4 ms·

People say that Apple was lost in the 90s. Yet there is/was something special about the kind of art and software that emerged on the platform like this. It was

by tus666 4y ago

People say that Apple was lost in the 90s. Yet there is/was something special about the kind of art and software that emerged on the platform like this. It was very different to what was available elsewhere, and had a strong "mac culture" feel to it. It's a shame it ended really.

leephillips 4y ago
As the author points out, there is some serious talent on display here—doing so much with two colors (literally black and white, not greyscale).
- marginalia_nu 4y ago
  The minimalist line-art style was fairly fashionable in the '80s and early '90s, with people like Keith Haring making a big splash. His work was visually distinct from what's on display here, but I think the two are not entirely unrelated.
- chongli 4y ago
  To anyone who enjoys this black and white dithered art, I recommend checking out the old MacVenture games: Déjà Vu, Uninvited, Shadowgate, and Déjà Vu II. [1] They are all classic point-click adventure games played in first person perspective. Lots of intrigue, some horror (Uninvited and Shadowgate), weird music, good writing. Very fun games! I believe they can all be played in the browser though a classic Mac emulator on archive.org [2]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacVenture https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacVenture [2] https://archive.org/details/DejaVuMacintosh https://archive.org/details/DejaVuMacintosh
  - anthk 4y ago
    https://github.com/asvitkine/wage-engine https://github.com/asvitkine/wage-engine Scummvm too, you need to compile it with --enable-all-engines on the configure command.
- offByJuan 4y ago
  Reminiscent of Victorian clip art
paisawalla 4y ago
Yes, Mac developers tended to focus only on that platform, and a large portion of its user base was on monochrome for a long time. Therefore, you had a sizeable group of artists and devs who got developed strong techniques for monochrome art. Comparatively, on PC I never saw CGA graphics which I didn't think were anything but compromised EGA images, which were themselves degraded from VGA images etc. Did anyone else play Prince of Persia on a CGA display?
- Lammy 4y ago
  Some CGA graphics assumed you would connect it to a TV via composite: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composite_artifact_colors https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composite_artifact_colors
- toast0 4y ago
  I never had Prince of Persia, but I had 16-color Tandy graphics that wasn't EGA compatible, so if there wasn't Tandy support, I'd get CGA. Not a lot of CGA games would hook me into playing, when I had other options.
- reaperducer 4y ago
  I used to play Sim City on the monochrome 640x200 IBM PC Convertible. There was a program called "SimCGA" which would fool programs into thinking you had a color CGA graphics adapter so it would run. Visually, it was awful. But the novelty of playing games on a battery-powered IBM made up for it.
qbasic_forever 4y ago
A lot of talented folks worked in and around Apple. Susan Kare in particular helped design and create most of the Macintosh graphics, and I bet she (or folks influenced by her) created some of these Hypercard art bits. She also created the playing card art for Windows 3.x solitaire. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Kare https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Kare
- rileyphone 4y ago
  Susan Kare on the Computer Chronicles, discussing the Mac: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_q50tvbQm4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_q50tvbQm4
- behnamoh 4y ago
  I believe she also designed the Chicago font, which was then used in iPods.
  - musicale 4y ago
    Classic Macintosh bitmap fonts were (and are?) beautiful. A couple of days ago I was amazed at how clear and legible Monaco 9 (bitmap or non-antialiased) is on a 32" 4K monitor. Regarding Chicago, I keep seeing its TrueType imitation (which isn't as beautiful as the bitmap version, but is distinctive) everywhere.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
eek2121 4y ago
Hypercard was an outstanding piece of software. I used to know it's scripting language top to bottom back in the day. It is a shame we never saw a real evolution of Hypercard. Hyperstudio tried, however both were mostly limited to Mac releases. Powerpoint obviously does not compare. I got my start programming before Hypercard, however Hypercard made it even more fun. It is likely a large reason I am a professional developer today. You could build stuff to do things with minimal to no code and if you add a bit of code? Magic happens. Absolute Magic. I don't know, maybe it is just me. I've used ASM, C, C++, and a bazillion other languages, yet I always find myself coming back to the simple stuff to get things done.
- D-Coder 4y ago
  FYI, LiveCode (livecode.com) is a powerful Hypercard descendant. Runs on MacOS, Windows, and Linux. My daily-personal-use programs are in LiveCode. (Previously known as Revolution and RunRev.)
- sp332 4y ago
  AppleScript was pretty heavily inspired by Hypertalk, and you can use that with Automator today.
npunt 4y ago
Agree the special Mac feel was real & quite nice. But Apple was lost in the 90s in all the important ways besides UX because their leadership didn't even understand the business. Product marketing: they offered dozens of ever-changing models which meant customers didn't have simple purchasing choices, they priced things horribly Engineering: they couldn't build OS foundations, they bet on the wrong architecture & techs repeatedly which meant they couldn't benefit from rapid drop in costs Strategy: they had a bunch of half-assed efforts (ahem A-UX) and didn't see where the market was going with hardware and failed to compete against PC clones R&D: they wound up investing in a ton of pie in the sky stuff that was way too early for market This type of work, as cool as it was, was them basically coasting off the investment they'd put into UX and computing frontiers in the 80s, like Hypercard which came out in 1987. Nobody else really invested in UX in the 80s so Apple wound up with a decade+ lead, a bunch of great UX talent, and a loyal fan base. But they were basically a UX house atop a zombie corp.
zeckalpha 4y ago
HyperCard is from the 80s. The framing of lost in the 90s still fits.

by tus666 4y ago

leephillips 4y ago

As the author points out, there is some serious talent on display here—doing so much with two colors (literally black and white, not greyscale).

marginalia_nu 4y ago
The minimalist line-art style was fairly fashionable in the '80s and early '90s, with people like Keith Haring making a big splash. His work was visually distinct from what's on display here, but I think the two are not entirely unrelated.
chongli 4y ago
To anyone who enjoys this black and white dithered art, I recommend checking out the old MacVenture games: Déjà Vu, Uninvited, Shadowgate, and Déjà Vu II. [1] They are all classic point-click adventure games played in first person perspective. Lots of intrigue, some horror (Uninvited and Shadowgate), weird music, good writing. Very fun games! I believe they can all be played in the browser though a classic Mac emulator on archive.org [2]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacVenture https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacVenture [2] https://archive.org/details/DejaVuMacintosh https://archive.org/details/DejaVuMacintosh
- anthk 4y ago
  https://github.com/asvitkine/wage-engine https://github.com/asvitkine/wage-engine Scummvm too, you need to compile it with --enable-all-engines on the configure command.
offByJuan 4y ago
Reminiscent of Victorian clip art

paisawalla 4y ago

Yes, Mac developers tended to focus only on that platform, and a large portion of its user base was on monochrome for a long time. Therefore, you had a sizeable group of artists and devs who got developed strong techniques for monochrome art. Comparatively, on PC I never saw CGA graphics which I didn't think were anything but compromised EGA images, which were themselves degraded from VGA images etc. Did anyone else play Prince of Persia on a CGA display?

Lammy 4y ago
Some CGA graphics assumed you would connect it to a TV via composite: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composite_artifact_colors https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composite_artifact_colors
toast0 4y ago
I never had Prince of Persia, but I had 16-color Tandy graphics that wasn't EGA compatible, so if there wasn't Tandy support, I'd get CGA. Not a lot of CGA games would hook me into playing, when I had other options.
reaperducer 4y ago
I used to play Sim City on the monochrome 640x200 IBM PC Convertible. There was a program called "SimCGA" which would fool programs into thinking you had a color CGA graphics adapter so it would run. Visually, it was awful. But the novelty of playing games on a battery-powered IBM made up for it.

qbasic_forever 4y ago

A lot of talented folks worked in and around Apple. Susan Kare in particular helped design and create most of the Macintosh graphics, and I bet she (or folks influenced by her) created some of these Hypercard art bits. She also created the playing card art for Windows 3.x solitaire. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Kare https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Kare

rileyphone 4y ago
Susan Kare on the Computer Chronicles, discussing the Mac: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_q50tvbQm4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_q50tvbQm4
behnamoh 4y ago
I believe she also designed the Chicago font, which was then used in iPods.
- musicale 4y ago
  Classic Macintosh bitmap fonts were (and are?) beautiful. A couple of days ago I was amazed at how clear and legible Monaco 9 (bitmap or non-antialiased) is on a 32" 4K monitor. Regarding Chicago, I keep seeing its TrueType imitation (which isn't as beautiful as the bitmap version, but is distinctive) everywhere.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]

eek2121 4y ago

Hypercard was an outstanding piece of software. I used to know it's scripting language top to bottom back in the day. It is a shame we never saw a real evolution of Hypercard. Hyperstudio tried, however both were mostly limited to Mac releases. Powerpoint obviously does not compare. I got my start programming before Hypercard, however Hypercard made it even more fun. It is likely a large reason I am a professional developer today. You could build stuff to do things with minimal to no code and if you add a bit of code? Magic happens. Absolute Magic. I don't know, maybe it is just me. I've used ASM, C, C++, and a bazillion other languages, yet I always find myself coming back to the simple stuff to get things done.

D-Coder 4y ago
FYI, LiveCode (livecode.com) is a powerful Hypercard descendant. Runs on MacOS, Windows, and Linux. My daily-personal-use programs are in LiveCode. (Previously known as Revolution and RunRev.)
sp332 4y ago
AppleScript was pretty heavily inspired by Hypertalk, and you can use that with Automator today.

npunt 4y ago

Agree the special Mac feel was real & quite nice. But Apple was lost in the 90s in all the important ways besides UX because their leadership didn't even understand the business. Product marketing: they offered dozens of ever-changing models which meant customers didn't have simple purchasing choices, they priced things horribly Engineering: they couldn't build OS foundations, they bet on the wrong architecture & techs repeatedly which meant they couldn't benefit from rapid drop in costs Strategy: they had a bunch of half-assed efforts (ahem A-UX) and didn't see where the market was going with hardware and failed to compete against PC clones R&D: they wound up investing in a ton of pie in the sky stuff that was way too early for market This type of work, as cool as it was, was them basically coasting off the investment they'd put into UX and computing frontiers in the 80s, like Hypercard which came out in 1987. Nobody else really invested in UX in the 80s so Apple wound up with a decade+ lead, a bunch of great UX talent, and a loyal fan base. But they were basically a UX house atop a zombie corp.

zeckalpha 4y ago

HyperCard is from the 80s. The framing of lost in the 90s still fits.