Original 1990s Service Source & Supportools

[olePigeon]

So when I was cleaning out my garage, I found something I didn't even know I had.   A while back I found a few binders for salesmen for Apple products.  Unfortunately it was missing most of it and the binder was damaged beyond repair.  Would have been cool.  However, what I didn't notice with the binder for some reason was a cardboard box thing.  It said Supportools™, and I thought it was just more sales stuff.  But it wasn't.  It's the support folder you got back in the day when you signed up to be an Apple Certified Technician.

It comes with 3 Service Source books ranging from the original 128k through the Quadra 900 plus LaserWriters.   It also has a floppy disk labeled Help Stack with a HyperCard stack that I would imagine contains various programs, but I don't have HyperCard installed to check it out.  I'm going to do that later.  I suspect it has Hard Disk formatter/scanner, anti-virus, Mac Error Codes (duh), and I'm not sure what Printing would be.  Perhaps diagnostic software for printers.  Super useful!

 

[olePigeon]

I need to keep an eye out for a complete TechStep, then I'll have the whole shebang.  I could open up my own vintage (Un)Certified Apple Repair center.

 

[ArmorAlley]

There was a Techstep from 1991 mentioned on RetroMacCast recently. It has 2 ROMs in it as well as manuals and the bag.

It has a BIN price of $449 (which is to me pricey, but value is in the eye of the beholder), but shipping within the U.S. is free.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/163120066837

 

[danda]

Oh wow! I'd *love* to get a copy of that SupportTools disk and HyperCard stack for my ever-growing online emulated collection (now nearly 3,500 stacks). Any chance you could make an image of that disk and send it to me?

 

[olePigeon]

@danda I already linked to it in my post.

 

[danda]

Thanks @olePigeon, I didn't realise you had already shared it!

I've run it through HyperCard Online (one of my little side-projects) and so it is up now on the Internet Archive and can be run directly in the browser. It is actually a really useful little stack for debugging issues like sad mac error codes. The list of viruses, including background info and how to eradicate each, is also a useful historical reference.

Thanks for sharing!

P.S. When I uploaded it, I just put in a bare-bones description and very little metadata based on your original post. If you want me to update anything on the stack's page, let me know and I can change it. (For instance, I don't know when this was released, so haven't yet filled in a date for it).

 

[olePigeon]

@danda You can do whatever you like if it's helpful.