Introduction to Mac GUI Vault
Mac GUI Vault is a source for vintage Apple II and Mac computing, including photos, downloads, information, manuals, and many other valuable resources. If you would like to help, contribute, or receive further information, then please use the contact page. Thanks for your interest!
 450+ Rare Files-- Exclusively on Vault!
Look for this emblem to find files, photos, and articles released for the first time only on Vault. These files and photos are most often extremely rare-- not found on any other site! Vault offers you the first opportunity to download these exclusive files and try them out for yourself before the masses do. Make sure to tell your friends about the exclusive content in Vault!
Updates!
 Mac GUI user retrogear notified me that it was impossible to log in using older 5.x versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer on Mac OS 9. I have corrected this problem, so now you can use your Mac GUI account on older MSIE and Netscape web browsers.
- 02 Feb 13
Arriving a little later than planned is the next Vault update, which today adds over 1,000 new files. Over a hundred files were submitted by InkBlot, who is also helping by adding file descriptions, screenshots, and dates. Thanks for your continued help!
- 28 Jan 13
Today is the third year of Mac GUI Vault. The enhanced Usenet search engine is now online, and the next Vault update should occur in the next few weeks.
- 09 Sep 12
Hardworking user InkBlot has contributed over 400 improved file descriptions for the Downloads. Thank you. I hope that he and others will continue to help with Mac GUI Vault.
- 16 Jul 12
The New Apple II User's Guide went on sale about two weeks ago and has attracted a lot of attention and favorable reviews. If you are going to KFest 2012, there will be a surprise for you: 30 autographed copies of the book will be on sale! They should be discounted somewhat from the normal sale price, too.
- 02 Jul 12
Two updates for today. First: The New Apple II User's Guide is going to be published on the 18th of June. Second: I've added a few hundred new files to the Vault collection.
- 05 Jun 12
Announcing my first book: The New Apple II User's Guide. It should be published in just a few weeks, hopefully May. Official Site. Read updates on my blog.
- 20 Apr 12
I just received a shipment of approximately 200 5.25" Apple II disks. I'm going to archive them, and then the next Vault update will be released.
- 09 Mar 12
Over 300 items have been newly added to the Vault archive.
- 18 Jul 11
The Saltine's disks have been posted online.
- 28 Feb 11
The shipment of Apple II disks. I now have approximately 140 5.25" disks to copy into the Vault archive, a task which I have made my top priority for the weekend. Once the disks have been copied, they will be included in the next major Vault update, later this month.
- 04 Feb 11
I am working on adding screenshots to the Apple II games. This is a slow process; it involves running each game in an emulator. I am expecting a new batch of donated Apple II disks to arrive soon. I am also working on obtaining more Usenet posts from the 1990's.
- 31 Jan 11
Today brings the first major Vault update since February. 1,230 new items have been added. In addition, many hundreds of text and PDF files which were previously inaccessible are now indexed and online in the KB.
- 10 Aug 10
A pre-release version of the Apple Card Catalog is now online. Some features still need to be added. Go to the Apple Card Catalog.
- 02 Mar 10
Show older news updates >
520 new files and downloads have been added to the Vault archive. Coming soon: the Apple Card Catalog.
- 23 Feb 10
The comp.binaries.mac Usenet archive was extended from 2,955 posts to a grand 9,318 posts by merging in two other archives. I am getting ready to add over 400 new files to the Downloads soon.
- 23 Jan 10
I'm working on getting 10 years' worth of historic Usenet posts in to the database; over 240,000 articles. Should be ready next week.
- 05 Dec 09
I've made a new form so that anyone may contribute more information on any of the Vault download files. In addition, the Vault DVD offer is over as of about a week ago. I have received 60 orders and hope to get them all satisfied before the end of this month.
- 09 Oct 09
After a year of hard work, Vault is finally open to the masses!
- 09 Sep 09
I purchased a used color scanner on Saturday, so now I can scan all of the hard-copy materials in my possession. It works quite well!
- 24 Aug 09
Thanks to the ProDOS Technical Reference Manual by Apple and Apple ProDOS: Advanced Features for Programmers by Gary B. Little, I have completed the PHP ProDOS disk cataloging program.
- 19 Aug 09
Just yesterday, the Public Domain Software on File collection which I had loaned from a distant University library arrived. So far, out of 22 disks, I have successfully copied 11 of them. The rest have disk errors. But it's still better than nothing, since as far as I know, this collection has not yet been made available on the net.
- 27 July 09
On July 8th, I received a kind donation of a complete Power Mac 8100/80 system, with a good number of disks and Zip disks. The contents of these have all been archived into Vault.
- 13 July 09
I used MacADT to transfer 40 disks from my collection on the 27th, and there are about 20 left. Just yesterday, I stumbled upon a site with many rare, lost-to-the-ages Mac utilities from 1984-87.
- 29 June 09
I'd been working on Vault for the past month, but hadn't updated it until today. Lots of more sorting has been completed since then. I am getting quite close to being able to finally put the files online.
- 26 June 09
I finally finished the software for cataloging DOS 3.3 disks and it works quite well! I'm working on ProDOS next; it's quite complicated. I also archived some more of my own disks.
- 15 May 09
Added some old Usenet posts from late 2006 and removed over 130 spam posts. I'm still fiddling around with this Usenet thing; it's quite fun. I used a utility called Decloner to remove over 2,000 duplicate files from the Vault archive, reducing the total size to 6.99 GB. There are still hundreds more...
- 07 May 09
Mac GUI now carries comp.sys.apple2 Usenet discussions! See the Usenet link on the right for access.
- 03 May 09
I've archived 24,000 Usenet posts on the Apple II from 2007-2009, and I'm on the lookout for older posts. I'm going to get these sorted by thread and then imported to the KB. I'm also doing more sorting of the Mac files. I've got 13,000 of them, and there is still much sorting which needs to be done!
- 30 Apr 09
With over 7,000 Apple 5.25" disk archives, cataloging them by hand would be far too time-consuming. Programs such as ADFS Carbon are great for cataloging disks on the Mac, but I'm looking for something more portable and automatic. Thus, I am looking into using a PHP script to decompress the .dsk archives (if necessary) and scan the catalog to automatically create a listing. I shall have to research into this, but it will be a big time-saver if I can get it to work!
- 17 Apr 09
I received another donation of around 100 5.25" disks, a box of 3.5" floppies, some Apple manuals, and a few other oddments. I'm absolutely swamped with disks to sort through!
- 11 Apr 09
I gave the Vault page a big redesign and made a bunch of of graphics as you can see! I recently received another donation on March 18th of many Apple II manuals/hardware and Macintosh disks, so photos, scans and files will be on the way soon!
- 22 Mar 09
Updated the FAQ and fixed a few typos in it. A lot of sorting has taken place as well, though I'm sure there are still many duplicates to detect. Two new Mac archives have recently opened, so I added around 250 new files to Vault from them.
- 21 Feb 09
Enhancements have been made to the Downloads system to allow file queuing, which allows multiple files to be downloaded in one archive. I've also added fields for year released, file type (app, doc, cdev, init, etc), and collation (single, series, compilation).
- 01 Feb 09
Many more photos have been taken and processed. I've also acquired approximately 12,000 more Macintosh files, approximately 2 GB in total size. Fortunately the process I've developed for cataloging is fairly automatic!
- 30 Jan 09
I received a copy of Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 as a Christmas present. This is just what I needed to process 100+ photos I've had around since Summer 2007. All of these photos, which are of the many Apple II and Macintosh items in my collection, are headed straight for the museum portion of Vault.
- 05 Jan 09
Thanks to an automated script, all 700+ Mac and Apple II articles are in the Knowledge Base. Next step is to upload the raw .txt source files and link them up for downloading. See the KB.
- 06 Dec 08
Earliest planning started in July, collecting started September. Now it's November and the KB will be filled first, since that's the easiest. For the most part, Mac GUI's infrastructure is ready to handle Vault; only a few schema changes are going to be made so far. There's also a Vault FAQ if you've got questions.
- 26 Nov 08
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 | Book |  |
| Mac GUI Vault published its first paperback book, The New Apple II User's Guide, on Amazon.com. Read more at the official book site. | | Go to the Book Site > |
| Downloads | |
| The Downloads archive, being the heart and soul of Vault, features over 23,000 files. A search facility makes locating long-lost apps a snap! | | Go to the Downloads > |
| Usenet Discussions | |
| Started in the 80's, Usenet is the Internet's original message board. Mac GUI Vault is proud to host the Apple II and Mac newsgroups, where new posts arrive twice an hour! | | Go to the Discussions > |
| Knowledge Base | |
| The Knowledge Base (KB for short) features several hundred text files which have been categorized into a database and are fully searchable! Articles range from repair, hardware specs, to software manuals. | | Go to the KB > |
| Photos | |
| The photo gallery is a visual museum of Apple products ranging from the Apple II to the Mac, with many peripherals as well. A keyword search function helps locate photos. More photos are on the way! | | Go to the Photos > |
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