Looking for Mac Hack CDs!!! :-D

[CkWeb]

Here is a neat request for something really unique in the Mac Classic world:

has anyone heard of MacHacks?

They held contests every year for the best Mac system hacks and they published these onto CDs. A really cool one was the CD from 1999, since it collected all of the hacks from all the past years, including one that year called Unfinder 1.0.

This clever hack allowed you to undo file deletions, copies, moving files around, etc. The icon for it is below:

 Unfinder 1.0

Pure-Mac.com had this cool little hack freeeware listed back in '99-2000, but eventually it got bumped off their software lists along with many more Classic titles. Hope fully, someone scooped it up and held onto a copy of it

 

[olePigeon]

I remember those.  Shoot, I'd love to get my hands on some CDs, too.

 

[CkWeb]

The contents of a newer one is found here. It's mostly for OS X but also has some hacks for OS 9. I doubt any of them run on 68k systems, but you never know.

 

[defor]

I recall this as well- there was MacJive? I think it was called that came out one year that realtime translated any text rendered using toolbox calls in Jive.

Might be interesting to track these hacks down...

 

[defor]

Some relevant links I just grabbed:

1995: http://www.machack.com/mh95/95MacHackHome.html

1996: http://www.machack.com/Resources/index.html

1997: http://machack.com/Resources/hacks97.html

1998: https://web-beta.archive.org/web/20020214213053/http://www.machack.com:80/Hack98.html

1999: http://www.machack.com/99/hacks99.html

2001: https://www.macintoshrepository.org/2686-mac-hack-2001

2002: http://www.hax.com/MacHack/HackBallot2002.html

2003: http://www.hax.com/MacHack/HackContest2003.pdf

Most of the links to downloads are dead, but might be a starting place for finding individual hacks

The CDs that should exist appear to be:

• MacHack Historical CD
• MacHack 2000 CD
• MacHack 2001 CD
• MacHack 2002 CD
• MacHack 2003 CD

 

[CkWeb]

Yes! I remembered the first hack, looked for it and stumbled upon it's origin. Definitely worth digging up. It would have been great if they still had these available online, but the good thing it's that they can be archived on old Mac software sites

 

[CkWeb]

Great work Defor!  ;D

One possibility might be to contact a mac user group near their HQ who may have those CDs archived or a fellow member who collected them. Mac outfits like these tend to show up at user group meetings to make presentations of their stuff and often give away or discount some of their software to members who attend or make donations to the software collection of the user group.

Just a random thought!  |)

And here are the top five hacks from 1999:

1. PatchMaker by Paul Baxter:  ftp://ftp.machack.com/Hacks99/PatchMaker.sit.bin (dead link)

2. UnFinder by Lisa Lippincott:  ftp://ftp.machack.com/Hacks99/Unfinder.sit.bin (dead link)

3. Out of Context Menus by Eric Trant:  ftp://ftp.machack.com/Hacks99/OutOfContextMenus.sit.bin (dead link)

4. MacJive by Ned Hollbrook and Jorg Brown:  ftp://ftp.machack.com/Hacks99/MacJive.sit.bin (dead link)

5. Desktop Doubler by Ed Wynne: ftp://ftp.machack.com/Hacks99/DesktopDoubler.sit.bin (dead link)

You never know if any of the original authors may still be reachable online and perhaps have a copy of their original work and might even be willing to send us a copy of their hacks (or possibly all of them)! 

 

[CkWeb]

This link has a couple more details on the 2001 and 1999 CD: http://www.machack.com/pr/6_28_01.html

 

[olePigeon]

I emailed the contact listed in the whois info for the domains, but no responses.

 

[olePigeon]

MacHacks FTP had a robots.txt.

 

[CkWeb]

This thread references a 1994 published book and CD. It looks like one of our forum members has/d access to the CD a few years ago and another has a vast collection of software from the 90s:

https://68kmla.org/forums/index.php?/topic/23429-a-promised-hack-is-here/

 

[Juror22]

I could not find the link posted in the last post above, maybe I'm not searching correctly?

Anyway, ever since this thread came out, I have been poking around for these CD's.  It looks like they have finally (actually back in 2018, but I just found them) been uploaded to the Internet archive, so I'm resurrecting a necro-thread to pass the information along.  I hope its of use to someone.  

https://archive.org/search.php?query=subject%3A"MacHack"

 

[JWrigley]

I'm not sure if this has already been covered, and I know it is an old thread, but I have a book/CD called "Late Night with MacHack". Has the CD image been archived anywhere? If not, where should it be?

 

[olePigeon]

@JWrigley You can always upload it to Macintosh Garden or Archive.org.

 

[JWrigley]

Thanks @olePigeon - will do!

 

[Juror22]

Let me know which, I will be watching for it!

 

[JWrigley]

Done, hope I have followed all the guidelines correctly!

Late Night with MacHack - Macintosh Garden

This is an image of the CD-ROM that accompanied the 1994 book "Late Night with MacHack". It covers software developed during the 1990, 1991, 1992, and 1993 conferences. See also: Mac Hack

macintoshgarden.org

 

[JWrigley]

Oh no - that is weird, MacintoshGarden.org is coming up as these random dodgy sites now

Just checked their twitter, apparently an ex-admin sold the domain! Now they have to get it back...

https://www.reddit.com/r/MacintoshGarden/comments/qe1tqf

 

[CC_333]

Oh no - that is weird, MacintoshGarden.org is coming up as these random dodgy sites now

Just checked their twitter, apparently an ex-admin sold the domain! Now they have to get it back...

The things some people will do to make money....

What a jerk!! (can I say that here?)

At least the site itself is alive and well, even if the domain is not.

c

 

[Angelgreat]

I just saw the recent MacYak podcast, the owner/admin of Macintosh Garden confirmed that the website will come back soon. If that jerk Maedi ever shows up again here or there, we will block him. He shall never hack Macintosh Garden or 68kmla ever again!

As for the Macintosh Garden admins, I hope they're OK. Even if Macintosh Garden doesn't come back, there's always Macintosh Repository.