CHRONICLES REVISITED PODCAST 15 — WHAT WAS BRUCE DAVIS THINKING?

In August 1987, Apple announced HyperCard, a new type of middleware for the Macintosh that made it possible for anyone to create a polished application combining text, graphics, and hyperlinks.

FRIEND OF THE BLOG 2 — ATARI ARCHIVE BY KEVIN BUNCH

Kevin Bunch is perhaps the world’s foremost historian of the Atari VCS–also known as the Atari 2600–and other 1970s home video game consoles.

COMPUTER CHRONICLES REVISITED 107 — KOALAPAINTER, THE WINE STEWARD, SKATE OR DIE, MASTER COMPOSER, AND KEYBOARD CONTROLLED SEQUENCER

At the June 1983 Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago, Commodore International announced a cut in the wholesale price of its Commodore 64 (C64) computer from $360 to $199.

CHRONICLES REVISITED PODCAST 14 — TOUCH THE SCREEN! TOUCH THE SCREEN!

When Computer Chronicles debuted as a national program in the fall of 1983, the IBM Personal Computer dominated what was then still called the microcomputer market.

COMPUTER CHRONICLES REVISITED 106 — PC-FILE+, AUTOMENU, HOTDIR, PROCOMM, ARTISTO+, AND STUFFIT

There were three basic means of distributing software in the 1980s: retailers, mail-order catalogs, and bulletin board systems (BBS).

CHRONICLES REVISITED PODCAST 13 — GREED IS THE KEY WORD

In 1980, Mattel Electronics released the Horse Race Analyzer, a calculator-type device that promised to help you pick winning horses at the track.

COMPUTER CHRONICLES REVISITED 105 — FEDERAL TAX FORMS FOR APPLEWORKS AND J.K. LASSER'S YOUR INCOME TAX

Tax preparation software was always a favorite topic of Computer Chronicles.

COMPUTER CHRONICLES REVISITED 104 — BOEING 757 MAINTENANCE MANUAL, MICROSOFT BOOKSHELF, THE VISUAL DICTIONARY, AND THE N/HANCE 525E

At the 1985 summer Consumer Electronics Show, Jack Tramiel’s Atari Corporation demonstrated a CD-ROM drive running the Grolier’s KnowldegeDisc, a digital version of the Grolier’s encyclopedia based on software created by Gary Kildall’s Activenture, Inc.

CHRONICLES REVISITED PODCAST 12 — A WORDSTAR DIVIDED

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, WordStar was the gold standard for word processors on microcomputers.

FRIEND OF THE BLOG 1 — ETHAN JOHNSON ON THE EARLY HISTORY OF VIDEO GAMES

Ethan Johnson, a Chicago-based computer and video game historian, recently released the sixth episode in his Play History series, which chronicles the origins of video gaming all the way back to the 1940s.