Here’s what the Macintosh looked like when it debuted in 1984

On this day in 1984, the computer that launched a thousand nerds was born.

Apple CEO Tim Cook posted a happy birthday message on Twitter to the original Macintosh, which debuted 35 years ago today.

The year 1984 was a wild time, and not just because it was when Apple — whose later invention, the iPhone, would spark fears about the surveillance state imagined in the book 1984 — became a global phenomena. But also because there were bowties. 

Maybe Steve Jobs’ hands are just really big, but the original Mac looks tiny! With just a 9-inch black and white monitor, this baby originally sold for about $2,500 — the equivalent of around $5,000 today. 

So many small-yet-clunky computers, assembling to change the world.

Steve Jobs debuted the first Mac alongside then-Apple President John Sculley. Apparently, not everyone loved bowties. 

Side note: Look at that double-breasted jacket on Steve. 

The Mac had some pretty snazzy features, like this mouse and keypad, which both look extremely satisfying to press.

Apple still needed to do some convincing that its personal computer could truly be personal — that is, both usable and useful to the average person.

Early advertising tried to show that making a computer “usable” was all you actually needed to get people to use a computer.

We’ve come a long way from needing to convince people that computers are something they might want to use. But Apple’s intuitive design has made this slogan pretty much hold true.

Happy 35th birthday, Macintosh! Hope you won’t let your company’s mid-life crisis get you down.