All about the hypercard...

February 24, 2005 5:44 PM

When Multimedia Was Black and White is a wonderful trip down memory lane, back when posters, music, games, and print layouts were done in crude black and white. Be sure to click on the little disk icons to see all the screenshots from old 80s apps.
posted by mathowie (14 comments total)

Awesome. I used to design HyperCard stacks when I was a kid. It was the web before the web was the web.
posted by thirdparty at 6:34 PM on February 24, 2005

Wow, this is a sweet link... such nostalgia. I had completely forgotten about HyperCard. Too bad it is still, IIRC, Mac-only software (and 100$).
posted by adzm at 6:35 PM on February 24, 2005

Excellent, and lovely design to boot.
posted by carter at 6:42 PM on February 24, 2005

They accomplished some pretty amazing stuff considering the limitations.
posted by caddis at 6:45 PM on February 24, 2005

This is absolutely great.
posted by blacklite at 6:48 PM on February 24, 2005

Thank you. I remember long ago attempting to create a HyperCard stack that I called "Donovan's Brain" which would contain "everything I knew." Ah . . . youth, naivete, floppy disks . . . I think I'm gonna choke up.
posted by donovan at 6:56 PM on February 24, 2005

{puke}
posted by nj_subgenius at 7:08 PM on February 24, 2005

I'm too young to remember most of that. For me the nostalgia trip was part two, When Bevelled Edges were Cool.
posted by Tlogmer at 7:09 PM on February 24, 2005

Sorry, but the first multimedia was a year earlier (1986), in 4096 colors, on the Amiga. I actually ran Hypercard under Amax on my Amiga, but wasn't very impressed.
posted by rfs at 7:20 PM on February 24, 2005

(pours out some malt liquor for HyperCard)

This actually makes me more than a little wistful. B&W multimedia reminds me of my dad, a gigantic computer and Mac geek who loved things like HyperCard. He actually died ruing that he'd miss the launch of what was to become OS X. Seeing his hobbies as "history" makes me feel, if not old, at least a little aged.

It also reminds me of when new computer launches were actualyl something to get excited about. This is probably my own personal prejudice, but I remember when something like the IIfx was heralded as being BLAZINGLY FAST!!!!!323!#2!! in comparison to other Macs before it, but now each upgrade seems to be less of a quantum leap.

I dunno. I miss the excitement.
posted by Sticherbeast at 7:59 PM on February 24, 2005

My friend was the same, Sticherbeast -- he bought a PowerBook to replace his iMac, and was surprised how little he cared when compared to his excitment on replacing an SE/30 with a PB 5300.

Back then, though, the differences were huge. A new mac would bring with it colour, or an astounding increase in speed, or the ability to actually run something like Quark or Photoshop.

Now Safari just gets a bit quicker. It's not the same.
posted by bonaldi at 8:18 PM on February 24, 2005

Great link. I am glad to see the mention of Cosmic Osmo. LOVED that game.
posted by SisterHavana at 8:52 PM on February 24, 2005

Mackerel (the company in the story) was my first workplace after graduating from Crazy Go Nuts University, and what a place it was!

Be sure to read Cory Doctorow's piece, Burying the Fish, in which he documents the company's demise.

Someday I will have recount the story of my first (disastrous) client meeting.
posted by AccordionGuy at 10:12 PM on February 24, 2005

This is cool.

*feels like a third grader again*
posted by sciurus at 5:37 AM on February 25, 2005