Macintosh II accessories

[CelGen]

I'm well into building the "Total Apple" Mac II setup however I'm not sure what else I'm missing from my system that was then era-specific and was made by Apple.

As the list stands:

-Macintosh IIfx with 16mb ram, 2gb hard drive, RasterOPS video card and other NuBus goodies

-Apple high-resolution 15" monitor

-Apple 5.25" PC floppy drive (with NuBus card)

-Apple CD SC (original model)

-Apple Tape Backup 40SC (repaired pinch roller)

-Apple HD SC 120 (refurbished with another 120mb Apple firmware drive, I guess I could use it for A/UX)

-Apple One scanner (original B/W model)

-Apple LaserWriter II (with IIg upgrade)

-Apple Extended keyboard

-Apple ADB Mouse (the original rectangular one)

I know Apple released a set of speakers later on but did they have anything back in the Mac II days? They must have something else that I'm missing. This was too easy.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

The only thing I would do if you want "ultimate" Macintosh II-with-Apple-parts is to use an 8•24GC video card, it was essentially *THE* IIfx video card. (Or, if you can get your hands on one, a 24AC, which really is just a re-branded Radius - but it is the "ultimate" NuBus Apple-branded video card.)

Obviously, you should have an Ethernet card, too. I don't believe Apple ever made a 10Base-T NuBus Ethernet card, but they do have one with an AUI port and a 10Base-2 port.

Dang, that reminds me that I need to get the NuBus PC Drive card. I have the drive, but not the card.

And, as far as I know, no Macintosh II-era speakers. The earliest speakers I know of were late Quadra-early Power Mac era. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerCD#AppleDesign_Powered_Speakers

 

[LCGuy]

Actually, Apple did rebadge a set of Bose speakers back in the 1980's, but they were actually intended to go with the IIgs, rather than the Mac II.

 

[macman142]

Wouldn't mind seeing pics of this glorious setup? Sounds awesome with all those original/period accessories!

 

[ClassicHasClass]

AF is right. Get a GC, you won't regret it. I regard it as essential for my Mac II series machines.

 

[Unknown_K]

If you have to stick to an Apple branded card then the GC is as good as it gets for an 030 mac II. There are many other options (depending on the color depth, acceleration, resolution, OS revision) out there that work just fine in a IIfx from other brands. I kind of like the Supermac high resolution boards and Rasterop cards with video capture on mac IIfx and IIx machines. Heck a real super user would have a couple monitors and cards anyway, why else get a mac II!

 

[CelGen]

Well, the NuBus cards are the only thing I was letting slip mainly because there were some nice cards that were non-apple and really, you don't see the inside.

Current arrangement is as follows:

-RasterOPS Paintboard

-Apple 5.25" floppy controller (for the external drive)

-Radius PhotoEngine

-Asante EtherMAC network card

-Video Spigot (could swap out for a VideoVision if I wanted)

This is just stuff I pulled out of my massive bin that is overflowing with Nubus cards. I have personally never seen a 8•24GC and I have this feeling they are still quite valueable if what I'm reading up is correct. I'm tempted to put in the last NuBus slot another OrangePC card if I can find one. I got a nice 486 in my 950 right now.

 

[shred]

You haven't included the "must have" accessory for every computer of the time: a modem! Trouble is, the fastest one I recall Apple making was the 1200 baud one - "Apple Modem 1200", I think it was called? By 1990, 2400 bps modems were state of the art, so most IIfx users would have used modems from other manufacturers.

I had a look through some old sales brochures from the time. The closest one I have is for a IIci. It lists an Apple 21" Color display. I don't recall ever seeing one of these beasts. Considering that a 16" display was considered massive at the time, the 21" display would have been exceptionally expensive, heavy and rare.

I remember the Bose speakers. It's not clear in the photo, but while the speakers did not carry an Apple logo, to the left of the letters spelling out "Bose" in the centre of each speaker were six equal length horizontal bars in the Apple colours. The speakers were also very expensive: AU$495.00 if I recall correctly.

 

[LCGuy]

Yeah, I did work experience at an AASP nearly 10 years ago - they actually had a 21" Macintosh Colour Display. Very nice (if I recall they're a Trinitron, basically a bigger version of the 14" and 16"), but also very, very big, and very, very heavy. I never lifted it - but I figure it must have weighed at least as much as a large Australian family sedan.

For what its worth, they actually also had a set of those Bose speakers hooked up to an iMac in the workshop - from memory they actually did have "Bose" in silver, along with the rainbow Apple next to it just like the speakers in that pic. Perhaps there was more than one revision of the speakers?

 

[trag]

Well, the NuBus cards are the only thing I was letting slip mainly because there were some nice cards that were non-apple and really, you don't see the inside.
Current arrangement is as follows:

-RasterOPS Paintboard

-Apple 5.25" floppy controller (for the external drive)

-Radius PhotoEngine

-Asante EtherMAC network card

-Video Spigot (could swap out for a VideoVision if I wanted)

Asante made a 10/100 NuBus ethernet card...

If you get a Radius Thunder IV GX or a Radius Thunder 24GT, then the PhotoEngine card can be a daughter card (if you have a PhotoEngine daughtercard) and not take up its own slot.

SuperMac and E-Machines also made video cards with DSP bearing daughter cards.

 

[CelGen]

You haven't included the "must have" accessory for every computer of the time: a modem!

Oh shoot! I forgot about that.

Hmm, well I own one of the old Apple Modem 300's for my Lisa and I know about the Apple Personal modem but it's not to the Mac II style.

I remember I had one modem way back with my Mac SE that had that Mac II look to it and even had serial passthrough. I have not seen another one since I included it in a trade with my SE for a NeXT cube but I do still have a picture of it.

Reardless of speed, that would look perfect.

I'm not really interested in buying more NuBus video cards (sans for the GC I guess). I already have a mountain of them and I didn't say I wanted to make an Ultimate II system. That would cost a blommin' fortune for some of those parts and so far the total I spent on everything I listed has cost me under $100. I know the higher end Radius Thunder cards can still fetch a bit of money. Photoengine cards are also dirt cheap ($25 each I got my two).

I do also have one of the 10/100 network cards but I find that a bit of a waste on an 030.