Chrisharjo:I can't say I know for sure that FileMaker versions from the "early days" were/are always backwards compatible. I think I bought my first copy of 1.0 in about 1986, after it had been released to the world by its young accountant-authors.
Claris bought FM from those authors. Then, as I recall, Claris went from being simply an Apple brand, to a division of the corporation, to a separate company to bye-bye baby. I believe that the FileMaker "company" is the sole surviving descendant of Claris, as ClarisWorks became AppleWorks and Claris passed into history. AppleWorks has not been
completely backwards compatible.
FileMaker has been a gem of a program since its very inception. Elegant hardly is adequate as a description. It was a source of amazement that, as I began to exploit its characteristics, every time I thought I'd like to do something new in constructing a database from scratch, there was the "ability" of FM to do it, buried inside the program by its astonishingly creative authors.
The file in question opened seamlessly in my copy of FM Pro 3.0. As I look at it (and its March, 1996 date) I am struck by the fact that Apple, itself, has somewhere in its reference sites a present day roster of the same historical roster. - -
Kelly knows better than most (all) humans how to unearth same.
If I can figure out how my Acrobat Writer might make a copy of the data from “your” file, I’ll do so and e-mail it to you. I’ve not previously done so with an FM file. I’ll fool around a bit and see what might be done.
Which methods have you used in your attempts to open the file? Through the app, or merely clicking on the file's icon itself? Have you received any alert messages from the failed attempts? I seem to recall that a later edition of FM will "announce" that it is creating a new copy of an early file and that the old one will be saved but with a changed name.
Setting aside any debate about how long the "original" license of the app is presumed to last
you might try a long shot, by checking the web to see if there's an archive of Claris updaters maintained by someone/anyone? There is an AppleWorks Forum. A query to it/them might also produce something.
