Mac Folklore Radio

Derek

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

  1. 12/15/2025

    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

  2. 12/08/2025

    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

  3. 11/20/2025

    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

  4. 10/21/2025

    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

  5. 09/20/2025

    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

  6. 09/01/2025

    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

  7. 08/13/2025

    The Desktop Critic Secret Reviewer's Notebook (1996)

    Original text by David Pogue, Macworld June 1996. The database review mentioned in this article might be one of these two. Review of the hilariously terrible Brother HL-8 printer and two (yes, two) attempts at Macintosh drivers for the HL-8. Review of the smoking hot Envisio Notebook Display Adapter (1992). Audio version. “If you’ve worked for the company, can you write the review? No.” Pogue found himself in a similar conundrum. His review of Finale 1.0 included the disclaimer, “Since writing this review in September 1988, David Pogue has become a paid consultant for Coda Music Software.” One reader applauded Macworld for this disclosure but still argued it was a conflict of interest. Pogue stated, “My future reviews for Macworld will not include music software,” though that was not to last very long. See his 1994/1995 reviews of AutoScore, Practica Musica, MOTU’s Performer, and Opcode Vision. I don’t recall and was unable to dig up any rebuttal ads targeting David Pogue. If anyone out there is in the know and feels like naming names, drop me a line and I’ll update this episode. David, are you reading this? :-)

    12 min

  8. 07/30/2025

    John Calhoun on Casady and Greene (2024)

    Original text by John Calhoun. MacScene’s interview with John re: The History of Glider. Part 1, Part 2. Mr. Advisador for the Newton has been revived! Told you it was creepy. Original Newton version. The Computer Chronicles covers Glider at Macworld Boston 1994. Today, as back then, you’re not supposed to notice that the game was first released five years prior to this show airing; you’re supposed to be amazed that anyone is saying anything positive about the Mac at all. Yes indeed, Jeffrey Robbin, an Apple employee, wrote SoundJam, the Classic environment for Mac OS X, and Conflict Catcher. Casady and Greene turned out the lights in 2003. In their own words. Casady & Greene’s website in happier times.

    11 min
See All (137)

5
out of 5
36 Ratings

About

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

Information

  • Creator
    Derek
  • Years Active
    2018 - 2025
  • Episodes
    137
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © CC BY 4.0
  • Show Website
    Mac Folklore Radio

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