Jobs didn't just catch his trademark showmanship stride recently.

"There wasn't a person in the room who didn't think this was history happening," recalled Richard Doherty, analyst with the Envisioneering Group, who was there.

This wasn't the first hint to the world that Macintosh was coming. A few days earlier, Apple aired their famous '1984' ad. They'd spent $1.5 million on producing what would become the gold standard in Superbowl ads. The ad only ran one other time on TV (millions of times over in YouTube glory) but it not only changed the computer industry, it changed the advertising industry.

The ad wasn't an easy sell. Apple's board wanted to can it until Steve Jobs and John Sculley convinced them to run it. Steve Wozniak even offered to foot the bill he liked it so much.

Computerworld's Ryan Faas put together a look inside what it was like . If you can't get enough about the original Mac, check Folklore.org or Wikipedia.