RARE: Original Macintosh found!!

From: John Rollins <rexstout_at_uswest.net>
Date: Tue Apr 27 11:28:16 1999

>No mention of memory size. But I would guess that it doesn't mention the
>memory size because no size other than 128K was contemplated; i.e. this is
>an original Mac. Any other way to check? BTW, were the "Programmer's
>switches" (Interrupt and Reset) de-emphasized after the original Mac? My
>Mac Plus has the same microswitches inside the case, but I had never heard
>of them before.
Programmers switches are fairly common. My IIvx had them built in right at
the front, older models like the II, SE, Plus had to have a plastic tab
stuck in the side to hit the small switches on the motherboard. Very useful
item, especially for programmers. Or anyone that often crashes their
computer. Newer computers like the PowerMac 6500 I'm using now don't really
have switches, it's in the software. Hold down the command key and hit the
power key is interrupt, command-control-power is reset. It helps a LOT if
you have MacsBug installed(in one of the developers dirs at ftp.apple.com,
6.5.3 for older machines, 6.5.4a? for MacOS 8)


>This system is a bit of a puzzle. As I understand it, a single drive
>original Mac was almost unusable, due to lack of RAM and the need for
>frequent disk swaps. So I would expect mint condition. However, this system
>(Mac, mouse, KB, Imagewriter printer) shows some signs of wear, even though
>it was never upgraded to 512K, and there was no second drive with the system.
Ha! Not quite unusable, but VERY close. I managed to get on a few BBS's
with MacTerminal, a Mac 128 and an old 300 baud Apple modem. Only ones I
could get into were two C-64's and a TI-99 that were all using 2400bps
modems. Only things that would talk to a 300bps modem. As long as you don't
mind waiting about 30 seconds to download each screen. And MacWrite (and
MacDraw) were very useable, as long as you printed it out and didn't save
too many files on the disk.

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Received on Tue Apr 27 1999 - 11:28:16 BST

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