Schmoburger
Well-known member
SO I have been thinking lately now that I'm back into the old Macs after so many years, wouldn't it be awsome to have one of my old favourites from the pre-PPC era connected to the present day interwebs. I've had 68k hardware connected over a basic proxy server arrangement via LAN to my PC's dialup and later my parents broadband connection early in the century, however the internet was a vastly different, html-dominated place back then with Flash and Java being fairly basic and limited in their usage as compared to the complex Java- and Flash-heavy landscape of 2013.
ANyway, it was tonight that Retro Challenge crossed my mind and I began to think about taking the concept a bit further... Getting a 68k machine not only connected, but replace my modernish machines entirely with it for an entire month in all their capacities... Email, forums, general web-browsing, music playback, CD burning even if the need arose.
So, having done a bit more thinking, I decided I was going to exclude Facebook and other social networking media from this equation as i have rarely ever used my actual computer for those anyway (mobile version and smartphone apps are far more streamlined when they work properly than the clunky, ad-filled, confusing desktop browser-based version), and they didnt really exist in an era where 68k macs were still revelant. Aside from that tho, everything else would be done using system 7 and 68k hardware. That means accessing my ISP email box, viewing 68kmla and other forums, updating my blog (hopefully.. but doubtful), playing back music either via CD or by accessing my mp3 library on the G4 via LAN (assuming that the machine has the power to decode mp3's smoothly and i can find a player and/or codec for system 7 to play them, word processing, browsing, ebay... anything i would normally do on the G4.
Having put some thought into possible machines in my collection to do the challenge with, I have pretty much reached a shortlist of the most suitable candidates comprising the LC575, Performa 580CD, Color Classic, and LCIII, all of which are easily LANable with a PDS ethernet adapter which I have plenty of...
At this stage the LC575 is seeming the most suitable as it has the fastest CPU, a 33mhz '040, decent stereo speakers, is self contained and has a 14" Sony Trinitron display which is far clearer than the Samsung in the mostly identical 580, and much easier on the eyes than the 9 inch on the CC, which is also very much limited in performance without doing a board swap, which is IMO, cheating. As for the LCIII, as well as also being somewhat slower than the LC 575, it also requires a seperate monitor and has a very crap mono speaker that faces downwards. Also, the LC 575 has always been one of my favourite Mac's, and was the second Mac I owned.
Anyway... got some preperations to do but it will happen.
ANyway, it was tonight that Retro Challenge crossed my mind and I began to think about taking the concept a bit further... Getting a 68k machine not only connected, but replace my modernish machines entirely with it for an entire month in all their capacities... Email, forums, general web-browsing, music playback, CD burning even if the need arose.
So, having done a bit more thinking, I decided I was going to exclude Facebook and other social networking media from this equation as i have rarely ever used my actual computer for those anyway (mobile version and smartphone apps are far more streamlined when they work properly than the clunky, ad-filled, confusing desktop browser-based version), and they didnt really exist in an era where 68k macs were still revelant. Aside from that tho, everything else would be done using system 7 and 68k hardware. That means accessing my ISP email box, viewing 68kmla and other forums, updating my blog (hopefully.. but doubtful), playing back music either via CD or by accessing my mp3 library on the G4 via LAN (assuming that the machine has the power to decode mp3's smoothly and i can find a player and/or codec for system 7 to play them, word processing, browsing, ebay... anything i would normally do on the G4.
Having put some thought into possible machines in my collection to do the challenge with, I have pretty much reached a shortlist of the most suitable candidates comprising the LC575, Performa 580CD, Color Classic, and LCIII, all of which are easily LANable with a PDS ethernet adapter which I have plenty of...
At this stage the LC575 is seeming the most suitable as it has the fastest CPU, a 33mhz '040, decent stereo speakers, is self contained and has a 14" Sony Trinitron display which is far clearer than the Samsung in the mostly identical 580, and much easier on the eyes than the 9 inch on the CC, which is also very much limited in performance without doing a board swap, which is IMO, cheating. As for the LCIII, as well as also being somewhat slower than the LC 575, it also requires a seperate monitor and has a very crap mono speaker that faces downwards. Also, the LC 575 has always been one of my favourite Mac's, and was the second Mac I owned.
Anyway... got some preperations to do but it will happen.