The Macintosh II was Apple's high-end personal computer of the late 1980s, and like other classic Macs it used a short musical tone to signal a failed startup test instead of a simple beep. Those failure tones became known among collectors as the chimes of death, and recordings circulated through retro computing forums, video essays, and soundboard sites as interest in vintage Apple hardware grew. Today creators still use the clip as shorthand for obsolete technology breaking down, because its sad, dated sound instantly tells viewers something old has stopped working.