8 ms·

When I bought this Mac it was actually completely fubar. The internal battery ruptured and ruined the main board, so I had to source a “new” one. The new one ca

by cpsns 4y ago

When I bought this Mac it was actually completely fubar. The internal battery ruptured and ruined the main board, so I had to source a “new” one. The new one came recapped by the seller and I recapped the analog board myself, so it should be good for a long time to come. You can see the rest of the gang here: http://muezza.ca/cats.html http://muezza.ca/cats.html

bombcar 4y ago
Heh I had a cat named Dog at one time (one named Rat also).
- tomxor 4y ago
  If you also had a dog named cow it would be very on topic ;)
- rob74 4y ago
  I once had a cat named Tom and one named Jerry... both female.
- bink 4y ago
  I have never heard a thing half as crazy as that.
- ChrisMarshallNY 4y ago
  We had one named Puppy.
tomxor 4y ago
I also love the feel of using these old systems, but I wonder how much of it is also to do with the physical experience. Do you think you would get a similar or diminished experience with e.g a raspberry pi and a little LCD screen etc that booted straight into a minivmac emulator? ... I must admit I get a sense of satisfaction from turning on certain old electronics, like the resonating "clung" of the e transformer in my amplifier when I flip the switch, so maybe that's all part of it, the sense of an appliance, something less fallible, and also the absence of all those layers of complexity under the emulator.
- cpsns 4y ago
  I’m really not sure honestly. I think there is something to be said about having the real thing, but I’m not really convinced in the physical hardware over emulation debate. I get the same enjoyment in emulated SNES games as I did as a child on a real SNES for example. In this case? I enjoyed saving the Mac, fixing it, making a few minor upgrades along the way. Apple hardware and software integrates so well together and I think there’s a lot of reason to have the whole package. That said when using it I’m looking primarily at the screen alone. I think it’s really subjective and depends on the person ultimately.
- kitsunesoba 4y ago
  For me it's not so much any of the physical properties of the machine in question (though those can be nice in their own way), but more of an intangible sense of "realness" that's difficult to attain with an emulator. It may just be placebo effect but I think that long time computer users can probably pick up on subtle differences, and that likely shapes the experience more than is often thought. Certainly, pulling out my PowerBook G3 Pismo is a significantly different experience than firing up SheepShaver or qemu_ppc running the same operating system.
  - tomxor 4y ago
    > an intangible sense of "realness" that's difficult to attain with an emulator. I wonder if this is due to input latency, because no matter how good the emulator, input devices have gotten waaay slower due to all of the layers in between, before even getting to the emulator... unfortunately it's not really something you can throw money at with modern computers. > PowerBook G3 Pismo I owned one of those, that thing is capable of frying an egg for real!
    - ericd 4y ago
      Yeah, I think input lag is a big part of it - those old machines feel so ridiculously responsive.
    - joshspankit 4y ago
Maursault 4y ago
My complaint about the Classic II is that it is a degraded SE/30, with a maximum of 10MB RAM, no coprocessor, and no expandability except through the external SCSI, compared to 128MB RAM, a coprocessor and a PDS with the SE/30. Restoration isn't any more difficult on SE/30, and network cards are not hard to find. Plus it can run A/UX and a modern OS, NetBSD 9 (but without a GUI, which is fine for many purposes), so the SE/30 is well worth the slightly higher investment price for a fixer-upper, and once restored, it is worth a $1000 or more, so easy to not only recoup investment, but make a tidy profit.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- johndoe0815 4y ago
  The Classic II is more or less just using the LC chipset in a compact Mac form factor, whereas the SE/30 was a repackaged IIcx and came out almost three years earlier. The initial price of a basic Classic II was US$1900, whereas the SE/30 cost a staggering US$6500. And don't remind me of the prices in Germany :). I remember seeing my first IIfx at our local Apple dealer, it cost about 35k German marks IIRC... a new VW Golf car was around 25k marks back then. More details on everymac.com: https://everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_classic/specs/mac_classic_ii.html https://everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_classic/specs/mac_cla... https://everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_classic/specs/mac_se30.html https://everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_classic/specs/mac_se3...
  - Maursault 4y ago
    Apple's initial price for the SE/30 in the US was $4369, but price came down rapidly in the first year, ultimately costing less than a Mac II with greyscale card and monochrome monitor by the end of 1989. But that was 30 years ago. Today, there seems to be a Mac mafia buying up the lower priced auctions and then jacking up prices of these ancient machines on turnaround, but you can still find an untouched SE/30 within spitting distance of the cost of a Classic II. They're both attractive machines in the compact format, but I wouldn't accept a Classic II for free, where I'd be tempted to buy certain particular SE/30 models, depending on condition, for few to several hundreds of dollars.

by cpsns 4y ago

bombcar 4y ago

Heh I had a cat named Dog at one time (one named Rat also).

tomxor 4y ago
If you also had a dog named cow it would be very on topic ;)
rob74 4y ago
I once had a cat named Tom and one named Jerry... both female.
bink 4y ago
I have never heard a thing half as crazy as that.
ChrisMarshallNY 4y ago
We had one named Puppy.

tomxor 4y ago

I also love the feel of using these old systems, but I wonder how much of it is also to do with the physical experience. Do you think you would get a similar or diminished experience with e.g a raspberry pi and a little LCD screen etc that booted straight into a minivmac emulator? ... I must admit I get a sense of satisfaction from turning on certain old electronics, like the resonating "clung" of the e transformer in my amplifier when I flip the switch, so maybe that's all part of it, the sense of an appliance, something less fallible, and also the absence of all those layers of complexity under the emulator.

cpsns 4y ago
I’m really not sure honestly. I think there is something to be said about having the real thing, but I’m not really convinced in the physical hardware over emulation debate. I get the same enjoyment in emulated SNES games as I did as a child on a real SNES for example. In this case? I enjoyed saving the Mac, fixing it, making a few minor upgrades along the way. Apple hardware and software integrates so well together and I think there’s a lot of reason to have the whole package. That said when using it I’m looking primarily at the screen alone. I think it’s really subjective and depends on the person ultimately.
kitsunesoba 4y ago
For me it's not so much any of the physical properties of the machine in question (though those can be nice in their own way), but more of an intangible sense of "realness" that's difficult to attain with an emulator. It may just be placebo effect but I think that long time computer users can probably pick up on subtle differences, and that likely shapes the experience more than is often thought. Certainly, pulling out my PowerBook G3 Pismo is a significantly different experience than firing up SheepShaver or qemu_ppc running the same operating system.
- tomxor 4y ago
  > an intangible sense of "realness" that's difficult to attain with an emulator. I wonder if this is due to input latency, because no matter how good the emulator, input devices have gotten waaay slower due to all of the layers in between, before even getting to the emulator... unfortunately it's not really something you can throw money at with modern computers. > PowerBook G3 Pismo I owned one of those, that thing is capable of frying an egg for real!
  - ericd 4y ago
    Yeah, I think input lag is a big part of it - those old machines feel so ridiculously responsive.
  - joshspankit 4y ago

Maursault 4y ago

My complaint about the Classic II is that it is a degraded SE/30, with a maximum of 10MB RAM, no coprocessor, and no expandability except through the external SCSI, compared to 128MB RAM, a coprocessor and a PDS with the SE/30. Restoration isn't any more difficult on SE/30, and network cards are not hard to find. Plus it can run A/UX and a modern OS, NetBSD 9 (but without a GUI, which is fine for many purposes), so the SE/30 is well worth the slightly higher investment price for a fixer-upper, and once restored, it is worth a $1000 or more, so easy to not only recoup investment, but make a tidy profit.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
johndoe0815 4y ago
The Classic II is more or less just using the LC chipset in a compact Mac form factor, whereas the SE/30 was a repackaged IIcx and came out almost three years earlier. The initial price of a basic Classic II was US$1900, whereas the SE/30 cost a staggering US$6500. And don't remind me of the prices in Germany :). I remember seeing my first IIfx at our local Apple dealer, it cost about 35k German marks IIRC... a new VW Golf car was around 25k marks back then. More details on everymac.com: https://everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_classic/specs/mac_classic_ii.html https://everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_classic/specs/mac_cla... https://everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_classic/specs/mac_se30.html https://everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_classic/specs/mac_se3...
- Maursault 4y ago
  Apple's initial price for the SE/30 in the US was $4369, but price came down rapidly in the first year, ultimately costing less than a Mac II with greyscale card and monochrome monitor by the end of 1989. But that was 30 years ago. Today, there seems to be a Mac mafia buying up the lower priced auctions and then jacking up prices of these ancient machines on turnaround, but you can still find an untouched SE/30 within spitting distance of the cost of a Classic II. They're both attractive machines in the compact format, but I wouldn't accept a Classic II for free, where I'd be tempted to buy certain particular SE/30 models, depending on condition, for few to several hundreds of dollars.