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Re:How Microsoft beat Apple to buy PowerPoint for $14M by pmarreck on Friday June 10, 2016 @11:00AM (#11876818)
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.

Re:How Microsoft beat Apple to buy PowerPoint for $14M by Razengan on Friday June 10, 2016 @11:07AM (#11876868)
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.

Re:How Microsoft beat Apple to buy PowerPoint for $14M by vidarh on Friday June 10, 2016 @02:09PM (#11878531)
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/

Re:How Microsoft beat Apple to buy PowerPoint for $14M by spdegabrielle on Friday June 10, 2016 @02:57PM (#11878963)
I love Amiga fans - they are a special type of awesome/crazy!
Re:How Microsoft beat Apple to buy PowerPoint for $14M by vidarh on Friday June 10, 2016 @08:58PM (#11881382)
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).
Re:How Microsoft beat Apple to buy PowerPoint for $14M by wlesieutre on Friday June 10, 2016 @12:15PM (#11877452)
Halo was being developed for Mac as well, until MS went and bought Bungie. They presented on stage at MacWorld in 1999.
Re:How Microsoft beat Apple to buy PowerPoint for $14M by uxp on Friday June 10, 2016 @04:30PM (#11879764)
Re:How Microsoft beat Apple to buy PowerPoint for $14M by wlesieutre on Saturday June 11, 2016 @06:11AM (#11882886)
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.

Re:How Microsoft beat Apple to buy PowerPoint for $14M by ethbro on Friday June 10, 2016 @12:21PM (#11877509)
sighs Oh, Marathon.
Re:How Microsoft beat Apple to buy PowerPoint for $14M by lostlogin on Friday June 10, 2016 @03:31PM (#11879285)
I still hear the rocket launcher occasionally.
Re:How Microsoft beat Apple to buy PowerPoint for $14M by vt240 on Saturday June 11, 2016 @02:34AM (#11882358)
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.
Re:How Microsoft beat Apple to buy PowerPoint for $14M by pmarreck on Friday June 10, 2016 @11:01PM (#11881805)
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"

Re:How Microsoft beat Apple to buy PowerPoint for $14M by pmarreck on Friday June 10, 2016 @11:06PM (#11881820)
Re:How Microsoft beat Apple to buy PowerPoint for $14M by sien on Friday June 10, 2016 @11:24PM (#11881884)
Simcity was developed for the C64 originally and was released at the same time on the Mac and the Amiga.
Re:How Microsoft beat Apple to buy PowerPoint for $14M by scholia on Friday June 10, 2016 @04:54PM (#11879942)
> 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 ;-)

Re:How Microsoft beat Apple to buy PowerPoint for $14M by cookiemonsta on Friday June 10, 2016 @12:08PM (#11877393)
I believe Halo, one of the Xbox's most popular games, had its first version (first one you could buy, i mean) on Mac
Re:How Microsoft beat Apple to buy PowerPoint for $14M by extra88 on Friday June 10, 2016 @01:47PM (#11878321)
No, Microsoft bought Bungie while Halo was in development, you could never buy Halo for Mac.
Re:How Microsoft beat Apple to buy PowerPoint for $14M by MBCook on Friday June 10, 2016 @02:19PM (#11878617)
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.
Re:How Microsoft beat Apple to buy PowerPoint for $14M by rdsnsca on Friday June 10, 2016 @10:39PM (#11881732)
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.
Re:How Microsoft beat Apple to buy PowerPoint for $14M by MBCook on Saturday June 11, 2016 @12:17PM (#11883993)
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.

Re:How Microsoft beat Apple to buy PowerPoint for $14M by vitd on Friday June 10, 2016 @07:31PM (#11880997)
I own and still play Halo for Mac frequently. Not sure what you mean.
Re:How Microsoft beat Apple to buy PowerPoint for $14M by extra88 on Friday June 10, 2016 @08:21PM (#11881245)
I wasn't aware years later another company ported the original Halo.
Re:How Microsoft beat Apple to buy PowerPoint for $14M by joeyo on Friday June 10, 2016 @10:58PM (#11881799)
It was released by Bungie/Microsoft for Mac at about the same time as they released the desktop PC version.
Re:How Microsoft beat Apple to buy PowerPoint for $14M by coldcode on Friday June 10, 2016 @12:04PM (#11877347)
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.
Re:How Microsoft beat Apple to buy PowerPoint for $14M by bluedino on Friday June 10, 2016 @11:25AM (#11877020)
Didn't Excel descend from Multiplan which was originally for DOS?
Re:How Microsoft beat Apple to buy PowerPoint for $14M by rmason on Friday June 10, 2016 @01:57PM (#11878417)
No they were completely separate products and teams. You could correctly say that Excel was a do-over of Multiplan.