Home Artists Posts Import Register

Content

The computer industry was swept by the CD-ROM and multimedia trend in  the early 90s -- and Apple saw it as a prime opportunity to  differentiate its computers. Let's check out some of the accessories the  company produced at the time -- including one particularly unique  portable device.  

Special thanks to Mac84 (https://www.youtube.com/c/mac84) for contributing some footage!

Sources:
Computer Chronicles CD-ROM episodes: https://archive.org/details/cdroms_2 and https://archive.org/details/CDROM10.3
Performa 600 photo: https://madeapple.com/macintosh-performa-600-600cd
AppleCD SC photo: https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/vintage-apple-applecd-sc-plus-scsi-1857857104
AppleCD SC with SE/30 photo: https://www.reddit.com/r/VintageApple/comments/l2mp4w/applecd_sc_apple_cdrom_explorer/
"Apple Begins Shipping CD-ROM Player for Mac," InfoWorld, May 16, 1988.
"AppleCD SC," Macworld, November 1988.
"Apple's CD-ROM bundle is smaller, less expensive," InfoWorld, July 20, 1992.
"AppleDesign Powered Speakers," PC Magazine, January 9, 1996.
"Apple bundles PC peripherals," InfoWorld, September 13, 1993.
MediaVision Pro Audio Spectrum 16 card photo: https://www.wavetable.nl/used-to-own/mediavision-pro-audio-spectrum-16
"A CD Photo Album for Your TV or Computer," Popular Science, December 1990.
Photo CD photo: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kodak_Photo_CD_PCD_Master.JPG
"Electronic Bridge to the Future?" Popular Photography, December 1990.
"Kodak puts photos on compact disc," InfoWorld, October 5, 1992.
Photo CD commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_riXLowyhU
Philips Eindhoven headquarters: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philips#/media/File:Lichttoren_Eindhoven_1.
Philips CD-i deck photo: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CD-i_with_disc.JPG
Philips CDF-100 photos: https://www.ebay.com/itm/373888390783
Kodak PCD-880 photo: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kodak_photocd_hg.jpg
"Apple nurtures multimedia," InfoWorld, April 5, 1993.
PowerCD bundled media photo: https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/apple-powercd-circa-1993-optical-1814856958
PowerCD presentation video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGlnuSVWmj8
Grey PowerCD photo: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Apple-powercd_hg.jpg
Kodak PCD-860 photo: https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/harvesting-cdm9-44-laser-assemblies.378032/
Pippin console photo: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bandai-Apple-Pippin-Console-FR.jpg
PC Magazine, May 12, 1992.
Myst box photo: https://macintoshgarden.org/games/myst

----------------------------------------­-------------------------------------
Music by Epidemic Sound (https://www.epidemicsound.com).
Intro music by BoxCat Games (http://www.box-cat.com).

Files

Apple's Early-90s Multimedia Accessories

The computer industry was swept by the CD-ROM and multimedia trend in the early 90s -- and Apple saw it as a prime opportunity to differentiate its computers. Let's check out some of the accessories the company produced at the time -- including one particularly unique portable device. Special thanks to Mac84 (https://www.youtube.com/c/mac84) for contributing some footage! Sources: Computer Chronicles CD-ROM episodes: https://archive.org/details/cdroms_2 and https://archive.org/details/CDROM10.3 Performa 600 photo: https://madeapple.com/macintosh-performa-600-600cd AppleCD SC photo: https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/vintage-apple-applecd-sc-plus-scsi-1857857104 AppleCD SC with SE/30 photo: https://www.reddit.com/r/VintageApple/comments/l2mp4w/applecd_sc_apple_cdrom_explorer/ "Apple Begins Shipping CD-ROM Player for Mac," InfoWorld, May 16, 1988. "AppleCD SC," Macworld, November 1988. "Apple's CD-ROM bundle is smaller, less expensive," InfoWorld, July 20, 1992. "AppleDesign Powered Speakers," PC Magazine, January 9, 1996. "Apple bundles PC peripherals," InfoWorld, September 13, 1993. MediaVision Pro Audio Spectrum 16 card photo: https://www.wavetable.nl/used-to-own/mediavision-pro-audio-spectrum-16 "A CD Photo Album for Your TV or Computer," Popular Science, December 1990. Photo CD photo: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kodak_Photo_CD_PCD_Master.JPG "Electronic Bridge to the Future?" Popular Photography, December 1990. "Kodak puts photos on compact disc," InfoWorld, October 5, 1992. Photo CD commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_riXLowyhU Philips Eindhoven headquarters: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philips#/media/File:Lichttoren_Eindhoven_1. Philips CD-i deck photo: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CD-i_with_disc.JPG Philips CDF-100 photos: https://www.ebay.com/itm/373888390783 Kodak PCD-880 photo: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kodak_photocd_hg.jpg "Apple nurtures multimedia," InfoWorld, April 5, 1993. PowerCD bundled media photo: https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/apple-powercd-circa-1993-optical-1814856958 PowerCD presentation video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGlnuSVWmj8 Grey PowerCD photo: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Apple-powercd_hg.jpg Kodak PCD-860 photo: https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/harvesting-cdm9-44-laser-assemblies.378032/ Pippin console photo: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bandai-Apple-Pippin-Console-FR.jpg PC Magazine, May 12, 1992. Myst box photo: https://macintoshgarden.org/games/myst ----------------------------------------­------------------------------------- Please consider supporting my work on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisdoesnotcompute Follow me on Twitter and Instagram! @thisdoesnotcomp ----------------------------------------­------------------------------------- Music by Epidemic Sound (https://www.epidemicsound.com). Intro music by BoxCat Games (http://www.box-cat.com).

Comments

Michael Dragone

Really cool, didn’t know about many of these.

Anonymous

I remember picking up copies of CD-ROM Today magazine at the store (it was the forerunner of Mac Addict and Maximum PC). The fact that a format got its own magazine tells you how much hype optical media had.