Originally published at: Fantastic emulator of classic Apple II program The Print Shop (1984) | Boing Boing
…
iirc, the cards would print the front and back inverted so that the paper could be folded into fourths. There weren’t many double-sided printers at that time and you had to go tho the school office to use them.
13 Likes
I remember using this!
Dot Matrix printer go brrrrrrr brrrrr wirrrrr.
9 Likes
Besides games, this was the software I used most for fun. Broderbund really had that sector of the Apple ][ software market locked up.
7 Likes
In Glorious 4K
“As requested by… a shocking number of folks after the last video”
8 Likes
Woah, a full color dot matrix? Neat.
4 Likes
The killer app for form-feed printers was definitely the ribbon banner a la Print Shop. Since ink- and laserjets have become ascendant, many has been the occasion where I lamented not being able to easily whip up a quick banner. And if you wanted to go to an Actual Print Shop to get something like that printed, it would be $$$$$ and be a much bigger hammer than whatever nail you had.
Obligatory:
8 Likes
Screen Magic was the original After Dark.
We’d leave the entire lab of Apple IIs running that when they weren’t in use.
2 Likes
Favorite product from Broderbund of all time and used across both Apple and PC platforms
The Ancient Art of War
2 Likes
I had this for the IIGS, which had slightly better graphics than the other Apple models, and must have printed out thousands of cards for colleagues and relatives who were amazed at the idea.
4 Likes
In the late 80s I owned a restaurant with my parents, I had an Apple 2e with Print Shop. I remember making banners, table signs, and even some daily special menus with a dot matrix printer. Good times.
I tried printing a sign just now, it’s been a few minutes and it’s still printing, just like old times.
6 Likes
I had an HP deskjet 690C that had the ability to print banners using form feed paper with the feed holes pulled off, and support from programs like The Print Shop and it’s ilk. It was pretty slick.
As far a dot matrix printers go, I still have a couple kicking around in the archives; an Apple Imagewriter, and an Okidata 391+. I haven’t fired them up in a couple years, but the last time I did, they still worked and at least ran self tests.
I think I have a USB to parallel cable somewhere for the okidata, and the apple ][e that the imagewriter came with.
4 Likes
These Kids Today will never know the childish delight of tearing off the feed strips and turning them into little accordions.
7 Likes
Benj Edwards recently published a Print Shop retrospective.
2 Likes
It’s a shame this page isn’t touch-friendly so I can’t mess with it on my phone. That being said, even the title screen alone brings up waves of intense nostalgia of using Apple IIs in the elementary school and junior high computer lab and (slowly and noisily) printing out spectacular banners on the tractor feed ImageWriter II printer.
3 Likes
I used this emulator to create a flier for our next yo-yo meetup in SF.
1 Like
I had a small side hustle in middle school making Print Shop banners for some of the small businesses in my neighborhood.
1 Like
Printers have become much more intelligent. However, all this means in real terms, is that they have more capacity for malice and spite.
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
