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The Computer Chronicles - Hypercard (1987)

The Computer Chronicles

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  • Recommended by 2 people: 1 on Hacker News and 1 on Lobsters.

Beginner. No background in the topic needed.

53K views13 years ago2 recommendations

History and cultureSoftware designHistory of computingRetro computing

This 1987 episode of The Computer Chronicles explores Apple's HyperCard, featuring demonstrations by creator Bill Atkinson and discussions on its impact.

Special thanks to archive.org for hosting these episodes. Downloads of all these episodes and more can be found at: archive.org/details/computerchronicles

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2 people recommend this

What people say. Recommended as a classic look at HyperCard and the early era of user-created software.

Corbinon Lobsters • Recommends

The Computer Chronicles - Hypercard (1987)
14View on Lobsters

gdubson Hacker News • Recommends

On “Beyond Cyberpunk: A Do-It-Yourself Guide to the Future (1991)”

I love the artistry and creativity around the HyperCard community. Years ago I stumbled on this (wonderfully dorky) episode of Computer Chronicles, that focuses on HyperCard: link to this video I love how the used-car salesman created his own application to help potential buyers find the right car. This was truly the “bicycle of the mind” era for computing; the user base was fairly self-selected, and people wanted to take full advantage of this new tool. 1. The range of HyperCard was pretty amazing — famously, Myst was originally created with it: link 1: link
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gdubson Hacker News • Recommends

On “The Complete Hypercard Handbook (1988)”

Well, there goes my weekend. Happy to see the Hypercard love is still out there. I think about it a lot. I love the idea of a coffee shop or a bicycle shop that's run on a Hypercard stack on an old Mac. In case you've never seen it: link to this video
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AlbertCoryon Hacker News • Mentions

On “Ted Nelson on What Modern Programmers Can Learn from the Past (2018)”

History is full of people who considered themselves geniuses. Some of them really were. Nelson got his ideas out there and other people used them in various ways, often without giving him credit. Bill Atkinson was one ( link to this video ) and he wasn't the first. at 1:35 in that video, Gary Kildall does give him credit, along with Doug Engelbart.
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AlbertCoryon Hacker News • Mentions

On “The Psychedelic Inspiration for Hypercard (2018)”

He didn't mention any of this LSD stuff on The Computer Chronicles 1 1 link to this video I actually wrote about that episode in The Big Bucks link
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AlbertCoryon Hacker News • Mentions

On “Xerox Star 8010 Interfaces, high quality polaroids (1981)”

there's also a video of Bill on "The Computer Chronicles" talking about HyperCard, in 1987 or so. link to this video I reference this show in The Big Bucks . I went to all kinds of trouble to find out when, exactly the show aired in 1987, and finally gave up.
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seltzered_on Hacker News • Mentions

On “Why are hyperlinks blue? (2021)”

Related - The Computer Chronicles - Hypercard (1987) link to this video Note that hyperlinks in hypercard weren't blue necessarily, but the mouse cursor did change to indicate it was clickable.
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musicaleon Hacker News • Mentions

On “Show HN: Gemini 3 imagines Hacker News as a HyperCard stack in 1994”

…ent, perhaps to avoid competing with HyperCard). Development stagnated as well; no native PowerPC version was created, and HyperCard never evolved to run over a network, much less the internet (even though HyperCard influenced NCSA Mosaic and Apple was certainly aware of early networked hypertext systems like Intermedia, which ran on the Mac). 1 link to this video 2 link…
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