Any veterans out there remember when or in which FileMaker version global fields were introduced? I only know it as "Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away…" Pretty sure that's not right!
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I seem to remember them always being there and I've been playing with FileMaker since v3.
The documentation of FM3 confirms global fields existed back then. Good luck finding documentation in the digital format prior to that. Your best bet would be to buy FM2.x on eBay (there are some listings for the collectors amongst you).
Bonus points to anyone who finds a copy of FileMaker Plus or even Nutshell Plus. More points yet if you have hardware to run it on.
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adding to this: the FM3 docs stated, at least in my printed manual, that global fields were a new feature for that version
plus: I didn't find any hint in my FM 2.1 user guide, by the way also still a printed edition 
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I have a fully working version of Nutshell in a Dosbox:
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I don't think anyone could beat that.
goes to Wim! I'm going to save that screen capture. It is fun to see they had the 'art' for the filers on the product splash screen even back then.
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OMG!
My first computer class was on a Atari (cassette storage) in 1985. This thing is ancient!
Wow 
I played around with Nutshell a while ago - I put up a couple of videos of it on Youtube. Nothing special just me having a tinker.
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Wow! So everyone has those? How come I don't have one... were they handing them at Christmas?
They are very easy to find so if you have some time off in these strange times it is very rewarding to hunt for them.
I keep the old macOS 7.5.3 running FMP 2.0 around in vMac and use SheepShaver with OS9 for FMP 2.1 and 3.0, an old Windows XP in VMware for FMP 5 and up.
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And I get to play the original Dark Castle... which of course was the real motivation behind all of this
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Can I sell you my Apple Centris 660 AV?
The following image is from "FileMaker Pro 3.0 A Developer's Guide" by Alex Kennedy (addison Wesley, 1996). It lists Global Fields as a new feature—
NOTE: Originally Global was a field type—you created a Global Field and then defined what kind of data it was to contain: text, number, container, etc. This methodology lasted several versions. Later—I think FM7—the present methodology was adopted: global became a storage option in any field.
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