[Judge_Fire]

So I saw the 'trash' thread and people talking about 'Grouch', 'Netbunny' and 'Talking Moose' and thought it'd be nice to do start a better titled thread on the topic of old stuff in general

Not 'what is OS X missing' but 'what was fun in OS 1-9'.

One personal favorite:

� Async audio (?) - an extension that loaded first and started playing an aiff file immediately, during the boot sequence. Impressive!

Your memories?

J

[Chuckit]

I always loved that cute little mouse tutorial that came with the original Macintosh (and probably a few later models. It was just so quaint.

[electropura]

heres more classic nostalgia.

unplug your mouse and pretend your computer just froze for no reason.

reboot your computer.

[JMII]

Just the other day while working our switching network hub me and my buddy were joking about the old days with Apple Phone Net. Remember that? You connected these little adaptors to your Mac and they allowed you to use any standard telephone jacks/cable to create an instant cheap network.

On the software side I remember when MacDraw and Illustrator (1.0?) had about the same set of features. And a single 3.5" floppy was all that you needed to install ANY program including Photoshop.

[LeeG]

Some of us are still using phone nets! (With an asantetalk appletalk-ethernet adapter, and OSX!).

How many out there shared the misfortune of using the geoport express modem?!?

We forget (despite classic lovers) how far we have come, in a relatively short period of time. Unplugging the mouse and pretending you had an OS9 freeze...classic!!! (no pun intended). Not having my computer "freeze" - priceless...


Lee

[OmniX]

true, true

[CharlesS]

[xi_hyperon]

I loved all the practical joke extensions available for the old Mac OS. They provided hours of laughter at work (at the expense of other co-workers).

[OmniX]

Originally posted by CharlesS:

did that Resume button ever work in any circumstances?

i can recall one or two occassions when it wasn't greyed out (as above), but clicking it never actually had any effect.

and, for old times' sake: who remembers MacsBug?!!
(still available!: ftp://ftp.apple.com/developer/Tool_C...uggers_-_dcmds)

[yukon]

I miss macsbug, it was a feeling of power, of what's now called "uber1337ness" or something. If only OS X had a key combo, or even using the damn programmers switch on my G4, so that I could drop into a console....it would eliminate ~80% of the stalls OS X has had so far for me.

I remember using the bunny program, used Oscar The Grouch for about 3sec...all the fun with OpenTransport, all the horrors with PCMacLan. Extensions, oh how I miss them, tuning the performance of my personal machine by removing things I didn't need, totally obsoleted with OS X but I can still miss it if I want.

The "Resume" button worked depending on the problem, resuming from macsbug worked, but the system would be quite a bit more unstable until restarting.

[Sage]

I also loved the tutorials, where they always circled the buttons to click and everything. Much more helpful for new computer users than the current Help app.

Remember Chooser? What a PITA that was.

[Ganesha]

[wadesworld]

Ahh...I remember the days of cooperative multitasking and having to write my program at interrupt-time so it could get time from the processor (before anyone has a hissy fit and says I didn't have to do that, it was a voice-chat application that worked in the background of games, so yes, I did).

I remember constant crashes and reboots as I developed my software.

Wow I wish I could go back.....NOT!

Wade

[Disgruntled Head of C-3PO]

Originally posted by Ganesha:

Oh god that box is so confusing!

[sniffer]

The Mac equivalent to Windows Start -> Shut down interface..

[Judge_Fire]

I was always impressed by the theoretical possibilities of the 'Publish...' <-> 'Subscribe...' mechanism found in some apps.

Exmaple : http://www.deneba.com/cvhelp/files/s...subscribe.html

But did anybody ever use it for anything?

J

[Randman]

Printing fun.

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally posted by Chuckit:
I always loved that cute little mouse tutorial that came with the original Macintosh (and probably a few later models. It was just so quaint.

http://homepage.mac.com/spheric/Maci...cs%205.0.3.zip

[Spheric Harlot]

Anybody remember MacPlaymate - or better yet, have a copy flying around in some software archive?

Then:

The original Tetris (still works in Classic)

Crystal Quest.

MacBarf/MacPuke

What was the name of that extension that you could set to play different sounds for different occasions? I had John Cleese exclaim "There is one smaaall problem!" every time I inserted an unformatted floppy.

Font/DA Mover:

[chris v]

Puzzle.

Seriously, nothing. I can't think of a single thing I actually miss.

[Phil Sherry]

loads of stuff here and in the other sections. good site.

[waffffffle]

Originally posted by LeeG:
How many out there shared the misfortune of using the geoport express modem?!?

I had one on my 6400. Every time I would play a midi file I would get disconnected from the internet. I hated web sites with embedded midi files. It drove me nuts.

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally posted by waffffffle:
I had one on my 6400. Every time I would play a midi file I would get disconnected from the internet. I hated web sites with embedded midi files. It drove me nuts.

Heh.

Never had the disconnection problem (luckily never had a geoport), but web sites with embedded midi files STILL drive me nuts.

I HATE them.

[Goldfinger]

Originally posted by CharlesS:

Oh the horror ! Combine a Performa 5300 with System 7.5.1 (IIRC) and you get one of these twice a day.

[CharlesS]

Originally posted by Spheric Harlot:
What was the name of that extension that you could set to play different sounds for different occasions? I had John Cleese exclaim "There is one smaaall problem!" every time I inserted an unformatted floppy.

SoundMaster! Heh, I remember setting all kinds of obnoxious sounds for various actions with that thing.

[xi_hyperon]

Originally posted by Goldfinger:
Oh the horror ! Combine a Performa 5300 with System 7.5.1 (IIRC) and you get one of these twice a day.

Throw in QuarkXpress 3.x and you get it 3 or 4 times/day.

*shudder*

[fisherKing]

i was thinking about all the practical joke extensions (my ex-girlfriend did not find it funny)

one that would make the cursor drop to the bottom of the screen;
one that made it bounce around the screen.
one that made text multicolored;
one that moved the cursor away from where you clicked.


one that kept restarting the mac (until you stopped it with a key combo)


and i miss resedit...

[xi_hyperon]

Originally posted by fisherKing:
i was thinking about all the practical joke extensions (my ex-girlfriend did not find it funny)

one that would make the cursor drop to the bottom of the screen;
one that made it bounce around the screen.
one that made text multicolored;
one that moved the cursor away from where you clicked.


one that kept restarting the mac (until you stopped it with a key combo)


and i miss resedit...

Yeah, resedit was the bomb. At some point in the old days, I had found a joke extension which would cause one's Mac to randomly cough or clear the throat. I used resedit to replace the sounds with farts, installed it on my co-worker's Mac, turned up his speakers and waited patiently. Fun for the whole department.

[fisherKing]

Originally posted by xi_hyperon:
Yeah, resedit was the bomb. At some point in the old days, I had found a joke extension which would cause one's Mac to randomly cough or clear the throat. I used resedit to replace the sounds with farts, installed it on my co-worker's Mac, turned up his speakers and waited patiently. Fun for the whole department.

fun, and useful as well. (what could be more essential than a farting mac??)


btw please do not share the story of recording that sound...

[IamBob]

AtEase, or AtSneeze as we called it, since it was so easy to get out of.

That one extension that let you shoot holes in your screen with several different guns, with blood and everything. I think there's a knockoff for OSX now but without the random system deaths I don't think it'd be the same.

I really miss that asteroid-like screensaver too. I'm sure there's more I'm forgetting.

[LeeG]

Originally posted by fisherKing:
i was thinking about all the practical joke extensions (my ex-girlfriend did not find it funny)

one that would make the cursor drop to the bottom of the screen;
one that made it bounce around the screen.
one that made text multicolored;
one that moved the cursor away from where you clicked.


one that kept restarting the mac (until you stopped it with a key combo)


and i miss resedit...

I had one that would make your mac have a "typewriter" clicking sound whenever a key was pressed - really annoyed people....

L

[macintologist]

Originally posted by LeeG:
How many out there shared the misfortune of using the geoport express modem?!?

Oh GAWD. I had that dreaded thing bundled with my Powermac 6100/60AV. Whenever you connected to the internet it slowed down the computer so damn much! Why?! What I would do is

1) Launch Netscape Navigator 2.0
2) Dial in the modem
3) Connect to hotmail (or whatever site)
4) Load up the mail and prepare to write a reply
5) Disconnect the modem
6) Write up reply
7) Reconnect modem
8) Send email
9) Disconnect modem
10) Quit navigator.

Thank god for DSL and the G4!

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally posted by LeeG:
I had one that would make your mac have a "typewriter" clicking sound whenever a key was pressed - really annoyed people....

L

Oh yeah...I had that for a while, but it really slowed down the machine.

I also had a great extension called "Arrgh" that would have the Mac let out a single, desperate scream every once in a while.

Excellent relief for those all-night homework assignments.

[Brass]

Originally posted by Judge_Fire:
I was always impressed by the theoretical possibilities of the 'Publish...' <-> 'Subscribe...' mechanism found in some apps.

Exmaple : http://www.deneba.com/cvhelp/files/s...subscribe.html

But did anybody ever use it for anything?

J

Yes, I used publish/subscribe in a couple of different ways. One of these was to share a client's letterhead among several of their AppleWorks template files (eg, the standard letter template, the standard fax cover page, etc). This way, when they changed their letter head, it only had to be done in one place, and all their templates still used exactly the same letterhead.

I also used it to share data between ApppleWorks spreadsheets (similar to using multiple sheet spreadsheets in Excel).

Publish/Subscribe was an excellent idea, and it worked very well. It's a shame it didn't get used more by other people, so that it was better promoted.

[Brass]

I really miss how the classic Mac OS versions had this quaint notion of showing file icons in the Finder in real-time - what a silly idea that was.

The way that Mac OS X currently does things (not showing new files until a random period of time afterwards, or until it is forced to refresh the window/view by some user interaction), is so clever.

[discotronic]

I miss the speed of the user interface. Panther runs great on my iBook 300 but OS 9 was really fast. I don't miss the constant crashing or having to trash the preferences on almost every app I owned. We are better off today than we where 5 years ago.

[jasong]

Originally posted by Spheric Harlot:
http://homepage.mac.com/spheric/Maci...cs%205.0.3.zip

Hah! Made with Macromind Director 3.1!

-- Jason

[fisherKing]

Originally posted by LeeG:
I had one that would make your mac have a "typewriter" clicking sound whenever a key was pressed - really annoyed people....

L

i installed that on a neighbor's mac (os 7.1 days..?);
he didn't notice it for a week..!

(then he asked me "did it always do that?") !!

[teszeract]

editing suitcases.

[King Bob On The Cob]

Originally posted by Brass:
I really miss how the classic Mac OS versions had this quaint notion of showing file icons in the Finder in real-time - what a silly idea that was.

The way that Mac OS X currently does things (not showing new files until a random period of time afterwards, or until it is forced to refresh the window/view by some user interaction), is so clever.

Supposedly from what I've read here on the forums, this is supposed to make it's return in Tiger (via some new code in the VFS)

Originally posted by discotronic:
I miss the speed of the user interface. Panther runs great on my iBook 300 but OS 9 was really fast. I don't miss the constant crashing or having to trash the preferences on almost every app I owned. We are better off today than we where 5 years ago.

A iBook 300 your OS X experience would be alot better if you upgrade that computer to something more recent. (It's as fast as OS 9 in everything except app launches on my cheap-o eMac.)

[CharlesS]

Originally posted by fisherKing:
i installed that on a neighbor's mac (os 7.1 days..?);
he didn't notice it for a week..!

(then he asked me "did it always do that?") !!

Heh, remember the Platinum Sounds sound set that came with OS 8.5 and up? That made a great prank on people who didn't know enough to figure out how to turn it back off...

[discotronic]

Originally posted by King Bob On The Cob:
Supposedly from what I've read here on the forums, this is supposed to make it's return in Tiger (via some new code in the VFS)


A iBook 300 your OS X experience would be alot better if you upgrade that computer to something more recent. (It's as fast as OS 9 in everything except app launches on my cheap-o eMac.)

It isn't my primary machine and I am thankful that it isn't. I have an iMac G5 that I use for almost everything.

My better half uses the iBook for surfing on the couch when I am "busy" with the iMac. She get compliments all the time when she is at a coffee shop or someplace that has wireless access. The design just stands out. The battery holds a 4+ hour charge, it has a 30GB HD, 320MB RAM (will upgrade with a 512MB module soon), and runs Office, Safari and iTunes surprisingly well. I have had it for a few years and have no desire to part with it

[mAxximo]

I could write all night long about this

I miss the crispness of the Mac soooo much, the nice Chicago and Geneva system fonts (or any other for that matter since I could choose any fonts I wanted for the interface and they all looked great for the most part); the no-nonsense interface; the having my fonts organised the way I wanted instead of the stupid system moving/duplicating everything everywhere; ATM DeLuxe; the Pop-up Folders; the stability and quickness of all my Adobe applications; the not restarting for weeks; the system not slowing down because I pushed it too much or just because I'm using iTunes;

the responsiveness, oh GOD the responsiveness;

the clicking once on things and the system getting it right away; the true ownership of my filenames (read: no mandatory retarded file extensions); the not having to wait for the system to finish paging before switching applications (Dual G5 2GB RAM); the Virtual Memory: OFF setting (oh, how I'd go back to cooperative multitasking in a millisecond if I had the chance after suffering the current flakiness of OS X's memory scheme); the system sounds, the telling the computer what to do instead of the other way around, etc, etc, etc.

In other words, I miss the Mac.

[CharlesS]

Originally posted by mAxximo:
the Virtual Memory: OFF setting (oh, how I'd go back to cooperative multitasking in a millisecond if I had the chance after suffering the current flakiness of OS X's memory scheme)

edit:



edit again:



edit again!

[Zadian]

Originally posted by CharlesS:

Ah, the joy of fragmented memory :-) That's one of my favourites in the old Mac OS.

A funny thing you could do in Mac OS 9 was to place a QuickTime movie, with a special name, in the Systemfolder that would be played at system start up.
Never had any use for that but it was quite cool.

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally posted by mAxximo:
I'd go back to cooperative multitasking in a millisecond if I had the chance after suffering the current flakiness of OS X's memory scheme

Wow.

Oddly, the rest of the world consider's OS X's memory management to be among the most robust on the market, while OS 9 shines through a near-total ABSENCE of any memory management at all. CharlesS's post should have jogged your obviously rose-tinted memory a bit on that point.

[Toyin]

Extension conflicts was always fun way to waste several hours of time.
I also miss how stable my machine was after installing Linux PPC on my PM 6500 (with Sonnet G3 chip). I still remember being shocked that the system could run for a few days without a restart.

Honestly, I do miss Pop up windows (the ones you dragged to the bottom of the screen) and ResEdit. I also miss (duck for cover) Internet Explorer which in it's day was a pretty solid browser.

[SSharon]

Has anyone in here ever tried out Now Utilities? That application was the devil for me. It messed up everything on my 7100/66. Man was I glad to get rid of that app.

Of course OS X has its flaws and many of Apple's apps in particular. One thing I would love to do is have none of my icons bounce, EVER. So when safari times out, NO BOUNCE, and when Mail can't connect to the server, NO BOUNCE.

[andreas_g4]

I really miss that exciting moment watching the systems extensions load and to wait wheather your mac hangs up AGAIN on this or that particular extension or not. This was great.

And there was an extension that was called "extension overload", IIRC. That one just added extension symbols during the startup process, pretending you needed a lot of stuff to load on your cool sophisticated system. What a crap! I used it once in a while�

[mAxximo]

Originally posted by CharlesS:

I know.