KansasFest, Inc, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, is pleased to announce the acquisition of the Roger Wagner Collection. Roger Wagner’s generous donation includes much of the archives and memorabilia of Southwestern Data Systems and Roger Wagner Publishing, as well as unique artifacts from Apple Computer such as hardware prototypes and pre-release hardware and software documentation. The collection also includes a large assortment of rare titles from the early days of Apple II software development, including early-release copies of many games in their original packaging.
Roger Wagner was one of the earliest Apple II dealers, and was the founder of Southwestern Data Systems, which created and marketed products such as The Write Choice, The Merlin Macro Assembler, and The Correspondent. He is also the author of the Assembly Lines articles in Softalk magazine, and went on to publish Assembly Lines: The Book and Apple IIGS Machine Language for Beginners. Roger Wagner Publishing created HyperStudio, which is a complete multimedia package for the Apple IIGS, Mac, and Windows.
Roger has been involved with KansasFest since the very beginning. He was the keynote speaker at the first official “KansasFest” conference in 1991, and again gave the keynotes in 1995 and 2018. In 2018, Roger was presented with the Apple II Forever Award for his outstanding contributions to the Apple II platform and community. Roger is credited with inventing several long-standing events at KansasFest, including the Tie Contest and Bite-the-Bag. In honor of Roger’s donation, we are also announcing that from this point forward, the tie contest will officially be known by its original name, the “Roger Wagner Tie Contest.”
As a nonprofit, KansasFest’s mission is to organize and promote community, education, and preservation surrounding the Apple II line of computers. Starting with the Roger Wagner Collection as the nucleus, KansasFest will be able to greatly expand its activities in education and preservation. Our short-term goals for the collection include doing a rough inventory and sorting. Longer-term goals include scanning and disk imaging, with the eventual goal of making most of these materials accessible online. The KansasFest Committee will continue to post updates on the Roger Wagner Collection on our website.
The KansasFest Committee would like to thank Ken Gagne, Brian Picchi, and Chris Torrence for their help in sorting, packing, and loading over 100 boxes of material. The Committee would like to especially acknowledge Roger Wagner for all of his contributions to KansasFest over the past decades and for his very generous donation to KansasFest.
KansasFest is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) dedicated to preserving the history and spirit of the Apple II computer. We host an annual conference where attendees can share their mutual interests and innovations relevant to one of the first truly personal computers, the Apple II. Learn more about us at our website. Apple II Forever!
