Trying to remember old encyclopedia app on Mac OS 8

[fri0701]

Hi everyone,

I’ve been trying to remember the name of a piece of software I remember using years ago, but I can’t put my finger on it. I’m hoping someone here can point me in the right direction…

This software ran on a Power Mac G3 (the flat beige model), on what was probably some version of Mac OS 8. I got this computer as a hand-me-down from some family friends and I believe this software was already on the hard drive when I got it. I don't remember installing it myself.

I remember there being a set of applications (almost like Hypercard stacks?) that were like encyclopedias covering different topics: things like space, animal/plant life, etc. It was in color.

I remember each one being mostly a visual slideshow, maybe with some interactive elements.


I wish I had more information on these, but this is really all I can remember, unfortunately - and the computer I used this on is long gone by now. If this sparks a memory for anyone else, please let me know.
Thanks in advance!

 

[ymk]

Sounds like Encarta.

 

[Corgi]

Specifically sounds like the second screenshot on the Garden's entry for Encarta '95, which is not necessarily period-correct for Mac OS 8 but still should have run just fine on a Beige G3:

Microsoft Encarta '95 - Macintosh Garden

Microsoft Encarta was a digital multimedia encyclopedia published by Microsoft Corporation from 1993 to 2009. Top download link above is a compressed zip archive containing a .toast image of Microsoft Encarta '95 for Macintosh. MD5 Checksum & Filename: 7B7FABD922208E87DAAF2564FABEDF42...

macintoshgarden.org

 

[fri0701]

Thanks for the input! This looks vaguely familiar, but I don't think it's quite what I'm looking for.

I think the different topics such as Space, Animals, and so on were represented as files with custom icons in the Finder itself. There may have also been an enclosing application akin to a launcher for the different topics, but I don't remember that as clearly.

I also seem to recall it being more simple than Encarta looks from those screenshots, almost closer to the built-in Scrapbook desk accessory. I think it was more visual and contained less text than Encarta, too.

 

[ArmorAlley]

There were a couple of them.
Try an issue of MacAddict or MacFormat from 1998-1999 and have a look at the ads in the magazines.
These magazines should be available on archive.org and/or Macintosh Garden as PDFs.

 

[Phipli]

The 1997 Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia - Macintosh Garden

The 1997 Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia, Version 9.0 The 1997 Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia CD Download (463MB compressed Mac-only CD) Links: Buffalolib.org/The 1997 Grolier multimedia encyclopedia CDAccess.com/The 1997 Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia

macintoshgarden.org

Grolier used to come free with lots of Macs, I forget what it actually looked like and there are lots of versions.

 

[CircuitBored]

Could you be thinking of World Book? I vaguely remember there being slide shows on some versions of those discs.

 

[fri0701]

An update - I think I found it!
I realized I still had the drive that this program ran on, and after some work, I was able to extract a disk image. After looking through the deleted files on the disk, I believe I was thinking of several versions of Aris Media Clips - CDs that contained what were essentially Hypercard stacks of stock photos and images of different types of subjects. It sounds like only several of them are archived online, unfortunately.