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Rocky Bergen

ARTIST & DESIGNER
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Apple Macintosh 128K - The computer that “started it all”, complete with bundled software.

Apple Macintosh 128K - Papercraft Design

May 24, 2020

The free Apple Macintosh papercraft pattern can be found at the end of this post.

The Macintosh came out in January of 1984, just one year after Apple launched the ill-fated Lisa computer. While Lisa introduced early adopters to modern computing, the Macintosh brought these concepts to the masses. Using a graphical interface with a mouse and keyboard is something we take for granted today but in 1984 it was bleeding edge.

The side of the Mac is interesting. I have been informed there is a programmer interrupt switch which can be clipped through the vents. This monitors machine code and is useful in programming. I thought it was a power switch but the community has spoken! :)

I can’t pretend I have a lot of experience with these early Macs. We had Apple II’s in my elementary school and when I was in high school we learnt on XTs and later on 386s. The first time I saw a 128K Mac with my own eyes was in 1996 at my university in one of the computer labs.

Despite have no hands on experience, there is no denying the appeal of this Mac’s form factor. Many of the innovations that appeared in the Lisa a year earlier are back - refined and ready for prime time. It is easy to see how this machine would help usher in a new era in modern computing.

The Mac 128K came with Macwrite and Macpaint. Neither of these are around these days but they served as inspiration for software we commonly use today.

Apple’s packaging also received a more modern look when compared to the Lisa materials. Brand standards were tightened up some to provide a more consistent look and feel throughout. The time-honoured tradition Apple of including Apple stickers with their products seems to have been born with the Mac 128K release. Also, Apple was happy to help you finance your new Mac purchase with their very own Apple credit card (Apple Pay was not the first).

Possibly the most interesting items, were the cassette tapes that Apple provided as a quick start guide for the Mac OS, and the included MacWrite and MacPaint. A multi-media experience was much more literal in 1984 and so creativity (and a cassette player) was required.

Disk drive and disks.

Mac from the back.

Keyboard with optional number pad.

The Mac mouse will have been the first mouse many people will have ever used.

Once again, special thanks goes to my buddy George. He assembled and photographed all the items in this post. With the pandemic keeping me at home, I don’t have access to all the things I need to make these posts. George is both a professional photographer and master paper folder which makes him a valuable and highly skilled ally. You’re the best!

I did my best to limit the game selection to ones that ran on a 128K machine.

I hope you enjoy building this Macintosh 128K. The Apple community has always been super-supportive of my efforts so I am always happy when I can give something back.

For my next papercraft projects, I am working on a highly-requested British computer, and then a highly-requested US computer, followed by another non-computer (but retro) papercraft just to mix things up a bit!

You can download the Apple Macintosh 128K papercraft model here.

In Apple, Macintosh, art, Design, Illustration, Industrial Design, paper craft, papercraft Tags apple, Macintosh, retro, retrocomputer, papercraft, paperart, pattern, design, industrial design, case design

LisaGraph detail

Before Macintosh: The Apple Lisa - Documentary Intro Sequence

February 19, 2020

I recently completed an intro sequence for David Greelish’s upcoming documentary Before Macintosh: The Apple Lisa. As my familiarity of the Lisa focuses on the system’s design language, I decided the best way to highlight the innovations of the the Lisa was through The Lisa Office System.

The Lisa Office System is a collection of seven applications similar to Microsoft’s Office Suite which included LisaWrite, LisaCalc, LisaDraw, LisaGraph, LisaProject, LisaList, and LisaTerminal. These tools would give most user’s everything they would need for common office tasks.

Even today, Microsoft’s suite bears a strong resemblance to Apple’s Lisa collection.

LisaList Detail

LisaWrite detail

LisaCalc detail

The Lisa Office System

These graphics are my 2.5D interpretations of The Lisa Office System box artwork which animate onto the screen in a “flat gridland” all building to the reveal of the Lisa computer itself.

Before Macintosh: The Apple Lisa - Title card

Working on this project was a great opportunity to brush up on my motion graphics and sound design skills. As a result of the time spent on recreating the individual box graphics you can look forward to papercraft of each of these boxes coming soon.

I will be sure to post an update as soon as this documentary is released. I have seen some early footage and I learned a lot of facts about the Lisa. A lot of great folks involved with the Lisa’s development and scene share their stories making this a must-see for vintage computer fans.

In Apple, Documentary, Retro, Design, animation, Movie Tags Lisa, apple, documentary, art director, intro, sequence

Apple’s Lisa 1 was launched in January of 83. Geared towards the business market, Lisa ultimately was instrumental in the design of the more successful Macintosh line of computers.

Apple Lisa 1 - Papercraft Design

October 19, 2019

I am very happy to present to you the Apple Lisa papercraft pattern which can be found at the bottom of this post. This was the third pattern I created behind the Amstrad CPC 64 and Commodore 64. My confidence must have been at an all-time high when I embarked on this one because it took until this week to finally complete this one. While this is one of the more detailed projects I’ve completed, getting this pattern to fit together reliably was a frustration. I put this this model on hold three times during its development. Every few months, people interested in this model would encourage me to get back to it. Finally, a fellow (amazing) papercrafter, George agreed to help me finalize the last of the model. Had it not been for his encouragement, I suspect this may not have seen the light of day this year.

Lisa I from the rear

GUIs were foreign to everyone but XEROX users in 83, so a series of integrated reference cards could be pulled from the bottom of the keyboard.

The Apple Lisa was the first to introduce a Graphical User Interface to the masses (ie: wealthy early-adopters) and was aimed on the business community as they would be the only ones at the time who would be able to justify the US$9,995 ($25K in today’s dollars). Apple’s Mac Pro could be viewed as the Lisa’s contemporary and fully speced systems retail for as much as $35,000 meaning top tier Apple hardware still remains out of the hands of most consumers.

Jobs is somewhat (in)famous for his XEROX visit and the subsequent release of LISA OS and the inclusion of a mouse. Of course how everything plays together ultimately determines a computers success and the Lisa was full of great ideas that simply had not matured enough to be reliable.

Lisa running LisaDraw, an early graphics program.

Lisa’s “Twiggy” Fileware drives and disks were an Apple innovation and were exclusively used in the Lisa 1. Twiggy was a reference to the famous model of the 60’s referred to the thinness of the disks. The Twiggy drives were slow and unreliable, resulting in the release of the Lisa 2 just a year later which housed the more common and practical 3.5” disks.

LisaDraw - Packaging was excessive in 83, before online documentation became the norm.

Fileware disks - While they look a lot like common floppy disks, Fileware disks were a proprietary Lisa format and were prone to failure.

The Lisa was an important computer in that it paved the way for a lot of what we take for granted today. It could be seen as the first modern computer sold to the public and was certainly the instrumental in the development of the Macintosh.

If you are anything like me, the idea of owning a Lisa is out of the question but a papercraft version is free and will take up far less space. I would encourage you to give it a try and please check out my other computers to build your very own miniature computer museum.

You can download the Apple Lisa 1 papercraft here.

Please consider sharing this post as it always helps me share these projects with other retro fans!

Lisa

In Apple, Industrial Design, Illustration, papercraft, Retro Tags apple, lisa, computer, retrocomputer, fileware, twiggy, mouse, 1983

Oregon Trail was my first exposure to the Apple II on our classroom computer back in the 80s.

Apple II - Papercraft Design

November 27, 2018

I am happy to present my latest papercraft project, the Apple II. This pattern is free for you to download from the link at the bottom of this post.

I have often spoken fondly of my time with the Commodore 64, but I also grew up with the Apple II in my school. I always thought of these systems as school computers and while fun to play with, I always saw these as serious machines.

Karateka - Great graphics, difficult to master

Lode Runner - Classic on the Apple II

As a young Commodore 64 user, I was shocked to discover that school’s Apple II did not have BASIC in memory.

Growing up, the only game I ever played on the Apple II is Oregon Trail because that was the only game our school had. I was already pretty obsessed with computers and always hungry for more exposure. Thankfully the Internet happened and now I can experience this machine in a multitude of ways, which happens to include creating and sharing this papercraft pattern (link at end of post).

The Apple’s wedge shape, makes it ideal for a papercraft interpretation.

Handsome profile.

Please click HERE to download the Apple II papercaft pattern. I think this is the perfect project to occupy the family over the holiday season.

If the Commodore 64 is more you jam, you can download that pattern HERE!

If you would like to see more retro papercraft consider leaving a like below, it helps me gauge what I might want to do next!

In Design, paper craft, Apple, Industrial Design Tags paperart, papercraft, apple, computer, retrocomputer, 8-bit

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A collection of illustrations, designs, other art, and the occasional meandering. If you are interested in working with me please have a look at my portfolio and feel free to drop me a line!

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