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Internet Archive Adds Early Macintosh OS and App Emulators (macstories.net)
An anonymous reader writes: The Internet Archive has added a curated collection of Mac operating system and software emulators from 1984 through 1989. The Internet Archive already hosts browser-based emulators of early video games and other operating systems, but this is its first foray into Mac software. The collection includes classic applications like MacPaint, programming tools such as MacBasic, and many games including Dark Castle. Each app can be run in an in-browser emulator and is accompanied by an article that chronicles its history. It's fun to play with the apps in the collection and realize just how far apps have come since the earliest days of the Mac. It's also remarkable how many computing conventions used today were introduced during those earliest days.
It's also remarkable how many computing conventions used today were introduced during those earliest days.
What would be remarkable is if people actually acknowledged that most of those conventions existed well before the Macintosh. Instead, what we'll most likely get are a lot comments from clueless Mac fanboys who think Apple invented everything in the computer except the electricity.
Do they have "Bill Gates Does Windows" screensaver?
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/bPgIIpdpobk/hqdefault.jpg
Where would we be without Jobs and the Woz. Damn, two geniuses who taught the world how to walk. And later, to run. RIP
To run this in a browser, there are two possibilities: The code for MacPaint for example runs on the server, or it runs on the client, with a JavaScript application emulating the original assembly code. I suppose it's possible; you probably have a microsecond on average to emulate each instruction.
i expect this to get shut down real fast.. even non-apple mac stuff, apple can get taken down easily, or not so easily (for you.. it's all easy for them). early macs used a proprietary rom.. that rom was copyrighted. the earliest of the 'mac clones' remember, actually used genuine apple motherboards (often stripped out of new macs) because of this. implementations of that rom that aren't done by apple or with apple's blessing, infringe... corporate copyright lengths definitely not expired... so, bye bye. pay the lawyers on the way out.
will steal anything.
Macs suck ass, mac users suck cocks.
It will be interesting to see if I can open some of those .pict files I have lying around that don't seem to open on anything anymore.
And what's with the AC's bashing of Jobs and Woz. 2 of the first 4 posts are whining about Apple worship before anything goes up. If you're gonna whine, be a man (or a woman, or something) and get an account, so we can see who you really are. Or, at least, some reasonable facsimile.
Jason Scott exploiting others' hard work for his personal glory yet again.
This takes me back to the time of my Mac 512 and the book Basic Computer Games. This was a better time for computing.
-- Thou hast strayed far from the path of the Avatar.
The remarkable thing about this older software is just how much more usable and sensible the UIs were then compared to the awful "modern" UIs we have to deal with today.
Just look at the SimpleText editor that was commonly used on Macintoshes back in the day. Now compare it to a "modern" text editor UI, like that of GNOME 3's Gedit. It's like night and day! The "ancient" text editor has a clean, sensible, intuitive and usable UI. The "modern" text editor is a dirty, jumbled, messy and impractical UI.
It's not just text editors that are affected, of course. Web browsers today have UIs that are worse than the early Mosaic and Netscape Navigator UIs. The entire desktop environment is much worse today. GNOME 3 is awful in comparison even to the early Mac desktop environment.
We've had 20 to 30 years to improve on the early desktop concepts that the Mac introduced to the public at large. And we actually were making really good progress, up until about 2007 or 2008. Then it all went to hell. Some people will blame it on mobile devices, and some people will blame it on Millennials/hipsters. Realistically, it's probably some of both: Millennial "user interface designers" trying to force mobile UIs in places where they just don't work.
The cause probably doesn't matter much, though. The end result is that here we are, almost half way through 2017, and the UIs we use today are worse than what we had in 1987.
As soon as I saw the title, I was reminded of ARDI Abacus Research and Development (maker of the only romless Macintosh emulator for the PC.)
Cue Apple Lawsuit in 3.. 2.. 1.. Gotta keep those liars err lawyers in work, doncha know??
THANK YOU, Edward Snowden!! Americans owe you a debt of gratitude (whether they know it or not..)
Michael Steil... is that you?
LOL!
There used to be a great version of the board game Risk for MacOS that I used to play in the '80s on a friend's Mac. I found a copy of it around 2000, but, it wouldn't run on OS 9 on my girlfriend's iMac nor in the Classic emulator on early versions of OSX. Miss that game.
I mean, it's nice that it's there, but DOS had such a huge impact in comparison to the tiny Apple user base. it seems rather ridiculous that they have done this. Are they just a bunch of Apple fanboys, or trying to piggyback on the fruit's recent popularity and trendiness? It's amazing how quickly people forget what terrible machines they were at the time. There's a reason Apple practically went out of business! Then again, I suspect all the iPhone-loving millennials never even knew in the first place.
> "....realize just how far apps have come since the earliest days of the Mac" In a question for historical accuracy, the archive should be calling these programs 'applications', not the lazy contraction of 'apps'.
Early iterations of MacOS made a distinction between aplications and desk accessories; one notable difference being that only one of the former could be run at a time while the latter included small utilities such as a calculator and stickies that could be run simultaneously. Features that we take for granted such as multithreading, hierarchical file systems with folders, and a command line came later, and have since become ubiquitous. Well, except on iOS which has removed some of that functionality... it's interesting how things have come full circle.
The first version of the Macintosh System software had folders, just not folders within folders (due to a file system limitation that was swiftly fixed).
DAs were kind of like TSRs. But I don't remember stickies being among them until well into System 7, at which point they were ordinary applications.
-- This and all my posts are in the public domain. I am a lawyer. I am not your lawyer, and this is not legal advice.
I mainly am filled with dismay seeing how bad modern UI have fallen after reaching a state of maturity. Now high IQ morons churn features, adding steps to operation, making commonly used things less accessible. Exhibit A, the chrome menu system...
If you're interested in Mac abandonware, Macintosh Garden is for you.
My favorite is Lunar Rescue which runs in the Mini vMac emulator.
That that is is that that that that is not is not.
I still play the old games once in a while on my computer. The incidental music, plot, and goals were fun, even though the visual sites and effects were not as stunning as they are today. So that's one point for them. Whatever OS you use; enjoy it. I have no say in it.
Mac is supposed to be the choice for graphics people but it comes with NO bitmap editor! Just something simple, REAL simple. I want to be able to edit in ONE bitplane and to scan in it for that matter. I've got a truly crappy app that I've used with pitiful results. I have a colour jpeg avatar file that's 4KB. Turned out to be a pixel too wide for someplace. Loaded it into the crappy editor, tore off a pixel and save it. Became HUNDREDS of KB! Why? I didn't ask for that.
Everybody wants to give you more than you want and wants to give it to you in a brain-dead fashion. Spent an hour scanning a booklet yesterday. It only saved _the last_ scan. Turns out I needed to select them all to save them. Why weren't they all selected anyway? Scarcely matters, *I don't have editing software!*