Over the past few weeks I’ve been going through a rather large stash of magazines; many of them computer- or technology-related. Among them were a significant number of Apple II magazines dating from the late 80’s to early 90’s. Unlike many of the others, which I perused rather closely for articles and how-to’s and the like, I simply rifled through the covers of these ancient dead tree scrolls; mostly out of nostalgia.

A few, however, caught my attention and I actually flipped through their pages. Topics ranged from which internet service to use circa 1991, to methods for moving hypercard stacks from Apple II’s over to MacIntosh computers.

Of equal interest to me were the ads; most with heavily-pixelated graphics only a graphic designer love. In an age when computers didn’t actually ship with hard disk drives, things looked extraordinarily primitive by today’s standards. The tools we have now seem unbelievable within that frame of reference. It felt good to be reminded of that fact.

One inCider/A+ magazine in particular got my attention with a cover that boldly read “Design It Yourself: CAD Software for Armchair Architects”. What generally passed for CAD software in 1991 is genuinely amusing.

Although that particular magazine was primarily for Apple II owners, there was a transition phase during this period where people were jumping over to Mac’s, and as a result the magazines began running sidebars for Mac owners. In this case, there’s a sidebar calling attention to CAD applications available for their computer.

Interestingly enough, listed on that sidebar is a program called Virtus WalkThrough 1.0. I recall reading about that one. Here’s the short write-up they gave for it:

Here’s one name you can take literally. Billed as a designer’s “Idea processor,” WalkThrough’s forte is converting 2D drawings to 3D, letting you navigate the renderings as if you were taking an honest-to-goodness tour of the model. Use the mouse to peek into windows, move from room to room, or pull back for a bird’s-eye view. WalkThrough can give your clients a “virtual reality” visualization of a finished project – without investing in an expensive computer workstation.

What’s particularly interesting is that if you do a search for that application, you discover it was created by David A. Smith. That name rang a bell so I did a quick search. Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about him:

Smith founded Virtus Corporation in 1990 and developed Virtus Walkthrough, the first real-time 3D design application for personal computers.
…
He is currently one of six principal architects of the Croquet project (along with Alan Kay, Julian Lombardi, Andreas Raab, David P. Reed, and Mark P. McCahill). Smith is currently CTO and co-founder of Qwaq, Inc. Qwaq is focused on developing Croquet into a solution for the enterprise.

Whaddaya know.

I’ve surfed through Mr. Smith’s blog on occasion, but wasn’t aware of his distinguished background. Now that I’m aware, I’ll be paying a bit more attention.

Glad I held onto that magazine for the last 16 years. Maybe I won’t throw it away just yet.