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Category: Old Computers and Games

One of my (Steve) hobbies is experimenting with old computers to see if I can get them working, and max out what they are capable of.

Published December 13, 2024

Macintosh LC 630 DOS: MIDI modification

When I originally purchased my LC 630 DOS I had assumed that I could connect a MIDI adapter to the Joystick port like I could for my old PC, but after some reading I found out that wasn’t the case. Luckily someone discovered that you can get MIDI out by directly connecting to pin 30 of the Vibra 16 chip on the DOS compatibility card’s sound card on their Macintosh PPC 6100/66 system, and I believe that the same type of modification can be done for the LC 630 (to be determined, will update after it is done).

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Published March 24, 2024

Apple Service Source CDs and Website

Service Source CDs contain comprehensive troubleshooting and repairing information on Apple products, as well as Apple Authorized Service Provider Program information. They were a primary resource for technicians and administrative personnel about Apple service. These CDs are an extremely useful source of technical details about 80s and 90s Macintosh Systems.

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Published February 25, 2024

Apple’s Information Exchange (1987 to 1989)

The Information Exchange was a collection of marketing program descriptions, tip sheets, Apple event schedules, key Apple contacts, Apple trade-show schedules, and other information. It provided readers with an overview of Apple’s marketing direction, as well as outline specific opportunities that readers could take advantage of to help market their Apple-compatible products.

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Published February 24, 2024

Apple Service Guides (1990 to 1997)

A series of supplemental booklets that help Apple certified technicians troubleshoot and repair Apple products at customer’s sites. The Apple Service Guide series contains information condensed from a number of Apple Service products and sources, it includes only need-to-know information for the experienced technician. These guides to NOT replace the Apple Service Source CD.

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Published February 23, 2024

Apple Service Technical Procedures (1982 to 1992)

From 1982 to 1992 Apple published a significant amount of documentation for use by the technicians and hardware developers who repaired Apple hardware and/or designed new hardware components in the Apple Service Technical Procedures Binders. Includes an extensive amount of diagrams and also part numbers for the various components. In 1992 these binders were replaced by the Apple Service Source CDs and later the Apple Service Source Website.

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Published February 17, 2024

Apple’s Technical Notes and QA 1985 to present

Apple’s Technical Notes and Technical Q&A Notes provide technical information, sample code, and answers to common question for developers of Macintosh hardware and software with references to other Apple documentation such as inside Macintosh. At this time they are still available from Apple in their documentation archive. I’ve made backups of these articles with the assumption that like the Technical Information Library, Apple may as some point delete these files too.

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Published February 17, 2024

Apple’s Information Alley: 1994 May 1st to 1997 March 24th

Information Alley was a bimonthly (twice a month) the electronic newsmagazine published by Apple’s Support Information Services. The goal of the Information Alley was to help Apple computer users get full use of their Apple computers, peripherals, and software. The articles chosen for the Information Alley came from many sources, both from inside Apple Computer and from our customers and users. Sources include Apple’s Technical Information Library, Apple Assistance Center, New Technology Group, World Wide Product Technical Support, Apple Users Groups, and other technical groups and organizations.

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Published February 13, 2024

Apple’s Software Recovery CDs 1999, 2000

The Apple Software Recovery CDs, a four volume set, were designed to provide users with a complete and efficient tool for disaster recovery, software installation, and maintenance. I found these CDs, in addition to Apple’s Developer CDs and Apple’s Restoration CDs, to be extremely useful for setting up my 68k Macintosh Systems and you will see them referenced in many of my guides.

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Published February 9, 2024

Apple’s develop: The Apple Technical Journal 1990 to 1997

Published from January 1990 to March 1997 develop was Apple’s quarterly technical journal that provides information to 3rd-party developers. The journal was intended to lead developers into other reference materials like Inside Macintosh and the Apple IIGS Reference Manual. It did not replace these books, but compliments them and helped the reader identify which sections of those document they many need to study more carefully. Stating in 1998 develop became a section in MacTech, and MacTech’s site also includes HTML versions of the journals.

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Published February 1, 2024

Apple’s Developer CD Series 1989 to 2009

Starting in 1989, following the release of Apple’s first CD-ROM drive in 1988 (the AppleCD SC), Apple began distributing software updates and technical information about it’s products on CD. In addition to downloading these for my own use, I am including links to online sources to make it easier for others to find these CDs and I’ve included links to the relevant Apple Direct/Directions articles that describe the contents of each CD. I have found these CDs incredibly useful for learning about and setting up these old systems.

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Published January 29, 2024

Apple’s Developer Newsletters 1985 to 2008

Starting in 1985 Apple began publishing a Newsletter for Apple Certified Developers. The newsletter was initially called Outside Macintosh, then Outside Apple, then Apple Direct, and finally renamed Apple Directions. These newsletters were available to subscribers of Apple’s Developer Services. I’ve found these newsletters, in addition to TibBITs, and other newsletters on the internet archive to be very useful providing descriptions and timelines for Apple’s products and services.

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Published January 3, 2024

Apple’s First Website: June 1994

When I was looking through Apple’s reference CDs I read a note in the 1997 Service Source v2.5 CD that stated all future documents would only be on Apple’s website. Reading that note made me wonder when Apple launched it’s first website. I thought that would be an easy fact to find, but I’ve yet to find a specific date. So I decided to do some research using the internet archive and wayback machine to see what I could piece together for a timeline of Apple on the internet.

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Published December 20, 2023

Apple’s Technical Information Library (TIL, KB, TA) 1985 to 2018

When writing posts about old Apple hardware I like to include links to relevant Apple Knowledge Base / Technical Information Library articles created during the 80s and 90s. Until recently (2023) these articles were still available on Apple’s Support Site. Earlier this week I discovered that Apple has now removed these old articles from their site (direct links do not work), and they are no longer returned in the search. (Note to reader, if they were simply moved let me know in the comments). So I published the copies I have to the Internet Archive.

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Published December 17, 2023

IDE: Replacing your old IDE drive with a CF2IDE adapter

As part of setting up my LC 630 DOS system I wanted to replace the IDE drive with something faster and more reliable. After some experimentation with various SD2IDE adapters, which I could not get to work, I decided to use a CF2IDE adapter. My first try was with a standard consumer CF card, that didn’t work. So I decided to purchase an Industrial CF card, and that has been working perfectly.

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Published March 12, 2023

SCSI2SD: FAT32 32GB easy edit version

A new, and I think a much easier way to use your SCSI2SD with your Macintosh system. This image file can be used to setup your 32GB card with a FAT32 formatted partition that contains a set of volume files that you can easily mount and edit using Basilisk II, Mini vMac, or some other tool. I created this image file after wondering if I could create something for my SCSI2SD that would be as easy to use as my MacSD. Turns out I could, and then I found out that Andrew over on the MLA beat me to it. This is my version of what he created, his version is formatted exFAT, I decided to use FAT32 and I added more volume files and support for an optional second drive (with 4GB volumes).

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Published July 4, 2022

DaynaFILE SCSI Floppy Disk Drive (5.25″: 360k, 1.2M, 3.5″: 720k, 1.44M)

In the late 90s I picked up a DaynaFile, a SCSI attached floppy drive, with a 360k floppy that someone had thrown out at my work. It sat neglected in a drawer for years until I finally got a power supply to get it working again. Looking around the internet I was able to find a copy of the 2.2 enabler, the 4.1 enabler, a copy of the 5th edition (1989) of the manual, and a brochure (1987), but limited technical information. As usual, I’m using my blog to document what I’ve found and pieced it together so I don’t forget, and to hopefully help others.

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Published June 7, 2022

68k Accelerators, FPUs and other CPUs

Over the years I have been lucky enough to pick up some 68k systems that that had accelerators installed: two MacPlus machines with 68030 accelerators (unlabeled), a SE FDHD with a Mobius 030 SE accelerator, and a collection of NewLife Accelerators. As I dug around the internet looking for information I have found a lot of of advertisements, reviews, and some manuals and drivers for various accelerators, I also found some contact names that I used to track down old employees through LinkedIn (with some success), so I decided to create this post to track what companies I’ve found information about.

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Published June 6, 2022

68k Systems: Researching through the Internet Archive

A lot of the old Macintosh and other electronics I play with as a hobby were long gone before the internet or before the way back machine started archiving the internet in late 1996. Luckily a lot of old computer magazines and documentation can now be found and searched through on the internet archive or on google books. I’ve created this page to help me track my sources, and useful searches that I use for creating this site.

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Published January 24, 2021

ARA 1.0 and Basilisk II: AppleShare file transfers from Windows 10 to a 68k Macintosh using Basilisk II, AppleTalk Remote Access (ARA) 1.0 and a USB/Serial null modem cable

About a year ago I purchased a null modem (serial) cable to let me connect my Apple IIe Card enabled LC 475 to my Apple IIc, and decided I should also test it out as a way to transfer files between my Windows 10 PC (should also work with OSX and Linux) and my Macintosh Plus, it was actually fairly easy. Initially I used it with Zterm, but after a bit of experimentation I got it working with Apple Remote Access Personal Server 2.1 (ARA PS) and can now use Basilisk II to access files using AppleShare and see all the shared devices on my LocalTalk (AppleTalk) network. The speed is still fairly slow, so for larger files I use Basilisk II to edit my drive/volume images, or connect using my Asante SCSI to ethernet adaptor.

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Published January 15, 2021

System 7.1.3: Editing my Macintosh 68k bootable images to add the full version of System 7.1.3 (System 7.1 + System update 3.0)

In my previous blog entries I mentioned that I could not include the full version of System 7.1.3 (System 7.1 + System Update 3.0) with with my drive images due to copyright restrictions, but you can install the full version of the North American version of 7.1 up to 7.1.3 using Apple’s Legacy Software Recovery CD.

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Published January 10, 2021

System 7.0.1: Editing my Macintosh 68k bootable images to add the full version of System 7.0.1

In my previous blog entries I mentioned that I could not include the full version of System 7.0.1 with my drive images due to copyright restrictions, but you can install the full version of the North American version of 7.0.1 using Apple’s Legacy Software Recovery CD.

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Published December 30, 2020

Mini vMac: Using Mini vMac to edit my Macintosh 68k volume image files

One of the most popular features of my site is my ready made System 6.0.8 or System 7.5.5 bootable images for use with 68k Macintosh systems. This entry describes how you can edit my volume images on Windows 10 using Mini vMac (Mini vMac cannot read or modify drive images). You probably know what Mini vMac is, but if not, a quick summary: Mini vMac is an open source emulator of some 68k-based Macintosh computers that runs on Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, Open Indiana, Microsoft Windows Mobile, and some other platforms. I mainly use Mini vMac for working with System 6.x and earlier Systems that aren’t supported by Basilisk II. Once I have everything setup the way I want on the volume image I can use Basilisk II to copy the contents of the volume image to a drive image if needed.

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Published December 29, 2020

MacSD Volumes: Using a MacSD adapter with volume files to setup your 68k Macintosh

I recently purchased a MacSD adapter to try out and see if it’s easier to use than my SCSI2SD adapters, after some experimentation I can say that it is definitely more flexible than the SCSI2SD, specifically the ability to assemble a set of volume images in a directory on your SD card as a drive. You can directly edit the volume files on your SD card using Basilisk II and other emulators and tools for quicker updates. It also allowed me to increase the number of ProDOS volumes for my Apple IIe card, unlike HD SC Setup which limited me to 2 ProDOS portions per drive, I was able to create 6 on a MacSD composite drive (likely more, but 6 is enough for now). You can also use the MacSD with Drive images (similar to SCSI2SD), floppy images and CD-ROM images.

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Published December 17, 2020

IPNetRouter and Basilisk II: Creating an Internet gateway for you 68k Macintosh using Windows 10, Basilisk II, ARA, IPNetRouter and a USB/Serial null modem cable

This entry builds on my entry for how to use Apple Remote Access Personal Server (ARA PS 2.1) to connect Basilisk II to a 68k Macintosh with AppleTalk over a null modem connection. Once that connection has been created between your Macintosh system and modern system running Basilisk II, you can use IPNetRouter to bridge the ARA PS’s AppleTalk connection with Basilisk II’s ethernet connection and surf the web from your Macintosh.

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Published December 15, 2020

ARA 2.1 and Basilisk II: AppleShare file transfers from Windows 10 to a 68k Macintosh using Basilisk II, Apple Remote Access Personal Server 2.1 (ARA PS) and a USB/Serial null modem cable

About a year ago I purchased a null modem (serial) cable to let me connect my Apple IIe Card enabled LC 475 to my Apple IIc, and decided I should also test it out as a way to transfer files between my Windows 10 PC (should also work with OSX and Linux) and my Macintosh Plus, it was actually fairly easy. Initially I used it with Zterm, but after a bit of experimentation I got it working with Apple Remote Access Personal Server 2.1 (ARA PS) and can now use Basilisk II to access files using AppleShare and see all the shared devices on my LocalTalk (AppleTalk) network. The speed is still fairly slow, so for larger files I use Basilisk II to edit my drive/volume images, or connect using my Asante SCSI to ethernet adaptor.

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Published December 12, 2020

Apple IIe games: 4am’s and Alex’s ProDOS Collections on my Apple IIe Card

There has been a lot of work in the Apple II community to port Apple DOS games to ProDOS, with the Apple IIe Card‘s ability to support multiple 32Meg partitions (up to 4 at the same time), I wanted to share the steps I use to get the 4am’s Total Replay Collection and the Alex’s ProDOS game bundle on to my LC475 with my Apple IIe card.

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Published November 25, 2020

Zterm and Basilisk II: file transfers from Windows 10 to a 68k Macintosh using Basilisk II, Zterm and a USB/Serial null modem cable

About a year ago I purchased a null modem (serial) cable to let me connect my Apple IIe Card enabled LC 475 to my Apple IIc, and decided I should also test it out as a way to transfer files between my Windows 10 PC (should also work with OSX and Linux) and my Macintosh Plus, it was actually fairly easy. One of the methods I tried, and the one I use the most, is transferring small files from Basilisk II to my 68k Macintosh. For larger files I use Basilisk II to edit my drive images.

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Published November 23, 2020

BalenaEtcher: Using balenaEtcher to create and write disk images

You can use balaenaEtcher to raw-write my drive image files to an SD or Compact Flash Card, and some other USB attached storage. When you raw-write a file it doesn’t simply copy the file to the target storage media/device it writes the file bit-by-bit on to the target storage media/device removing all existing formatting.

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Published September 7, 2020

Macintosh Plus Upgrades

I’ve been lucky enough to pick up a few upgrades to my classic Macintosh systems over the years, and in the process of hunting down information on those upgrades I’ve come across ads and reviews of a lot of different options that have been produced over the years for a Macintosh Plus, so I thought I’d create this entry to capture some of what I’ve found, and hopefully people will comment on ones I’ve missed.

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Published May 10, 2020

Asante EN/SC: Using Asante EN/SC SCSI to Ethernet with my Macintosh Plus

I’ve finally gotten around to creating drive images for using an Asanté Desktop EN/SC (1996 version), SCSI to Ethernet converter with a Macintosh Plus (once I bought a keyboard from Herb Johnson to replace the ones I had that were lost in a move). I have one of the later versions that draw’s it’s power from the SCSI bus, which caused some issues with the Macintosh Plus.

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