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Post by Will Green on Sept 13, 2008 10:14:58 GMT
There's life in the old Mac yet!
I went to the tip the other day to dump an old telly (I miss it actually, it had wooden sides but was so huge that the time had come for a smaller version) and on top of the old computers and telly pile was a Bondi Blue iMac. Like every day this summer it had been raining and the Mac was soaked! So I left it to dry for two weeks and powered it up last night when I got back from Devon and it works!!
It's running OS 9.1 and has 32mb of RAM and a 4GB hard-drive. Next job is to format it and decide what function it is going to serve - I'm thinking a kitchen computer!
Anyone else into Retro Mac? I've got a couple of Newtons, a 9600 PowerMac, a G4 PowerMac, and my new iMac. I suppose I should add my G4 PowerBook to this retro list - but there's life in this old PowerBook too!!
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Post by Forum Cat on Sept 14, 2008 15:38:51 GMT
Is it a rev A or a rev B? Click for full size - Uploaded with plasq's SkitchYou can also check by looking at the serial number. The last letter give you the revision type. The Bondi blue were either A or B. My first ever computer was a Rev B iMac.
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Post by macman on Sept 18, 2008 9:19:16 GMT
The original iMacs were the reason why I got into Apple products-my Son needed one for his school studies at the time.....eventually when he had to move over to the 'dark side' (that unspeakable name Mic****ft W****ws) I bought him a grey box and I started using his discarded iMac. Never looked back. Eventually bought a second-hand one off of Ebay to up the spec (one of the last incarnations before the flat screen iMacs were introduced) and had great fun with it until the lure of the Mac Mini called. The second CRT iMac saw its way over to my Partners nephew who used it in College and now probably sits idle in a cupboard or hopefully is being used by a new generation of Mac user. Would old iMacs run Leopard? Well, yes but with big limitations. Would old iMacs still have a great sound from those two speakers and soundcard? Yes! Would they still hold up to being networked? Yes! Old but not forgotten; the original iMac. Even the keyboards took some beating!
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Post by Will Green on Sept 18, 2008 14:15:03 GMT
Mr C, it's a Rev A. I thought about maxing the RAM but I've decided to keep it as a true retro-9 Mac. I've jut put the text adventure 'Curses' on it and plan my evening as a bottle of wine, a curry, and a step back into the nineties with my iMac time machine!
Macmac - that's the trouble with schools at the moment is that they are still teaching nineties computing ethos - the working world doesn't revolve around a beige PC running MS Office anymore - or should I say by the time a 12 year leaves school the business community will (I think) moved onto online apps.
But for me I'll stay in the art community of 1998 (in those days only the media and arts community used Macs!) - run my Bondi iMac, eat my curry, drink my wine and lose myself in I.F!
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Post by Forum Cat on Sept 19, 2008 12:08:01 GMT
Could I recommend to you the first game I ever played on a Mac. It seems to only be available for reto kit. Short Circuit 1.3Cat
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Post by HeatherKay on Oct 12, 2008 16:00:28 GMT
I've decided to keep it as a true retro-9 Mac. OS 9 is far too modern! To be completely accurate - like a vintage car restoration - and retro you'd need either OS 8.1 or 8.5. Ah, happy days. I remember the first time I installed OS 8 on my beige PowerMac 6500/250... ;D
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Post by Will Green on Oct 12, 2008 18:19:51 GMT
Heather! Totally right! I'm very excited about formatting my beautiful Bondai beach Mac and restoring the correct OS. I've got a copy of OS8 which I'll replace OS9 with.
I've been adding a few games to the little darling too, Monkey Island is great on her. In the British Mac Magazine Issue One (free and yet to be published) I've written a piece on the idea of de-cluttering your creative mind. When I power up my G4 Powerbook I've got a myriad of applications, music, podcast, video to choose from. Sitting in front of type-writer makes you focus on a blank piece of paper that will form your ideas without any other choices or distractions.
My iMac will be that blank piece of paper, and when I'm finished for the evening I open my wine, order my curry (or pizza) sit back and play Monkey Island!
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gavin
Senior Member
Posts: 139
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Post by gavin on Oct 14, 2008 16:06:53 GMT
What an awesome junkyard find. I'm astounded it didn't go bang having gotten so wet! The the funny thing is it would probably have fetched £50 on eBay had the person bothered.
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Post by Dr Miles on Oct 30, 2008 10:02:06 GMT
I had less luck at my local tip was told off for just looking at the computer section
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Post by derek anson on Nov 6, 2008 22:45:59 GMT
retro Macs are great. I still look the Cube up on eBay every now and then... I will take the plunge one day.
In June 08 i passed on a 15" iMac G4 800mhz. Fantastic machine but not enough power for me, I did hold on to her for far too long but letting go of a retro beauty is not that easy. Switching from the 800mhz iMac to a 2.5 ghz MBP was a good experience. When i apply filters in photoshop i no longer have to leave the room, make a brew, check progress, leave the room, check progress, kick the cat, check progress, slam head against wall, check progress. Anyway, it was a consumer machine, was great value and is still doing a great job for the sister in-law as a web surfing, iPhoto, iTunes and emailing machine.
I also have a 12" PB, It has a dead logic board but boots from external FW HD. It's the bit that reads the internal HD that is knackered. It died 18 months from new, I had NO APPLE CARE and Apple said tough luck. I never had it repaired as the cost was too high. At the time i was quoted £900 but a new 12" PB was £1100 which also had better spec than my dead PB. So i did neither, It never was repaired and i didn't get a new one. The old PB is being borrowed along with my lacie d2... My sister uses it for bitching on FaceBook.
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Post by timark_uk on Nov 7, 2008 11:42:02 GMT
Switching from the 800mhz iMac to a 2.5 ghz MBP was a good experience. That's something I can relate to. I moved from a 1Ghz MDD PowerMac to a Quad G5 PowerMac and the difference in performance was (still is) staggering. I still have the G4 as a server. Mark
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Post by Steven W on Nov 26, 2008 15:43:12 GMT
Do you guys know about the application MacTracker? It shows EVERY APPLE PRODUCT EVER MADE! It has the original software supplied on any given product and what the maximum software build is that will work on it, also the full system spec, and when installed on a Mac it will pop up with the full detail of your machine, it really is excellent and works for OS X and windows too for would be switchers, here's the link: mactracker.dreamhosters.com/By the way, it's free and regularly updated (includes all the latest models) Perfect for a thread like this to get accurate software for specific machine. Enjoy...
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Post by Steven W on Nov 26, 2008 15:45:00 GMT
By the way, now up to 5.0.5 including every Apple product upto November 18th 2008...
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Alex Coplan
Senior Member
The future of mac...
Posts: 387
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Post by Alex Coplan on Jan 4, 2009 19:53:33 GMT
I think with Macs they either have to be very old or very new... I think we should have a competition for someone to prove that they have the oldest mac/os on the forum... that would be quite cool... that counts me out, I only switched last year, iMac 2.66 Ghz, 2GB RAM, yummy!
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Post by Forum Cat on Jan 4, 2009 21:25:12 GMT
I think with Macs they either have to be very old or very new... I think we should have a competition for someone to prove that they have the oldest mac/os on the forum... that would be quite cool... that counts me out, I only switched last year, iMac 2.66 Ghz, 2GB RAM, yummy! I recently sold my oldest Mac. I got reasonable money for it too. So using Coconut Identity Card I can tell you that my iMac has it's birthday on…
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