10 Things We've Lost on Macs
—Schvabek

https://youtube.com/watch?v=eTPtuiYSlco

Error messages used to be more direct

The gibberish on screen is not actually garbage -- it's the data loaded from a file, transferred into the REU, then transferred back to screen memory. This proves that it will work to use the REU this way.

“Apple’s long-lost hidden recovery partition from 1994 has been found”
This is a fascinating deep-dive into a classic recovery partition that existed nearly twenty years before Apple stopped shipping physical install media. Originally seen on r/VintageApple #VintageApple #VintageMac #RetroMac #RetroComputing #MARCHintosh https://www.downtowndougbrown.com/2025/03/apples-long-lost-hidden-recovery-partition-from-1994-has-been-found/

Home computers that used cartridges were all the rage in the '80s. I'm surprised there was no third party company that sold a replacement lid for the #AppleII that had a hole cut over slot 7, and made self-booting cartridges the user would plug in through the hole.

<insert mockup photo of Apple II with cartridge poking out of the lid>

Azrael's Tear? More like Azrael's Screen Tear! Nah it's fine, I just have trouble trying to get a consistent speed! (also a little bit of F.Godmom to warm up) Streaming now! https://twitch.tv/sonneveld #DOSGaming #Twitch #Streaming #Retrogaming #retro #Retrocomputing #DOS #MSDOS

OK sheesh, THIS was a super-sweet spot in my (admittedly ancient) computing platform history: DESQView and QEMM.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DESQview

I mistakenly remembered it as OS/2, which I did run around that time (88, 89, 90) but no, it was desqview.

I'm fine without a mouse, it turns out. I've been writing a bunch of CP/M sofware and old workflows came back (hint: its barbaric, I don't fully recommend it).

Gonna put a web page up about the CP/M thing soon. Got my version 2 boards from JLCPCB, awaiting a delayed delivery from Digikey.

I ran into a few issues with Windows 2.x and later versions of MS-DOS, so I figured I should simply install an older version of MS-DOS. Version 3.31 seemed appropriate, because it supports harddisks larger than 32MB.

Easier said than done, because - as a surprise to me - this version of DOS apparently didn't even have a setup program. You have to do everything yourself: FDISK, FORMAT, SYS,... you even have to copy COMMAND.COM from A: to C: by hand. Simpler times!

Wow! Windows 386 is so much more usable now in 1024x768 SVGA resolution with 256 colors. Yes, I finally found a working graphics driver! And also "yes", I have nothing better to do at 3am!

23 years later and it still works

So, here's my actually-planned-for-this-year #MARCHintosh project. Attached is a photo of four very dusty containers full of floppy disks. These are the actual disks from my childhood IIfx!

Most of these disks aren't original. The originals lived at Dad's workplace. He would periodically bring home software from work, make a copy of the disks, and return the originals to work. These were, I'm told, the "off-site backups", in case there was a fire at the workplace or something like that. But we also had all this software installed on the family IIfx so Dad could read any files that he brought home from work with him.

Of course, we also bought our own software for the home, and those are mixed in with these disks as well. And that stack of CD-ROMs in the top left are my MacAddict cover disks - those are already archived.

Anyway, because these are just consumer-grade diskettes, they degrade quicker than the professionally-manufactured original ones. I've already lost a few, so I want to get these archived! And of course, anything that doesn't already exist on the Garden will be uploaded there and shared on #GlobalTalk as well.

(expect this to be a long-ass foone-style thread with lots of updates over several days)

I got the project skeleton working pretty fast, but don't expect that to continue. I've forgotten a lot of stuff. But I'll get up to speed eventually.

Starting Windows 3.1 in 1994

[ pc_user_486]