Filed under: Video, Found Footage, Apple History
Found Footage: The Story of Macintosh
Denver-area Mac consultant Mike Kimble is no stranger to Apple; he worked at an Apple reseller prior to the introduction of the Mac in 1984, and he's been involved with Macs and other Apple products ever since. Mike recently found several old Apple tapes that were sent to his business back around the Mac intro, and his description of one of them says it all:
My personal favorite scene is the one where Bill Gates is sitting with a 128K Mac on his desk. The video is divided into two parts; the second can be viewed by clicking the "read more" link below. Enjoy this trip down memory lane!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Sjakelien said 10:02AM on 1-18-2010
It looks pretty cheesy by current Apple standards.
Interestingly, in part two, you see Steve Jobs with a big White Apple, without the rainbow.
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Gib said 12:58AM on 1-19-2010
I liked that too... and Bill Gates loved the Mac. Good old video.
David S. said 10:09AM on 1-18-2010
I thought it was funny that someone would seriously consider taking a $2500 desktop and putting in the basket on their bicycle. Of course, not that big of a deal compared to today's laptop prices - but back then.....
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chadberg said 10:23AM on 1-18-2010
I'm amused by the copy/paste procedures, where they clearly miss the first time with the selection rectangle and for a moment you see a bit of shoe left behind. The pasted image has an more svelte and shoe-shaped toe line than the line drawn in the demonstration too.
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BenY said 10:53AM on 1-18-2010
This is a lot of fun to watch. Thanks!
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awilensky said 11:14AM on 1-18-2010
I was there as one of the first certified developers, and all the way through the almost 10k$ Mac IIFX. Look at the Steve Jobs and Bill whatisname, that is what Horatio Alger was talking about.
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RyanR said 11:35AM on 1-18-2010
I was one year old then :)
oz said 2:06PM on 1-18-2010
The joke at the time was that "IIFX" was the Apple code for Too F***ing Expensive!
Alex Mills said 11:39AM on 1-18-2010
Its brilliant to see the excitement on the faces of the developers and engineers at the start of the film. They are super proud of what they have accomplished and really want everyone to experience it. It seems that Apple is moving back towards this 'personal' side of the company with it's recent releases having their own videos with interviews with the people that created the products. That is really cool.
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RyanR said 2:44PM on 1-18-2010
Do you have any links to more recent staff videos?
macguy said 11:43AM on 1-18-2010
Wow… fascinating time capsule piece. Thanks!
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OS11 said 12:02PM on 1-18-2010
I have an entire set of these "lost Apple tapes" on 8 DVD for those who are interested. A screenshot of all of them is here:
http://homepage.mac.com/amcintosh/ebay/histset1-8.jpg
They are about 11 hours long, full screen and even have Apple Tablet dreams that I assure people haven't seen before. (see DVD 2)
Contact me at amcintosh @ mac.com if interested.
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Michael Kaye said 12:26PM on 1-18-2010
Gotta love the 80s music...memories!
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stargate199 said 12:40PM on 1-18-2010
Mac Paint looks awfully similar to MS Paint.
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Darren said 2:37PM on 1-18-2010
Bill Gates put a team of people on the Macintosh.
Allan said 12:48PM on 1-18-2010
It's hard for those who weren't using computers back then to fully appreciate what a huge, game-changing moment the Mac represented. I can still vividly remember walking through the student union at the University of Texas were they had a Mac in a display case writing, "Hello" over and over. I was mesmerized, and I wasn't going to rest until I had one. Watching these YouTubes on my MacBook Pro made me miss that old Mac, MacPaint and MacWrite.
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oz said 1:53PM on 1-18-2010
My first Apple product was a Mac Plus bought in 1986. I never owned a Lisa, but it was my gateway drug to two and half decades of Mac ownership. The Lisa was my first drink of the Apple Cool Aid and I have owned more Macs (and now iPods!) than I care to remember.
Watching this video on my brand new MacBook Pro impressed upon me how much has changed and how much hasn't really changed. My fully pimped out MBP cost around $3K--probably about what I paid for my first Mac Plus. Amazing to think that I need a processor that is 381.5 times faster (3.06GHz vs. 8MHz) with 7,999 more (8GB vs. 1 MB) more RAM and 624,999 times more disk space (500GB vs. 800KB) to essentially run the same suite of software that I ran in 1986!
Of course, we didn't have digital music, digital movies, digital photography, and the internet to soak up all those extra cycles and bits we have now.
That video unleashed a flood of Apple memories from the first multifinder, the first laserwriter, windows spanning multiple screens (in color!), and being absolutely blown away by QuickTime 1.0 at the Apple developer's conference.
I try to forget the "Performa Years"--good thing Next bought Apple!!
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thefjk said 2:00PM on 1-18-2010
I have a better computer than that, but you gotta hand it to Jobs... I wan't one, I wan't one now!
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collide007 said 2:53PM on 1-18-2010
Strange that, I too felt the same way.
mboehner said 4:55PM on 1-18-2010
What a great memory! I was one of those people who sat and played with the 128 and had to have it. There had been a pull-out section in my Time magazine describing it; I kept that ad for years but think it's disappeared now--would love to have it back. The Mac was so completely different from PCs of the time--even the first computer with black lettering and a white background that I had seen, instead of yellowish (?) on black. I was so entranced that I sold a life insurance policy and all the stock I owned to buy it--about $3500 if I recall correctly. Many Macs later, I still love them.
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