Oracle Media Objects

Oracle Media Objects (OMO)
OMO Screenshot
Developer(s)	Oracle
Stable release	1.1.2 / 1998 (last date FAQ was updated)
Operating system	System Software 6, System 7, Mac OS 8, Mac OS 9
Type	hypermedia, development
License	Proprietary
Website	N/A

In the early days of HyperCard at least two alternative tools were created outside of Apple Computer, Plus and SuperCard. Plus was very much like HyperCard, whereas SuperCard split the authoring and viewing parts of the application. SuperCard is still a shipping product.

Plus went on to become more than one product. One variation was WinPlus, which was a Microsoft Windows only version of the program. The other variation didn't appear until a few years later, when Oracle acquired the source code from Format Verlag and developed it to become Oracle Media Objects (often referred to by users as OMO).

Unlike HyperCard, SuperCard, and WinPlus, Oracle Media Objects was cross-platform, running on both Macintosh and Windows operating systems. Other competitive tools of that era were mTropolis and Macromedia Director.

OMO didn't last very long, with development ceasing after version 1.1.2. There were very few products built using the tool. Amongst these were the "Our Secret Century" series of CD-ROMs published by The Voyager Company (the series was intended to be 12 discs, and 10 did ship before Voyager's CD-ROM line was acquired by another company, leaving the remaining two discs unfinished) and Inside Independence Day made by ACES Entertainment.

Unique Features of OMO

OMO had the unique distinction of not only its stacks being cross-platform, but also its XCMDs. For that purpose, a small subset of the Mac OS memory management commands (Handles) were ported to other platforms. In addition, OMO sported a modular design where every type of object was actually implemented as a plugin file in an "Objects" folder.

OMO's object types included both the standard controls available in other HyperCard clones of the time (buttons, text fields, draw and paint graphics), as well as more complex controls like a spreadsheet field, as well as non-control items that could be placed on a card but were invisible at runtime, like timers that could be scheduled to send messages after a specified time.