing, Computist, AppleWorks Forum, Softalk, and ON THREE. |
| 2014 | Margot Comstock | Writer | Founder and staff writer for Softalk magazine. |
| 2014 | Al Tommervik | Writer | Founder and staff writer for Softalk magazine. |
| 2014 | Michael Mahon | Member of Apple II community, inventor, programmer | Creator of the AppleCrate parallel processing computer composed of multiple Apple II motherboards. Author of RT.SYNTH, a single-voice music synthesizer. Co-author of DMS Drummer, a percussion sequencer. |
| 2014 | Andrew Roughan | Member of Apple II community, writer, programmer | Apple II editor for Applecations, a monthly publication of the Apple Users Group, Sydney. Developer on the Marinetti Open Source Project. Staff writer for Juiced.GS. Convener of OzKfest, a gathering of Apple II enthusiasts in Australia. |
| 2015 | Rebecca Heineman | Programmer | Has created numerous programs for the Apple II and IIgs platforms including Tass Times in Tonetown, The Bard's Tale III: Thief of Fate, Dragon Wars and the IIgs ports of Battle Chess, and Another World. |
| 2015 | Henry Courbis | Hardware designer and vendor | Entrepreneur and owner of since 2005. Specializes in custom designs for 8bit and 16bit computers, primarily within the Apple II family. Responsible for Mockingboard v1, TransWarp GS Upgrades and the first to break the 10 MHz barrier with 18.75 MHz top end speed for most users, ROM1 Firmware Upgrade Adapter, Countless GAL and PLD upgrades released, Universal PSU Kit, IIgs 8Meg RAM Card, RAMworks IIII Kit, and RAMWorks and RAMFactor Expander clones. Active Apple II developer. |
| 2015 | Anthony Martino | Hardware designer and vendor | Hardware design on the Apple II Pi, an interface between the Apple II and a Raspberry Pi. |
| 2015 | Ivan Drucker | Programmer | Has created many for the Apple II, including Applesoft utilities Slammer, Magic GOTO, and NuINPUT, as well as software to connect the Raspberry Pi to the Apple II, A2SERVER, A2CLOUD, and Raspple II. |
| 2015 | James Littlejohn | Hardware designer | Circuit board design and layout for the Apple II Pi board, an interface between the Apple II and a Raspberry Pi. |
| 2015 | David Schmenk | Programmer and hardware designer | Has created numerous original Apple II programs, including '', , and the . Inventor of the . |
| 2016 | Mike Harvey | founder and editor of | In 1980, Mike Harvey created Nibble, one of the first magazine with type-in programs for the Apple II computer. The publication ran from through January 1980 through July 1992, and during its later years also branched out into editions for PC and Macintosh computers. |
| 2016 | Jason Scott | archiver of software and magazines on Internet Archive | Has spearheaded efforts to preserve not only old Apple II software, but also the early days of dial-up bulletin board systems and software collections for all platforms that were sent out on disk and CD-ROMs in the 1990s and early 2000s. |
| 2016 | "4am" | archiving and preserving protected software | Responsible for modern-day deprotection of old commercial and educational software, allowing the programs to run on emulators and genuine Apple II hardware. The volume of his work has resulted in his own collection on the . He has also written , a program that will automatically deprotect much old software. |
| 2017 | Plamen Vaysilov | hardware designer | Owner of , creator of many hardware items for the Apple II series, including RAM cards for the Apple IIc and Apple IIGS, VGA converters for all of the 8-bit models of the Apple II, and an SD card-based Disk II replacement. |
| 2017 | Glenn Jones | hardware designer | Creator of the Uthernet and Uthernet II cards, available at , which allowed many to get the Apple II online in the post-dial-up era. |
| 2017 | Quinn Dunki | hardware designer, programmer, podcaster, blogger | Known for her hardware design, which she documents on her blog, , firmware modifications to the Apple IIc Plus, and a member of the podcast. |
| 2018 | Roger Wagner | publisher, author, programmer | Known for articles and books, notably Assembly Lines as well as others; software publisher, notably HyperStudio |
| 2018 | John Brooks | programmer and hardware designer | Created the VidHD video interface; updated ProDOS |
| 2018 | John Keoni Morris | programmer, hardware designer, and archivist | Created AppleSauce, a revolutionary tool for preserving Apple II software including copy protection |
| 2018 | "Q. Kumba" | programmer and archivist | Assembly language guru leading efforts to preserve copy protected software; co-authored Total Replay |
| 2019 | Mark Pelczarski | author, programmer, entrepreneur | Wrote Graphics Magician software and the Graphically Speaking book; published and co-authored many popular software titles; computer graphics pioneer |
| 2019 | Kevin Savetz | archivist and podcast host | Hosts the interviewing many historic computer folks; programmer |
| 2019 | Bill Martens | publisher, author, and archivist | Leads ; restored and published multiple books |
| 2019 | Brian Wiser | publisher, author, and archivist | Leads and multiple Apple II archives; restored and published multiple books |
| 2020 | Gerard Putter | programmer | Created , an Apple II emulator for macOS. |
| 2020 | Tom Charlesworth | programmer | Development team for , an Apple II emulator for Microsoft Windows. |
| 2020 | Nick Westgate | programmer | Development team for , an Apple II emulator for Microsoft Windows. |
| 2020 | Michael Pohoreski | programmer | Development team for , an Apple II emulator for Microsoft Windows. |
| 2021 | Megan Lemmert | game designer | Creator and Lead Designer for Nox Archaist, a computer role-playing game for the Apple II published by 6502 Workshop and released in 2020. |
| 2022 | Robert Woodhead | programmer, entrepreneur, engineer | Co-creator of the Wizardry series of computer role-playing games. |
| 2022 | Vince Briel | hardware engineer | Designer of the Replica 1, MP3 card, IIGS RAM card, and other hardware |
| 2022 | Melody Ayres-Griffiths | programmer | Designer and programmer of turtleSpaces |
| 2022 | April Ayres-Griffiths | programmer | Designer and programmer of turtleSpaces |
| 2023 | Bob Consorti | programmer, publisher, entrepreneur | Founder of On Three, which published On Three magazine and developed and sold hardware upgrades and software supporting Apple /// users long after the machine's discontinuation by Apple. Developer of BOS, a user group funded upgrade to Apple's last version of SOS. |
| 2023 | Martin Haye | programmer, organizer | Long-serving and hard-working member of the KansasFest organizing committee, developer of , a consistent presenter of creative and technically intriguing programming projects, and dedicated to fostering the Apple II community spirit |
| 2023 | Dave Ottalini | journalist, archivist | Longtime chair of the III Special Interest Group of Washington Apple Pi, dedicated to extending the productive life of the Apple /// platform for over a decade after the product line was canceled. Archiver and organizer of a large and widely distributed collection of public domain software for the Apple ///, and author of many articles reviewing developments in the Apple /// community and ecosystem. |
| 2023 | Wendell Sander | hardware engineer | Apple employee #16, and designer of the Apple ///, the Integrated Woz Machine chip, and many of the early Apple II interface cards. |
| 2023 | Niek van Suchtelen | hardware designer | Designer of the , a modern accelerator and RAM expansion device for the Apple IIGS |
| 2024 | Rich Williams | Apple alumnus | Worked on the Apple IIc ROM code and was specifically responsible for the mouse and serial port firmware |
| 2024 | Rob Gemmell | Apple alumnus | Apple industrial designer of computers and accessories, then Creative Director of packaging, tradeshows and events, corporate signage, and Apple’s identity |
| 2024 | Jordan Mechner | early Apple II game developer | Creator of Apple II games Karateka and Prince of Persia, which had stood the tests of time and have spawned countless sequels, spinoffs, remakes, journals, graphic novels, and documentaries |
| 2024 | Ian "Sark" Primus & Justin "DJ" Scott | hardware repair gurus | Operators of the KansasFest repair room, where they have brought countless attendees' hardware back to life |
| 2024 | Oliver Schmidt | software developer | For development and contributions to A2Pico, ca65, a2stream, and more |
| 2025 | Dan Bricklin | software developer | Co-creator of VisiCalc, the first electronic spreadsheet |
| 2025 | John Conrad | software developer | Developer of educational software published by Edu-Ware in the 1980s |
| 2025 | Jeff Mazur & Dean Claxton | hardware developers | Founders of JD Micro and creators of Apple II accessories and peripherals |
| 2025 | Sean Fahey | Community organizer | Longtime KansasFest committee president and co-organizer of the annual Garage Giveaway |