Mac 512K, upgrading to Ke standard.

[sigtau]

I have an original 512K and I'd like to see if it's possible to get it up to 512Ke standards (800K floppies, etc).

Would I need to simply transplant Plus or Ke ROMs into the 512K, or is there more involved?  Furthermore, is it even possible/practical?

 

[Gorgonops]

Swap in Plus ROMs and an appropriate 800k drive. It's just that easy!

 

[sigtau]

Excellent!  Thank you for the insight.  Whatever I end up sticking with I'll make sure the 64k ROMs remain safe as those seem to be the more valuable piece between the two.

 

[Dog Cow]

The upgrade to Mac 512Ke in 1986 cost about $300 from Apple, which included dealer installation. You got the new 128K ROM, the 800K double-sided drive, a manual, and a Mac Plus System Tools disk. I believe the dealer kept your old 400K drive and 64K ROM set.

 

[Gorgonops]

Off the top of my head the *one* detail I can think of that you might need to watch out for is the 800k drive might take a different cable than the 400k one. Presumably you'll be getting your 800k ROM and disk drive from a donor Plus, make sure you take the cable too.

 

[Gorgonops]

The upgrade to Mac 512Ke in 1986 cost about $300 from Apple, which included dealer installation.

And this is an excellent reason why non-"e" 512ks are so rare today. For anyone who was actually *using* their Macintosh verses giving up on it and stuffing it in the closet there really wasn't any good reason not to upgrade and plenty of good reasons *to* do it. There's only a tiny subset of software that doesn't run on a 512ke and I believe most of the incompatibilities involve oddball copy protection techniques that involved messing with the drive speed on the 400k drive, not ROM problems.

 

[Mac128]

This might be helpful as well:

http://68kmac.com/Mac128/Mac_128_Update/Entries/2007/9/1_Formatting_800K_MFS_Disks_With_64K_ROMs.html