August 22, 2004

I was lucky enough to come across a vintage Macintosh "Picasso" poster at RedLightRunner a couple of weeks back, which I now have framed and happily adorning the wall of my basement computer room. This is one of two vintage Apple posters that I consider to be extraordinary finds, the other being a poster of the transparent Macintosh illustration from the original Macintosh sales brochure (the only one I've seen went on eBay for $300 about 4 months ago).

The "Picasso logo," created by Tom Hughes and John Casado, Apple saw as the embodiment of what the Mactintosh offered consumers: a vision of style, subtlety, and frendliness that was a marked departure from any other computing experience available to users at the time. Apple, unlike any of its peers, felt that the users' first impression of the machine, which would be formed as he or she eagerly opened up the box and began to look inside, was a critical moment. An imprinting. As such, great care and thought was put into the arrangement and design of the packages within—logo placement, use of color, shape, texture, orientation, etc. The result, the overall packaging of the Macintosh [PDF] really was a collective work of art. This aspect of the user experience is more widely appreciated by manufacturers today, but Apple is still unmatched when it comes to truly delviering on this front, and the fact that they "got it" so long ago—20 years now, is very telling.

The logo for another another of my sites, iPod Hacks, was fully inspired by the Picasso logo.

August 15, 2004

I've recently been on a kick to gather vintage software for my Macintosh Plus and Apple IIgs. I seem to get inspired to do so every few months—finding old apps/games that I remember from 20 years ago and loading them up again, for old time's sake. I thought I would share two sites that are rather useful in the gathering of such "abandonware":

• Macintosh Garden - An excellent site with hundreds of very hard to find programs for both the very early original Macintosh and Macintosh Plus as well as for the later Macintosh II era machines. Reviews, screenshots, forums commentary—it's all there.

• Apple IIgs Gaming Memory Fairway - A very well-done site with downloads, commentary, and high-quality scans of box cover art for various Apple IIgs applications. The site has recently been restructured, it seems, and is currently offering no game software that I can find (it used to have hundreds of games). Productivity, development, and utility software is offered in its present form. Worth a look for IIgs users looking to put their machines to good use.

These sites have made the wonderful experience of reliving "the old days" a possibility for anyone with the proper hardware. Even running these apps on modern machines via emulation is a workable route to that good old nostalgic fix. I've got to say, though—emulation is no replacement for the real thing. Enjoy!

August 4, 2004

I found the greatest geek toy the other day. Every so often I scan ThinkGeek to see what's new and clever—this time I found something too good to pass up. Colorful, retro, adhesive Space Invaders characters that can be placed on walls, ceilings, windows, etc. The cellar computer room was just waiting for these.

Have a look at the end result in all its glory.