[Franz Josef]

Tomorrow - 24 January 2005 - is the 21st birthday of the Macintosh. Its coming on age. You old timers will remember the launch in 1984 - I only know the ad.

Here's a link to the updated remastered version (courtesy of quicksilver) - http://www.esm.psu.edu/Faculty/Gray/...-2004_m480.mov

It's a good time to celebrate, maybe to talk about your best Mac memories. I've had mine less than a year so it's a new relationship. I wonder what Steve Jobs feels, he's made his money but how's the vision thing, has he achieved what he needed to, what else does he need to do before he hands over the reigns, how will Apple survive and prosper when he's gone, what we can do to help.

I don't think birthdays are about celebrating an extra year - they're about celebrating a birth. We should all raise a toast - whatever your tipple - to Steve, Woz and Mac (and to Lisa too).

Here's to the crazy ones.

[Dave Hagan]

The Mac can now drink legally.

[BlueRabbit]

Here's a link to the original 1984 ad, without the iPod added in.

[spotcatbug]

Suddenly I feel very old.

[Crusader]

Snap, it's been that long...

wow!

[mama's left eye]

Originally Posted by Dave Hagan The Mac can now drink legally.

It better not if it's traveling down the information "superhighway"

[gsxrboy]

I hope Mac doesnt go out wearing her mini and get all tipsy and taken advantage of by those big g5 towers !

[NeilyB 2.0]

I remember getting my Mac Plus in 1987, i was 13 years old and pulled my first all nighter mastering SuperPaint. those were the days.

neilyb

[BenRoethig]

Originally Posted by Dave Hagan The Mac can now drink legally.

While windows makes you need a drink...or ten.

[jimdad]

Apologies if this is well known, but I've just come across this video of the original launch of the Mac with SJ in bow tie pulling it out of the bag. German site so I 've linked straight to the directory. ( about 21mgbs worth, I think)

edit: bugger, forgot the link


http://www.cluecoder.org/~bene/ppcnux/1984_macintro/

[Franz Josef]

Originally Posted by jimdad http://www.cluecoder.org/~bene/ppcnux/1984_macintro/

Thanks, good clip. And I'd like to say, in contrast to some of the other views expressed, one of the reasons Mac is commercially successful today is that it has a good bloodline.

[jimdad]

Sorry, Franz, should have spotted this thread earlier.

[autodata]

The video of the introduction in 1984 was posted to slashdot. It was just digitized from Betamax.

torrent
mov

[SonOfSylvanus]

<---

[BarracksSi]

And that, as they say, was that.

Amazing. Jeez, remembering what the personal computing world was like back then...

I remember going to a computer store in a mall back home ONLY to play with the Macintosh on display. "Look, Dad, you can do this, and this, and this..." I never knew anything more advanced than BASIC by that point, and there I was, working with.. no, playing with a computer that I had never seen before.

God, that's cool.

That took balls, too. Not too many people these days would unload a system and start it up on a routine like that without testing it first. I'm on the edge of my couch.

Thanks for the link, autodata. This one's a keeper.

[BarracksSi]

Sorry for the second post, but...

When I say that I remember playing with it in the store, I mean that I remember it CLEARLY. I can still feel the texture of the plastics, I can remember staring reaaaallly closely to see the pixels...

I'm just excited because I don't remember ever seeing video of the actual introduction. This is just cool as shit.

[naren]

I've only seen clips before, there must be a more complete version than even this floating around.

I remember my first Mac experience well, a little Mac Plus in my middle school computer lab. There was only one Mac in the room, every other machine was a Apple II. It was such a revelation to just turn on a computer and start using it. No obscure startup sequence or commands, no load disks just boot and go. After seeing my first Mac I was never able to take any other computer seriously, well, until I saw my first NeXTcube anyway.

[BlueRabbit]

Sorry to bump the (relatively) old thread, but they posted more of the 1984 Mac intro video online. They include: Steve reciting part of a song, Steve showing the 1984 commercial, and 5 other commercials about the Mac. Wow, it's hard to imagine a time when nobody knew how to use a mouse.

Bittorrent links are here.