The Ultimate 90s Time Machine is Hidden in Plain Sight on Your Mac

If you were anywhere near the 16-bit or 32-bit computer scenes back in the day—tweaking audio on an Atari ST/Falcon, pushing boundaries with Amiga ProTracker, or tracking late nights away in FastTracker II on a DOS PC—you might want to sit down for this.
As it turns out, we’ve been sleeping on an absolute goldmine of retro perfection, at least I have.
A dedicated scene developer named 8bitbubsy (Olav Sørensen) has spent years completely rewriting the original source code of our most beloved legendary audio tools into modern C. They aren’t running in laggy, clunky emulators. These are flawless, pixel-perfect, native clones that run like butter right on modern macOS (even on Apple Silicon!).
How on earth did I miss this?

One Developer, Two Legends Resurrected

With well over 100 releases and continuous polish, this incredible solo-effort brings history back to life:

FastTracker II Clone: Want to re-live the glorious peak of PC tracking? This FT2 clone is a masterpiece. It looks, feels, and sounds identical to the 90s original, just fully modernized for your Mac.
👉 Grab it here: 16-bits.org/ft2.php
ProTracker 2 Clone: If you are looking for that raw, classic Amiga feel (complete with authentic hardware CIA timing!), his PT2 clone is a pure work of art.
👉 Grab it here: 16-bits.org/pt.php

It is absolutely wild that you can fire up a native app on a modern MacBook in 2026 and instantly be transported back to the golden era of the demoscene. No bloat, no modern DAW complexity—just raw, beautiful tracking.
Huge props to 8bitbubsy for keeping the fire burning. Time to dust off those old .mod and .xm files, fellas. The scene is alive and well on macOS!

Halide vs Indigo – Two Cameras, Two Philosophies

I’ve been switching between Halide and Indigo for a couple of weeks now, and some clear differences have emerged in how they behave – and what they encourage.

Halide forces me to slow down and think. It refuses digital zoom, which I actually appreciate – it keeps me disciplined. I get full manual control over focus, exposure, ISO, and white balance. It takes more time, but the results are technically cleaner, especially in RAW. Halide feels like a tool, not a filter.

Indigo, on the other hand, is more convenient. It often produces great-looking shots straight out of the app, especially in daylight. But I’ve noticed something strange: in low-light scenes, green pixels sometimes appear in the shadows. Something in its noise reduction or AI pipeline introduces artifacts, which makes dark shots occasionally unusable for me.

I like both – but in different ways. Halide when I want control. Indigo when I want something quick and good-looking in decent light. But in the dark, Halide wins. Every time.

Project Indigo

Project Indigo – the best camera app for smart phones

Smart phone cameras are incredible tools. They’re easy to use, lightweight, you always have it with you, and the image quality is very good. At the same time, a dedicated mirrorless or DSLR camera typically offers simpler manual control and higher image quality. Adobe has a new camera app called “Project Indigo” which is absolutely incredible. It offers breakthrough advances in image quality for smart phones, simple manual controls, and it’s free! I am stunned at how great this app is for serious photography, and it’s just the first release.

Oh my gosh, this app is amazing! I absolutely love taking pictures with it. There’s a bit of work that the photographer needs to do, but the end result is totally worth it.