This is a classic picture of a young Steve Jobs giving the finger to an IBM sign in 1983, it’s been circulating again after all these years thanks to Macintosh co-creator Andy Hertzfeld who posted the high res copy to Google+. Here’s the text that was posted along with the amusing image:

In memoriam for Steve Jobs as 2011 draws to a close, here’s one more rare photo that illustrates his rebellious spirit. In December 1983, a few weeks before the Mac launch, we made a quick trip to New York City to meet with Newsweek, who was considering doing a cover story on the Mac. The photo was taken spontaneously as we walked around Manhattan by Jean Pigozzi, a wild French jet setter who was hanging out with us at the time. Somehow I ended up with a copy of it. My editor begged me to include it in my book, but I was too timid to ask for permission, especially since IBM was still making CPUs for Apple at the time.

The book is his “Revolution in The Valley: The Insanely Great Story of How the Mac Was Made“, which tells the story of how the original Macintosh was created. That subject was briefly discussed in the recent Steve Jobs biography as well.

The picture demonstrates the competitive nature of Jobs and early Apple, and although the image has been around a while this is the first higher resolution copy to surface. In the early days of Apple, IBM was largely considered the companies biggest competitor and enemy of sorts, as is demonstrated in the Ghostbusters spoof and of course the classic 1984 Superbowl commercial that launched the first Mac.

In 1984, Apple spoofed the classic Ghostbusters song by Ray Parker Jr, and this outrageously cheesy video is the result.

The video apparently played as the introduction to an Apple corporate event held in Hawaii to rally the international sales team. Instead of Ghostbusters, it’s “Blue Busters”, with Blue of course being a reference to Big Blue, or IBM. John Sculley and Steve Wozniak even make appearances in the video, and supposedly Steve Jobs is somewhere in there too as a Ghostbuster along with a few other Apple execs, although I couldn’t identify who was who.

Hilarious find by TheNextWeb, who also found a few more details from a YouTube commenter that happened to be at the event:

I was there in Oct. 1984. This was not an internal ad. I was a 1984 state of the art multimedia slide show with audio by Ray Parker Jr. who sang the original. There were also live dancers on the stage.

This was the opening presentation of the International Sales Meeting that introduced the Lightwriter later renamed Laserwriter.

Apple always used a current movie as a them for the sales meetings. in 1985 it was Back to the Future.

So, anyone found that 1985 video yet?

Apple history at it’s finest, or funniest at least.

Just in time for the holidays, Fireplace is a totally awesome interactive 8-bit fireplace app that fills your Macs screen with a pixelated fireplace. But don’t stop there, you can add logs, roast hotdogs and marshmallows, and even burn papers and photos. Each log ‘burns’ for about 30 minutes of pixel torching glory, and although it won’t heat up the room, it’s another great retro addition to your Mac app list.

• Download Fireplace for free here (Mac OS X & Windows)

The basic commands are: log, match, paper, marshmallow, smore, hotdog, eat, blow, water. You can lower and raise the hotdogs and smores to roast them using the arrow keys, and they actually char and turn black if you keep them too close to the fire. Typing ‘water’ or hitting the Escape key will quit the app.
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In 1991, astronauts took a Macintosh Portable aboard Space Shuttle mission STS-43, amongst other things, it became the first computer to send an email in space. A slightly less historical aspect is this fairly entertaining video clip from that mission, demonstrating the Macintosh Portable’s disk ejection system, which works perhaps a little too well in zero gravity.

“…We’ve got a phenomena that we’ve noticed since we’ve gotten into orbit here. The automatic disk ejection system that the Mac has, as you can see when we get rid of these disks, we’re going to have to pay attention to where they go.”

Watch the video, it’s well worth the 15 seconds.

Heads up to @AppleSpotlight for the find

Have an old Mac running OS 9 laying around the closet? Dust it off and bring it into the modern age (of the web at least) with Classilla, an open source port of Mozilla, the same underpinnings of Firefox. It’s a work in progress so don’t expect it to be perfect, but alongside iCab it’s probably the best web browser option available for the classic Mac environment.

Grab Classilla from the development projects homepage

Requirements are basic enough to run Classilla: PPC processor, 64MB of RAM either virtual or physical, 50MB of disk space, and Mac OS 8.6 or later, although Mac OS 9.1 is recommended along with a G3 CPU.

For those PPC Macs running older versions of Mac OS X, don’t miss TenFourFox, a modern FireFox port for older pre-intel Macs running 10.4.

The very first Macs user manual is a fun look at the past, and despite being 27 years old, there are still some undeniably Apple aspects to the manuals imagery and text. The intro paragraph from the first page is classic:

“You’re about to learn a new way to use a computer. If this is your first experience with a computer, you’re starting at a great time. If you’ve used “traditional” computers, you’ll appreciate the Macintosh difference. No more guessing what the computer wants. No more memorizing long commands with names only a programmer could love. With Macintosh, you’re in charge.”

Keep in mind that the original Macintosh was the first mainstream computer to use a mouse and a graphical user interface.

You can see some a few more pictures from the Macintosh User Manual below, but be sure to check out “Thoughts on (and pics of) the original Macintosh User Manual” for even more.

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Update: We posted the games link under the assumption that all of the titles were abandonware or freeware, but some commenters are suggesting this may not be the case. We don’t have the resources to independently verify either claim, so we have pulled down the link. That said, you can play many of the definitely abandonware games online in your web browser at Virtual Apple IIgs. Our apologies for any confusion.

Ready to get your retro game on? Don’t miss this massive collection of over 165 classic retro PC games, they’re all free to download and they all run perfectly in Mac OS X in little self-contained DOSBox emulators.

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If you grew up in the 80′s and you had an interest in video games plus a computer, you probably played Kings Quest. Now, you can relive the past for free thanks to AGD Interactive, who has remade and redrawn Kings Quest 1: Quest for the Crown, Kings Quest 2: Romancing the Stones, and Kings Quest 3: To Heir is Human, and released the three versions as a free download from their website.

Each KQ game has a great storyline with a ton of game play with those now classic retro pixelated graphics. The series was a big hit for DOS, Apple II, Apple IIGS, Mac, even Amiga, but even if you haven’t played it before and you’re just a fan of retro adventure games, you’ll also get a kick out of the Kings Quest lineup.

Download Kings Quest 1, 2, & 3 for Free

AGD Interactive offers each version as a free download for Mac or Windows:

• Kings Quest 1: Quest for the Crown – Direct Download for Mac or Windows
• Kings Quest 2: Romancing the Stones – Direct Download for Mac or Windows
• Kings Quest 3: To Heir is Human – Direct Download for Mac or Windows

The games run flawlessly and the system requirements are quite low so you should be able to play them on just about any Intel Mac or a Pentium PC if you’d rather play on office time.

Kings Quest is a great blast from the past, highly recommended!

More screen shots below:

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Long before the iPhone, there was… an Apple phone? I don’t know if this is real, if it was actually patented by Apple Inc, or if it was ever produced, but it certainly looks like someones brilliant high-tech idea from 1985. Who wouldn’t want to be talking into a flip apple phone?

For more retro Apple fun, check out the hilarious Apple Corporate video from 1984. Be sure to have your audio on for that one, because there’s even a theme song.

image via @AppleSpotlight

Long before the days of iPhones and App Stores, Apple software came on 5.25″ floppies and… cassette tapes. Here is an example of such a relic, a super retro tape of Lemonade Stand, an extremely simple Apple II game that taught kids the business basics of running a lemonade stand.
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