Filed under: Cult of Mac, Apple, Retro Mac
Welcome to Macintosh, 24 years ago today
24 years ago today the public could, for the first time, buy themselves a Macintosh computer. This little computer, which cost $2500, changed the way people interact with machines on a very real level. It is also the reason that TUAW exists. Without the Macintosh 128k there would be no TUAW, no Mac, and (most likely) no Apple.Sound off in the comments if you bought one of those first Macs and share your story of how it impacted your life.
Thanks to everyone who reminded us about this.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Michael Rose said 8:59PM on 1-24-2008
I had one of those beige boxes. Can't say as it's had any real impact on my life... :-)
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matt little said 10:11PM on 1-24-2008
I still have one these old boxes, mine actually still works! I pull it out on occasion to play with and to show guests. It changed my life because it was the first "Macintosh" that I owned. Before it i only had an Apple II. Come to think of it, I still have a working Apple II also!
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DS said 10:18PM on 1-24-2008
I still own two mac classics II, do you think it worth something today? (fully functional) hehehe..
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Josh said 10:19PM on 1-24-2008
My family got one these a few days after they came out. It wasn't $2500 either, more like $3200 if memory serves. I would have been 10 at the time. It trumped my Commodore 64 by quite a bit. Over the next few years I dove head first. Wrote my first app for the thing when I was 12. It was THE machine that got me into the tech industry and where I am today.
The machine now sits, fully functional, in my closet protected with tons of soft stuff. I've always wanted to get a small glass case for it just for nostalgia. Maybe I will some day.
It is definitely one of my most prized possessions. Occasionally I will pull it out to show an interested friend.
It always gets a wow.
A piece of history without any doubt at all....
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Josh said 2:19AM on 1-25-2008
The unboxing and a quick video.
http://www.svrx.com/HelloMac/
Shawn said 10:21PM on 1-24-2008
$2500. Wow, that's a fully loaded 15" Macbook pro. Times change...
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a ham sandwich said 10:30PM on 1-24-2008
ur not kidding! and 128k?!
Rae said 12:45AM on 1-25-2008
thats a 24" imac with a 2.8 core 2 extreme
KiltBear said 1:18AM on 1-25-2008
What cost $2500 in 1984 would cost $4878.83 in 2006.
My story is that when I was in High School, Dad bought a Trash-80 with 64K memory, two floppy drives (everyone was using cassette tapes at the time) and a dot matrix printer that only printed in upper-case. We should have waited a bit and gotten an Epson...
The funny thing is that a friend bought a Macintosh, and showed it to me. I was completely at a loss. I was totally command line oriented. The idea of icons did not makes sense, I thought it was stupid... I just really didn't get it... I'd like to think that now I do.
csjk789 said 10:29PM on 1-24-2008
The Apple 128k! The MacBook Air has almost as many features...
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JGO said 10:38PM on 1-24-2008
Almost.... the 128k at least had a built in drive and was upgradeable!!!
Tom said 11:39PM on 1-24-2008
It had a built-in drive because that was its *only* drive -- would be years before you could get one with a hard drive.
I saw my first Mac two years later as a freshman in college. Used them seriously circa 1989, when they were coming with two disk drives. You had the OS and your apps on one disk, and your documents on the 2nd. Can you imagine -- the full OS, plus Microsoft Word, on a 800K floppy? (true, the spell checking dictionary resided on disk 2).
'Course, we wore an onion on our belt those days, as was the custom of the time.
dTondro said 10:32PM on 1-24-2008
I remember my dad bringing one home when it was released... those were the days. Grey scales graphics, a horrible square looking mouse, graphics programs like Mac the Knife, there was a tank game... ahh to be a kid again.
I thought it was called the "Lisa"...???
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thethirdmoose said 11:55PM on 1-24-2008
The Lisa, if I recall correctly, was a very innovative, but very expensive ($8000) computer that came out before the Mac. Essentially the first with a mouse and GUI
dTondro said 1:38AM on 1-25-2008
That was it... I remember my dad telling us how he could have bought a car for the same price and that he would kill my brother and me if anything happened to it. I still have the old manual for it somewhere on my bookshelf at home. I think I also have Lotus Notes for it... I wonder how much those are worth now?
It sure was an ugly machine compared to what we can all get out hands on now.
Tony said 11:57AM on 1-25-2008
Lisa was the precursor to Mac, and was a business machine. It was also quite different. Lisa had multitasking, and was a document centric system, not a program centric system. For example, you never opened a "program" on the Lisa...you simply opened files, and whatever program was needed to work on that program was run so that you could work on the document.
Here's a great company demo of Lisa from 1984:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W35vpsPIwlU
Here's part 2 of the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtcmTKunNEQ
Maxwell said 11:17PM on 1-24-2008
Yep. Bought one, and upgraded it to a 512K, which was a non-trivial enterprise. RAM slots? Ha! Real geeks solder the RAM to the motherboard. Wish I still had it.
After using Unix terminals at school and PCs (DOS, not Windows) at work, the first Mac opened my eyes to how computers could actually reach out to embrace users instead of expecting the reverse.
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Jason said 10:42PM on 1-24-2008
Wohoo! I wasn't born 24 years ago, but I must say I wish I was. Happy birthday Mac! I'm still trying to get my hands on a 128k Mac for my collection.
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Jason said 10:43PM on 1-24-2008
I still have one of these old Macs on my desk. Works great. The loud clickity-clack of the keyboard is awesome.
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Rick Roberts said 10:56PM on 1-24-2008
My love for the Mac got me into computers and on the path to a prosperous career. Thanks, Macintosh!
I used to have a classic startup sound that said, "Welcome to Macintosh, Honey!" I sure wish I could find that sound again. If anyone knows, please email me at rickr at mac.com.
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