JRJ Retro - Classic Macintosh
JRJ Retro - Classic Macintosh
This was my dream machine all through high school. I spent a lot of time playing with a PowerBook 140, and eventually owned my own PowerBook 165, but the 170 was unobtanium. (This machine as speced (with original drive, of course) would have cost just shy of $5,000 new, equivalent to almost $14,000 in today's dollars.) Now it's worth... um... dozens of dollars?
Notice in the images above: It's Y2K compliant! I should be OK until 2042. :-D
I think this is the most beautiful and unique computer Apple has ever made. This was the successor to the iconic G3 CRT iMac, and the first iMac with a LCD screen. They only made it for a couple years, presumably because it was expensive to produce, and because as screens got bigger (and heavier) keeping an elegant arm capable of dealing with more weight would have been difficult (or even more expensive.)
The result was an elegant machine with a touch of whimsy. It always reminded me of Luxo Junior of Pixar fame (indeed, the G4 iMac's name on the network is "LUXO.") The commercial that Apple did for the machine gives you a sense of how much personality it had. I love this machine.
My primary use is old retro games, but I also enjoy using it for distraction-free writing and as an SSH terminal. Occasionally I'll even do some retro internet browsing and connect to some telnet-based BBS services. (And maintain this site in BBEdit.)
TODO: I need to clean up and retrobright the keyboard, which is in perfect condition aside from some severe yellowing. I also want to buff out some scratches in the polycarbonate mouse. Finally, I plan to upgrade the RAM to the max 1 gigabyte, and replace the fan with a modern (read: quiet) Noctua unit.
When I was in elementary school, computer labs were full of Apple II (and eventually IIgs) that were far more powerful than my first computer, a Commodore VIC-20... but eventually, they got their first Macs in the mid-80s, and I was immediately hooked.
In middle school, I was on the yearbook staff, and we used an underpowered Macintosh SE and Aldus pagemaker to put the book together. I couldn't afford to buy a Mac, but I spent hours and hours playaing with them.
In high school, I was in a video production class (my sophmore, junior, and senior years) that had a Mac IIfx that we used for graphics, and a PowerBook 140 that my teacher let me take home on weekends. I had so much fun with that machine, and saved all my money in the hopes of eventually being able to buy one.
During my senior year, I bought a PowerBook 165. It had the performance of the 170 with the passive supertwist screen from the 140. I would have loved a PowerBook 180c or (even better) Duo 280c, but these were more expensive than my car.
That Powerbook basically got me through my college years. My first year I was working in the performance arts center at the school, and built a computer lab with aincent (even then) Mac Plus computers. My second year I got a job on campus with the instructional technology division, and had a Quadra 800 on my desk, so the PowerBook was relegated to just a portable auxiliary to a much more powerful desktop, which helped it remain usable much longer than its performance would suggest.
At my first few jobs, I had PowerMacs on my desk - first a 7500, later a couple 8100s. These were power house machines, but that PowerBook kept chugging along until it eventually died.
When that PowerBook 165 finally died (not sure if it was the motherboard or power supply, but it was so old and slow that it wasn't worth fixing.) I replaced it with a PowerBook G3 ("Wallstreet") which was honestly a pretty great machine, but I didn't have the emotional attachment to it that I had with that 165. I eventually replaced it with a TiBook, and also had the early white polycarbonate MacBook and a couple of Mac Mini (both G4 and Intel) and a variety of iMacs.
I still primarily use Macs.
I also use retro Macs in my homelab infrastructure