I discovered this forum after watching a video by @Mu0n on YouTube where he shows how he added HDMI output to some early compact Macs. I noticed that some people on YouTube were posting video captures from early Macs and wondered how it was done. I was interested because I actually have a use for that.
Anyway, it led me here.
I've been a font developer for decades and did my earliest digital fonts on Macs in the late eighties. Before that I was a graphic designer and art director, where I exclusively used Macs. And I always had one myself.
Consequently, I've owned a lot of Macs over the years, going back to the very first one. Many of them wound up getting passed on or sold to other people. I always kept a few, and even acquired a bunch of SEs and similar around 2000 that were left for trash. (I'm ashamed to admit that I brought most of them to an electronics recycler a few years later. I didn't know what else to do with them at the time.) I got rid of most of my remaining old Macs in 2015 when we were renovating our house, this time donating them to Free Geek in Minneapolis. The only one I kept was a G4 Cube, which I bought new in 2000, just because it was such a rare and unique Mac.
A few years ago, after successfully getting the Cube up and running again, I started acquiring old Macs again, with a bit more purpose. I'd been using Mac emulators more and more to access old documents (going back to 1984) and for running old apps. I decided it would be even better on the real hardware. I've now got a machine for each major version of Mac OS:
- Macintosh Plus (System 6)
- PowerBook 180 (System 7)
- PowerBook G3 Lombard (MacOS 8)
- Macintosh G4 Cube (MacOS 9 and Mac OS X Tiger)
- 2009 17" PowerBook (Mac OS X Snow Leopard)
These are all equipped with SSDs in some form, with maxed out RAM. I love the idea of combining modern tech with vintage tech to improve things in a way that would have been impossible (or extremely expensive) when the machines were current.
I'm not much good at soldering, but I'm not afraid to get into these old beasts.
(I also have some vintage Atari 8-bit machines, which I used before getting a Mac.)
I don't know how active I will be here, but it looks like a great place.
(Pictured below, my pride and joy, the 500 MHz G4 Cube with 22" Cinema Display and original speakers, equipped with internal SSD, 1.5GB RAM, and an Nvidia GeForce 2MX.)
Anyway, it led me here.
I've been a font developer for decades and did my earliest digital fonts on Macs in the late eighties. Before that I was a graphic designer and art director, where I exclusively used Macs. And I always had one myself.
Consequently, I've owned a lot of Macs over the years, going back to the very first one. Many of them wound up getting passed on or sold to other people. I always kept a few, and even acquired a bunch of SEs and similar around 2000 that were left for trash. (I'm ashamed to admit that I brought most of them to an electronics recycler a few years later. I didn't know what else to do with them at the time.) I got rid of most of my remaining old Macs in 2015 when we were renovating our house, this time donating them to Free Geek in Minneapolis. The only one I kept was a G4 Cube, which I bought new in 2000, just because it was such a rare and unique Mac.
A few years ago, after successfully getting the Cube up and running again, I started acquiring old Macs again, with a bit more purpose. I'd been using Mac emulators more and more to access old documents (going back to 1984) and for running old apps. I decided it would be even better on the real hardware. I've now got a machine for each major version of Mac OS:
- Macintosh Plus (System 6)
- PowerBook 180 (System 7)
- PowerBook G3 Lombard (MacOS 8)
- Macintosh G4 Cube (MacOS 9 and Mac OS X Tiger)
- 2009 17" PowerBook (Mac OS X Snow Leopard)
These are all equipped with SSDs in some form, with maxed out RAM. I love the idea of combining modern tech with vintage tech to improve things in a way that would have been impossible (or extremely expensive) when the machines were current.
I'm not much good at soldering, but I'm not afraid to get into these old beasts.
(I also have some vintage Atari 8-bit machines, which I used before getting a Mac.)
I don't know how active I will be here, but it looks like a great place.
(Pictured below, my pride and joy, the 500 MHz G4 Cube with 22" Cinema Display and original speakers, equipped with internal SSD, 1.5GB RAM, and an Nvidia GeForce 2MX.)
