DickSteele's totally RetroCool VINTAGE MAC check-in/show-off thread!

[Richard Steele]

The last 3 topics I have responded to in
the Mac forum have involved mentioning my 1995 PowerMac...
Several other recent threads have centered upon
"less than modern" Mac hardware.

So, I thought it might be TIMELY to start
a 'Vintage Mac' thread.

One BIG reason we LOVE the MACs is the fact that they
DON'T need to be replaced every 3 years like the PC clones,
so I want to limit thread participation to the
old Macs that are STILL IN USE;
to every Mac that is "forgotten but not gone".

I'll go first: Here's a pic of the desk I am posting this from
right now:


The 15" BeachBall iMac at right is my main man;
that's what I type on when I surf and post.
OS 10.2.8, 700mhx, 640MB RAM.
And my LaCie BigDisk is up there behind it; I've been saving
shit at random for 2 years and it's still not half full.
Best $189 I ever spent.
(and hardest $189 I ever earned;
I put crown molding in a room that had NO standard angles,
and spent a full day just building jigs to hold it in the chopsaw
to cut it close enough to START to hand-fit it )

But that is not relevant to this thread.

That box at top center, with the 2 pink PostIt notes
stuck to it:
It's a 1995 PowerMac which I got free from
the original owner.
She's an Architect, and she bought it new because she needed
the BEST, "price-is-no-object" box on the market to run C.A.D.
building-design software.

It cost TWICE as much as the vehicle she drove through 6 years of
College and Architectural School, but she got what she paid for:

A 'blazing fast' 95mhz processor, a HUGE 1.3 gig HD,
and a maxed-out 40mb of RAM.
1995: High - Tech SHIT!
:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

The reason I keep it powered up is direcly underneath it:
That thing with the red label you can't quite read is a
1996 UMAX 'VistaScan' flatbed scanner.
Also a freebie from one of my Sweetie's co-workers,
it works as good as it ever did. Scans up to 500 DPI,
way more potential than I'll need in the forseeable future...
but it sure don't work with OS X!

Plus, the mighty PowerMac also runs my "Crystal Caliburn Pinball" game,
which simply refuses to function on OS X 'Classic Mode'.

The 3 boxes at left are my "computer desk"; a desk made from
computers. Keeps the PowerMac keyboard and mousepad at comfortable
levels. It's a 75mhz PowerMac, and 2 Performa 650s on the bottom.

I got the 2 Performas at a flea market; the guy had 20 of them
for $5 each, "as is".
The Flea Market was only open on weekends; and the guy selling
them left them sitting outside the other 5 days a week.
No one ever bothered to steal any.

But they still work (after a week in front of a fan to dry out the rainwater)
and one had a HD I'm saving for posterity.
Some nice family back in 1994 not only used it to manage their kids'
grade-school Drama Club (financial records AND 'work-in-progress' SCRIPTS),
they also had one of the very first internet-buying accounts!
No 'PayPal'; it didn't even use the word INTERNET!

It used some clunky term like "Your MODEM-BUYING Account"...
And I have saved the entire HD for posterity.

It will be an awesome display someday, when schoolchildren take field trips
to museums to learn about the origins of the Internets.

But I ramble, so let me cut this short (too late!)

You gotta OLD Mac that still earns its keep?

You have a MACbox that just keeps keepin' on,
an old soldier who refuses to fade away?

POST HERE, and tell us all about it!
POST IT HERE!

[GoneOffShore]

1. iMac G3's

We've still got 2 G3's running 8.6 with 160 MB memory and 6GB hard drives. Don't use them so much anymore, but the one at the office is great for managing email on Outlook (love that delete some, keep some feature that allows you to manage email on the server).

We were running 2 MacClassic II's until they both had motherboard problems. Still use one as a prop.

The other iMac and 626 Performa got donated to theatre companies and are still going from all that I hear.

We've moved over to a G4 Powerbook 12" and G4 iBook 15".

[Richard Steele]

3. I just missed a great G3 deal the other month.

A vivid green one, fully loaded for $75! Naturally, it was already sold.
Would have made a great central server for all these old boxes.

[Swamp Rat]

2. What Katrina didn't take, I gave away.

I had an Appl IIe, Classic II, IIGS, PowerBook 150!!!, Mac TV, PowerMacs-6000-9000, Performas, iMacs G3-G5... lots of scanners (Including UMAX), printers, ad ifinitum.

I am waiting for the rev. C version of the MacBook Pro with the 17-inch widescreen display. :9 Maybe there will be a juicy speed bump too! :D

[Richard Steele]

4. Sounds like you and I are balancing the universe!

You are giving the stuff away, while I'm gathering it up.

[alfredo]

5. My old 7100 is being used as a font server for a

printer. My wife's tray loading Rev B iMac is a Linux Machine on loan to a friend. My current machine is a dual 450 G4. It's six years old.

Looking back is fun, but this banner gives a glimpse of the future.

[Richard Steele]

6. "Font Server"; is that what it sounds like?

A machine just for maintaining font files?

I have heard tell that font collections can swell to amazing sizes,
if you work in printing or related fields,
but I've never actually seen one that needed a seperate server!

[alfredo]

7. I've never seen his print shop so I don't know

Most likely what he is doing is storing the fonts on the computer and networks it with the other computers in the shop. I know nothing about working in a print shop. I gave the computer to my friend to give to his cousin to store fonts. He's probably got fonts from back in the early Mac days.

I remember the warnings that too many fonts will slow down a system. I guess that is why they have a font server.


Until last year my neice was still doing DTP on a 266 G3.