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Anything special about the LCIII?
- Thread starter RX8031
- Start date
vwestlife
Veteran Member
Maybe because it's the least crappy of the original LC series?
Well, all in all it's a pretty nice machine.
was not really fond of LC series, but have a few now, a better machine anyway than LC and LC II's.
pretty useful for doing a lot of things (creating floppy discs...)
the case being slim, also easy to stock everywhere.
was not really fond of LC series, but have a few now, a better machine anyway than LC and LC II's.
pretty useful for doing a lot of things (creating floppy discs...)
the case being slim, also easy to stock everywhere.
rittwage
Veteran Member
I remember I had stacks of them 10-15 years ago and couldn't give them away or even pay people to take them. They would ask if it had the Apple IIe card, and if not, no interest at all.
I didn't think they would have any comeback in value. Lesson learned. However, they are a cheap machine and most don't work anymore anyway.
I didn't think they would have any comeback in value. Lesson learned. However, they are a cheap machine and most don't work anymore anyway.
GiGaBiTe
Veteran Member
The LC III and III+ are popular because they're not crippled like the first two LC machines were.
Despite Apple retiring the 68020 CPU on the Macintosh II earlier in 1990, they re-introduced it on the Macintosh LC later in the year. But this time they crippled it with a 16 bit data bus (the 68020 is a 32 bit CPU.) They also artificially limited the machine to have a maximum of 10 MB of RAM (2 MB onboard, 8 MB in 2 x 4 MB 30 pin SIMMs.) You could install more, but the machine wouldn't recognize it. The LC had the weird resolution of 512x384, and required a now difficult to find 68 pin VRAM upgrade to use 640x480 video at 8 bit. There was also no 68881/68882 coprocessor socket, but you could add one with a PDS upgrade card. All of these issues make it a hard to use machine now because you're basically required to use a CRT for the weird video resolution, and many applications won't work below 640x480.
The LC II was a slightly less crippled LC. It upgraded the CPU to a 68030 @ 16 MHz, but was still essentially the same besides the onboard memory being upgraded to 4 MB.
The LC III fixed all of those issues. The 68030 was upgraded to 25/33 MHz on a full 32 bit bus with a socket for a co-processor. It had 512k of onboard VRAM so it could do 640x480 at 8 bit natively, or 16 bit with a 256k VRAM upgrade. It could also do 832x624 at 8 bit with the VRAM upgrade. You can overclock an LC III to LC III+ speeds (25-33 MHz) by moving some resistors on the motherboard. Just make sure the CPU has a heatsink and fan or the machine will be unstable.
Yeah because the capacitors leak and fail. My LC III had this happen awhile back, it was a pretty irritating process to recap the board because of the SMD capacitors.
Despite Apple retiring the 68020 CPU on the Macintosh II earlier in 1990, they re-introduced it on the Macintosh LC later in the year. But this time they crippled it with a 16 bit data bus (the 68020 is a 32 bit CPU.) They also artificially limited the machine to have a maximum of 10 MB of RAM (2 MB onboard, 8 MB in 2 x 4 MB 30 pin SIMMs.) You could install more, but the machine wouldn't recognize it. The LC had the weird resolution of 512x384, and required a now difficult to find 68 pin VRAM upgrade to use 640x480 video at 8 bit. There was also no 68881/68882 coprocessor socket, but you could add one with a PDS upgrade card. All of these issues make it a hard to use machine now because you're basically required to use a CRT for the weird video resolution, and many applications won't work below 640x480.
The LC II was a slightly less crippled LC. It upgraded the CPU to a 68030 @ 16 MHz, but was still essentially the same besides the onboard memory being upgraded to 4 MB.
The LC III fixed all of those issues. The 68030 was upgraded to 25/33 MHz on a full 32 bit bus with a socket for a co-processor. It had 512k of onboard VRAM so it could do 640x480 at 8 bit natively, or 16 bit with a 256k VRAM upgrade. It could also do 832x624 at 8 bit with the VRAM upgrade. You can overclock an LC III to LC III+ speeds (25-33 MHz) by moving some resistors on the motherboard. Just make sure the CPU has a heatsink and fan or the machine will be unstable.
Yeah because the capacitors leak and fail. My LC III had this happen awhile back, it was a pretty irritating process to recap the board because of the SMD capacitors.
My first freecycle conquest was a pair of LC III's ages ago (with school markings of course). Some guy had a mobile home full of them. One of them promptly whistled itself to death (bad caps) and was probably my fist recap job (worked fine after).
The units themselves are the best LC model (not crippled) and Ethernet cards for them are pretty cheap. If you are on a budget and want a 68K mac then this is your best bet (have you seen the prices for full blown 68k machines lately?). I actually have a Daystar adapter for an LC III that will let you run a 68040 in it (have not bothered to try it yet). I also removed one of my LC III motherboards and put in a full blown 68040 board (heatsink barely clears the cover).
I also have an LC I with dual floppy drives just because of the oddity of it.
The units themselves are the best LC model (not crippled) and Ethernet cards for them are pretty cheap. If you are on a budget and want a 68K mac then this is your best bet (have you seen the prices for full blown 68k machines lately?). I actually have a Daystar adapter for an LC III that will let you run a 68040 in it (have not bothered to try it yet). I also removed one of my LC III motherboards and put in a full blown 68040 board (heatsink barely clears the cover).
I also have an LC I with dual floppy drives just because of the oddity of it.
ClassicHasClass
Veteran Member
If they had the Y-cables as well, that would make a great little box.
My IIe card is in my Mystic Colour Classic, though.
My IIe card is in my Mystic Colour Classic, though.
AdamAnt316
Experienced Member
The LC series carries an odd sort of nostalgia for me. The middle school I attended had three computer labs full of LC IIs, along with several others in the school library.One single LC II in the library had some sort of connection to the internet, and was my first introduction to the World Wide Web. A few of the other library LC IIs were connected to Pioneer CD-ROM changers loaded with various encyclopedia and other educational CDs.
The LC IIs in one of the computer labs were equipped with Apple IIe cards, which I can remember making use of all of one or two times. I remember being taught to use Open Apple+Y to eject floppy disks instead of using the Eject command in the Special menu, which I found a bit odd, but went along with. The LC IIs in one of the computer labs were equipped with Apple IIe cards, which I can remember making use of all of one or two times. The LC IIs in the main lab (possibly the other labs as well) were connected to an Apple LaserWriter printer via an AppleTalk network. Pretty high-tech stuff for the early '90s, and far more advanced than the Platinum Apple IIes I'd used in elementary school.
When I was in college, one of the buildings had a two-floppy drive LC show up in a trash pile along with an external hard drive and CD-ROM drive (caddy-type). I grabbed the HD and CD-ROM drive for my Mac SE, but didn't have enough room in my backpack for the LC itself, so I left it behind. I later regretted this decision, as an examination of the contents of said HD revealed that the LC had likely had an Apple IIe card installed in it. This touched off a search for one of said cards which took several years to resolve.
One of my friends had an LC III as their main computer, which I eventually ended up acquiring. It worked last time I tried it, though the external SCSI port might be a bit flaky. Once I finally managed to acquire a IIe Card along with the Y-cable (two separate purchases at the MIT swapmeet on the same day!), I installed it in the LC III, installed the software disk on the HD, and it's worked fine with everything I've tried with it thus far. Guessing it'll need to be recapped at some point, of course.
-Adam
The LC IIs in one of the computer labs were equipped with Apple IIe cards, which I can remember making use of all of one or two times. I remember being taught to use Open Apple+Y to eject floppy disks instead of using the Eject command in the Special menu, which I found a bit odd, but went along with. The LC IIs in one of the computer labs were equipped with Apple IIe cards, which I can remember making use of all of one or two times. The LC IIs in the main lab (possibly the other labs as well) were connected to an Apple LaserWriter printer via an AppleTalk network. Pretty high-tech stuff for the early '90s, and far more advanced than the Platinum Apple IIes I'd used in elementary school.
When I was in college, one of the buildings had a two-floppy drive LC show up in a trash pile along with an external hard drive and CD-ROM drive (caddy-type). I grabbed the HD and CD-ROM drive for my Mac SE, but didn't have enough room in my backpack for the LC itself, so I left it behind. I later regretted this decision, as an examination of the contents of said HD revealed that the LC had likely had an Apple IIe card installed in it. This touched off a search for one of said cards which took several years to resolve.
One of my friends had an LC III as their main computer, which I eventually ended up acquiring. It worked last time I tried it, though the external SCSI port might be a bit flaky. Once I finally managed to acquire a IIe Card along with the Y-cable (two separate purchases at the MIT swapmeet on the same day!), I installed it in the LC III, installed the software disk on the HD, and it's worked fine with everything I've tried with it thus far. Guessing it'll need to be recapped at some point, of course.
-Adam