The Mac 512 - Classic Macintosh Navigation
Today (January 24, 2009) Macintosh is 25 years old! Happy Silver Birthday Macintosh!
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Life with a few “bad” Apples
Top 10 lists of bad Apples, top 5 Road Apples, the number 1 worst Mac ever. These lists go on and on. The Mac 512 has not ever published anything of this sort as we believe that every Macintosh has a place and a purpose. Some for their innovation only, some for their low cost, and others for getting something out the door sooner than later. The PC market can affect a company and the decision to rush out a product earlier then they should of. Here are some of my favorite Macs that I own in my collection that others deem “bad”.
Mac TV - This Mac really is a version of the “all in one” form factor of Macintoshes. Apple crammed in a CRT on top of the drives and the logic board. The Mac TV had the Apple Video Kit installed so radio and TV stations could be tuned in. The same hardware is part of the 20th Anniversary Macintosh and available separately for other Macintoshes including my Performa 640CD DOS Compatible.
Power Mac G4 Cube - This Mac is really a powerhouse (at the time) in a small and quiet form factor. The beauty is the small spaces you put this Mac into. This had the same G4 power as the Power Mac G4/500, at a higher price ($3,699). I personally upgraded a Color Classic with the G4 Cube.
(20th) Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh (TAM) - This Mac was released for Apple’s 20th Birthday, not Macintosh’s 20th birthday. Still a magnificent piece of hardware. The TAM was the first Mac desktop that had a LCD screen. Technically underpowered, but the TAM had enough power to run almost anything including my favorite Mac game from back then, Lords of the Realm II Siege Pack. The sound is spectacular, and the hardware and software integration with the TV and radio system is great.
Color Classic & Color Classic II - Another Mac model that others think as a less powered Mac. The space saving design is popular in Japan. The Color Classic (and Color Classic II) were the last classic Mac designed. the 10” CRT screen was a big improvement. Remember look at The Mac 512’s Color Classic pages to see how to upgrade your CC with a different logic board that will work from a different Mac model.
Power Macintosh 4400 - What can I say about this Macintosh, it was sold as a Business Macintosh according to the box I have. It came with an internal GeoPort communication device (Speakerphone, modem, and fax), in a PC-style of case. This was Apple’s first foray into building a “cheap” or low cost PC-style of system. Did it work? Kinda. As least it came with the popular business office package, MS Office.
Macintosh 128K - The original Mac was hindered by expensive memory prices back in 1984. True, that 512K of RAM is exactly what the Mac 128K needed. Prices fell not fast enough that the Mac 512K replaced the 128K model only 20 months later. Back in 1984 most PCs has 64K of RAM and 180K of disk drive space; the Mac 128K had 128K of RAM and 400K of disk drive space. For it’s time, it was the most state of the art PC out there.
I hope you enjoyed The Mac 512’s opinion on these Macs that were put out exactly then Apple needed them to be out.
G.
The Mac 512
Thank you to http://wipeout44.com/ for the fireworks tutorial
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