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MacPhoenix chats with MacPhoenix

On 1 April 2001, April Fool’s Day no less, MacPhoenix finally tracked down MacPhoenix. How did these two come across each other and what could they say? What follows is a transcript of this fateful chat session over AIM (AOL Instant Messenger). Notice the eerie similarity in our use of “Heh” to express a chuckle and the ellipsis. Portions have been edited for clarity, and footnotes have been added for further information.

Begin Transcript

Final Fool:  MacPhoenix?

MacPhoenix:  Uh huh

MacPhoenix:  Not the one you think, though1

Final Fool:  yeah yeah...Im that one

MacPhoenix:  really?

MacPhoenix:  I was wondering when we'd finally meet

Final Fool:  yeah...been using that handle for years

MacPhoenix:  I've been using it some 13 years2

Final Fool:  dang...aight....you got me beat on that then

MacPhoenix:  never thought anyone else would think of it...

Final Fool:  me neither...

Final Fool:  theres about four of us

MacPhoenix:  4????

Final Fool:  yeah...one stole it from me

MacPhoenix:  heh!

Final Fool:  the other guy I talked to about a year ago

Final Fool:  and then you

MacPhoenix:  Are you the one on the gaming sites?

Final Fool:  which gaming sites?

Final Fool:  InsideMacGames.com?

Final Fool:  Mac.EmuScene.com?

MacPhoenix:  emuscene

Final Fool:  yeah...I own it

MacPhoenix:  wow... you come up alot on the search engines

Final Fool:  so do you...

MacPhoenix:  i try... but you had me beat!3

Final Fool:  heh

Final Fool:  Ive actually seen your site before...doing a search on MacPhoenix

MacPhoenix:  this is weird...

Final Fool:  sorry about my friend earlier...he was confused4

MacPhoenix:  no prob

MacPhoenix:  on AOL years ago, I used to be macphx, but then finally they upped the name limit,5 so I got MacPhoenix, but you must of beat me to the one on Apple's iDisk6

Final Fool:  heh...

Final Fool:  I tried MacPhoenix one of the first days they upped the name thing

Final Fool:  I thought it was really weird I couldnt get it

MacPhoenix:  It's kind of fun seeing what you've gotten, since I know basically that is just one other guy... I had no idea there were two others

MacPhoenix:  We should combine forces and shut them out... ;-)

Final Fool:  thatd be very nice...

Final Fool:  one gave up his name on Battle.net to me though7

MacPhoenix:  Yeah, I didn't even try on that one!!! I chose Dommelbrook, which was just something I came up with that I assumed I could use.

Final Fool:  heh

MacPhoenix:  I guess you use Macs, though, so that's the important part

Final Fool:  I was about to ask you...yeah...Im an Apple Developer8

MacPhoenix:  I just use them, and used to work in HyperCard.9 :-)

MacPhoenix:  Are you from Phoenix?

Final Fool:  nope...Misery

Final Fool:  er...Missouri

MacPhoenix:  heh

Final Fool:  darn typos

MacPhoenix:  Neither am I... and that's often caused confusion

Final Fool:  heh...I chose MacPhoenix...uh...darn...cant remember

Final Fool:  Mac because I was working on websites with all PC people...and Phoenix just sounded cool

MacPhoenix:  My favorite video game, years ago, was Phoenix. I loved everything about it, including the theme music...10 so I used to type my high score intials as PHX, when you could only use three letters

Final Fool:  heh

MacPhoenix:  Then when I started using the Mac, and started my design company, I just put Mac in front of Phoenix, and most of my friends said, "Wha?"
Still, I've always liked it

Final Fool:  yeah...MacPhoenix has a nice ring to it

MacPhoenix:  Definitely unusual... altough not unique!!!

MacPhoenix:  he hee

Final Fool:  heh

MacPhoenix:  so why Final Fool?

Final Fool:  you ever play Final Fight?

MacPhoenix:  nope...

MacPhoenix:  but I think I get the idea

Final Fool:  hmm...well...he was a 'jester' in the game

Final Fool:  and I thought he looked cool...and someone said he looked like me

MacPhoenix:  funny!

Final Fool:  yeah...everything with me has to do with video games

MacPhoenix:  uphill battle on the Mac11

Final Fool:  yeah...I try to do my part

MacPhoenix:  This may sound goofy, but can I put the transcript of this on my Web site?

Final Fool:  go ahead.

MacPhoenix:  Thanks...

Final Fool:  I might as well do the same

Final Fool:  'The Real MacPhoenix'

MacPhoenix:  Why not?... funny

MacPhoenix:  Well, I'm not good at goodbyes, but I want to thank you for contacting me. I've had a fascination with meeting you, and now that I did, I'm not as freaked out as I had been. ;-) Thanks!

Final Fool:  heh...no problem man...nice to meet you too

Final Fool:  wait a second...

Final Fool:  what application are you using for AIM?

MacPhoenix:  AOL's AIM

MacPhoenix:  y?

Final Fool:  weird...it says youre using AIMM

Final Fool:  which is weird...cause I coded it

MacPhoenix:  AIMM?

Final Fool:  AIM Messenger

MacPhoenix:  I guess that isn't the AOL version? Is it better?

Final Fool:  well...I coded it...so I think its way better

MacPhoenix:  right... sorry... dumb question

Final Fool:  http://mac.emuscene.com/aimm

MacPhoenix:  going there now

MacPhoenix:  Thanks! I just downloaded it, and I'll try it out when I log off of here.

Final Fool:  cool

End of Transcript

  1. Earlier in the day on AIM, I was contacted by someone who thought I was the other MacPhoenix, whom he knew. I thought it was a friend of mine playing a trick on me by refering to things that I didn't understand.
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  2. Not entirely true. I referred to myself as the Phoenix for over 18 years now, but MacPhoenix didn’t occur to me until around 1991, or 10 years. My grand scheme to start my own business morphed from J Russell and Co. to The MacPhoenix Design Group in that year.
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  3. On Google, this was true back in March, but somehow I come up all over the place now. Try it for yourself.
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  4. See footnote 1.
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  5. Yes, I used to use AOL. I regret it to this day. Even after AOL changed the limit on how many characters a screen name could have (from 8 to 16), MacPhoenix came up as in use and not available. I soon dropped AOL and went to EarthLink. When AIM was first available, I tried MacPhoenix, and it said it was still in use. Months later, on a lark, I tried it again, and it registered. Weird.
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  6. On iDisk, I’m registered as MacPhoenix1. So one could email me at macphoenix1@mac.com, and I’d get it. Therefore macphoenix@mac.com would go to MacPhoenix, not me. Get it?
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  7. Battle.net allows gamers to play WarCraft, StarCraft, and Diablo over the Internet with others. Much fun! I knew that since the other MacPhoenix was a gamer, I'd never get the chance to register MacPhoenix on Battle.net when I got Diablo II.
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  8. Apple Developers actually write software for the Macintosh.
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  9. I was seriously into HyperCard about 10 years ago. It is still officially an Apple product, although it hasn't been seriously supported in about 8 years. It’s last major update added color capabilities (poorly), so that may give you an idea of how long ago that was. What is/was HyperCard? Oh, so many things. Basically, though, it was the World Wide Web in a small little package that came free with every Mac. The conceit of it was index cards that one could put whatever data one wanted to put on them. Then all these index cards could link to one another using HyperTalk. And it was so simple. This was one step away from hypertext, which we so gayly use on the ’Net. In fact, when I started coding on the Web, I was initially frustrated with the lack of robustness that HTML had compared to HyperTalk. Enough history! It just proves, once again, that Apple was/is/shall be forever ahead of the curve.
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  10. The song was “Für Elise” by Beethoven, and it played after one destroyed the mother ship with the weird insect thingy in it.
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  11. While it is better than it has ever been, the state of gaming on the Mac is not great. The big game makers tend to ignore the Macintosh, since it is only 10% at most of the entire PC market. This is why if one tries a game on his Macintosh, one should pay the shareware fee, or if the game isn't shareware and one obtained it by illicit means, one should buy the game as soon as possible. If the makers or porters of Mac game software see higher returns on their investment, making games for the Mac will become a higher priority. Why worry? As go games, so goes the industry. An operating system without games tends to die out.
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