MARCHintosh 2026 Projects
- Thread starter eric
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Nominations will close March 25th. If you'd like to join the board and influence how TinkerDifferent runs in the next year, put your name in now!
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Hey Guest, MARCHintosh 2026 is upon us. Check out community projects, join GlobalTalk, and have fun!
My MARCHintosh project for this year is the same as the previous year - I am working on my 3D spaceship racing game, tentatively called Viper Race RAVE, inspired by Ambrosia Software's EV: Nova's gambling cutscenes. You can read a bit about it here:
Viper Race RAVE
It builds on the same engine I wrote for Blokz RAVE a couple of years ago, which was also a MARCHintosh project. Recent progress includes:
- Working Rigidbody Physics simulation (Like Half Life 2) Video of that (please ignore the regression in the thruster graphics)
- New improved graphics
- Better framerate than last year
- Lots of under-the-hood framework fixes that accelerates my development, like automatic UI layout and checkboxes (this helps a lot haha)
Planned features this March:
- Level layout following a spline path
- Some sort of rudimentary AI ship controller for the opponents
- Further optimization, the physics engine is quite taxing at the moment, and the graphics can be optimized a lot
It's a quite ambitious project and I will probably not be done with it at the end of this MARCHintosh, but I'm sharing my progress either way!
The game will require a PowerPC Macintosh with a graphics card with at least 4 MB of VRAM, and Mac OS 9.
Tools used:
PowerBook Pismo 400MHz
CodeWarrior Pro 8.3
Photoshop 4
Blender 4 on a modern PC because I can't be arsed to learn how to use Lightwave at this age
I've set up two lo-fi #marchintosh services for 2026:
BadScan
Have your precious images scanned by a 512 and an ImageWriter II!
Send your stuff over this way, either by mail or by printing them to the StyleWriter in my zone. Then through the magic of the ThunderScan and the sheer power of the Fat Mac, the ImageWriter will be transformed into a scanner and you'll get a terrible-quality 1-bit and/or 5-bit greyscale versions of your images back. Can save to your GlobalTalk share, or email, or by post, or whatever inconvenient method works best.
GlobalTalk dial-in
Overwhelmed by all the GlobalTalk setup kerfuffle?
It's probably time to pull out an old modem and dial in instead! I've got an ARA server that will let you have all the fun with less of the hassle. Access numbers available in the UK, Canada and USA — those are available on the spreadsheet in my entry. It's all done over a VoIP line, so the handshake sounds are a bit weird and non-traditional and alllll over the place, but don't let that put you off.
Possible stretch goal
At some stage I might set up a BadScan job or two to do a video and audio livestream using QuickTime Conferencing... we'll see...
BadScan
Have your precious images scanned by a 512 and an ImageWriter II!
Send your stuff over this way, either by mail or by printing them to the StyleWriter in my zone. Then through the magic of the ThunderScan and the sheer power of the Fat Mac, the ImageWriter will be transformed into a scanner and you'll get a terrible-quality 1-bit and/or 5-bit greyscale versions of your images back. Can save to your GlobalTalk share, or email, or by post, or whatever inconvenient method works best.
GlobalTalk dial-in
Overwhelmed by all the GlobalTalk setup kerfuffle?
It's probably time to pull out an old modem and dial in instead! I've got an ARA server that will let you have all the fun with less of the hassle. Access numbers available in the UK, Canada and USA — those are available on the spreadsheet in my entry. It's all done over a VoIP line, so the handshake sounds are a bit weird and non-traditional and alllll over the place, but don't let that put you off.
Possible stretch goal
At some stage I might set up a BadScan job or two to do a video and audio livestream using QuickTime Conferencing... we'll see...
Second year participating in MARCHintosh. This year most of my gear is in storage so I'm limited to an iBook G4 utilizing the Classic environment. Project-wise, I wanted to learn how to write and manage an old website so that's what I'm doing. I'm developing it using BBEdit Lite 4.6 and testing with IE and Netscape (both versions 2 and 4). Also picked up some cool newer OS 9 programs that came out in the last few years to see how they work. Here's the first go of my "small web" page. Plenty of work to do, plenty of changes to be had. I'm hoping to make it something familiar to the mid-to-late 90s.
#GlobalTalk Admins!
I’m considering setting up a DokuWiki “Farm” on globaltalk.network to host my GlobalTalk resources, info about my zones, and, if anyone else is interested, info on their zones under a subdomain relevant to their zone (and likely matched, if they’ve taken up the offer of DNS hosting, to their zone subdomain at globaltalk.zone). Whatever your preference, you can use one or both of the .net and .zone offerings!
I’m interested in people’s thoughts – this will be easier than giving each user their own subdomain/subdirectory to host whatever hosting platform they might desire, make updates and management easier, etc.
I will create a user per interested GlobalTalk admin (and/or zone, perhaps, for people like me) and they can populate as they see fit – I’m then not a publisher, just a hoster, blah, blah, blah, lawyer speak.
I’ll consider adding relevant DokuWiki plugins as suggested to me, too.
I’ve set up a DokuWiki recently for my apartment block, and it’s straightforward enough and supports this sort of functionality with the Farmer Plugin (probably the only way I’ll ever be able to become a farmer!).
I’m probably going to start setting it up this weekend (maybe even tonight!) – let me know if you’re interested.
It’s important to note that these “services” and sites are not #MARCHintosh-official GlobalTalk services and sites.
I am running these independently of the running of #MARCHintosh, firstly for my own use and zones, but also, as it’s easy to leverage, for others.
I’m open to other suggestions for services to run under these domains, as well.
Talk soon,
Sean
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Oh, and update my setup disk images and my Apple Internet Router Administrator’s Guide—Addendum.
Maybe a couple of other small projects.
First update:
Got the new backplane cut down to fit. Had to move slots to left about 3.8mm to clear side of case/logic board.
Made first ugly slot cut with wet tile saw to start cutout for connectors and slot removal.
9500 board is stand-in for PEx ProtoBoard.
Lots of nasty work with grinder/cutoff wheel coming up. This friggin' tanks' rear armor plate is 14 Gauge/1.5mm thick!
edit: had to trim the base off on the left to fit and ripped the flanges on right side and back to match the height of the sunken backplane.
Got the new backplane cut down to fit. Had to move slots to left about 3.8mm to clear side of case/logic board.
Made first ugly slot cut with wet tile saw to start cutout for connectors and slot removal.
9500 board is stand-in for PEx ProtoBoard.
Lots of nasty work with grinder/cutoff wheel coming up. This friggin' tanks' rear armor plate is 14 Gauge/1.5mm thick!
edit: had to trim the base off on the left to fit and ripped the flanges on right side and back to match the height of the sunken backplane.
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[EDIT: Form on the home page is live!]
The basic DokuWiki structure is now in place at globaltalk.wiki – other admins can request a [subdomain].globaltalk.wiki by filling in the form in the QuickStart section of that page (or by messaging me here with the same info) and I will set up a sub-wiki at that subdomain.
For now, I’ll need to verify admins against the official spreadsheet somehow – it might be the e-mail address provided when you request access matches the one on the sheet or if you’re on Mastodon and message me there from the Mastodon account you have listed on the spreadsheet, verification will be done at the same time as the request.
All are welcome to sign up to this entirely unofficial wiki for GlobalTalk admins.
Sean
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If you happened to try this over there last couple of days and got error messages, or nothing, I’ve figured out the misconfiguration (only took 12 hours chasing my own tail because I had the wrong idea where the problem was!) and everything is working for logged in and “public” visitors.
Sean
*UPDATE for my project on March 8th:
I started a thread about it:
I started a thread about it:
I stopped by Free Geek yesterday and found another G5 project. $5, no graphics card, missing the acrylic air deflector, no hdd, no ram.
Single processor, dual core, 2.0GHz.
I added all the spare parts needed, and it fired right up. And then I remembered I had a spare dual core processor that I purchased when trying to fix my quad core G5. Turns out this one was 2.3GHz and that is why it didn't work in my 2.5GHz quad core as a 2nd cpu.
And it did not work in this 2.0GHz motherboard either, so it is likely dead. The motherboard should support any dual-core speed G5, per @HrutkayMods videos.
So while I was swapping out the CPU, I noticed a lot of dust.
So I figured I better blow out the power supply as well. I guess it had a productive life. You don't get this dusty sitting on a collector's display shelf.
Now she is clean and ready to work!
Single processor, dual core, 2.0GHz.
I added all the spare parts needed, and it fired right up. And then I remembered I had a spare dual core processor that I purchased when trying to fix my quad core G5. Turns out this one was 2.3GHz and that is why it didn't work in my 2.5GHz quad core as a 2nd cpu.
And it did not work in this 2.0GHz motherboard either, so it is likely dead. The motherboard should support any dual-core speed G5, per @HrutkayMods videos.
So while I was swapping out the CPU, I noticed a lot of dust.
So I figured I better blow out the power supply as well. I guess it had a productive life. You don't get this dusty sitting on a collector's display shelf.
Now she is clean and ready to work!
I added my computation of values needed for the programming of the Sound Driver in a TD resource.
Looks like you had to shift the slots to the left for clearance as well. How much and in what kind of case design? Looks a tad too narrow for 4U?
I created a Fluxer community for discussing game development on old macs, welcome to join to talk about your own games or if you just want to hang out and see what others are doing https://fluxer.gg/g3PwJPKp
I bet there are some other MARCHintosh game development projects underway, please show them off there!
I bet there are some other MARCHintosh game development projects underway, please show them off there!
Optical drive removed, fans installed, There was even some space to put a little heatsink on top of the heat pipes, for extra surface area and cooling, in the center. It runs much more comfortably, at least I feel better about it. When It had no optical drive and just an empty space, I'd stick my hand in and it didn't feel like the air inside was moving, it felt hot.
I think I may be done messing with it for a while because the machine is cursed. Whenever I take it apart, I have to do a strange ritual of reseating almost everything unit it behaves again, and I haven't isolated what I keep doing wrong, or if it's multiple things. Either way, I'm content with the result.
I think I may be done messing with it for a while because the machine is cursed. Whenever I take it apart, I have to do a strange ritual of reseating almost everything unit it behaves again, and I haven't isolated what I keep doing wrong, or if it's multiple things. Either way, I'm content with the result.
only had to slice the PSU side off for this build, but then random bits of metal and a ton of JB weld to fill in all the gaps. printed a cover for the IO shield area as thats where i put the sff power supply. The case is actually a 15x15x7 junction box that had to be cut with a grinder
This is really a useless project but I am having a bit of fun after figuring out how to interact with serial data
A Digital Multi meter logger , specifically the one I have, the Uni-t UT61E
The meter has an optically coupled rs232 out, and after a bit of cable modding I was getting serial data on the Mac.
I used this to help parse the data
github.com
Serial data from the meter, and super alpha of decoding stream and showing it.
I have an idea of what the application will look in my head, this is not it, but it will do while I fix other things like double buffering. (to stop display update flickering)
SE30 does double buffer fine with this , but the Plus struggles with the update rate and drawing graph and then double buffer that , is just a little too much for the Plus.
My LCD fonts did not turn out right andI tried to make digits bigger too, but not sure that's the right direction to go.
A Digital Multi meter logger , specifically the one I have, the Uni-t UT61E
The meter has an optically coupled rs232 out, and after a bit of cable modding I was getting serial data on the Mac.
I used this to help parse the data
GitHub - 4x1md/ut61e_py: Python library for reading data from UNI-T UT61E DMM.
Python library for reading data from UNI-T UT61E DMM. - 4x1md/ut61e_py
github.com
Serial data from the meter, and super alpha of decoding stream and showing it.
I have an idea of what the application will look in my head, this is not it, but it will do while I fix other things like double buffering. (to stop display update flickering)
SE30 does double buffer fine with this , but the Plus struggles with the update rate and drawing graph and then double buffer that , is just a little too much for the Plus.
My LCD fonts did not turn out right andI tried to make digits bigger too, but not sure that's the right direction to go.
