The Mac Turns 40!

[The AD]

I remember the first time I saw one was in a mall store. I'm pretty sure it was Radio Shack, although surprising they'd sell them alongside their fine Trash 80 line.

I remember even at the time thinking the screen was too damn small, although using the mouse was novel and cool.

[fomofo]

Wow! I used to have a 20lb SE-30 I'd transport between home and office. People back pack with smaller packs than I used for that thing.

I think you'll enjoy this. ;-)

The only interesting stories I have are the ones that could cause problems if the wrong people read them. I’ve read some revisionist accounts written by some of the other team members which don’t jive with the way I remember things. But those were the guys who got promotions and stayed with the company, so they got to create the historical record.

Group dynamics can be a real bummer - sucks when that happens.

Curious, were you strictly on the hardware side? And did you work on the Lisa?

[dan_pdx]

YES!!! I freaking loved those games back in the day. Well, good news. Now you can play them emulated online for free! (along with an absolute crapton of all the other games you may remember from the 80s and 90s). Here they are in all their monochromatic glory:

Dark Castle
https://classicreload.com/mac-dark-castle.html

Beyond Dark Castle
https://classicreload.com/macex-beyond-dark-castle.html

Awesome! I went for a quick spin and young me would be quite disappointed at how crappy old me has gotten at those games, though TBF they don't run that smooth in emulation on my machine.

[fomofo]

Apple’s Iconic 1984 Super Bowl Ad

[XXX-er]

Selling computers to some kid in his mom's basement wasnt gona make enough $$$$

they had to sell computers to business

[fomofo]

Watch the original Mac team reunite at The Computer History Museum’s 40th anniversary event

With David Pogue as moderator, hear insider stories of the Mac and Apple’s early days from key members of the original hardware, software, design, and marketing/PR teams, including Bill Atkinson, Steve Capps, Andy Cunningham, Andy Hertzfeld, Bruce Horn, Susan Kare, Dan’l Lewin, and Mike Murray.

Learn about the impact of the Mac from insiders and experts including Chris Espinosa, Guy Kawasaki, Steven Levy, and David Pogue.



There are three panel discussions. The first (Mac project/development) starts 7:30 into the video.The second (Mac sales and marketing) starts at 46:00. The third (Impact of the Mac) starts at 01:15:10.

Selling computers to some kid in his mom's basement wasnt gona make enough $$$$

they had to sell computers to business

You may find the second panel interesting - they get into the nitty gritty of that and more.

And for anyone who's made it this far you may want to check these out as well...

Anecdotes about the development of Apple's original Macintosh

Steve Jobs and Bill Gates Together at D5 Conference 2007

[irul&ublo]

Mac…

Oh, the shark, babe, has such teeth, dear
And it shows them pearly white
Just a jackknife has old MacHeath, babe
And he keeps it, ah, out of sight
You know when that shark bites with his teeth, babe
Scarlet billows start to spread
Fancy gloves, oh, wears old MacHeath, babe
So there's never, never a trace of red

[Hood26]

The Mac and I are the same age. I remember in the 2nd grade when our only computer “lab” in a tiny closet upgraded from Apple IIs to the Macs, so never got to play Oregon Trail in green on a black screen. Grey and black for me.

[XXX-er]

back then I was running in and out of office buildings & offices all day long in the bidness environment, fix 7 or 8 typewriters a day, there were no cube farms, secretaries typed on typewriters, everything was stand alone nothing communicated so life was pretty simple, then one day buddy tells us we were gona be computer technicians

but I wasnt seeing macs, eventualy it was the PC that was used for wordprocessing

[riser4]