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In a sense, yes. They used third-party extensions (XCMDs) to HyperCard to add features it didn’t support out of the box, such as full-color support.
And in the final releases of HyperCard, Apple even bundled a third-party color XCMD in order to pretend that HyperCard supported color. It was really limited though (insert PICT files from disk! change the color of buttons! use the paint tools in color? what are those?)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
And in the final releases of HyperCard, Apple even bundled a third-party color XCMD in order to pretend that HyperCard supported color. It was really limited though (insert PICT files from disk! change the color of buttons! use the paint tools in color? what are those?)
i think supercard supported color.
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Appears so: https://beyondloom.com/decker/lil.html
I was asking if tldraw had a scripting option. Which answer after searching is yes and no: https://tldraw.dev/docs/driver
Earlier quoted context omitted.
And in the final releases of HyperCard, Apple even bundled a third-party color XCMD in order to pretend that HyperCard supported color. It was really limited though (insert PICT files from disk! change the color of buttons! use the paint tools in color? what are those?)
i think supercard supported color.
Is there a place these days for interfaces like this? I’m thinking about self contained applications like HyperCard stacks, but also FileMaker databases or even Access databases where we had interfaces linked to a database all as a self contained application. These tools with scripting languages powered a ton of small business applications. I know a lab I worked with was still using FileMaker databases up until a few…
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth-generation_programming_...
I'm afraid that HyperCard is too old for broader audience to be able to grasp how extraordinary experience it was providing. As a 6-7yo I had a collection of English words, stored with my own definitions and pronunciations, using basic building blocks, and it was as easy and intuitive as writing these words in my notebook. People used the same building primitives to make real games or stuff like accounting applicatio…
All you have to do is get people to try using it.
It's vastly smoother now, because nothing prevents adding colour and Unicode support, or more modern widgets, etc. without really changing anything essential about overall concept. Plus we're now in a world where LLMs could write Hypertalk (or whatever modestly-updated alternative) for you.
> the same uncanny valley that makes small village in Fallout 1 feel massive and full of people despite it taking two screens with just few sprites running around, while full blown 3D world of Fallout 3, with real buildings and voice overs felt flat, soulless and empty.
Again, all you have to do is show it to people. I don't think people actually appreciate the "classics" more simply because they remember them being SOTA. If anything, the passage of time has given the grognards a chance to notice that not everything at the time was nearly as good as the things that gave them the most nostalgia.
And again, the quality and fidelity of media is largely orthogonal to the aesthetic. 2d isometric tile games don't have the feeling they do because they're low resolution; not nearly so much as because the tiles intentionally fit together exactly, lines are at integer pixel ratios with no anti-aliasing, stuff like that.
This reminds me of LiveCode[1] (aka Revolution and MetaCard) which I’ve used quite a bit about a decade ago. Was also inspired by HyperCard. Just checked their site again and it seems they’ve discontinued the open source version and have pivoted to an AI-assisted drag and drop UI builder. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LiveCode
I'm using LiveCode for a dozen personal applications (and for just the fun of coding; I'm a retired s/w engineer). It's no longer free, but I started with HyperCard and LiveCode is an excellent replacement, at least for me.
I miss HyperCard and I love projects like this at a nostalgia level - but if you're going to have aspirations that this is useful today (2026) with a real project then its a complete waste of time. I want HyperCard where I can build out a stack or whatever and actually present it to people as a real and tangible thing. I love living in the past as much as anyone else, but this is a little disappointing.
A lot of these modern HyperCard reinterpretations get stuck on the black-and-white aesthetics of the original. That's cool, but it limits how broadly appealing they become. Even back when HyperCard was relevant, Apple's inability to properly introduce color as a first-class feature was what effectively killed the product. A few years ago, I think there would have been a market for a HyperCard-inspired tool that targe…
To me, a properly modern "Hypercard" would be something like if Marimo and Pygame had a baby, and that baby was IDLE except it didn't suck.
I'm afraid that HyperCard is too old for broader audience to be able to grasp how extraordinary experience it was providing. As a 6-7yo I had a collection of English words, stored with my own definitions and pronunciations, using basic building blocks, and it was as easy and intuitive as writing these words in my notebook. People used the same building primitives to make real games or stuff like accounting applicatio…
the original Myst was created using HyperCard... which in and of itself is a crazy app with a huge impact on gaming in general.