Apple MACINTOSH Plus in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)
Scotty uses the Mac to explain the formulation of transparent aluminium. He first attempts to talk to the computer through the mouse.
Things seem to happen unnaturally quickly, but the actual ouput looks reasonable for a Mac of this era.
tdiaz
Actually, I'm more convinced that the output on the screen is inlaid, and is based on Apple II screens that were created with MousePaint // - and each key press just advances the slideshow by a frame. That the actual computer doing the job is an Apple II, as the pixels are simply too big for the Mac screen. The desktop environment actually looks more Lisa OS like, too. Which is how the Apple II version of the paint program would resemble due to the Lisa and Apple II having rectangular pixels, and the Mac having square pixels. The "slideshow" also ends with an Apple II beep.
2012-02-20 21:19
Leo
I don’t recall if this actually showed up in the movie or not? I recall seeing a still photo of that scene in a magazine at the time (may have been in MacWorld, MacUser, or A+?). It was a shot through the window from the hallway outside the office, that showed the back of the computer. There was no power cord plugged into that Mac Plus. Also there was a round hole in the case with a cable going through it that was feeding in the phony video.
2018-06-26 10:40
Andrew
I believe I found the image Leo was referring to (I'd link it if I could), it's a production still of Scotty holding the mouse from a different angle - exposing the back of the Mac. The guts of the computer have clearly been removed, the bottom I/O cutouts being used for potentiometer controls of whatever CRT they inserted into the case. A rectangular hole was cut into the center of the rear, and two BNC connectors are mounted to feed the video in, presumably from an Apple II as suggested earlier. It also appears they placed the keyboard on a piece of 2x4 to keep it in-frame for the shot featured as the first screencap on here (note how it changes position from the second screencap, further away from the Mac).
2023-08-01 15:44
John
The Mac screen doesn't look real because it isn't. For a number of reasons it looks ridiculous. It's a 24-fps video playback of an animated attempt to replicate a Mac desktop. The Mac high resolution video tube had been replaced by a CRT from a television monitor. Video Image (aka VIFX) did the video playback. At the time Star Trek IV was being made actual, live Macintosh screens running 24-fps could be seen in Apple's Mac commercials. I know because I modified the Macs for filming.
2024-09-22 16:21