Macintosh Memories & Nostalgia

[MattGiaco]

The other day, I stumbled upon video of Steve Jobs introducing the Macintosh to the world in 1984. As much as I hate to admit it, my eyes started to swell with tears. The original Mac cute, especially compared to the heavy steel boxes of the day, whose interface was C. It also had a personality all it's own. Even Steve Jobs referred to it as "Macintosh" and not "the Macintosh".

A large part of my childhood was spent using early Macs. I remember how amazed I was by the "eep" and "quack" alert sounds. Compared to the best beep a PC had to offer, it was amazing. I remember sticking floppy disks in just so I could eject them (hey, it was fun). I remember my grandmother suggesting that I use a typewriter rather than a computer to type a report. After all, she thought, the typewriter printed nicely compared to the dot-matrix printers of the day. Boy was she suprised when I brought home a report that I typed on a Mac (probably an LC at that point) and printed on a LaserWriter.

BTW, what ever happend to the flying toaster screensaver?

And now, I sit in front of a work of art called the iMac. It's an amazing machine, but it doesn't seem to have the same personality as the original Macintosh. Or maybe, it's history, nostalgia and my memory playing tricks on me.

 

[cwa107]

riter.

BTW, what ever happend to the flying toaster screensaver?

Flying Toaster Screensaver


Although we used Macs at school, after the Commodore 64, I graduated to the Amiga which was really impressive. It made the Mac look like a toy, back in the day.

 

[MattGiaco]

Although we used Macs at school, after the Commodore 64, I graduated to the Amiga which was really impressive. It made the Mac look like a toy, back in the day.

I went to a technical arts high school for video/television production. I spent my share of time using the Amiga both as a CG, along with endless hours using Video Toaster. Compared to PC's running Windows 3.x at the time, they were amazing.

I also had a Commodore 64 at home (it was the only thing we could afford), on which I spent hours loading programs and reading the BASIC code to disect them and write programs of my own.

Neither the Amiga or the C64 would quack at you, though!

 

[dtravis7]

Flying Toaster Screensaver


Although we used Macs at school, after the Commodore 64, I graduated to the Amiga which was really impressive. It made the Mac look like a toy, back in the day.

Yeah I went the same route. The Amiga was impressive at Multitasking and Audio/Video, WAY ahead of it's time in those areas, but I always liked the GUI better on Mac OS. The Amiga's GUI got better with upgrades to the OS but in the very beginning looked cheap to me. By the time of the Amiga 3000 though it was a lot better. I was amazed just how much work I could do on a little Amiga 500 with that 7.14 Mhz 68000 CPU! The multitasking was amazing.

 

[Brown Study]

I remember how amazed I was by the "eep" and "quack" alert sounds.

I copied the sounds from OS 9 and stuck 'em in OS X's System library Sounds folder, so I have them in both. I also downloaded Sound Player that treats them like the old snd resource, and they play with a double click, just as in days of yore.

Let me know if you want any.

 

[johntalin]

This was my first freelance studio at home. I don't remember what model Mac this was. I had a second hand scanner and a top of the line HP Laser Printer ($3,000 at the time).

 

[dtravis7]

This was my first freelance studio at home. I don't remember what model Mac this was. I had a second hand scanner and a top of the line HP Laser Printer ($3,000 at the time).

That is a Mac IICI or IICX. The Ci had a 25Mhz 68030 and the Cx a 16Mhz. I Still have my IICi with 48 Megs RAM. Still works great also. That pic brings back a lot of good memories of the old days!!

Later they took that case and turned it sideways and called it a Quadra 700. It had a 68040 @25Mhz. Was a fast system when it came out. Took on my early Pentium 75 at the time.

 

[johntalin]

That sir is a Mac IICI or IICX. The Ci had a 25Mhz 68030 and the Cx a 16Mhz.

Still don't remember exactly, but I had the better of the two at that time. That would be the first one, I guess.
Mac 2CI, Mac 2CI, Mac 2CI...
OMG, it sounds familiar, now. Makes me feel old.

 

[cwa107]

This was my first freelance studio at home. I don't remember what model Mac this was. I had a second hand scanner and a top of the line HP Laser Printer ($3,000 at the time).

Believe it or not, that's still not a bad little printer. Looks like a LaserJet 4 or 4 Plus. I actually have one of these in my basement with a JetDirect card, plugged into my home network. I think it does less than 10PPM, but it works just fine and requires very little maintenance. It was slated to be decommissioned at work, so I gave it a good home. Over 500,000 pages, and it still works like a charm. Mine has a manufactured date of 1992! You don't see too much in the way of tech equipment still in use after 15 years

 

[johntalin]

Believe it or not, that's still not a bad little printer. Looks like a LaserJet 4 or 4 Plus. I actually have one of these in my basement with a JetDirect card, plugged into my home network. I think it does less than 10PPM, but it works just fine and requires very little maintenance. It was slated to be decommissioned at work, so I gave it a good home. Over 500,000 pages, and it still works like a charm. Mine has a manufactured date of 1992! You don't see too much in the way of tech equipment still in use after 15 years

It was a LaserJet 4M, M for Macintosh. I had an Apple Talk feature added. When I bought my G4 everything was still compatible with a help of a Belkin cable and some adjustments. But, it was not compatible with OSX. Bummer!
I always donate my old computers and printers to a nearby school. And, if they don't need it, I take them to a charity called Goodwill. The tech people there are glad to fix anything.

 

[cwa107]

It was a LaserJet 4M, M for Macintosh. I had an Apple Talk feature added. When I bought my G4 everything was still compatible with a help of a Belkin cable and some adjustments. But, it was not compatible with OSX. Bummer!
I always donate my old computers and printers to a nearby school. And, if they don't need it, I take them to a charity called Goodwill. The tech people there are glad to fix anything.

You can actually change that AppleTalk card out with a JetDirect card. OS X does have drivers for that printer via GIMP-PRINT (AKA Gutenprint). It works great. I use it for quick prints (like recipes or driving directions) rather than burn through ink on my Canon MP500. I'm quite happy with it.

EDIT: The 4M model is almost identical to a standard 4, it's just that it's got an AppleTalk card. Either way, it should work just fine with the 4 driver as it uses standard PCL.

 

[johntalin]

You can actually change that AppleTalk card out with a JetDirect card. OS X does have drivers for that printer via GIMP-PRINT (AKA Gutenprint). It works great. I use it for quick prints (like recipes or driving directions) rather than burn through ink on my Canon MP500. I'm quite happy with it.

EDIT: The 4M model is almost identical to a standard 4, it's just that it's got an AppleTalk card. Either way, it should work just fine with the 4 driver as it uses standard PCL.

*sobbing* Mine is gone now and I did not know all this info. at that time. My decision to give it away was pretty easy, though when I considered that the local school could use it (I got a donation receipt for a miserable tax deduction). I thought it was time to get a color printer, anyway. The ink cartridge for 4M was $75 each.
Note: My friends were laughing at me for trying to make an old printer like that to work.