Retro Computing Corner: Classic Mac Edition
SmellyGeekBoy
I once had quite a sizeable collection of retro computing gems, but with me finding myself strapped for cash and a move to a new house imminent last year, I flogged a lot of them off on eBay. I did pretty well for myself too, but there are always a few classic machines that one can’t bear to part with, and these all-in-one Macs have to rank pretty highly on any collector’s list.
First up, we have my beloved Macintosh SE. The SE was introduced in 1987 for the princely sum of $2900, or $3900 with a 20MB hard drive (this one is the more expensive hard drive model). I’ve also upgraded it to 4MB of RAM, and luckily it came with an Ethernet card of some sort.
Unluckily, it doesn’t actually seem to work. Oh well.
The SE is powered by the Motorola 68000 processor (what wasn’t in those days?) running at 8MHz. This one’s currently sporting System 7.0.1, and has Sid Meier’s Pirates! installed. These Macs are ten-a-penny and make pretty nice doorstops, or Macquariums.
More SE info on LowEndMac. Buy an SE on ebay.
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On to the SE/30. The SE/30 is widely regarded as being the best of the classic Macs, as it sports a Motorola 68030 running at 16MHz. It also has a 68882 co-processor and is upgradable to 128MB of RAM (with a ROM upgrade). This one’s currently rockin’ 8MB, which is more than enough.
The SE/30 was $6500 brand new and came as standard with a 40 or 80MB hard drive, but this one has since been upgraded to a roomier 2GB. It’s currently suffering from the dreaded SimasiMac fault, so I’ll have to replace some capacitors on the motherboard soon. Oh well, it’s not a particularly hi-tech bit of kit.
I’m currently running the original System 6.0.3 on the 30, as I was fortunate enough to get all of the original floppies and manuals with it. This model was replaced by the Mac Classic in 1992, which was only 60% as powerful and wasn’t upgradeable. In its defense, it was less than a sixth of the price of its predecessor.
More about the SE/30 on LowEndMac. Buy an SE/30 on ebay.
Fascinating factoid of the day: System 6 was entirely written in 68000 assembly language. A lot of System 7 was written in Pascal.
OK, so that’s two facts. But really, Pascal!?
…And here’s an interesting article on the evolution of Mac OS.
Please tell me you didn’t fork out $3900 for your Mac SE?
Yep, when I was 3 years old. I was a child business prodigy.
Well not you, but family-wise.
Oh no. We had a 386 PC, then an Atari ST, then a 486, as well as various games consoles. My cousin had a Colour Classic though, which I thought was the absolute shit.
My Mac SE actually cost me £7 on ebay. The SE/30 was £40 as it wasn’t working when I got it (they usually go for over £100).