Mac Folklore Radio

Derek
  • 5.0 (2)
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • UPDATED MONTHLY

Comfort food for Macintosh users of the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s.

  1. MAR 20

    MFR Housekeeping, Spring 2026

    Order David Pogue’s “Apple: The First 50 Years”. Watch the livestreamed Apple 50th event at the Computer History Museum.

    3 min

  2. JAN 14

    KON and BAL's Puzzle Page II (1992, 1993)

    Original text by Konstantin Othmer and Bruce Leak for Apple’s develop! magazine, December 1992, March 1993, and June 1993. Apple’s MicroBug documentation: Technote TN1136. Running MacsBug on an alternate monitor: “Using Touch and Go Breakpoints with Two Monitors”. Spaceward Ho! for iPad and Classic MacOS. Original product website (broken). Watch a Let’s Play of Spaceward Ho! by Effing Controller who also has hilarious playthroughs of F/A-18 Hornet and Marathon. See also: Debugging Macintosh Software with Macsbug by Konstantin Othmer and Jim Straus.

    20 min

  3. 2025-12-15

    Frank Casanova Interview - Maclopedia (1996)

    Original text from Maclopedia. While I wasn’t looking, Frank Casanova parted ways with Apple in 2024. Whoops. John Buck’s book on Apple’s Advanced Technology Group, Inventing the Future, is worth your while. John is also on the fediverse. Stick around and you might pick up some extra dirt. Unedited versions of the Macintosh Quadra 700/900 launch, the Macintosh IIfx launch, and the WWDC 2004 announcement of QuickTime 7’s support for H.264.

    15 min

  4. 2025-12-08

    Steve Hayman - Great Idea (2025)

    Original text by Steve Hayman. NeXT Mail clips from the NeXT launch event in Tokyo and the NeXTSTEP Release 3.0 demo VHS tape.

    7 min

  5. 2025-11-20

    Jecel on the Unitron 512 Macintosh Clone (1998)

    Original text by Jecel Mattos de Assumpçao Jr, 1998. Rainer Brockerhoff, who also participated in the Unitron 512 project, provides additional background at Low End Mac. More about Brazil’s reserved market policy, a.k.a. the National Policy of Informatics. More about Jecel’s projects in this 2019 presentation about SmallTalk-oriented hardware and the Merlintec website. Our Friend The Computer discusses the political and financial circumstances surrounding the Unitron 512. As so often happens in weird corners of the Internet, people have somehow obtained copies of Unitron’s ROMs and put them under the microscope.

    19 min

  6. 2025-10-21

    Power 100 Review and Mac OS Clone Commentary (1995)

    Original text by Tim Warner, Macworld, August 1995. Additional clone cancellation fallout information from Macworld, October 1997. Original Power Computing magazine ad. Clearly the Mac OS clone program failed due to the absence of discount furniture warehouse-style radio advertising. Gary Davidian: “As far as I know, nobody ever made a CHRP machine.” “Mr. OS/2” David Barnes talking about IBM’s intention to support Mac applications running on top of Workplace OS. IBM’s repeated attempts to run all existing OSes on top of one OS and one hardware architecture lead to the incorrect assumption that PowerPC Macintoshes would run DOS and Windows right out of the box. Insignia Solutions’ SoftWindows marketing department did what came naturally. The Motorola StarMax 4000-series motherboard, designed and manufactured entirely by Apple. Jean-Louis Gassee: “We used PReP as the basis for the design of the BeBox…”

    18 min

  7. 2025-09-20

    KON and BAL's Puzzle Page (1992, 1994)

    Original text by Konstantin Othmer and Bruce Leak for Apple’s develop! magazine, May 1992 and June 1994. “These problems are supposed to be tough. If you don’t get a high score, at least you’ll learn interesting Macintosh trivia.” More about Bruce Leak’s time on the original QuickTime team. Gary Davidian PRAM stories from his CHM oral history (video, transcript). See also: Debugging Macintosh Software with Macsbug by Konstantin Othmer and Jim Straus.

    25 min

  8. 2025-09-01

    Glider 4.0 Reviews (1991)

    Game Hall of Fame text by Steven Levy, Macworld January 1992. Review of Glider 4.0 by Toni Thompson, Macworld February 1992. I wonder if that’s the Toni Thompson who did the graphics for the Apple II version of Temple of Apshai? John Calhoun interview by Richard Moss at MacScene. Buy Richard’s book, The Secret History of Mac Gaming. Tanara Kuranov, a.k.a. Gamer Mouse covers games that helped make the Mac (and only the Mac) special. Glider Pro and Glider 4 playthroughs.

    16 min
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5
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About

Comfort food for Macintosh users of the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s.

Information

  • Creator
    Derek
  • Years Active
    2018 - 2026
  • Episodes
    139
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © CC BY 4.0
  • Show Website
    Mac Folklore Radio

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