apple1js — Apple I

The Apple I bundle is Will Scullin's apple1js — same author as the Apple ][+ bundle, written in the same style. Smaller machine, smaller bundle, smaller surface for things to go wrong. apple1.js is built from our fork, Retro-Jack/apple1js.

Where we started

apple1js is pure JavaScript, no WASM, MIT-licensed (© Will Scullin — see ATTRIBUTION). Boots to the Woz Monitor prompt, optionally drops into Integer BASIC, Applesoft, or VolksForth depending on what tape is loaded.

The runtime-tape design

apple1js's tapes/ directory holds 15 .js files. Ten of them are games; bezelcard.js is the bezel test card; the other four — applesoft.js, basic.js, monitor.js, volksforth.js — are runtime dependencies (Integer BASIC, Applesoft BASIC, Woz Monitor, VolksForth) that play.html loads even in prompt mode. They look like orphan tapes if you only count games. They aren't.

This is the one situation where a file-count audit needs context. The post-bundle audit memory flags this explicitly so future passes don't try to "clean up" the BASIC implementations.

The fork

Three changes live in the genx branch of Retro-Jack/apple1js, each written up in its GENX-CHANGES.md with the steps to rebuild:

Reset is on Pause/Break, not F1. F1 is the browser's help key, and GenX-DOS leaves it alone.
RESET is pressed 300 ms after start-up. A real Apple I sat doing nothing until you pressed it; the page presses it for you, so the monitor is running when a tape loads.
Green phosphor, #11cf00, from the start. The same green as the PET. The emulator's Green Screen option draws in that colour, and the page's Monitor options are now read once at start-up as well as on a click, so play.html can start with the box ticked.

The first two began as edits to the built apple1.js, made when the bundle was copied in May 2026. The fork was created in September to carry them as source: built from upstream 674e6ea, the bundle matched what we had been shipping apart from exactly those two edits.

The chrome cleanup

Like apple2js, upstream apple1js.html ships a full app: keyboard buttons, modal dialogs, status panels. Same approach as the Apple ][+ bundle — keep the DOM intact (the bundle queries it at boot and throws if anything's missing), hide it with CSS:

h1, h2, .inset, .modal, #keyboard { display: none !important; }
td > div:not(.overscan) { display: none !important; }
.overscan {
  width: min(100vw, calc(100dvh * 4 / 3));
  height: min(100dvh, calc(100vw * 3 / 4));
}

Result: just the text display, scaled to 4:3.

How tapes launch

?tape=<key> maps to a tape descriptor in the tapes object. apple1js's load API handles the rest — the tape script defines tapes[key] with the bytes inline, and the emulator's tape input mode reads them at the speed real cassette tape did. Most games take a few seconds to load.

Bundle layout

systems/apple1/
├── play.html         ← chrome hider + tape loader
├── controls.html     ← Woz Monitor / Integer BASIC reference
├── apple1.js         ← built from Retro-Jack/apple1js (genx)
├── css/apple1.css
├── tapes/
│   ├── basic.js, applesoft.js, monitor.js, volksforth.js  ← runtime deps
│   ├── bezelcard.js  ← bezel test card
│   └── <10 game tape .js files>

Emulator-apple2js — same author, sibling bundle
Emulators — index