Wow Steve, FireWire sounds really cool! When’s it coming to the MacBook Pro?
Filed under: Apple Fanboyism, Awesomeness, History, Steve Jobs, video
So far the only regret I have about my new MacBook Pro is the lack of a FireWire 400 port. It’s not a huge deal, but its absence became immediately apparent when I began attempting to transfer the files from my old white MacBook (which has FireWire 400) to the new MBP which does not. Luckily I was able to find a spare piece of Ethernet cable at work and use the migration assistant that way, but during the MUCH SLOWER 6.5 hour migration, I had plenty of time to count up just how many old FireWire drives, card readers, video cameras, and peripherals I owned that I would no longer be able to directly access via my new top-of-the-line machine.
The sad death of FireWire 400 on the Mac reminded me of its joyous birth. The video below is from the infamous 1999 MacWorld Stevenote where Jobs introduces FireWire to the crowd, explaining the lameness of SCSI, and how magical FireWire is (I still remember the red VST drives that we drooled over then – and I think I still have one somewhere  (not that I can hook it to my new MBP…)). While I certainly understand that progress is progress, I’m not Read more
OMFG “Adventure” comes to the iPhone! And it’s FREE!
Filed under: Awesomeness, Games, History, iPhone, iPod Touch
Yes kids, there was a time when video games looked this bad, and they were played on a little thing called the Atari 2600. I remember when my brothers and I got our 2600 for Christmas, and Adventure was included in the box.
Above: Behold the awesomeness that IS the golden castle!
Above: I can’t believe I still remember the route of the maze after 25 years… and yes, that arrow is your sword.
The description of the game painted a vision of a magical world full of sorcery, dragons, sword fights, and danger. The reality was decidedly different, leaving pretty much EVERYTHING up to the player’s imagination.
“An evil magician has stolen the Enchanted Chalice and has hidden it somewhere in the Kingdom. The object of the game is to rescue the Enchanted Chalice and place it inside the Golden Castle where it belongs.
This is no easy task, as the Evil Magician has created three Dragons to hinder you in your quest for the Golden Chalice. There is Yorgie, the Yellow Dragon, who is just plain mean; there is Grundle, the Green Dragon, who is mean and ferocious; and there is Rhindle, the Red Dragon, who is the most ferocious of all. Rhindle is also the fastest Dragon and is the most difficult to outmaneuver”
Above: Oh no! Yorgie the Yellow Dragon is terrifying! Or is that a duck?
Above: Oh no! Yorgie the Yellow Dragon is totally going to eat me!
Above: Hmm… I guess when I was five I missed just how much it looks like Yorgie had an erection after eating me
Peter Hirschberg, creator of the vector game emulator Vector Dream has successfully ported Adventure to the iPhone, and all the crappy graphics and gameplay are there. I remember there was a magic “dot” you could find that if you brought it to a certain screen would allow you to travel through a wall and see the game’s creators (one of the first console game cheats I can remember). While 25 years later I am impressed that I still remember how to navigate the maze, I can’t remember where the dot is, so I don’t know if Peter threw that in, and honestly, I got bored after 5 minutes, so I don’t think I will bother Googleing the dot and finding out, but kudos to Peter for what appears to be a very faithful port of the game that got me addicted to games.
“Computers are the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds” - Another Great Steve Quote
In the full context of what is being discussed here, Steve’s “Computers are the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds” actually makes a decent amount of sense. However, who the heck cares about context these days?!?! Somebody needs to take this piece of footage and slap it onto a compilation reel along with Steve’s “Scrolls like butter” comment, NOW!
[via Scholarspot]
Fergie is a Mac Chick
Filed under: Apple Fanboyism, Awesomeness, Celebrity Mac Chick, History
If you remember this 2004 video introducing the iMac G5 you may recall seeing Fergie gush over the machine. “The iMac is amazing” she says, shaking her head in disbelief (approx 2:30 in). “I’m jealous of the kids today because they have this knowledge ahead of where I was when I was younger, and I only wish that I could have had this.”
Well, whether or not Apple paid her to say that, it seems Fergie really IS into Apple gear (at least diamond encrusted Apple gear). Check out this pic that faithful Macenstein reader Kensei sent us of Fergie holding up her iPhone, decked out in a Gilty Couture case.
Somehow I have a feeling quite a few kids today with iMacs who are more jealous of Fergie than she is of them.
The only thing nerdier than comic books is…
Filed under: Apple Fanboyism, Awesomeness, History, Humor, Steve Jobs, That's Weird..., WTF
…Comic books about computer inventors!
Being a nerd who is into both comic books and computer inventors, I don’t know how I missed out on this 1984 Japanese comic book about how Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak formed Apple Computers. My only excuse is that I was about 4-years-old when it came out and roughly 8,900 miles away.
Apparently, Jobs and Wozniak met when a fateful lab explosion threw them together.
I don’t read Japanese, but from what I can tell, Manga comic artist Mitsuru Sugaya took a couple liberties in telling the tale, as I don’t remember either Steve mentioning they met during a huge explosion on campus, or that they invented a computer that could fly into space.
Above: Steve Jobs uses Thundershock to stun Wozniak into working with him.
If you’d like to read it for yourself, or at least look at the pictures and make up your own story like I did, you can view the whole thing on Mitsuru Sugaya’s blog.
Apple invents the first computer capable of breaking the bonds of the Earth’s gravity, and the rest is history.
[via Boing Boing]
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