Getting updated to 7.5.x, recommended networking and graphics cards

[Guy Madison]

Hello all,

Well my Mac Iici arrived yesterday, its up and running with 12 MB of memory and a 80 MB drive with the original OS 7.0 ? or something on it.
(the speaker doesn't work but I will debug that today with the O-scope)


Now the question is how to move forward to bring it up to 7.5.x and networking, then onto a higher resolution video card.

I am sure this has been asked before, but if you want to post links that would be great.

But can someone assist me in moving forward?

I want to download CodeWarrior and start coding but a few upgrades would be needed.

Which network card do I buy to allow me to ftp to another machine to transfer files?

Where can I download the latest OS for this machine? (I am in the Seattle area, if someone has disks that would be great!)

What is a good video card for a Iici, I believe I had a Apple GC 8-24 ages ago.

Thanks ahead of time,

Guy

 

[rjkucia]

While I'm not familiar with NuBus cards in general, they are fortunately pretty easy to find and someone else should be able to help recommend specific cards.

Is this your only Mac? A bridge Mac is very helpful, but don't worry if you don't have one, as there's still plenty of ways to get stuff onto your machine.

For moving smaller files, floppies will work fine (I'm pretty sure the iici has a 1.4MB floppy drive?). You can get a USB floppy drive and write floppies that the Mac can read. I'm not sure if 7.0 can read FAT/PC-Formatted disks natively (I know 7.5 can), but you should still be able to make HFS disks in Windows, Linux, and Mac. That's a decent starting point.

A similar solution would be using a SCSI Zip Drive - but IIRC CodeWarrior is huge and I don't think even 100MB will be enough.

The best, most versatile solution I've encountered is getting a RaSCSI. It's not plug-and-play like some other solutions, and Raspberry Pis can be hard to find right now, but you can get drive emulation, virtual CD mounting, a network adapter, and even an AFP file share going all on one device. If you're brand new to all of this, it's a great start.

 

[robin-fo]

The best, most versatile solution I've encountered is getting a RaSCSI. It's not plug-and-play like some other solutions, and Raspberry Pis can be hard to find right now, but you can get drive emulation, virtual CD mounting, a network adapter, and even an AFP file share going all on one device. If you're brand new to all of this, it's a great start.

Totally agree with that. You can create a file sharing server with it which can be accessed by almost all (even modern) Macs.

 

[Guy Madison]

While I'm not familiar with NuBus cards in general, they are fortunately pretty easy to find and someone else should be able to help recommend specific cards.

Is this your only Mac? A bridge Mac is very helpful, but don't worry if you don't have one, as there's still plenty of ways to get stuff onto your machine.

For moving smaller files, floppies will work fine (I'm pretty sure the iici has a 1.4MB floppy drive?). You can get a USB floppy drive and write floppies that the Mac can read. I'm not sure if 7.0 can read FAT/PC-Formatted disks natively (I know 7.5 can), but you should still be able to make HFS disks in Windows, Linux, and Mac. That's a decent starting point.

A similar solution would be using a SCSI Zip Drive - but IIRC CodeWarrior is huge and I don't think even 100MB will be enough.

The best, most versatile solution I've encountered is getting a RaSCSI. It's not plug-and-play like some other solutions, and Raspberry Pis can be hard to find right now, but you can get drive emulation, virtual CD mounting, a network adapter, and even an AFP file share going all on one device. If you're brand new to all of this, it's a great start.

I have a few mac's just not this old... the oldest Mac I have is a 2008 which is no longer supported by Apple (works just fine though)

 

[ArmorAlley]

@Guy Madison
1. Code Warrior: Macintosh Garden https://macintoshgarden.org/search/node/"codewarrior"

2. Any NuBus network card will do you grand. They are almost all 10BaseT or 10Base2. 10/100 cards are available and much pricier.

3. Any NuBus graphics card that supports 1024x768 or 1152x864 will do you grand. There are cards that can do more but they are from 1995 and your Mac is from 1990. 2x cards that supports 1024x768 or 1152x864 is also an idea. Since you are coding, 8-bit colour will do you fine. 24-bit cards are beginning to get pricey. They are nice for Photoshop though.

4. Unless you really want the highest version of the SSW that it can support (Mac OS 7.6.1 or possibly even Mac OS 8.1), I would stick with System 7.1. It uses fewer resources, which leaves more resources for coding. Furthermore, you can install up to Open Transport 1.3 on System 7.1. If your version of CodeWarrior is happy with System 7.1, I think that you will find that this is a sweet spot for development and performance. I see the Iici as a System 6 machine. it is a fast System 6 machine.

To download the versions of the system software, again try the Macintosh Garden. Burn this onto a CD if you can: https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/apple-legacy-software-recovery-cd
It contains all of the versions of the Mac OS up to Mac OS 7.6.1 and is bootable. It can be burned on a modern machine (if you have a burner). Obviously, you will an external SCSI CD-ROM/burner for your IIci.

For the sake of performance, get yourself a SCSI2SD or equivalent. It will greatly speed up disk I/O.
Stock up on RAM: 32MB should be more than enough.
The raSCSI, as mentioned above, is a good idea. I use a Mac Mini G4 running Mac OS 9.2.2 as my classic mac LAN server. It is very useful for situations such as these
Otherwise, install Basilisk II