HyperCard, precursor to the internet as we know it, turns 25

In preparation for HyperCard’s 25th birthday this August, Matthew Lasar over at Ars Technica has a great piece on the web browser precursor and the countless number of awesome projects it hosted. The program, created by former Apple engineer Bill Atkinson, was used to create publications like the Whole Earth Catalog and such games as the classic puzzle game Myst. Arguably HyperCard’s biggest accomplishment (let’s be fair, it’s hard to compete with Myst) was the idea to link various types of content together, effectively inspiring others to create the internet we know and love today. In a 2002 interview, Atkinson expressed regret that he didn’t think to implement HyperCard as a browser. “I grew up in a box-centric culture at Apple. If I’d grown up in a network-centric culture, like Sun, HyperCard might have been the first Web browser. My blind spot at Apple prevented me from making HyperCard the first Web browser.” To read more, check out the full article on Ars Technica.