A pair of Macs

[ilitch64]

Hello everyone! After a month I managed to get my first 68k Macs!

I had been recommended an LC III by a member back in May, but when the Mac Plus popped up being given away I couldn't resist driving to Northern Phily to pick it up!

It wasn't enough though. When a Mac SE was found in a attic of a friend's place I was able to take it as well. After a battling a busted hard drive, trading an iMac for some software, 

transferring files to 800K disks from my PowerMac, and then finally biting the bullet for a FloppyEmu, I got a fully functioning system! 

My future plans include trying out SLiRP to get it on the web (limited I know, but I figured it would be a fun project,) getting RAM and a Keyboard for the Plus, and

trying a LocalTalk network between both machines and my PowerMac. I would also like to find an accelerator card for one of these machines, but I know they can be pretty rare.

 

[PB145B]

Nice! Those aren’t bad machines to start out with.  That SE looks almost new with very little (if any) yellowing.

That Plus used to be a 128K or a 512K, and it has had the Mac Plus upgrade kit installed. Pretty cool, because it still looks like a 128K/512K from the front. That’s the only Mac Plus variation I don’t have.

 

[ilitch64]

It is in very good condition, a magic eraser got a lot of the blemishes off and both have very crisp screens. Very low hours on the tube with no burn in! I am pretty excited!

 

[PB145B]

It is in very good condition, a magic eraser got a lot of the blemishes off and both have very crisp screens. Very low hours on the tube with no burn in! I am pretty excited!

It must have been used very little if it has no burn-in, as most compact Macs have at least some by now. I think all of mine have it to a certain extent.

 

[ilitch64]

It must have been used very little if it has no burn-in, as most compact Macs have at least some by now. I think all of mine have it to a certain extent.

The plus came from a repair shop, the person who gave it to me said it was a gift when he was leaving for a new job. He just to put it away and never touched it after. I did notice that it had a 128 serial number. Would of been much cooler if it was the 128 or a 512 even though it’s would be really limited! The SE is an odd ball. It’s an FDHD rear case. A SE Front and logic board it tossed a couple of hands before ending up in an attic and then finally with me. I don’t think either machine had much use if any. The SE was missing RAM probably stolen to put in another machine at some point. It was given nonfunctional. So since I don't have a keyboard for the plus, I swapped all 4MB in to the SE. I really want to give both these computers new life! 

 

[PB145B]

It’s an FDHD rear case.

Are you sure about that? It may be that you have a late-model SE that uses the newer “copyright 1988” label instead of the “copyright 1986” one. I have one myself.

Also, there is one very wrong piece of information that I see online quite a lot; it’s that the M5011 is automatically an FDHD. Absolutely incorrect. The M5011 was originally the hard drive-equipped SE, while the M5010 was the dual 800K drive unit, so M5011 doesn’t mean it’s an FDHD.

 

[ilitch64]

Yeah I looked up the serial number, it said it was early 1988 FDHD 20MB option. I’m thinking maybe it got taken in for service and the wrong case was put back on it? It’s weird though the rear of the case just says SE not SE FDHD? It definitely has an 800K drive and a normal IWM it getting late so I’ll look it back up to make sure in the morning.

 

[PB145B]

Yeah I looked up the serial number, it said it was early 1988 FDHD 20MB option. I’m thinking maybe it got taken in for service and the wrong case was put back on it? It’s weird though the rear of the case just says SE not SE FDHD? It definitely has an 800K drive and a normal IWM it getting late so I’ll look it back up to make sure in the morning.

Yes, the Mac serial number decoder incorrectly reports any M5011 as an FDHD. My older M5011 literally says on the back label “1MB RAM 800K Drive 20SC Hard Disk,” yet the serial number decoder shows it as an FDHD.

Another issue is, the FDHD wasn’t released until 1989! So a 1988 FDHD is completely nonsensical. Your Mac has the original back case.

Also, the rear case on an FDHD never said FDHD. They always just simply said “Macintosh SE.”

 

[cheesestraws]

My future plans include trying out SLiRP to get it on the web (limited I know, but I figured it would be a fun project ...trying a LocalTalk network between both machines and my PowerMac

You can also use a MacIP gateway to do TCP/IP over LocalTalk, which will be slow but probably faster than SLIRP.  If you have a PowerMac with LocalTalk, you can either run the Apple IP Gateway on that or just run the LocalTalk bridge and use something like macipgw (from macip.net) to do the magic.

 

[ilitch64]

Yes, the Mac serial number decoder incorrectly reports any M5011 as an FDHD. My older M5011 literally says on the back label “1MB RAM 800K Drive 20SC Hard Disk,” yet the serial number decoder shows it as an FDHD.

Oh I didn’t know that! The day I decoded the serial I went nuts trying to find out if I had a SuperDrive and tried every spare SuperDrive I had. I was bummed when none of them worked. 
 

You can also use a MacIP gateway to do TCP/IP over LocalTalk, which will be slow but probably faster than SLIRP.  If you have a PowerMac with LocalTalk, you can either run the Apple IP Gateway on that or just run the LocalTalk bridge and use something like macipgw (from macip.net) to do the magic.

I will have to try that I have a couple PowerMacs with Ethernet. I bought an AAUI adapter for my 7100 that I still need to mess with. I will also need the cables for LocalTalk.

 

[PB145B]

Oh I didn’t know that! The day I decoded the serial I went nuts trying to find out if I had a SuperDrive and tried every spare SuperDrive I had. I was bummed when none of them worked. 
 

Yeah, you could fairly easily upgrade it if you really wanted to. Would probably be easiest to just find a motherboard from an FDHD/SuperDrive. I actually quite like the 800K units though, as they can still work with the old 400K external drives and I believe they also are compatible with the HD20 (the hard drive that connects to the floppy port), but I’m not 100% sure as I don’t have an HD20 yet.

The FDHDs are really nice though. I have a dual-drive one with a custom bracket that allows it to also hold a hard drive with the two floppies. It was actually my very first compact Mac.

 

[ilitch64]

Yeah, you could fairly easily upgrade it if you really wanted to. Would probably be easiest to just find a motherboard from an FDHD/SuperDrive. I actually quite like the 800K units though, as they can still work with the old 400K external drives and I believe they also are compatible with the HD20 (the hard drive that connects to the floppy port), but I’m not 100% sure as I don’t have an HD20 yet.

The FDHDs are really nice though. I have a dual-drive one with a custom bracket that allows it to also hold a hard drive with the two floppies. It was actually my very first compact Mac.

I am just gonna keep it original. I am using a FloppyEmu in HD20 emulation mode so I don't need a 1.44mb drive. I have been using Mini vMac on the disk file to do any file transfers from my computer which works great. It's much more convenient then transferring files back through multiple different Macs like I had been doing on my PowerMac 7100