Great deals DO still exist. I just bought a Mac 512k with a Levco MonsterMac 2MB + SCSI upgrade for $50!

[Huxley]

They might not be quite as plentiful as in years past, but great deals do still exist! I found this semi-rough but functional Mac 512k at a local junk shop today - it was priced at $60 but they accepted a $50 offer.

Although it did not come with a keyboard and mouse, it DID come with something very unusual inside, which I’ve always wanted to play with: a Levco MonsterMac 2MB + SCSI upgrade! There were a variety of RAM and SCSI upgrades offered for these 1st / 2nd gen Macs, but the MonsterMac always stood out to me, both for its clever design, and for its cooler-than-average name. Excited to get this monstrous machine fixed up!



Huxley

 

[Byrd]

Nice - is that the one with the ROM upgrade and Happy Mac (with fangs) icon?

 

[Huxley]

Nice - is that the one with the ROM upgrade and Happy Mac (with fangs) icon?

Great question! I'm not entirely sure - I powered it up briefly at the store and it did flash a Happy Mac, but the rest of the boot sequence was a bizarre image of just a bunch of crazy black-and-white scribbles. It did get to a desktop after ~30 seconds of the weird 'art,' at which point I powered it down and bought it. I'll have to fire it up again tomorrow and pay more attention to what the details!

H.

 

[JC8080]

I found this article on the MonsterMac upgrade in the May 1986 issue of Apple User (link), page 16. I always think it's interesting to read old articles about products that were new at the time.

 

[Juror22]

I always think it's interesting to read old articles about products that were new at the time.

Me too - in fact I'm pretty upset with you right now since it looks like I'm going to spend a lot of my evening reading the rest of this magazine as well!

Current thread from our marketplace that references a MonsterMac...
https://68kmla.org/bb/index.php?threads/1984-macintosh-must-go.47019/

 

[RepairManiac]

Awesome score!!! And you negotiated a lower price to boot - WOW I’m impressed
I have to practice my poker face a lot more.

 

[Huxley]

Awesome score!!! And you negotiated a lower price to boot - WOW I’m impressed
I have to practice my poker face a lot more.

Thanks! In all honesty I wasn't even really planning to haggle (I would've happily paid the $60 asking price even without the Monster Mac upgrade), but the clerk at the counter casually commented that it had been there for a couple weeks and hadn't sold, "probably because it's damaged on the corner," I figured there was no harm in asking if they might drop the price a little. He seemed happy to incentivize me to walk out with it

H.

 

[ArmorAlley]

Well done!

 

[RepairManiac]

Gotcha , so it was a WIN-WIN for everyone! Even better

 

[CC_333]

Good find!

May I ask where and what name is this "local junk shop"?

If by chance it's the one I think it is, I got a decent looking PM8500/180 there last year for a very decent price.

If, however, it's a different one, I want to check it out, as there aren't too many stores like that left anymore, especially around here.

c