Filed under: Cult of Mac, Odds and ends, Apple, Apple History
How old is your oldest working Mac?
A few months ago I brought my family's old Macintosh SE/30 to my home office. While it booted fine a few years ago, it looks like mine has developed SimasiMac, which means a trip inside the machine to replace a few capacitors (I hope). Along with the SE/30 I brought a Powerbook 540c, one of the more capable (and last) of the smaller, 68LC040-based laptops from Apple. The 500 series had numerous firsts, like a trackpad and sleep mode when you shut the lid, plus you could upgrade the CPU to a PowerPC chip.Currently our 540c doesn't have much software on it, as we used Zip disks to store many of the educational programs my little brothers used in the 90's. It does, however, have a copy of SoftPC, and Windows 95 installed on it. Not two months ago my son sat here in the office and had a ball playing with Paint (why isn't there something like this pre-installed on Macs, hm?) and Minesweeper. He's playing with the calculator in the picture. I find it a little sad that we had to resort to Windows for casual fun, but I guess that's why Macs were never considered "toy computers" (that's sarcasm for those who missed the reference).
When the kids do play classic Mac OS games, I let them use my 500 MHz G3 iBook (the first of the "icebooks"), which not only runs Mac OS X and Mac OS 9, but has a version of TuxPaint for OS X, which I highly recommend. It should be noted that quite a few older Mac educational games won't run on the iBook. Often it's an issue with older versions of QuickTime expected by the program, or some funky extension or Director call that just won't work after OS 8.5 (remember Sherlock?).
You can see some really old Macs pulling serious duty over on Cult of Mac as well. But I want to know what you readers are running in the way of older Macs. What's the oldest Mac currently still living in your house, and what do you use it for? Oh, and if anyone has a copy of NetTrek they'd like to share...
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 9)
QSilver said 12:09PM on 1-27-2009
I have an SE/30, too, but it's not used on a regular basis. I take it out every couple of years just to see if it still boots. Still have a ][+ that I take out at the same time.
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Varun said 1:31PM on 1-27-2009
I'll join the club. I have an FDHD that works perfectly well, though I'm looking around for the 3MB of RAM so I can max it (officially) out. I also recently got my hands on an Asante SCSI-Ethernet adapter, and am looking forward to browsing TUAW from System 6 :)
Keil Miller said 12:11PM on 1-27-2009
Well, I used my iMac DV until recently. Effin Leopard doesn't support it. WTF!! OS9 runs quickly, but 10 was kinda slow. When I finally gave up on OS9 due to the lack of apps being developed for it, I found myself having to leave apps open. As long as they were open, it operated ok. Damn adobe and thier "port-like" apps.
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Squuiid said 12:30PM on 1-27-2009
Powerbook G4 12" 1.33GHz 1.25GB and PowerMac G5 1.6GHz 4GB
They are both about to go on eBay I'm afraid, and be replaced by a single MacBook Pro 2.0GHz.
They are finally showing their age unfortunately, especially when trying to run Apple's PRO apps.
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Dr. Spaceman said 12:16PM on 1-27-2009
My Mac Classic II works great, so my oldest working Mac is 18 years old.
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Daley said 5:08PM on 1-27-2009
Second for the Classic II. Great for Risk.
Joseph said 8:28PM on 1-28-2009
sim city, lunar lander, etc.. all great.
my //e is also a great gaming machine.
Alex said 12:41PM on 1-27-2009
I had an old Powerbook 165c that my Great Uncle used when he was a teacher. Hated Macs for some reason kept it in the closet until I was in High school, worked for a handful of years then died last year. Was an ok computer, pretty much a glorified typewriter.
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Scott said 12:17PM on 1-27-2009
2001 G3 iBook (with Airport and DVD drive), running 10.3.9. Still a perfectly good laptop that I use whenever I travel (and a wonder if you compare it to the huliking eyesores that passed as a Windows notebook PC 8 years ago--if you could find one around still working smoothly). My other computer is a 24" iMac that's about a year old.
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Andy Bennett said 12:38PM on 1-27-2009
You said it - I also use a 12" G3 iBook 900 on the road. I laugh at my buddies lugging around their 12-pound 17" Dell monstrosities, and having to stop to take a breather every 15 minutes from the strain. :)
John said 6:19PM on 1-27-2009
I have:
Mac SE FD/HD
iMac DV 500mhz (Blue)
Both work 100%. I had a couple of Quadras and a Beige AIO but they all seemed to take a shit around the same time I tried to modify them by upgrading them.
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Jason said 12:19PM on 1-27-2009
I've got a great Mac Classic II on my desk, and a virtual OS7 machine (for the old text-based games) running on my new unibody MacBook Pro. Fun stuff!
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roberto said 12:22PM on 1-27-2009
I don't use it often but I have an original MacPlus with external HW (30MB)
It works!!!! (the monitor is amazing)
RA
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Sneakz said 12:21PM on 1-27-2009
Well I have a Performa 580CD. Not sure how old it is. I'm 17 now so when my parents got it, I must have been 4 or 5 years old. I think it was 1995 or 1996. Its in its box in the basement. The last time I pulled it out must have been about 2 years ago for some old time System 7 lovin'.
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Jayson said 12:22PM on 1-27-2009
Indigo iMac G3 500MHz... My old computer that I gave to my parents. However, the iMac was just replaced with a brand new Intel Mac mini... it was about time for an upgrade.
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John Wilker said 12:22PM on 1-27-2009
Only recently did my powerbook 510 give up it's ghost :(
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mrimac00 said 12:23PM on 1-27-2009
Well, NetTrek is free now apparently:
http://www.netrek.org/
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unteins said 8:43PM on 1-27-2009
Actually, that is a different game, just read the FAQ.
The Mac game is found here: http://www.fatlion.com/randy/nettrek.html at least sort of. There is a note saying the developer is going to release it for iPhone maybe.
Kermit said 12:23PM on 1-27-2009
First gen Performa!
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Monte said 12:29PM on 1-27-2009
I've still got a Power Computing Powerwave 604 120 that runs... Sporting a 500mhz G3 upgrade card.
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