Got a Macintosh! Now What?

[MacintoshSE1987]

So I got a Macintosh SE recently! I'm very excited to use it, but I still wonder: what should be done with it? I know about the fact that you can use an Ethernet card and search things on Action Retro's Frogfind or 68k.news, and also get a printer to send passive aggressive messages to Carol in accounting, or make it an Aquarium if you're high. So, what I'm looking for are tips to make a Mac as productive as possible.

This is the picture from the eBay seller that I got it from. Haven't been able to open
it up because I don't have a "Mac-Cracker" screwdriver, so don't ask me about the background.

 

[LaPorta]

I wasn’t high, but one I have was turned into a Macquarium….but it was the late 90s.

Hopefully you can locate a screwdriver, they are around. In my experience, no other tools are necessary to separate the case, just a bit of strength and friction from your hands.

 

[MacintoshSE1987]

I like that term...Macquarium. Also, thanks for the tip on opening Compact Macs.
I think you know that you'd have to be high to make a Macquarium out of a working Mac. Maybe a broken one though...

 

[ClassicGuyPhilly]

Macquarium's were the big craze at the end of the 1990s/early 2000s when the Compacts were completely obsolete and held no significant monetary value.

I can't imagine anyone making one today given even non- functioning Compacts are still considered collectible and worth a few bucks

 

[MacintoshSE1987]

I'll give you that...

 

[ClassicGuyPhilly]

If you're looking at the SE as the beginning of a hobby, you might consider a later machine to use as a bridge box for the SE.

A mid-90s PPC with a floppy, printer port, and RJ-45 Ethernet could be used to download software and transfer over to the SE. I have a PM 7500 for this purpose and use a printer cable to transfer via AppleTalk.

Check out macintoshgarden.org and macintoshrepository.org, as well as machut.net

 

[MacintoshSE1987]

Thanks. I found an Imagewriter II to use with my new* Macintosh SE on eBay. I talked to the seller and he said it should work. All I need is some ribbon. The seller said that he would throw in some paper if he could find it. Would you happen to know where I could get some ribbon for said printer?

 

[MacintoshSE1987]

Also, I noticed that my status went from new member to member. I'm no longer a greenhorn*!
*JK, I still am learning about how forums work

 

[LaPorta]

Note, this is a six-pack:

Amazon.com

 

[Byte Knight]

A BlueSCSI wifi will give you HD emulation and let you have wireless network access. An external PiSCSI can do the same and also let you easily set up a netatalk (AppleTalk) file server which makes it a breeze getting files to the SE from a modern Mac. And it will also let you print over your network to modern printers. This is the ultimate setup in my mind.

 

[MacintoshSE1987]

Note, this is a six-pack:

Amazon.com

Thanks

 

[joshc]

If you're looking at the SE as the beginning of a hobby, you might consider a later machine to use as a bridge box for the SE.

So in order to make an SE productive, you have to get another Mac. I see what you are doing.

And in order to make the bridge machine more useful, you need to have other Macs to connect to it.

 

[cheesestraws]

Well, what would you like to do with it?

HyperCard is good fun. If you want to write more formal software, you can use things like Think C or Think Pascal: I personally find these machines a lot of fun to code for.

Networking is pretty cool on these machines too: all Macs have built-in LocalTalk networking, which is slow but period-correct. Ethernet cards and SCSI ethernet devices can be a bit expensive but will work - scuznet is a modern one that is pretty decent. You can get WiFi SCSI devices too - ZuluSCSI will do it, and so will BlueSCSI if you like poor quality engineering produced by questionable salespeople, but personally I think WiFi is overrated if you want to do anything vaguely period. If all you want is to browse websites and go 'cool, I can browse websites', they'll work fine, but I've always found that rather underwhelming, personally - I've got other things I can browse the internet on equally inconveniently. More interesting networking things don't reliably work properly over WiFi.

You can get I/O cards or boxes that will give you GPIO kind of like the raspberry pi's - I have a card in one of my SEs from National Instruments that was really cheap - or you can also get serial boxes that will do similar. @Phipli is probably the resident expert on these.

Personally, I find these machines interesting because of the confluence of the early GUIs and early ad-hoc networking, and the start of end-user connectivity - but your mileage will very likely vary.

 

[MacintoshSE1987]

Well, what would you like to do with it?

HyperCard is good fun. If you want to write more formal software, you can use things like Think C or Think Pascal: I personally find these machines a lot of fun to code for.

Networking is pretty cool on these machines too: all Macs have built-in LocalTalk networking, which is slow but period-correct. Ethernet cards and SCSI ethernet devices can be a bit expensive but will work - scuznet is a modern one that is pretty decent. You can get WiFi SCSI devices too - ZuluSCSI will do it, and so will BlueSCSI if you like poor quality engineering produced by questionable salespeople, but personally I think WiFi is overrated if you want to do anything vaguely period. If all you want is to browse websites and go 'cool, I can browse websites', they'll work fine, but I've always found that rather underwhelming, personally - I've got other things I can browse the internet on equally inconveniently. More interesting networking things don't reliably work properly over WiFi.

You can get I/O cards or boxes that will give you GPIO kind of like the raspberry pi's - I have a card in one of my SEs from National Instruments that was really cheap - or you can also get serial boxes that will do similar. @Phipli is probably the resident expert on these.

Personally, I find these machines interesting because of the confluence of the early GUIs and early ad-hoc networking, and the start of end-user connectivity - but your mileage will very likely vary.

Definitely more office type things. I'm probably going to get MS-BASIC on a floppy and have some fun there. I'm also looking at an Imagewriter II for the same reasons. As @joshc says in this forum actually, I should get another Mac. I get the idea, but I don't plan on needing any document transfers from Mac to Mac.

 

[cheesestraws]

I'm probably going to get MS-BASIC on a floppy and have some fun there

If you're going to play with BASIC, I'd strongly recommend playing with HyperCard too. It's kind of the Mac cultural equivalent of BASIC on other micros - MS BASIC was never really very big.

I'm also looking at an Imagewriter II for the same reasons.

ImageWriters are very satisfying . If I had the room to have one up, I would...

 

[MacintoshSE1987]

If you're going to play with BASIC, I'd strongly recommend playing with HyperCard too. It's kind of the Mac cultural equivalent of BASIC on other micros - MS BASIC was never really very big.



ImageWriters are very satisfying . If I had the room to have one up, I would...

Thanks for letting me know about Hypercard. I will look into it. But I have to disagree. I've had a good experience on MS-BASIC on an emulator called Infinite Mac. https://infinitemac.org/

 

[cheesestraws]

I've had a good experience on MS-BASIC on an emulator called Infinite Mac

Yeah, sorry - I meant - it wasn't culturally omnipresent on the Mac in the same way that it was on other microcomputers of the era, not that you couldn't have fun with it. Have fun with whatever you like

 

[MacintoshSE1987]

Something I am looking at to achieve the office-style use of my Macintosh is called "C.A.T. by Chang Labs." Look it up on Macintosh Repository. I wrote the description for the download, actually. Also, do any of y'all have a good way to burn Macintosh-Compatible floppies (400K).

 

[MacintoshSE1987]

Yeah, sorry - I meant - it wasn't culturally omnipresent on the Mac in the same way that it was on other microcomputers of the era, not that you couldn't have fun with it. Have fun with whatever you like

I figured that. Thanks for apologizing anyways.

 

[s_pupp]

So in order to make an SE productive, you have to get another Mac. I see what you are doing.

And in order to make the bridge machine more useful, you need to have other Macs to connect to it.

You could go down that rabbit hole, as many of us have done, but if you can source enough original floppy disks, you don't have to. My stock Mac Plus was my only computer for nine years. WriteNow, MacWrite, MacPaint, Microsoft Multiplan, Microsoft QuickBasic, Epyx Rogue, Wizardry, and Dark Castle all got plenty of use during that period of time.