The cast of characters in the Mac SE Easter Egg

[pinto_guy]

I was recently in contact with one of the early engineers on the Mac team and we discussed the Easter Egg on the Mac SE (set of 4 images that flash on the screen after typing "G 41D89A" in debugger mode). I asked him if he could identify some of the people on them, and he knew two of them. In the picture attached, he recognized (1) Bob Bailey (a Chip Designer) and (2) Brian Howard (Employee #32 on the Mac team). I was able to easily find bios about both of them. I'd like to complete the line-up if possible. Would any of you on this forum be able to help me in this historical mission ?

 

[marcelv]

the following string in the ROM appears to be a list of programmers.

"CSLWRLBBMABOEMTDAHJTCFJLMBKCRCLAKEHBRDCDAFSHFTJ"

Some of these people are pictured, but not all
 

CSL – C.S. “Tony” Leung
WRL – Wayne R Loofburrow
BBM – Brian B McGhie
ABO – Alan B Oppenheimer
EMT – Ed M Tecot
DAH – Dave A Holzer
JTC – Jerome T Coonen
FJL – Frank J Leahy
MBK – Marjorie B Kaptanoglu
CRC – Cary R Clark
LAK – Larry A Kenyon
EHB – Ernie H Beernink
RDC – Rich D Castro
DAF – Dave A Fung
SHF – Steven H Flowers
TJ – Tom Jennings

image 2

Cary Clark Tom Jennings Bill Bruffey Steve Flowers

Ed Tecot Tony Leung

Alan Oppenheimer Frank Leahy Marjory B. Kaptanoglu

image 3

? ? Michael Tchao ? ? Jay Patel

? ? Charlie Oppenheimer

image 4

??, ??,??
Jack McHenry (RIP), Bob Bailey, ??, Dave Fung
Rich Castro, Brian Howard (RIP),??

 

[pinto_guy]

Awesome, thanks marcelv. I didn't not expect to make such rapid progress in so little time. I updated the photo accordingly. If you could double check the names, that would be great. I will reach out to some of these people, if I can contact them, to try and fill in the blanks. Thanks again !

 

[pinto_guy]

Update: I was able to contact Marjory Kaptanoglu (second image). She has changed career and is now a novelist. Her website is here in case you're interested. She was able to identify one more person as Brian McGhie (first photo, second from top left).

By the way marcelv, I sent you a PM. Did you get it ? If you could help me with my Mac Classic issue, that would be great too )

 

[joshc]

That is some impressive tracking you've been able to do, it would be great to get some stories from these people if possible.

 

[Dog Cow]

Do the QuickTime slideshow where you press Command-Option-Q-T. I recognize some faces from the slideshow, and the QuickTime slideshow has names too.

 

[pinto_guy]

Yes joshc, I'm collecting interesting tidbits from the people on the photos, and will report.

Thanks Dog Cow for the mention of the QuickTime slideshow. I couldn't find much about this on line. Is this available on the Compact Macs ?

 

[Dog Cow]

For compact Macs, only the SE/30 (and maybe the Classic II???) can run QuickTime, since it requires Color QuickDraw. QuickTime as you probably know is a System Extension. During Macintosh startup, when the icons are showing across the bottom of the screen, press and hold Command-Option-Q-T. You will see a slideshow with some music playing. This slideshow is in almost all versions of QuickTime, at least through version 4.