Teaching an Old Mac New Tricks

Browse the modern web on vintage hardware with MacProxy Plus! (available now on GitHub: github.com/hun... ). Even though it was developed with early Macs in mind, it should work to get other computers online, too...
You can follow me on Gobbler ( hunterirving.c... ) and Huntergram ( hunterirving.c... ).
They say no one reads video descriptions, but clearly you're the exception. Long time no see! To me, there's something inherently comedic about a computer this old interacting with the modern day Internet. It shouldn't be possible, but, improbably, here it is, chugging along - happily browsing reddit, facilitating chats with artificial intelligences, and even playing Shrek (at least, its best attempt at Shrek) on just 4MB of RAM.
Part of why I put so much effort into into making this outlandish piece of software a reality is that I want you to know that even your most outlandish ideas can become real if you keep taking small steps towards your goal. That's what I mean when I say "You can do a lot". This video helps to remind me of that, too.
If you're looking to break a big idea down into smaller, more achievable tasks, I invite you to try matryoshka ( github.com/hun... ), a tool I developed alongside this video to help me stay organized and chart progress towards my goals. Looks like it worked! :o)
Thanks so much for tuning in,
- Hunter
PS: Have you tried "regobbling" a gobble yet?
Shoutout / Greetz to:
-----------------------------------
Jen, Josh, Jim, Di, David, Tony, Braeden, Dan, Nick, The Person Reading This Right Now, Hacksburg, Fred, Daniel, Jeff, Tyler, Justin, JJ, Olivia, Susan, Minh, Mr. Burson, Mister Rogers, Will Powers, Mom and Dad, Juneyo, Claude, and Rilakkuma.

[@zxcvb_bvcxz]

Remember to donate to the Internet Archive. They really, really need it.

[@HunterIrving]

I couldn't agree more.

[@duplicake4054]

Hopefully they'll come back up soon

[@xs0apy]

@@duplicake4054 I am pretty confident this attack is connected to the lawsuits. Corporations don't want the internet archive to exist. They want to be able to bury the truth and pretend all their past mistakes and feelings never happened. It's sad :(

[@superJK92]

@@duplicake4054same, I want to get a minecraft mod, but guess what, the modpack is only available on a certain site, and that site is down

[@Poangchair]

@@duplicake4054 wait what happend? Why is it down? :(

[@jimirving5947]

"Practicality is *not* one of my interests."10/10

[@HunterIrving]

What can I say? Sometimes I like to do things the hard way.

[@ChakkyCharizard]

Me too!

[@travismartinson1813]

Would it be possible to r

[@djdeedjee]

@@travismartinson1813r?

[@danielktdoranie]

This is really really impressive and important for “smol web”. This is a much bigger deal than the title and thumbnail of this video portray

[@HunterIrving]

Thanks for saying so! You're right, there's more to it than a thumbnail can capture.

[@trekintosh]

Okay this channel is gonna blow up (not that 10k isn’t impressive already). The production value of this video is fabulous, not to mention the actual technical prowess on display in the extensions for macproxy.

[@HunterIrving]

Thanks for the kind words! It was definitely challenging, but also incredibly fun. I'm glad the effort shows through.

[@trekintosh]

@@HunterIrving in particular I was really impressed by your chroma keying (or was it rotoscoping?) to cut the subjects out, and the filming of the CRT

[@HunterIrving]

@@trekintosh Thanks! I filmed the screen using an Android app called ProShot, which lets you manually set the camera's shutter speed (1/60 worked best for me), and I used Final Cut Pro's Green Screen Keyer effect to cut out objects.

[@MrZics]

@@HunterIrving Yeah, I'm surprised to see 11k subs here. You're gonna be in the 100k's soon with this stuff. Keep it up!

[@lampiaio]

I'm not sure what impressed me the most: the engaging/fun presentation, the hack you created, the perfect mixture of classic Macintosh + Earthbound battle backgrounds (and how great they went together!), the production value, or the presented content itself. I guess I just love that this video exists, thank you so much. Can't wait for the GC ASCII controller video!

[@HunterIrving]

So glad you enjoyed it! It was a lot of fun putting it all together. I'll try my best to bring the same level of quality to the next video.

[@helfire23]

Amazing work! I'm the maintainer of BlueSCSI - it always amazes me to see what people do with it! Keep making cool/weird things!

[@HunterIrving]

Wow, thanks! Your work on BlueSCSI made this whole thing possible. Wishing you continued success!

[@acubley]

Having no room, I go for emulation. But it makes me so very happy to see machines from my childhood being preserved and the BlueSCSI and others are a huge part of that. It does break my brain a little that it has more power than the machine running it, tho.

[@chrisadair-l4n]

This guy is underrated❤

[@Soluna7]

This is so incredibly cool. Reminds me of a hacky fix I made to our player piano from 1997, which uses floppy discs in a special encoding to play music. I figured out how the encoding worked and was able to convert my own midi files into that encoding to use them on the piano. This was many years ago, but you've actually inspired me to revisit it. There might be a way to get audio streaming to work on the piano. It'll be hacky as hell but it has to be possible.

[@HunterIrving]

Interesting! There's something magical about those 'just barely possible' hacks, isn't there?

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

I could see the audio streaming being done by transcoding a standard MIDI track into their custom format on the fly.

[@theawesomer]

So cool! Who needs an ad blocker when you've got a 1986 Mac and a browser proxy?

[@ttsubii]

3DS Internet music really made the video

[@friskdotjpeg]

insanely amazing. rewatched your waveform vid in prep for this and damn you've still got it, i really appreciate the laid back-ness in an internet full of crazy dopamine inducing edits

[@HunterIrving]

Thanks for following along! Happy to hear the style resonates with you.

[@zoeschannel2547]

@@HunterIrving we got rickrolled!

[@jon9103]

"I don't understand how they fit all this smoke inside here" It's called magic smoke for a reason, you're not supposed to understand it.

[@HunterIrving]

arcane secrets beyond mortal comprehension... (but I'd still kinda like to figure it out)

[@dcwillis87]

My very first computer was a Mac Plus. 1994, my mother was a home health nurse and one of her patients gave it to my mother. Turned out it was broken but my grandma was an elementary school teacher and loved Macintosh computers. She was a member of the local Mac club and I used to go with her once a month to the meetings. It was so cool! Turns out my little Mac plus just needed a new power supply and we had to find a bunch of single density floppies cause the drive couldn’t read the fancy double density disks (lmao😂) couple months later I had a working Mac plus with a Kensington track ball, and a floppy holder filled to the brim with games and boot disks and stuff. I loved it. I was 7. Then for my 8th birthday my grandma helped me buy a Performa 550 (refurbished of course). Thanks for that stroll down memory lane. I miss my grandmother.

[@kayc_x3]

your grandma sounds like an awesome person. how cool that she impacted your relationship with tech, and at such a young age! i'm glad yall have that connection together that you can carry with you.

[@ChrissehCat]

When in 5th grade, our classroom had 9 black and white Mac Classics. They were networked so we could practice our typing lessons during breaks, type up an assignment, or create something wild with the OG Kid Pix. Never would've imagined surfing the web or watching any kind of videos on those things back then. 😂 this is amazing!

[@HunterIrving]

Kid Pix is so fun! I only had the original Mac Paint as a kid. Thanks for watching!

[@eddyb2001]

Impressive patience, well done! I was a kid (Gen X) when the Mac Plus arrived, and there was a test drive promo where you would get to try it out at home overnight, and that was spectacular. My parents saved up money and bought it for $2,600 in 1984, well over $5,000 in today's inflation-adjusted price.

[@HunterIrving]

What an interesting marketing strategy. I'll bet that sold a lot of Macs! Thanks for sharing your experience.

[@miketech1024]

Wow, this is amazing! Not only for the fantastic production quality. I feel like this is a great gift to the retro tech community. It will definitely get some use whenever a classic Mac comes across my bench. I’m also going to share this with Adrian (of Adrian’s Digital Basement) just in case he hasn’t already seen it. The Kirby music was an especially nice touch!

[@HunterIrving]

Glad you enjoyed it, and thanks for passing it along!

[@66777jason]

This is so well made. You wrote a program that simplifies webpages? And that was just one section of the video like it was nothing?? I’m excited for whatever you have next.

[@ConnahComputerSmith]

Hey, this is awesome!! I was scared I was the only young person still screwing around with old Macs, and you completely knocked it out of the park!! If I ever find myself with a Mac Plus I'll be sure to do this!

[@HunterIrving]

Thanks so much for watching! Despite the name, MacProxy Plus isn't Macintosh Plus (or even Macintosh) specific. As long as your web browser can set a proxy server, it should work. I recently got a similar setup working with Windows XP!

[@spoonman4024]

The quality of this project and video are not only impressive but heartwarming. I've seen a number of amazing Macintosh SE/Plus projects come out in the past month and am impressed with the level of engagement the creators have with their projects. Thank you for making something special.

[@Tistan01]

5:31 TALLY HALL SPOTTED WTF IS A THIRD ALBUM

[@jr.jackrabbit10]

unsure if the reference was intentional, but the overall presentation in this video makes me think it is

[@HunterIrving]

100% intentional

[@Alainhr_7w7]

Tally Hall, No way

[@alecboi777]

I ALMOST HAD A HEART ATTACK

[@Kindwater]

After 4 years later, this was worth the wait! Awosome!

[@HunterIrving]

Glad you enjoyed it! The wait for the next one should be shorter :-)

[@PaulaBean]

@@HunterIrving Summer 2027?

[@SamCoder.]

WOw!!! Never would have thought old devices can be THAT Usable!

[@craftman125]

The dedication to put together so many tools to make that scope of a project come together is incredible, and the final product is made all the better from each individual piece. Kudos man, that is impressive as hell.

[@HunterIrving]

Nah dawg, it was nothing. Lol, good to hear from you, man. Hope you're doing well.

[@O.V.]

I hope Action Retro does a video on this

[@HunterIrving]

Me too (I'm a big fan).

[@3rdalbum]

Not sure he would. He's done a similar video, demonstrating his own retro computing proxies (Frogfind and 68k.news)

[@hreggerino]

Started my day checking out niece tech videos, mostly from people in their early 20s. This one has exponentially more quality by any metric, great job.

[@DanielMarkstedtR]

Hey, thanks for the shout-out! I love what you did with the thing.

[@HunterIrving]

Hey there, thanks for making it so easy for me! I couldn't have done it without you laying the groundwork.

[@DavidMcCoul]

Welcome back! Great content (new subscriber here) and hope to see you upload again soon! Brings back memories because I grew up learning how to use computers on a slightly newer Apple Macintosh Classic II in the early 90s.

[@SpiritofLuke.]

You're the man. This is so sweet.

[@mattiscool11118]

5:26 TALLY HALL INDIRECTLY MENTIONED

[@keithyakouboff8755]

It's good to see someone of a younger generation wanting to preserve the past.

[@wakelessfoil]

Excellent work! I played around with this some year ago and observed all the issues you fixed.

[@crnkmnky]

Wow. You're brilliant! And I'm unquestionably qualified to verify this, as I've just had two glasses of wine. Great work. My mom's old Macintosh IIci has been sitting in a flooded garage for 14 years, so I'll definitely have to get some friends named Nick & Dan before I even think about attempting this magic trick. My hero. ☺

[@pizzabagel195]

Oh helllll yeah i was so happy to see this in my feed. Love your stuff glad to see more!

[@HunterIrving]

Thanks for sticking around! More is on the way :-)

[@Parasiteve]

oh god i LOVED the old macs sooo much. the look, the fonts, the sounds. all of it. oh god take me baaaack pleaaaase.

[@caramelcupcakes842]

this kinda video always gets me interested, with the fun editing and the genuinely interesting topic it gets my lil adhd brain to focus on it :3

[@20windfisch11]

9:30 you made the Dead Internet Theory real

[@HunterIrving]

I was so preoccupied with whether or not I could, that I didn't stop to think if I should...

[@jeremyc4786]

So glad i subbed when you first posted the waveform vids. And I'll continue to be here because this video was great as well.

[@HunterIrving]

Wow, thanks for sticking around! Glad you enjoyed it :-)

[@TylerHicksWright]

Glad to see this little project is still going strong!

[@HunterIrving]

Hey Tyler! I was just about to send you an email. Thanks for kicking this whole thing off all those years ago!

[@fifomicas]

I like ur editing style. Very neat. Not overwhelming. Keep it up

[@thedude15-sm2zu]

You should totally make more videos like this. I love them.

[@frank97865]

This is really cool man! Also such an excellently edited video!

[@MemphisOFICIAL777]

This is mind blowing!

[@AnonymousDuelist]

Claude really is a miracle of the universe.

[@realjame]

This is a fantastic video, it deserves so much more views. Great job!

[@HunterIrving]

Thanks for watching! Glad you enjoyed it.

[@user-hs7ry4nx7l]

SimEarth? Daft Punk? Vaporwave? Smash Bros. Melee? Giant Gamecube Keyboard Controller? Good taste. Keep it up.

[@thecianinator]

you didn't even wear a belt, you're really committed to the bit

[@ReshiLuna]

found your channel thru the yt algorithm, and great video, you got a new subscriber outta me, keep up the good work

[@HunterIrving]

Nice! Glad to hear The Algorithm picked this one up.

[@Filipcreate]

Glad to discover this comfy channel with the help of Mr. Algorithm. Great prosuction style. Thank you very much and please keep up the great work ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

[@patchoulicolt7093]

I'm glad you're posting again!!!

[@michaelgill7994]

The image quality you get is really an interesting visual style. It kind of looks like a late 90's or early 2000's music video would not seem out of place in that style.

[@1BitFeverDreams]

Very neat stuff! Mac Plus users of the world, unite!

[@HunterIrving]

Thanks for watching! It's a fun little machine, isn't it?

[@teuobk]

Awesome! This warms my heart -- and the power supply of my Mac Plus.

[@HunterIrving]

Perfect for those cold Winter nights! I actually ended up adding a Noctua fan to mine; it was getting pretty hot.

[@easymarks1637]

This was such a treat to watch.

[@HunterIrving]

This comment was a treat to read.

[@richardd4929]

Hey man, this is really cool and a beautifully made video

[@PiotrekZadworny]

This is absolutely wonderful!

[@MakeWeirdMusic]

This is so awesome. What a great video.

[@saycrain]

3:25 A bit bad timing with this video now that the Wayback Machine and the Internet Archive isn't up thanks to hackers 😅

[@HunterIrving]

Looks like they're back up! At least, in a "provisional, read-only" state.

[@saycrain]

@@HunterIrving I supose yeah, just really slow compered to usual 😟

[@TheGoatstep]

The web simulator is so cool! You should make a whole video on that on its own, I didn’t know AI could do that I was surprised how simple the code is for it, with most of the websimulator code being the prompt for Claude

[@HunterIrving]

It really is cool! I've been thinking a lot about "generative interfaces" lately. Maybe in the (nearish?) future, our apps and operating systems won't be so rigid, and we'll generate tools, toys, and interfaces on the fly.

[@galopeian]

This is extremely cool. I recently came into contact with a vintage mac so I wil be trying this out.

[@HunterIrving]

Thanks! Good luck getting your Mac online :-)

[@apollolux]

This video: "Zero to Rick Roll in a cool 17 hours" Also this video: Plays Robo's theme from Chrono Trigger instead as the background music You are a person of excellent taste, indeed. o7

[@RinoaL]

I like your video style

[@emmanuel3031]

This is actually amazing and to not see millions views on this yet is a shock lmao

[@HunterIrving]

Looks like you're here early. Glad to see it's finding its audience!

[@wofwof007]

Wonderful work!

[@ggsplayz]

What a masterpiece of a video did I just watch

[@beepst]

No joke, I think a monochrome 80s era of the internet would have been really cool.

[@samta906]

Here from Tom’s Hardware. Awesome video!! Looking forward to whatever you do next :)

[@HunterIrving]

Nice! I was happy to hear they picked up the story. Thanks for checking out the video :-)

[@Egg910]

This is fire 🔥🔥🔥

[@codix__]

28k for a video about making the Macintosh Plus usable, luckily I found this gem ! Gonna try fixing the motherboard of my Macintosh SE FDHD so ! Thanks for this amazing and well-made video. Love those projects.

[@HunterIrving]

Thanks for watching, and good luck with your project!

[@corican]

Really well made video. Very enjoyable!

[@HunterIrving]

Thanks for watching!

[@catysnow]

Oh man,this looks so cool

[@aiden_3c]

Incredible, great fork and amazing work. You have so idea how badly I wish I could find a mac at any local thrift stores lol

[@HunterIrving]

I think it may have been a once in a lifetime thing, lol. A while back I saw an iMac G4 at a thrift store, but they were asking wayyy too much for it, so I had to pass...

[@WolfyRed]

Teaching an old trick new Big Macs

[@chronolecte4388]

My guy uses elebits ost, subbed instantly

[@marcostoon6960]

12:36 BAD APPLE JUMPSCARE

[@s0uptim3]

Marvin’s marvelous mechanical museum mentioned ?!

[@itogi]

0:47 Definitely not a mistake, you'd have had to remove that epoxy-encased thing anyway.

[@HunterIrving]

True, but I wish I hadn't let the smoke out. I can still smell it....

[@ViktorPripyat]

THIS IS SO COOOL I WANNA GOOF WITH A MAC NOW EDIT I AM SO GONNA BUY ONE OF THESE AND DO ALL MY WORK ON IT

[@Steve1000-nq2xp]

Fr

[@theseeingisnothingbutathought]

MARVIN'S MARVELOUS MECHANICAL MUSEUM MENTIONED?! Tally Hall reference?

[@sutpecna]

The KZbin Gods of Algorithm™ brought me here. Your channel is amazing! Subscribed.

[@CMGams]

5:31 TALLY HALL REFERENCE?

[@yusef3132]

Ok. This was BADASS!! 💯

[@HunterIrving]

🤘

[@Breexee]

Imagine putting Discord on this thing. It’d be just like old chat rooms.

[@MintyFreshYouTube]

Was expecting this to be someone inexperienced just trying to use a web browser but this was really cool :)

[@kainhumphries]

now I want one

[@TheGlitchyMario]

This is awesome! I gotta get a bluescsi for my Mac SE to try all of this!

[@HunterIrving]

I highly recommend them! I've also tried a PiSCSI (aka RaSCSI), but it seems to have compatibility issues with the Plus.

[@niktokof935]

3:35 The Try Again jingle from Rhythm Tengoku! I know it! Finally someone used music from Rhythm Tengoku while not talking about Rhythm Tengoku!

[@HunterIrving]

Finally, someone noticed the Rhythm Tengoku music I used! Lol, thanks for watching!

[@Ral9284]

Hunter: "Oh! Look, I made an old compi work with modern infrastructure." Me: "How exactly?" Hunter: "I just had to connect it to other computers to interface between the new infrastructure." Me: "That's just a computer's equivalent to life support."

[@sploopst6868]

welcome back buddy! - goopy :)

[@HunterIrving]

Hey goopy!! Good to hear from you again. Hope all is well with you :-)

[@MiiGameplaysHD]

awesome video! It's sitting at 4.4K views right now but I think you deserve more views

[@HunterIrving]

I like to think the views aren't that important to me... but I do like watching the numbers go up :-) Thanks for tuning in.

[@nimomaniachannel]

I love how the like button glows a border around it when the narrator says "...if you like this video..."

[@DuoTechMusicYT]

interesting video!

[@PlanepGuy]

Are you reviving the vintage internet ? Thank you !

[@illegalquantity]

Good music! I like the look of this OS.

[@rickkarrer8370]

This is great. Thank you!

[@HunterIrving]

Thanks for watching!

[@TBD901]

I got TURNT when rusty's real deal baseball came on easiest subscribe of my life

[@diNozzofantatic101]

ommggggg who's that cutie??? 😘😘 this is insane !!!! loved every minute !! 💛💛💛

[@HunterIrving]

Haha, glad you enjoyed it!!

[@GiuseppeGaetanoSabatelli]

Better quality Shrek than the GBA video 2-packs

[@MotownBatman]

But... Science is Amazing... Intant New Sub: Dryden, Mich. Well Done Sir

[@Tomonomonous]

So glad the algo brought me here

[@HunterIrving]

Welcome! Thanks for stopping by :-)

[@JoBot__]

This is super awesome.

[@HunterIrving]

Thanks for checking it out!

[@MyBurnerAlt]

lol I wonder if anyone can make a website that lets Macintosh clients upload text and maybe images, like a dumbed down social media