Twenty five years ago today, on January 24, 1984, Steve Jobs gave the first on-stage demonstration of the Macintosh computer to a packed auditorium. The technology was much different then, but it was the same Steve Jobs: a masterful showman able to make the latest jumble of electronics seem like it was capable of magic. Enjoy.
(Via Dave Winer).
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that floppy that he pulled out of his pocket – Mike Boich told me that he and the boys were updating the bios up to 1 hr before and shuttling it to Steve. Epic Silicon Valley story and great historic vid.
I spent a few minutes reading through all the software design stories here:
http://folklore...ort%20by%20Date
Some fascinating behind-the-scenes looks at the ramp up to the 1984 demo and the Mac BIOS development.
Long live ResEdit!
ResEdit! Oh, those were the days. I remember reading one of those thousand page Macintosh how-to books, and trying out ResEdit tricks. Man, that was fun!
Respect…only Respect…man…..
I have nothing but only respect for Steve Jobs!
Great post.
He sure knew how to wow a crowd even back then. We can all learn a lot from the guy.
Then MS crush them.
Bill Gates FTW!!
Hooray for Bill Gates for selling mediocre and buggy software to the masses!! What an embarrassment MS has become.
Did you know that there would be no MS without Mac? Thats right, Mac invented the Windows environment. Before that, all computers were very cumbersome. They all used to be like terminals or something. Yup, Bill Gates copied Apple.
Very cool video, thanks for posting. Weird to see him without a black mock turtleneck.
Long live Steve Jobs!
“You and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead.”
This is awsom!
I was 5 and a half years old when this movie was taken.
History,
History,
History!
Five and a half? I was negative four!! ooh burn! Go History
I was just 2 yr old baby!!! that’s the first thing came to my mind when i saw this video.
Really a Epic moment in Computer World
boy you sure look older than that dude, at least 40 years old
This is an interesting piece of history – as someone who was born about a month AFTER this event took place, I’ve lived in a world that has never been WITHOUT Macintosh computers.
It’s pretty cool to hear the audience reaction to the various abilities of the computer – especially the talk function, which we take for granted now as archaic and old-fashioned.
Steve Jobs + Bowtie = Hilarity!
Glad you liked the video Eric and thanks for the linkback.
wysiwyg and simcity. two things that changed my life.
Happy Birthday Macintosh… Big 2-5! Can finally rent a car
Nice to see Techchrunch (finally) note it. but don’t do too much of a column… might strain yourself even though it COMPLETELY revolutionized the ENTIRE industry. (Lets see it was: control-F4-shift-P-stand on one leg-curse loudly to make the MS OS IBM computer print????)
Saving the big celebration for Windows’ 25th?
my first computer was an Apple II+ when I was 12. My mom made me learn how to type on an electric typewriter before they bought it. I learned in a couple of weeks and can still type over a hundred words a minute. I really wanted that computer. I then proceeded to copy a shoebox full of hacked software from friends. Back then it was all on the big floppies, which happened to fit perfectly in a shoebox. I’d ride my bike one handed with that shoe box in my other arm. Castle Wolfenstein FTW.
What, are you kidding? OREGON TRAIL FTW!
Oregon Trail was my first computer game. I wish I still had it today. Someone should make it for the iPhone, but it will never be as cool as the classic.
Hacked software ?
hm, hm, hm, hm …
My first computer was some Texas Instruments thing (forgot the model) that you rigged up with the TV as a monitor. I’d stay at my grandmas house over the summer and got up in the morning to write a program all day in basic. The problem was that there was no storage device, so when it was supper time granny cam and unplugged the thing and all was lost. Every day!
Maybe that’s why I never actually became a coder.
Good times.
No storage device!!? Dude, you had an underpriviledged childhood! The storage device was a cassette recorder and a regular cassette (with special cables). I had a TI Color Computer attached to my TV, cost $300 and I saved all my Basic programs on cassettes.
Wait! It wasn’t a TI, it was a Radio Shack. TRS-80 Color Computer.
Amazing, even though it looks so primitive now. I bought my Mac 128K a few months later. Best box opening ever (#2 is Apple ]{, #3 is HP-41C, #4 is iPhone, etc.)…
HP-41CX, I miss you!
Some one told me once that if there is hope to humanity its in software. God bless!
why is your page a memory hug?
I cannot understand it
That moment in 1984 may be one of the most Seismic moments in the last century.
For those who want a nice lesson in Apple history, read the excellent book “Infinite Loop”. It’s really inspiring and had me hooked.
So glad there is archival footage of these historic demos. Was that DeAnza’s theater?
Looked like SF Davies Symphony Hall to me.
Good find!
Whoa. Flashback. I was 12 when that happened. Didn’t hear about it except for magazines (I subscribed to all of them) since I lived in a relatively small island near Canada. At the time I was rockin’ a Tandy Color Computer. Though, when I finally saw a Mac in person at a local computer store (the shop was owned, oddly enough, by Mark Anderson – http://www.taps...m/aboutmark.php) I wanted one. Badly.
absolute awesomeness. thx for sharing the video. thrill to watch. only wish i was there live…wait, i wasn’t even alive then. wow. even cooler.
Wow, that makes me feel really, really old. I remembered when the Mac came out that I was a bit miffed that I just spent something like $350 a year before (it’s a lot of money for a 14 year old in the early 80s) buying an expansion card and odd futuristic contraption that made odd things happen to my Apple ][e 80-column card: a "mouse". And that Mac thing came with one for free. It also rifted the Club Apple de Montreal of which I was the VP: should we go with that and leave our long Apple ][ heritage ? The club did change in character, from hackers to user-enthusiasts; there was no Applesoft Basic on this thing, no way to make it do what you wanted to do outside of what was already offered: the closest you could get to programming it out of the box was to use Hypercard. I think all of those grumbling feelings inside were envy.
Thanks for the memories.
Didn’t anyone notice the obvious fact that that guy is an impostor? For God’s sake, he even has hair! Steve Jobs doesn’t have hair.
Ow, and if you listen very closely you can hear Apple fanboyism being born…
What a time that was!
I rushed out and got that first Macintosh in Toronto, Canada.
Happy Birthday Mac and Steve!
ha ha.. I wasn’t even born then..
Aaah the memory’s of those day’s I still reminisce those warm feelings. I beg my mom for that computer work hard for my newspaper delivery it was never enough.
Very nostalgic nice.
Every school kid who takes I.T. studies should be made to watch this…
This was and still is a big deal!
MACINTOSH
I wish him all the best for his health
I was 21 when this happened. I remember Apple computers were an unobtainable thing for me during the 80’s. This first Mac was about $2,500, which translates into $5,000 dollars in today’s money (wikipedia). Wow!
I was an Apple certified developer and VAR back then. I sold the whole line with vertical software. The margins were big. There was nothing like it.
Then, in 1993, I think, Apple changed the game, no more indy VAR sales. We had to buy from Techdata, or Ingram. No more incentive. Then, Scully, the other guys.
I went into another career, tried NeXt, went into optical publishing, became an analyst, and made good coin until last year.
Now I manage an income property for the family trust, and Im glad it’s all over.
Got my first MAC in 1984 and stayed up all day and all night long totally involved with what it could do. At the time, I was surrounded by developers who were focused on IBM and I was trying to get my company to go with MAC. I lost but personally stuck with Apple.
Then MS crush them.
Bill Gates FTW!!
Hooray for Bill Gates for selling mediocre and buggy software to the masses!!
Remember this one: Macworld Boston 1997 – The Microsoft Deal – http://www.yout...h?v=WxOp5mBY9IY
BillyGadol: First thing I thought – “where’s his turtleneck?”
Cool video…and donald: MS isn’t “crushing” many these days.
He did it again in January 2008 .. Except this time instead of pulling something out of the bag he pulled it out of a manila envelope !
http://bit.ly/a8Ym
I love you Steve Jobs…you are what dreams are made of…
Nice video…..ahh, he looks a little different now!
Yes, that’s Flint Center at De Anza College. All the Apple shareholder meetings were held there … I remember the one where they put a fake Apple ][c under each seat in the orchestra, and we all reached under and waved it over our heads on command.
Jobs was a scumbag then and is now.
I don’t want to take away from the revolutionary nature of this product, but Steve Jobs doesn’t actually do much here aside from plug in the computer and let it run. The credit and over-the-top hero worship in the comments above should be given to the Macintosh on the table, not to Steve Jobs himself.
I give him credit for knowing when to stand back and let the product do the talking, but really, “masterful showman”?
Steve Jobs doesn’t actually do much here aside from plug in the computer and let it run.
This is the whole point. Steve is presention Zen and has 100 Petabytes of charisma. People are drawn to him like a rabbit to a carrot.
Well, the text-to-speech was just as good as it is today: not at all!
Notwithstanding what all he has achieved I cannot help feeling that there is a clear sign of a megalomaniac in the making. Just look at the way he is smiling and taking in all the fanatical adulation.
Sekar
what will it take to get people THIS excited about a mac again?
start evoluion.
Simply Amazing…the song!!! what a show!!
Great “Job” the video says it all!
Best
Ajs