Vintage Apple Software

I’ve recently been on a kick to gather vintage software for my Macintosh Plus and Apple IIgs. I seem to get inspired to do so every few months—finding old apps/games that I remember from 20 years ago and loading them up again, for old time’s sake. I thought I would share two sites that are rather useful in the gathering of such “abandonware”:

• Macintosh Garden – An excellent site with hundreds of very hard to find programs for both the very early original Macintosh and Macintosh Plus as well as for the later Macintosh II era machines. Reviews, screenshots, forums commentary—it’s all there.
• Apple IIgs Gaming Memory Fairway – A very well-done site with downloads, commentary, and high-quality scans of box cover art for various Apple IIgs applications. The site has recently been restructured, it seems, and is currently offering no game software that I can find (it used to have hundreds of games). Productivity, development, and utility software is offered in its present form. Worth a look for IIgs users looking to put their machines to good use.

These sites have made the wonderful experience of reliving “the old days” a possibility for anyone with the proper hardware. Even running these apps on modern machines via emulation is a workable route to that good old nostalgic fix. I’ve got to say, though—emulation is no replacement for the real thing. Enjoy!