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The first version of Excel was ALSO for Mac.

I think the Macintosh doesn't get enough credit for what it inspired at the time.



As well as the first SimCity and a few other series that started in the Apple ecosystem.

One of the bigger ironies is how Doom was developed on NeXTSTEP then went on to make the IBM PC cool among gamers. Also the first web server if I'm not mistaken.

Thankfully, unlike the Amiga etc. the Mac didn't completely die and has been having a great resurgence in the past half-decade. Looking forward to this Monday and hoping for Apple to focus on making this platform even better.


The Amiga will never die [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] ;) (become irrelevant to the vast majority, sure).

That last link is for a new FPGA based M68k clone that adds additional instructions, pipelining and other fun stuff as an accelerator for classic Amiga's (it sprung out of the ashes of the now defunct "Natami" project to create a new M68k compatible Amiga-compatible machine).

[1] http://www.a-eon.com/?page=x1000

[2] http://amigakit.com/

[3] http://www.amigaos.net/

[4] http://aminet.net/

[5] http://amigaworld.net/

[6] http://www.apollo-core.com/bringup/


I love Amiga fans - they are a special type of awesome/crazy!


As someone who has contributed code to AROS (AmigaOS compatible portable OS), I can confirm we're crazy. For my part I'm not hardcore enough to have any Amigas any more, though I want to (I have a Minimig, though - an FPGA re-implementation).


Halo was being developed for Mac as well, until MS went and bought Bungie. They presented on stage at MacWorld in 1999.



It was, but not until over two years later as a Mac port of a Windows port of an Xbox title. That was done by MacSoft, Bungie (presumably) having been tasked with sequels on Xbox as soon as resources freed up from the original.

After the Bungie sale, Xbox was the primary platform they designed for. Before that it had been planned as a Mac/PC title.


sighs Oh, Marathon.


I still hear the rocket launcher occasionally.


Somewhere I have DATs with like 1GB of custom Marathon levels and texture designs. Including a complete model of our Junior High School a friend of mine made. I'm not sure how I missed the announcement they open-sourced them.


As a 20something Mac gamer at the time, you can't imagine how much that felt like a kick in the stomach.

That and Myst being ported to Windows, which I knew meant the beginning of the end of "Mac gaming"



Simcity was developed for the C64 originally and was released at the same time on the Mac and the Amiga.


> I think the Macintosh doesn't get enough credit for what it inspired at the time.

I think Microsoft doesn't get enough credit for what it did for the Macintosh ;-)


I believe Halo, one of the Xbox's most popular games, had its first version (first one you could buy, i mean) on Mac


No, Microsoft bought Bungie while Halo was in development, you could never buy Halo for Mac.


And the Mac version was a very different game from what Halo on the Xbox turned into. You can find old trailers. Among other things I think it was 3rd person with a heavier emphasis on vehicles.


The Mac version was the same as all the others at release, Microsoft had Bungie dumb it down for the Xbox. The trailers you are watching are for what HALO was suppose to be, not what it ended up being.


I know. I was referring to the original design for the game before MS bought Bungie.

As I remember the Mac version of the Xbox game didn't get released until years after the Xbox.


I own and still play Halo for Mac frequently. Not sure what you mean.


I wasn't aware years later another company ported the original Halo.


It was released by Bungie/Microsoft for Mac at about the same time as they released the desktop PC version.


Everything (modern, not DOS) debuted on the Mac first in the mid-end 80's. Windows was not a viable first platform until 3.0. I worked on three apps all of which debuted on Mac and two were eventually ported to Windows in the 90's. By the time Office took over the Mac become the second platform or not at all.


Didn't Excel descend from Multiplan which was originally for DOS?


No they were completely separate products and teams. You could correctly say that Excel was a do-over of Multiplan.




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