Apple’s Early-90s Multimedia Accessories

September 4, 2024Accessories

The computer industry was swept by the CD-ROM and multimedia trend in the early 90s — and Apple saw it as a prime opportunity to differentiate its computers. Let’s check out some of the accessories the company produced at the time — including one particularly unique portable device.

Special thanks to Mac84 (https://www.youtube.com/c/mac84) for contributing some footage!

Sources:
Computer Chronicles CD-ROM episodes: https://archive.org/details/cdroms_2 and https://archive.org/details/CDROM10.3
Performa 600 photo: https://madeapple.com/macintosh-performa-600-600cd
AppleCD SC photo: https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/vintage-apple-applecd-sc-plus-scsi-1857857104
AppleCD SC with SE/30 photo: https://www.reddit.com/r/VintageApple/comments/l2mp4w/applecd_sc_apple_cdrom_explorer/
“Apple Begins Shipping CD-ROM Player for Mac," InfoWorld, May 16, 1988.
“AppleCD SC," Macworld, November 1988.
“Apple’s CD-ROM bundle is smaller, less expensive," InfoWorld, July 20, 1992.
“AppleDesign Powered Speakers," PC Magazine, January 9, 1996.
“Apple bundles PC peripherals," InfoWorld, September 13, 1993.
MediaVision Pro Audio Spectrum 16 card photo: https://www.wavetable.nl/used-to-own/mediavision-pro-audio-spectrum-16
“A CD Photo Album for Your TV or Computer," Popular Science, December 1990.
Photo CD photo: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kodak_Photo_CD_PCD_Master.JPG
“Electronic Bridge to the Future?" Popular Photography, December 1990.
“Kodak puts photos on compact disc," InfoWorld, October 5, 1992.
Photo CD commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_riXLowyhU
Philips Eindhoven headquarters: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philips#/media/File:Lichttoren_Eindhoven_1.
Philips CD-i deck photo: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CD-i_with_disc.JPG
Philips CDF-100 photos: https://www.ebay.com/itm/373888390783
Kodak PCD-880 photo: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kodak_photocd_hg.jpg
“Apple nurtures multimedia," InfoWorld, April 5, 1993.
PowerCD bundled media photo: https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/apple-powercd-circa-1993-optical-1814856958
PowerCD presentation video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGlnuSVWmj8
Grey PowerCD photo: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Apple-powercd_hg.jpg
Kodak PCD-860 photo: https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/harvesting-cdm9-44-laser-assemblies.378032/
Pippin console photo: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bandai-Apple-Pippin-Console-FR.jpg
PC Magazine, May 12, 1992.
Myst box photo: https://macintoshgarden.org/games/myst