Next week, I'll be in 7 Heaven!

[bjornkeizers]

Man oh man - did I have a good week!

Early this week, I purchased a PowerPC 7600/132 off Marktplaats; the Dutch version of Ebay/Craig's List. It is a bit of a gamble, since the seller didn't have a monitor to test it. I don't have one either, so I'm currently waiting on a Apple-to-VGA adapter to test out the machine. I'm sure it'll be fine. It gives the lovely single bootup chime, followed by an OS 'ding' a while later. Probably a date-and-time-is-gone-time-to-replace-PRAM notice.

I also just bought a recently cleaned and guaranteed working Performa 400 / LCII. I was hesitant to pick it up since I obviously own some far better machines like my G3 and the new PPC... but I just wanted it for the collection anyway It's a Dutch seller as well, so I expect to have it on my rack by wednesday or so.

I also managed to 'liberate' (steal) some old cables from the radio station where I work. We recently ditched some old equipment like old CRT's and some cabling. Sadly, we were never a Mac company. There were a few servicable CRT's in there, but they were mostly off-brand, lacking cables or with the wrong kind of plugs. I did manage to find a really nice VGA cable and some wacky 9/15 pin serial cables in two different configurations. I'm sure they'll come in handy one day

What's more... oh yes. Apple iMac Yum poster from Ebay! I recently added an Indigo iMac G3 to the collection. I really enjoy colorful artwork, so I figure an appropriate iMac poster would look pretty neat in my office. Hoping to receive that one next week; it's coming from the US.

All in all, I have a good week ahead of me. Plenty of arrivals and some cool 'new' gear to test.

 

[coius]

I have an LC II. It's pretty neat, even if horribly crippled (16 bit bus on a 32 Bit CPU? *Blech*)

. Do yourself a favor. Max the RAM and the VRAM (10MB and 512KB Appropriately), put a fast hard drive in it, and try and see if you can clock-chip it.

You can get ethernet cards relatively cheap on ebay for it. I have such one in my LC II and it works great.

I am going to be implementing a new server in my little server harem (PowerBook 540c Web server (http://coius.info:8080/) MAGI (http://coius.info:8081/)) and I think it's going to be my PowerMac 6500. I will use it for old classic software and the like. if you do something like that with the LC II, it would work slowly, or you can use the ethernet to access the network. That way you can load your software onto any machine you work with.

otherwise, use your 7600 as the server.

I would try running Marathon I on it if you can and see what it does. I think I am going to try that on mine. Looks fun and am downloading it right now. I will let you know how it works out (It requires a 68020) and maybe it will work ok so I will report back. Otherwise, try to find something like Oregon Trail or the like and start playing games. It's gotta be good for something!

 

[bjornkeizers]

Haha, yeah, I'm definitely planning on tinkering a bit with these machines. I honestly don't have a real purpose in mind for either of them. But occasionally it does help to have a certain configuration of OS & hardware to work on some other things. For example when I need to format a floppy in a Mac format. Can't do that with my 2011 iMac or any recent PC for that matter. Buying these old clunkers means I'll always have something to get the job done.

Besides, most of the fun in owning old machines is getting them to work halfway decent in the first place. Finding a use for them is a secondary concern at best

 

[olePigeon]

LC II isn't useless, even with all its limitations. It makes a perfect machine for an Apple IIe card. That's what I use mine for.

 

[bjornkeizers]

I've never heard of those. Did some Googling, and sounds like a cool little add-on. Will have to see if I can fine one for sale...

 

[amatecha]

dude, I think that iMac "Yum" poster is not a genuine one... if that's a pic of what you ordered. the official Apple one says "Yum." Also it doesn't have the Apple logo above the "Think different" text...

Well, maybe it's really made by Apple , but I feel really doubtful about it. hehhe... anyone know for sure?

 

[LCGuy]

I agree - I have a couple of genuine ones, and they are different in the ways you describe. Furthermore, the "Think Different" is smaller.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Cool! A new hobby! :beige: Collecting bogus Mac paraphernalia! :lol:

My favorite eBay scam would be the hardware store "rubber feets" genuine replacement parts. :

 

[bjornkeizers]

No, no, that's not the one I ordered; it's just an image that I plucked from Google Images I did notice there are a few variants of this poster; and there are some similar desktop wallpapers floating around as well. It's not difficult to fake one. I know the originals come in several sizes as well; I've seen smaller 22x28 ones, and mine is a 36x24 inch.

The Ebay seller posted this pic:

... which looks identical to the one on MissingBite.com

So all in all, I have good reason to suspect that mine is the genuine article. The seller has excellent feedback and sold a few before. Also, it was cheap compared to the one from MissingBite! Heck, even if it is a repro, I can live with that if it looks decent enough. It's not the Mona Lisa or anything.

Oh, good news by the way. The Performa 400 showed up a few days ago; looking and working excellent! I had to order a seperate VGA adapter and bought a period-correct ADB keyboard / mouse combo to go with it. Boots just fine and works like a charm.

 

[LCGuy]

Thats much more like it

 

[bjornkeizers]

Haha, I'm glad it pleases you m'lord

I was just futzing around with the new keyboard & mouse on the 7600; works great so far. I do need to reinstall the OS on that one; it's giving a Finder error with the usual "You need to find a restore CD to fix me" dialog. So I'm currently... sourcing... some recovery / install media to get it working again. We'll see if I can get that working somewhere this weekend.

 

[bjornkeizers]

Good news: the poster arrived, and it's genuine.

Bad news is: it's the 22x28 instead of the 36x24 model that was advertised. Even though I got a nice deal on it, I had to leave negative feedback for the Ebay seller. Good thing I didn't order a frame for it straight away.

Still, it's a great poster! There's only the tiniest of marks in the bottom right corner near the edge. I went over it with a 5x loupe to check out the printing and other details, and it's flawlessly sharp. I'm convinced it's the real deal

After it arrived and passed muster, I ordered a frame for it. A nice glass-front model with black aluminium square edges.

 

[amatecha]

I'm jealous... I love that poster! I gotta get myself a print of it someday...

 

[ClassicHasClass]

Got one of the Yum posters myself. Next to find: one of the old Power Computing kick a$$ ones.