Thread

Not rare but unusual thread.

Not rare but unusual thread. Peripherals 69 posts Mar 15, 2008 — Nov 4, 2011

#31 Sat, 22 Mar 2008 - 08:16

Somewhere, I have the original "Macintosh Bible" book. Version 1.

I also have a IIsi PDS Video Spigot. It came with Adobe Premier 1.0. What's funny is that Apple used to let you use the "upgrade" price for Final Cut Pro when upgrading from either an earlier Final Cut, or any version of Premier. I was really tempted to "upgrade" from Premier 1.0, but back when they offered that, even the upgrade price was out of my price range.

#32 Sat, 22 Mar 2008 - 22:49

A Spectrum/8 LC Card. Supports up to 1152 x 882 pixels on a second screen (extended desktop). Will go into a Mystic CC. There must be tons of discarded PDS video adaptors, but it took several years to get one. Herb Johnson might have one in stock, still. Does someone offer an Envisio Quick16 ?

#33 Mon, 2 Nov 2009 - 04:10

Dove MacSnap RAM/SCSI upgrade for the 128K/512K -- there were loads of RAM/SCSI upgrade makers, but this was one of the best.

Was the MacSnap "the best" or "the most popular" RAM upgrade for the original compact Macs?

I've been taking a closer look at these lately (primarily because I don't yet own one for my 512k). I can see that they use sockets to slip over the original chips, which when you think about it, would probably spell intermittent connections over time. Such was mentioned in old 1987 post here. (Not sure if that person is objective or not, as he appears to have been a Levco dealer.)

What's your experience with the MacSnap board, Equill?

#34 Mon, 2 Nov 2009 - 18:48

The Dove MacSNAP was both popular and well put together. The SCSI cable that pokes out through the security slot is fairly well implemented (ie not as well fitting as an official upgrade might have been if it existed). My 512K with MacSNAP was sent by post for 100 miles, and the Killy clip stayed in place.

The accelerator/RAM package that I would most like to own is the NewLife with external monitor support. Magazine reviews in the late 1980s were very positive about this one.

#35 Tue, 3 Nov 2009 - 00:02

I'm not pulling up any old info on those NewLife upgrades, but I did remember them from years past. Here's an excerpt from Jeff Walther's 2003 post about the NewLife:

I was fond of the Newlife upgrades for the 512KE because RAM was very expensive back then and the Newlife upgrade has eight SIMM sockets.

So, on a Mac 512KE you could get to 4 MB by installing two expensive

(like $80 each) 1 MB SIMMs, and six inexpensive ($5 each or free)

256K SIMMs. That added to the RAM on the motherboard took the

machine to 4 MB.

The Newlife upgrade had its own 68000 CPU on board but it was not any

faster than the Mac CPU. The guys at Newlife explained that it was

just easier to put the Mac CPU to sleep and have their own CPU on

their board than it was to arrange to use the Mac CPU. 68000 chips

were under $10 back then, IIRC.

Newlife also had an upgrade which I could never afford. It installed

in a Plus or 512KE and provided a fast 68030, memory expansion, SCSI

and video out. I really wanted that one. I think it's memory

could go to 16 MB. The Mac ROM didn't support more than 4 MB, but

the way I understood it, the extra memory became a RAM disk, and then

one took advantage of the 68030's PMMU to implement virtual memory

which turned around and used the RAM disk for its scratch space, thus

turning the extra RAM into available RAM in an bass-ackwards kind of

way. One had to have Connectix's "Virtual" to make this work.

But getting back to the Dove MacSnap boards, I am most interested in knowing the specific differences between the MacSnap 5.0 "RAM upgrade" (without SCSI, uses the stock 64k ROMs) that was made for the Mac 512k. It came in two flavors: 1MB & 2MB. How other than examining the markings on the RAM ICs can one tell the difference between the 1MB and 2MB boards?

And would anyone happen to have documentation for the MacSnap boards? There is a DIP switch on top and without the documentation it's impossible to know what the correct settings should be.

UPDATE: Here is an original Dove ad talking about the MacSnap products.

#36 Tue, 3 Nov 2009 - 08:39

I'll probably think of more "unusual" things, but...

- a bunch of Apple sales brochures from the early 90s.

- an Apple Peripheral Interface Guide (describes all the cables/ports etc - quite handy)

- a few unopened internal modems for PowerMac 5200/6200 machines (Aus spec)

- an original Apple 300/1275 baud modem

- a proper Ethernet to LocalTalk router ("EtherRoute TCP")

- [edit] an old HyperDrive board too

#37 Sun, 8 Nov 2009 - 07:52

Oddities...

a video digitizer for the Apple//e that writes directly into the video buffer at 30FPS

a MacVision and a Thunderscan - digitizers for the 128K

a 400K Shugart external floppy for the 128K

a 5MB PDS slot RAM expander for the Mac Portable

a Gee 3 Stealth Serial port for the Blue & White G3

Bose Apple Roommate speakers for the Apple II

...

a shelf full of prototype gadgets that never made it into production...

a LaserBuffer print spooler which signed onto the LocalTalk net as a LaserWriter and spooled jobs to the real printer

a spread spectrum wireless base station with 68K CPU, RAM, 3 expansion slots, etc. from 1991

a LocalTalk - ethernet bridge with built-in HD and NAS

a HD which emulated an Apple//c floppy or a Mac 128 floppy depending on firmware

several boxes o'junk in the barn, plus odds and ends from working at Compaq and IBM

#38 Sun, 8 Nov 2009 - 13:39

Strange things:

4 30PIN Ram Doubler cards.

Apple Plaintalk microphone.

Apple Microphone (Clear)

Serial adder for a PowerMac G4.

Rev A iMac G3.

BlueBerry iBook Clamshell with Lowlowlow Serial Number.

Other than that my collection is pretty non amazing.

#39 Sun, 8 Nov 2009 - 18:45

• CardReader (Simcards and others) for ADB

• A russian (Cyrillic) & english Apple Adjustable Keyboard

• A boxed new 68030 50MHz Upgrade (including FPU 50MHz!) from Daystar for the MacSE - but I think I´m going to slaughter it for my Atari-Upgradecard

What I really would like to see are those 128MB 72pin Simms in 50NS (!) which were availaible for a short time around 2001 for my 6100 w/g3 and 2nd videocard.

#40 Tue, 10 Nov 2009 - 08:22

Nothing too spectacular in my collection but I do have:

Expansion Bay HD for a Pismo

Some old Massive SCSI case (maybe HD?) that I picked up with 2 512s and a 128k

G3 Vimage upgrade for 1400 (never heard of the brand before)

Thats about all that might even stand out.

#41 Wed, 11 Nov 2009 - 06:12

Quite a few oddities there H3NRY, but these three pique my curiosity:

a spread spectrum wireless base station with 68K CPU, RAM, 3 expansion slots, etc. from 1991a LocalTalk - ethernet bridge with built-in HD and NAS

a HD which emulated an Apple//c floppy or a Mac 128 floppy depending on firmware

As does this!

• CardReader (Simcards and others) for ADB

Strimkind's post reminded me of another oddity of mine: a tower with 7 slot loading SCSI DVD-ROM drives. There's also a 3U rack storage server that mounts 14 IDE/ATA hard drives to a SCSI bus.

#42 Thu, 12 Nov 2009 - 17:42

Not exactly sure whether you'd call these unusual but here goes:

-Original HP Vectra (PC Semi-compatible from 1985)

-An e-Reader for my Gameboy advance (the card reader where you could tediously read a tiny program by scanning around 10 barcodes)

-A still-functional (AFAIK) Game Genie for my original Gameboy

-A still-functional (AFAIK) Game Genie for my (broken) NES.

-All sorts of other peripherals for that old NES including a power pad.

#43 Sun, 15 Nov 2009 - 06:56

As does this!

• CardReader (Simcards and others) for ADB

Click to expand...

Sorry, ... that should be "for ADB-Macs", of course it´s for the serial port.

#44 Fri, 20 Nov 2009 - 12:16

NIB Apple Extended Keyboard II - I had two of these, sold one of them.

NIB Apple Modem 2400 baud

#45 Fri, 20 Nov 2009 - 18:58

Post your unusual things you have.
Gravis Mac Gamepad.

Ment to be ADB but has a serial? type connector. Must be in the wrong box but looks the same as the picture.

Meh. i have 2 mac gamepads.

#46 Sat, 21 Nov 2009 - 00:14

I have a wooden crate with a large Apple logo and the words "Expedition Equipment" stencilled on top of it. It was part of an Apple sales promotion from the mid 1990s.

#47 Sat, 21 Nov 2009 - 17:59

Heh. That's cool. Got any pics?

#48 Sun, 22 Nov 2009 - 05:54

would like to add a couple of things I've found in my collection:

a MacPhone (the one that attaches to the side of a compact (any one have a line on a good copy of the software?))

a MacHandwriter tablet

an ADB 4 port switcher for kb/monitor

a LaCie FM Tuner (ADB)

#49 Mon, 23 Nov 2009 - 19:41

Formac ProFormance 3 video card.

32MB video card with 3D glasses. This was in 1997. It was a pretty darn good card for its time. I think it's funny that ATI and nVidia are only now getting into 3D games. I had Quake 3 running 3D on my Formac. It was fun.

#50 Fri, 1 Jan 2010 - 21:49

Poqet PC (the netbook of the 1980s.. runs DOS 3)

CP/M cards for Apple II (never learned enough about it to test)

IIgs Woz Edition w/ RAM upgrade and SCSI (no longer have)

If any of that really counts... Better yet, maybe the eWorld brochure I found yesterday.

#51 Wed, 6 Jan 2010 - 05:18

What I really would like to see are those 128MB 72pin Simms in 50NS (!) which were availaible for a short time around 2001 for my 6100 w/g3 and 2nd videocard.

Any particular reason that 60ns won't do? They are not uncommon.

#52 Wed, 6 Jan 2010 - 06:23

I bet the 6100 does not run any faster with 60NS SIMMs either, just because the RAM is faster doesn't mean the chipset timing will take advantage of it. Now if you want to hack the system timings I can see wanting faster memory.

#53 Thu, 14 Jan 2010 - 15:30

Got another thing to add.

Intel web camera with composite video output.

#54 Thu, 21 Jan 2010 - 03:29

LaCie FM Tuner (ADB)

This gadget produced one of the great one-liner reviews in a Mac magazine (can't remember which one):

"Use this $50 gadget to turn your $2000 computer into a $20 radio!"

#55 Sun, 24 Jan 2010 - 13:24

Would a 144MB Memory expansion card for the 3400c count?

EDIT: Sorry, 128MB.

#56 Fri, 12 Feb 2010 - 02:45

Power Computing Power 80/100/120 machines--the 8100 clone. These have spots for 5 NuBus slots on the motherboard, but one would need to steal the Fat-AMIC chip from a 9150 to implement the two uninstalled slots.

Click to expand...

Is stealing the controller the only mod required?

Click to expand...

AMIC is a 160 pin chip and FAT-AMIC is 208 pin.

The regular AMIC is in 7100 and 8100s

In the Power 80/100/120 the AMIC resides on the I/O daughter card, which is unique to those machines.

to replace the AMIC with a FAT AMIC you'd pretty much have to redesign that card

Their original plan was probably to sell a three slot and a five slot version. The three slot version would use the AMIC I/O card. The 5 slot version would have an I/O card bearing the Fat AMIC.

So the only difference between PCC's three slot and five slot versions would be the I/O card.

So, the question is, was there ever a five-slot I/O card made?

I'm willing to bet at least one prototype machine with the 5 slots enabled was made. It was obviously their intention to utilize those additional slots at some point or they wouldn't have included the pads on the production machines or put the controller on a swappable daughter board.

#57 Tue, 25 Oct 2011 - 07:25

More unusual was the PCI/NuBus Riser that PowerComputing released for some model or other, but it's probably too rare to list and i don't have one!

I've got an IR wireless ADB Mouse, does that count?

#58 Wed, 26 Oct 2011 - 05:31

Nova fan controller, 1 installed in my iix, 1 still in shrink wrap.

Adjusts power supply fan speed based on a temperature sensor probe you tack to your internal hard drive with foil tape.

#59 Thu, 27 Oct 2011 - 18:52

More unusual was the PCI/NuBus Riser that PowerComputing released for some model or other, but it's probably too rare to list and i don't have one!
I've got an IR wireless ADB Mouse, does that count?

PowerWave. My friend who worked in PowerComputing support says that riser card never really worked all that well though. The combo riser card had a name, and now I can't remember it. My old posts on the topic were probably at Powerwatch.com and that site is long since history, although there might be an archive.

I have an IR wireless mouse which works in either an original Mac (through Plus) or as an ADB mouse. However, it has a noticeable bit of latency, so I prefer a wired mouse.

#60 Fri, 28 Oct 2011 - 14:12

ISTR it was called StarGate or something along those lines...I have a MacFormat somewhere that mentions it.