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by LarryMade2 341 days ago
Suggestions for old Mac Apps to look out for:

- WriteNow! a very nice word processor that was originally developed for Next computers, before word took over it was the favorite.

- ClarisWorks/AppleWorks - One of the better pre office integrated apps - the database was REALLY easy to use, and interfaced well with the vector graphics module, spreadsheet, and word processor...

- FoxBase+/Mac - Before Microsoft bought Fox Software they got "Mac religion" and it shows in the incredible FoxBase+/Mac its amazin how much capability fits in a floppy.

- SuperPaint - great bitmap paint program though not as accurate as later graphics apps. (fractional/grid positioning was an issue)

- Ready,Set,Go! A great alternative DTP program to PageMaker/Quark. Never used others but I hear I think it was FrameMaker that had some sort of template/database feature to manage/generate catalogs. There were some interesting things back in the day.

- Stepping out - virtual larger desktop

- PowerPrint - Hook into epson compatible parallel printers with serial->parallel adapter.

- Comic Strip Factory - way before there was ComicLife there was Comic Strip Factory - a nice clipart based comic strip compositor.

- HyperCard - Never got into it but it had quite a community.

- Of course programming languages like Pascal, Logo, and BASIC in various flavors.

Of course you have the early greats like the Adobe programs and Microsoft Word/Excel/Office.

4 comments

I’m really sad about the loss of HyperCard (and HyperCard like things.) I worked in a musical instrument store in the early 90s and my boss had a Mac SE (maybe an SE/30 like in TFA?) tricked out with an entire custom set of HyperCard stacks designed to run his business, everything from inventory to accounting to instrument rental. Every now and then we’d need something and one of us would code up a new feature. My wife is starting a business today and I’m dreaming of having something as great as HyperCard to help her script up what she needs, but nothing commercial seems nearly as cool.
SuperCard was actively developed until a few years back.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SuperCard?wprov=sfti1

Thanks for that info! I'm keen to get stuck into HyperCard stacks running on their native environment (not in an emulator) - so many people love HyperCard and miss it, so I look forward to seeing what the fuss is.
Dark Castle. Aldus Pagemaker. Word 5.1. After Dark.
My old Mac SE is strictly a toaster display. I turn it on to look at the toasters. After Dark is great!
Wow, I had forgotten about SteppingOut. I used that thing a lot on the smaller Macs.