An aside: Aargh!! The Baton Broadcasting System, or BBS, which broadcasts the TV science fiction series Babylon 5 throughout most of Canada, has dropped the series from its fall lineup, even though it's been officially renewed!
That's right, I've finally been able to design the icons for the PowerBook series of Macs!
The additions are the PowerBook 100, PowerBook 140 (2 variations), PowerBook Duo (2 variations), PowerBook 520 and the PowerBook 5300.
In addition, a picture of the Lisa (Mac XL) was provided, enabling me to create icons for the very first Macintosh prototype. Thanks to Ian Phillips for providing the picture.
This quasi-project started about May 1995, but a little thing called "school" kept on interfering with my working on these icons, and therefore the first release. Not only that, Apple released a slew of new machine types over the summer of ’95, notably the PowerMacs 5200/75, 7200/7500, and the 9500. Additionally, many revisions, such as the addition of a white-gray line or even a single pixel (changes for 8 icons, each with 6 different resources), were done on most of the icons. I also saw a couple other mac icon archives pop up last year (1995), so I figured that I'd better get a first release out ASAP.
A little more history: This got started when I saw a sneak preview screenshot of System 8, a.k.a. Copland (now known officially as "Mac OS 8"). The hard drive had a spiffy 3-dimensional icon, of a 6100, presumably. I had an LC II at the time, however no 3D icon existed for that model, so I made one myself. It was decent enough, so I decided to make some 3D icons for other Mac models as well. I then thought, what the heck, I may as well make an icon for every one that has ever existed, since I wouldn't have much else to do during the summer. And since a 2D collection of Mac icons had to be made before the 3D effect could be added, a 2D version was also created. So, there you have it.
• INTRODUCTION OF THE POWERBOOK LINE OF MACINTOSH COMPUTERS TO THIS ICON ARCHIVE!!
• 7 PowerBook form factors added: PB 100, PB 140 (2 variations), PB Duo (2 variations), PB 520, PB 5300. Mac Portable still has not been incorporated.
• Lisa (Mac XL) form factor incorporated into archives.
• Modified documentation to reflect the addition of PowerBooks and Lisa.
• Note: The PowerBook 100 icon is actually a slightly modified PowerBook 140. Like the Mac Portable, I haven't been able to find a good picture of one of these.
• Major modifications to PowerMac 7500 and all four variations of the Mac IIvx; proporations now much more accurate.
• Major modifications to all Centris icons (2D set only). Minor modifications to all 3D Centris icons.
• Minor modifications to 3D PowerMac 5200 icons.
• Very minor modifications to some Quadras, so minor, in fact, that I didn't bother to copy them from the ResEdit resource to the Finder icons.
• Note omitted from last version: Genesis Interactive has gone down; local BBS now DNA (aka "Helix Two"), also a First Class-based BBS; Phone number: (613) 738-8885.
1.3-June 15, 1996
• New e-mail address: starfury@dna.ca. Thanks to Rishi Gupta for allowing his account to be the mailbox for the responses that have come in!
• This release marks the return of the 2-Dimesional icon set as well. Depending on the response generated by the 2D icons (ie if no one wants them or some people do want them), the 2D set will either be nixed or continue to be updated. Maintaining the 3D set is hard enough, if no one wants or needs the 2D set, it'll also be easier for me in terms of workload.
• Changed the LC 520 and Mac TV (no CD) cover plate (addition of a single coloured line).
• Updated many icons from the 2D set.
• Rewrote or reworded much of the documentation, and split the Readme files into two: About H's 2/3D Mac Icons and Release History.
1.2.1-March 19, 1996
• Fixed a really dumb mistake (1.2's release date read as March 11, 1995 ).
• Modified this documentation slightly.
• A really, really hastily drawn PowerBook icon is included in the resource file, but is not in the icons in the folders. After you see the icon in the resource file, you'll see why. Still, please send comments and ideas regarding this, please!
• Apparently none of the previous versions made it past Genesis Interactive. This version marks the first time that the archive was actually sent to an FTP site (Thanks to Rishi Gupta yet again).
• The 2D icon archive was not updated.
1.2-March 11, 1996
• modified all 2D versions of the Mac 128K (beige), Mac 128K (platinum), SE, SE/30, Mac Classic, and the all pizza-box style LCs.
• Modified the SE, SE/30 and all pizza-box style LCs slightly in the 3D version.
• Modified the icon of the folder containing the Mac icons separate from the ResEdit resources, so that it now looks more …friendly, for lack of a better term. (Well, it's smiling, right?)
• Other minor changes to several icons.
• Numbered the Primary Form Factor folders.
• Arranged all the folders to open next to each other instead of on top of each other, except for the Quadra series because there are way too many of them.
• Redrew the main folder icon, so it's a lot more 3D-ish.
• Added cusom icons to the ReadMe and the ResEdit resource.
• Coinciding the release of this version (1.2) with the release of Apple's System Update 2.0 (System 7.5.3) was not an accident.
• The 2D icon archive was not updated.
1.1-September 25, 1995
• Finally saw a sketch of the Macintosh IIsi (it was in my computer registration package, of all things) and fixed up the icon.
• Modified the Power Macintosh 9500 icon slightly so that it looks slightly different from the Quadra 800 line (widened and heightened it by 1 pixel), at Rishi Gupta's suggestion.
• Changed the form factor name of the 7200/7500 from "7200" to "7500", Apple's official form factor designation for the new case.
1.0
• Never released, due to my catching the aforementioned IIsi icon discrepancy.
• Included all Macintosh form factors (with many variations of my own) since the beginning of time up until around September, with the exception of the PowerBooks and the original Lisa.
• Rishi Gupta, for loaning his FTP access and e-mail addresses to upload these archives to various FTP sites and to recieve responses about these icons up until I got my email access;
• T. Troung, "Our Pal Al", N.C. DeMello, J. Glor, S. Parker, K. Rothman, "Maribel", D.J. Roy, I. Springfield, Neil Yates, Ian Phillips, Martin Kusterer and everyone else who has sent comments and responses to me regarding the icons.
• Thanks to Ian Phillips for providing a picture of the Lisa (Mac XL). Because of this, I have been able to draw up 2D and 3D icons for the first Macintosh prototype.
• Apple Computer, for making the Mac, and for keeping the number of form factors relatively small. I sure wouldn't want to tackle the thousands of different designs of IBM-PC clones! It is the opinion of this…um, author?… that Apple should do more advertising, though. I only wish that BMW commercial aired in Canada… also wished that I could have seen more than 15 seconds of that Mission Impossible PowerBook commercial. Hope to see the Independence Day commercials soon…
