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Found a mac plus 1mb, unsure what to do with it.

Found a mac plus 1mb, unsure what to do with it.

  • Restore it.

    Votes: 8 53.3%
  • Store it in the garage until jesus returns.

    Votes: 4 26.7%
  • Turn it into an aqarium.

    Votes: 1 6.7%
  • Sell whole.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Other (explain)

    Votes: 2 13.3%

  • Total voters
    15
  • Poll closed .

luckybob

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 3, 2009
Messages
1,344
Location
denver
I'm always on the lookout for vintage hardware, as i am sure everyone here does as well. But I found this weekend at a curb alert (Craigslist listing fro free stuff that didn't sell at the persons yard sale) a Mac Plus 1mb. I just got around to looking at it, plugging it in and what not and it would appear at first glance that it is operational. it boots to the "?" in a disk screen and the mouse cursor moves with the mouse. I got the "complete" setup. the unit, mouse and keyboard. After some looking I do NOT have any 800kb disks around. So I cant boot the thing. :angry:

Anyway, My issue is this:

I'm not much of a mac person. I have a fully decked out LCIII in my garage that I haven't touched in a good year or two, so the thought of putting any significant money into a plus system is something I'm not prepared to do. So the next thing I ask myself is, what do I do with this system? There are several other plus systems on eBay right now, and most are sub $100, therefor selling it is an option. But its not like the system is rare or anything. In fact, if the websites I found googling this thing can be believed, this machine was the longest lasting on their product line!

So basically I'm just going to open up a poll and see what seems to be to be the most popular opinion.
 
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If you don't want it, I'd just give it to some other collector that does. Perhaps you can trade it for something you do want. The Mac Plus was a great machine - very reliable and very capable. Put more RAM in it and you can run System 7.5.5 (albiet kind of slowly). Put a SCSI Ethernet adapter on it and you can get it online (yes, I've done it). With a terminal emulator program, you can use it as a serial terminal on another system. It's convenient and self contained, so you can just make up a bootable disk with Kermit or something and leave it in the drive - so when you need a terminal it's easy to set up.

I can understand if you're not in to Macs - so if you really don't have a use, give it to someone that does.

-Ian
 
Take a piece of tape and cover the other hole on a regular DSHD 1.44. That will solve the need for a DSDD diskette... rawrite should be able to write the diskettes you need on a pc. Once you get running, make another boot diskette using the mac itself, it will be much more reliable.
 
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Play games on it, those things are fun game machines. DIY joysticks and all kinds of networking things can be done.

If you aren't a tinkerer then you can fix it and sell it. A paint job could never hurt.
 
Use it to test a Retr0Bright solution, then sell it.

Sad thing is, its not yellow. it looks factory new. the standard creme/beige

Play games on it, those things are fun game machines. DIY joysticks and all kinds of networking things can be done.
If you aren't a tinkerer then you can fix it and sell it. A paint job could never hurt.

I have a mac LC3 which uses the same processor, except it runs at 33mhz and I have that machine fully decked out. And I still dont use it.

Restore it, then sell it. Isn't the fun of these machines making them work again?

There is nothing to restore, I guess I could upgrade the ram to 4mb and toss a scsi hard drive in it somewhere.

I asked people local to me. Every single one looked at me like I was crazy. (they aren't fans of old computers) I think making it into an aquarium and selling the guts would be a fun project, but I HATE cleaning fish tanks. In all likely hood this little machine will sit in my garage for a while.
 
If you're going to gut it, perhaps you can convert it to a digital picture frame? I understand the display is 9" but not sure which aspect ratio it has. The floppy disk hole is a bit on the big side to insert a SD memory card through unless you fill it partly in some nice way. Of course this project would be easier to take on if the computer was dead.
 
I bet if you give it a nice red coat then a glossy coat of laquer (only the plastic parts) it would be a real showpiece. Your other Apple is a bit bigger, this can be a dedicated machine that can be set on a coffee table, it's small enough. If I were closer, I'd give you a few bucks for it (not $500 like that guy on Storage Whatever TV show) but I am way over in El Paso, so Denver is not practical.

Is there alocal museum that would liek to have it? You can get a tax write-off that way, if nothing else.
 
I am going with restore, not like there's a lot of work there, make a 800k floppy boot disk, poof its restored ;-)

Like you say you have a LCIII, thats a good machine for making disk images for the Plus, someone earlier suggested taping over the whole on a HD floppy, but that never seems to be real reliable, I would suggest spending $5-10 on some new old stock DD floppies.

Also FYI you can only make the 800k Mac floppy images from another Mac, NO PC drives can read/write the 800k mac format, and it has to be a Mac with a built in floppy, so that limits you to at best a beige G3 Mac, that was the last to have an internal floppy. USB drives will not do it because they are just PC floppy drives in a USB converter, they do not support the variable speed required for 800k.

I used to download on PC, save to a 1.44 floppy, copy to my semi-modern "inbetweener" mac, then write the image to 800k floppy on that mac. Now a days I just download on my Beige G3 since its internet ready, though I have since upgraded my SE with a SE FDHD board, so even my lowest end mac can read/write 1.44.
 
Shame you don't have the superdrive. I just figured out how to move files over from a PC too using Vmac, HDExplorer and Winimage...

Glad to hear you got her up though! Just got a Mac Classic myself, so if you are looking for any SW, feel free to pm me. :thumbsup:
 
well... the LC3 has a superdrive. i remember we used it so often that it died and had to pay $100 for a replacement... Those were the days.

Anyway, I found one of the old style external scsi boxes. it doesnt match the mac plus and its designed for a cd drive, and I dont have a drive for it, but one miracle at a time right?
 
Great find! I love finding stuff I forgot about, only to give it new life... Anyways, sounds like it could prove useful. I happen to have an 80mb scsi hdd I will be pulling out of my external CMS enclosure. Currently its being used on my Classic. Would that be big enough for your needs? ATM it has system 7.5.5 on it...

Before I can commit to selling it I have to swap the drive. I have 2 IBM 500mb's sitting in front of me I need to test. If one happens to work, Then my old drive could be yours... If THE PRICE IS RIGHT. LOL. All humor aside, if you are interested, I could even fill it with software/ downgrade the OS if desired.
 
Also FYI you can only make the 800k Mac floppy images from another Mac, NO PC drives can read/write the 800k mac format, and it has to be a Mac with a built in floppy, so that limits you to at best a beige G3 Mac, that was the last to have an internal floppy. USB drives will not do it because they are just PC floppy drives in a USB converter, they do not support the variable speed required for 800k.

I used to download on PC, save to a 1.44 floppy, copy to my semi-modern "inbetweener" mac, then write the image to 800k floppy on that mac. Now a days I just download on my Beige G3 since its internet ready, though I have since upgraded my SE with a SE FDHD board, so even my lowest end mac can read/write 1.44.

Yes, I faced this issue when writing 400k disks for my Lisa. I used a piece of software called TransMac to get the Internet-sourced image from the PC onto a 1.44K Mac disk. I then used a Mac Classic 2 wired up to an external 800K Mac drive as an intermediary. I could then make 400k Lisa disks on that 800k drive.

Tez
 
Could always do a quick cleanup on it and throw it up for sale on here or ebay, and reinvest it into other vintage gear. I tend to do that alot...
 
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