Released in 1984, the first Apple Macintosh revolutionised personal computing – despite its staggering $2,495 price tag. If you weren't old enough to experience it the first time round, or couldn't afford to, it is now possible to play with the computer's software online using the Internet Archive's software emulators for Mac.
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"While there are certainly predecessors to the computer desktop paradigm, the introduction of the Macintosh brought it to a mass market and in the 30 years since," the Archive's Jason Scott writes in a blog post, "it has been steadily adapted by every major computing platform and operating system".
The Archive's Macintosh software collection allows for classic programs to be run on a virtual version of the computer. This includes the black and white desktop, cursor, and Apple logo.
Within the emulated software are games and the entire Mac operating system. It's possible to use MacPaint (version 1.5), a demo of Lemmings, Space Invaders, Frogger, MacWrite 4.5 and more. "This is a curated presentation of applications, games, and operating systems from 1984-1989," Scott writes.
James Friend, a developer who works at Facebook and who was involved in creating the Mac emulator, says the recreation was made with the PCE emulator using a number of direct hacks and by re-configuring the tools needed to process the system requirements.
"I think everybody should have the opportunity to experience computing history, and the original Macintosh is an essential piece of that history," Friend said.
The Macintosh collection isn't the only software emulators preserved by the group. Overall the Internet Archive, a nonprofit group, has collected more than 286 billion web pages, 12 million books, 3.2m films and millions of images, audio clips, pieces of software and more.
Elsewhere in its software collection are emulators for Atari games, the ZX Spectrum, Windows 3.x and hundreds of classic games in the Internet Arcade.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
