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Is the Mac fun anymore?

Shaun.P

Shaun.P

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jul 14, 2003
1,601
24
Omicron Persei 8
I have recently been thinking about when I was younger, in school, using Macs. Whether it was AppleWorks (or ClarisWorks), playing Zoombini's, Mavis Beacon or Kid Pix or printing something using one of the Apple Laser Printers, it always seemed more fun and exciting than using my PC at home.

Fast forward until 2003 (when I was 15) when I got my first Mac. It was a Snow iMac G3 600 Mhz. It ran Mac OS X 10.2 as standard but also had a full copy of Mac OS 9.2.2 installed as well. I absolutely loved that machine, the keyboard, the mouse and everything about it. It came with some games like Bugdom, but it was Aliens instead and you had to rescue people. It also came with Nanosaur II too I believe. Oh, and of course AppleWorks. AppleWorks is my favourite piece of software ever. Fast, efficient, feature full and it simply just works.

I don't know if it was because I was younger at the time and as you become an adult it seems to take the magic out of everything (I'm 21 now, ugh!), but using a Mac today does not give me the same sense of... well I don't really know how to describe it.

I think some of it is to do with the character of the Mac. The original iMac and even the iMac G4 had loads of character (IMO). All of the new computers seem more clinical and refined to a point where they've lost their cuteness. Sure - I own a MacBook Pro, but I keep thinking to myself that if Apple brought back the iMac G4, dropped the G4, stuck in a Core 2 Duo and the same specification of the current iMac, and enhanced the quality of the display - it would be a massive seller. No?!

I have the same thoughts on the early internet. In the nineties, it seemed so much fun, but now it's almost boring.

This isn't a Mac bashing thread, I'm an avid Mac fan, I'm just saying in a nutshell that the Mac, to me, has lost some of its sparkle and excitability (I doubt that's a word). What are you opinions? Anything similar?
 
As we grow older, our "fun" receptors change, and so does our view of fun things we used to enjoy.

I know what you mean. Now that I own Macs and use them exclusively at home, for work and everything, they are tools, not the "thank God I left my PC at work" hiding place like they used to be. :)
 
I remember bugdom.... what a fun game for my blue iMac, they were more fun back then and now they are just all work for me.


ChrisN
 
Mavis Beacon was another one that i remember lol, grade 5 is when we were taught how to touch type. I remember to teacher would stand over you and yell stop "chook Pecking" if you didn't do it properly
 
spencers said:
man, I loved Kid Pix
Click to expand...

Had that on (IIRC) the Acorns at school and the Amiga at home, great times to be had :D "oops! oh no! *zzzumyphlym!*"

And its probably a little odd that I still like printing stuff off, even at 23. :eek:
I've been a Mac user since the day I joined this site and the sparkle hasn't gone for me.
 
Remember the bomb effect in Kid Pix?

I used to love the racing game in Mavis Beacon - the faster you typed the faster your car went to win the race!

Any AppleWorks fans? I wish I could find it somewhere to install on this computer.
 
iShater said:
As we grow older, our "fun" receptors change, and so does our view of fun things we used to enjoy.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, I think this is true! To be 15 again!

redAPPLE said:
i think it is the color from the past macs (iMac G3 and iBooks) that made them look exciting.
Click to expand...

I agree, it made them seem more fun.

ChrisN said:
I remember bugdom.... what a fun game for my blue iMac, they were more fun back then and now they are just all work for me.
Click to expand...

I didn't play Bugdom much. The game I was thinking about was called OttoMatic! I had the iMac 2 years, then I had an eMac - which came with Tony Hawks skating. I remember thinking the graphics were brilliant.

Don't panic said:
it's called 'age'.
you'll get used to it.
Click to expand...

Is it wrong I feel old at 21? :p

ShaunPriest said:
...but using a Mac today does not give me the same sense of... well I don't really know how to describe it.
Click to expand...

I think the word I was looking for was, "charm".
 
Mac is just another means for me of getting my work done, it's not fun or exciting. I could do just find with Windows. I still like windows on certain task, but the same could go with Mac. I don't think Mac is fun anymore...
 
As a newbie to the mac, I have to say, I think this thing is a lot of fun.
I'm enjoying learning about it, and love the ease of use that seems to be typical of everything that I have done on this. Most recently I added an external hard drive, and expected a setup issue, but it was so extremely easy, I even partitioned it, (thanks you you people here that walked me through it)
and even that was EASY and, if I may say, FUN!!
Again, I'm just new at the Mac, but have no regrets in the purchase, and look forward every day on what I can learn about it next!:)
 
ShaunPriest said:
I think some of it is to do with the character of the Mac. The original iMac and even the iMac G4 had loads of character (IMO). All of the new computers seem more clinical and refined to a point where they've lost their cuteness. Sure - I own a MacBook Pro, but I keep thinking to myself that if Apple brought back the iMac G4, dropped the G4, stuck in a Core 2 Duo and the same specification of the current iMac, and enhanced the quality of the display - it would be a massive seller. No?!

I have the same thoughts on the early internet. In the nineties, it seemed so much fun, but now it's almost boring.

This isn't a Mac bashing thread, I'm an avid Mac fan, I'm just saying in a nutshell that the Mac, to me, has lost some of its sparkle and excitability (I doubt that's a word). What are you opinions? Anything similar?
Click to expand...

I totally agree. Walking into the Sonoma State University Bookstore and chancing upon a 1998 blueberry iMac was an "experience". I liked Apple so much back then I bought an iBook when it was first released a year later. I could not get over how such a compact machine could do so much. And yes, the games like Bugdom, running Adobe software like Photoshop/Illustrator/PageMaker, and the newness of the internet was an added plus. The Macs in those days were something very personal to me, more than just a machine or tool.

As for computers, after that great period of the late-1990s, Apple started getting somewhat boring for me. But leave it to Apple as jaded Mac users like me got blown away by even greater innovations/inventions/designs with the iPod and later the iPhone. When the iPod came out and took hold, many PC users who never knew or cared about Macs rushed out to get iPods and Apple became known as that iPod company and within a short time, they took over the MP3 market. The iTunes store secured iPod as the monopoly on the market the way Windows and Dell controlled their markets of operating systems and computers. And recently, the iPhone became the top selling high end cell phone surpassing Blackberry.

When people get over the honeymoon period of those two Apple devices, which people treat like cherished pets today, the company will come out with something equally amazing, whether it's some sort of in car device or home gaming machine like X-Box. Apple Computer became Apple Inc a few years ago realizing the future in non-computer hardware.
 
The answer is in how you define "fun" on a computer - when we first got our computer (lousy WinME) I thought fun was spending ages with Need For Speed.

Now, I define fun as using Photoshop - maybe boring to some, but I really enjoy using it. I haven't touched gaming in ages; I just don't feel the urge to do it nowadays.
 
PCs are really fun, you get to play the fixing game almost everyday :D My mac still excites me, but i just got it a month ago :p
 
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