ViperCard, The HyperCard of Today
March 26, 2018 5:39 AM Subscribe
Remember early game-and-utility-making program HyperCard (previously)? It's back. In in-browser form. Welcome to the return of anyone being able to make games and other stuff regardless of programming ability: ViperCard!
zomg Glider
posted by thelonius at 5:46 AM on March 26, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by thelonius at 5:46 AM on March 26, 2018 [3 favorites]
Doesn't work in Safari yet, ironically.
posted by acb at 5:59 AM on March 26, 2018 [5 favorites]
posted by acb at 5:59 AM on March 26, 2018 [5 favorites]
BRB taking a trip to the late eighties
(Did I say BRB? Only if I have to.)
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:16 AM on March 26, 2018
(Did I say BRB? Only if I have to.)
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:16 AM on March 26, 2018
It's stacking time!
posted by elsietheeel at 6:40 AM on March 26, 2018
posted by elsietheeel at 6:40 AM on March 26, 2018
Has it come to Vipe the Vindows (10)?
posted by Strange Interlude at 6:45 AM on March 26, 2018 [10 favorites]
posted by Strange Interlude at 6:45 AM on March 26, 2018 [10 favorites]
That black and white dithering gives me goosebumps (of the good kind).
posted by pravit at 7:15 AM on March 26, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by pravit at 7:15 AM on March 26, 2018 [1 favorite]
Interesting that the for the look and feel they chose to go for total retro.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 7:18 AM on March 26, 2018
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 7:18 AM on March 26, 2018
If you're reimplementing HyperCard, you're pretty much soaking in retro.
posted by ook at 8:06 AM on March 26, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by ook at 8:06 AM on March 26, 2018 [4 favorites]
That transported me directly back to my elementary library in 1993. Oh, excuse me, it's not a library. It's a Media Center.
I remember not actually doing anything useful with HyperCard, but poking around at it helped me to understand what possibilities were out there and were an early way of learning an interface, which has kind of been what I've done professionally for 15 years now, so I'm lovin it.
posted by windowbr8r at 8:06 AM on March 26, 2018 [3 favorites]
I remember not actually doing anything useful with HyperCard, but poking around at it helped me to understand what possibilities were out there and were an early way of learning an interface, which has kind of been what I've done professionally for 15 years now, so I'm lovin it.
posted by windowbr8r at 8:06 AM on March 26, 2018 [3 favorites]
The ability to import stacks will be nice to have further down the line.
I still have pangs of nostalgia for the oooooold MST3K Stack O' Love, which was basically an interactive MST3K episode guide and fan-compiled FAQ before any such thing existed on the nascent web. It would be cool if somebody went back and fleshed it out for the Sci-Fi Channel and Netflix seasons.
posted by Strange Interlude at 8:13 AM on March 26, 2018 [1 favorite]
I still have pangs of nostalgia for the oooooold MST3K Stack O' Love, which was basically an interactive MST3K episode guide and fan-compiled FAQ before any such thing existed on the nascent web. It would be cool if somebody went back and fleshed it out for the Sci-Fi Channel and Netflix seasons.
posted by Strange Interlude at 8:13 AM on March 26, 2018 [1 favorite]
Does it have Manhole because that was my favorite
posted by Hermione Granger at 8:17 AM on March 26, 2018
posted by Hermione Granger at 8:17 AM on March 26, 2018
Moof.
posted by wenestvedt at 8:25 AM on March 26, 2018 [5 favorites]
posted by wenestvedt at 8:25 AM on March 26, 2018 [5 favorites]
Did I ever tell you guys about the hundred-million-dollar company I worked at, whose sole product was curated text, and whose editorial system ran inside HyperCard? In 2009? We had full-time staff devoted to the maintenance problems around a 25-year-old, long-since-deprecated piece of software. There was the release engineer, who was basically Santa Claus--three times a year, he poked the rat who powered the wheel keeping the server running, and disappeared for three weeks to finesse the decrepit OSX 10.1 box into producing a network drive full of XML, before emerging unshaven and occasionally reeking of brandy. There was the IT staff, whose secondary responsibilities included trawling EBay for old iMacs running PPC processors, because when Apple moved to Intel processors they didn't bother updating compatibility with a software product they'd deprecated a decade earlier, and the editorial staff all had to use pre-10.4 machines to even get the flagship product to load. And then there was the graveyard... an entire basement floor devoted to storing the old Mac boxes we had stashed away as replacements for when the aging machines upstairs inevitably crapped out. Like a monument to 2003, they sat, waiting to be called up to the big leagues.
They did eventually finally transition off of HyperCard, right as the supply of backup hardware was reaching criticality. They successfully migrated... into Microsoft SharePoint.
Anyway, HyperCard, yeah, man, that shit was bananas.
posted by Mayor West at 8:59 AM on March 26, 2018 [27 favorites]
They did eventually finally transition off of HyperCard, right as the supply of backup hardware was reaching criticality. They successfully migrated... into Microsoft SharePoint.
Anyway, HyperCard, yeah, man, that shit was bananas.
posted by Mayor West at 8:59 AM on March 26, 2018 [27 favorites]
Oh yeah, love this.
I made a Hypercard stack in summer camp, I think around 1988? They had an adhoc computer class in camp with a few macs inside a trailer. I remember making a simple slideshow of 8-bit scanned images with a Jane's Addiction track (mountain song) - It's one of my favorite early life memories. Prior to this the only time most people saw motion or movement on a computer screen was from a video game, or hours of coding BASIC to draw a line or two as a rendered animation. Loved the 8bit grey/black aesthetic too, and the Chicago font. Timeless.
Being able to scan in your own stuff on the screen and present it as a slide with music? Not sure how possible (in today's everpresent technology buffet) it is to convey how much that felt like a feeling of mind-expansion.
Anyway, HyperCard, yeah, man, that shit was bananas.
Freakin' indeed.
posted by Peter H at 9:12 AM on March 26, 2018 [1 favorite]
I made a Hypercard stack in summer camp, I think around 1988? They had an adhoc computer class in camp with a few macs inside a trailer. I remember making a simple slideshow of 8-bit scanned images with a Jane's Addiction track (mountain song) - It's one of my favorite early life memories. Prior to this the only time most people saw motion or movement on a computer screen was from a video game, or hours of coding BASIC to draw a line or two as a rendered animation. Loved the 8bit grey/black aesthetic too, and the Chicago font. Timeless.
Being able to scan in your own stuff on the screen and present it as a slide with music? Not sure how possible (in today's everpresent technology buffet) it is to convey how much that felt like a feeling of mind-expansion.
Anyway, HyperCard, yeah, man, that shit was bananas.
Freakin' indeed.
posted by Peter H at 9:12 AM on March 26, 2018 [1 favorite]
I remember not actually doing anything useful with HyperCard,
Are you saying my Choose Your Own Adventure style Star Trek game with badly drawn Ferengi ships wasn't useful?
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 9:20 AM on March 26, 2018 [3 favorites]
Are you saying my Choose Your Own Adventure style Star Trek game with badly drawn Ferengi ships wasn't useful?
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 9:20 AM on March 26, 2018 [3 favorites]
I would like a HyperCard of Today that was actually of today; something with similar intent and use built on modern capabilities and expectations. Does something like this exist? (I mean, I feel like it has to, but I'm completely ignorant of it.)
posted by phooky at 9:25 AM on March 26, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by phooky at 9:25 AM on March 26, 2018 [1 favorite]
Does something like this exist?
Um, you're typing on it? (Web browser.)
posted by Peter H at 9:27 AM on March 26, 2018 [4 favorites]
Um, you're typing on it? (Web browser.)
posted by Peter H at 9:27 AM on March 26, 2018 [4 favorites]
I just got SheepShaver running on my iMac specifically to play with Hypercard again.
Oh wow, I remember tracking down an install disc of OS9 for a similar purpose - Not Hypercard but other software. Was tricky to configure memory and get screen size correct, yet so satisfying when the Sheep loads successfully! #keepsoftwarealive
posted by Peter H at 9:30 AM on March 26, 2018 [1 favorite]
Oh wow, I remember tracking down an install disc of OS9 for a similar purpose - Not Hypercard but other software. Was tricky to configure memory and get screen size correct, yet so satisfying when the Sheep loads successfully! #keepsoftwarealive
posted by Peter H at 9:30 AM on March 26, 2018 [1 favorite]
Oh man, I loved Hypercard! My first go at it was to make a stack of my resume for a job - didn't get the job because they thought I'd got someone to make the stack for me - cause it only took me a day up in the computer room at UBC to figure it out :-(
I also made a cool stack to track all my LP's, CD's and mixtapes and it also could spit out a printed cover for a mixtape!
Loved that program!
posted by drinkmaildave at 9:39 AM on March 26, 2018 [1 favorite]
I also made a cool stack to track all my LP's, CD's and mixtapes and it also could spit out a printed cover for a mixtape!
Loved that program!
posted by drinkmaildave at 9:39 AM on March 26, 2018 [1 favorite]
I used it to make a diving logbook around 1991 or 92. I implemented a dive planner function for each card as well using the PADI dive tables. That part was written in C and connected to the stack using whatever the extension was called for that. I’m sure someone here remembers the name.
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 9:46 AM on March 26, 2018
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 9:46 AM on March 26, 2018
Apparently the Windows hypercard 'competitor' Toolbook still exists. I had no idea.
posted by el io at 10:51 AM on March 26, 2018
posted by el io at 10:51 AM on March 26, 2018
HyperCard of today? There is Supercard. I've used this a lot. And it's still an existing product.
posted by njohnson23 at 11:02 AM on March 26, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by njohnson23 at 11:02 AM on March 26, 2018 [2 favorites]
Are you saying my Choose Your Own Adventure style Star Trek game with badly drawn Ferengi ships wasn't useful?
Comrade! I made the same game, except mine was Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I recently uncovered the floppy it's saved on (but there's very little hope of it being readable).
posted by churl at 3:00 PM on March 26, 2018 [1 favorite]
Comrade! I made the same game, except mine was Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I recently uncovered the floppy it's saved on (but there's very little hope of it being readable).
posted by churl at 3:00 PM on March 26, 2018 [1 favorite]
I remember not actually doing anything useful with HyperCard
I remember fetching red and blue pages for Sirrus and Achenar, even though Cyan did a really good job of hiding the fact that it was a HyperCard stack.
posted by radwolf76 at 4:13 PM on March 26, 2018
I remember fetching red and blue pages for Sirrus and Achenar, even though Cyan did a really good job of hiding the fact that it was a HyperCard stack.
posted by radwolf76 at 4:13 PM on March 26, 2018
That's swell and all, but I'd much rather see something Very Much Like It amped up to create independently running applications using all of Today's Technology.
Thereby empowering the same group of people empowered by HC before Apple threw it - and them all - under the bus.
posted by Twang at 4:38 PM on March 26, 2018 [3 favorites]
Thereby empowering the same group of people empowered by HC before Apple threw it - and them all - under the bus.
posted by Twang at 4:38 PM on March 26, 2018 [3 favorites]
LiveCode is also reminiscent of HyperCard, plus you can develop mobile apps with it. Totally worth checking out.
posted by Wild_Eep at 7:40 AM on March 27, 2018
posted by Wild_Eep at 7:40 AM on March 27, 2018
"I also made a cool stack to track all my LP's, CD's and mixtapes and it also could spit out a printed cover for a mixtape!"
Me too! I uploaded mine to some ftp archive and next thing I knew, a bunch of Deadheads had discovered it and used it for their tape collections. It was postcardware, and I got Deadhead postcards for years.
posted by litlnemo at 4:06 PM on March 29, 2018 [3 favorites]
Me too! I uploaded mine to some ftp archive and next thing I knew, a bunch of Deadheads had discovered it and used it for their tape collections. It was postcardware, and I got Deadhead postcards for years.
posted by litlnemo at 4:06 PM on March 29, 2018 [3 favorites]
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posted by tommasz at 5:41 AM on March 26, 2018 [2 favorites]