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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
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.
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.
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.
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.
> "....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.
I'm pretty sure that the Woz is still alive, and actively posting to /. Mr. TheWoz, can you confirm????
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.
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.
Congratulations on the absolutely most stupid anti-apple screed ever written! You sir, make the anonymous coward's drivel sound like the writings of Einstein by comparison. They did it because they can.
To use your logic, we shouldn't write about Windows, only Android. It's called history, silly. and as much as it rises your blood pressure, Apple is a pretty important part of computing history.
Not that you would understand that in the least.
And We're anxiously waiting for your reply to prove my point. 3....2....1..
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.