mac classic lcd screen brands

Apple Inc. sold a variety of LCD and CRT computer displays in the past. Apple paused production of their own standalone displays in 2016 and partnered with LG to design displays for Macs.Pro Display XDR was introduced, however it was expensive and targeted for professionals. Nearly three years later, in March 2022, the Studio Display was launched as a consumer-targeted counterpart to the professional monitor. These two are currently the only Apple-branded displays available.

Apple"s manufacture history of CRT displays began in 1980, starting with the Apple III business computer. It was a 12″ monochrome (green) screen that could display 80×24 text characters and any type of graphics, however it suffered from a very slow phosphor refresh that resulted in a "ghosting" video effect. So it could be shared with Apple II computers, a plastic stand was made available to accommodate the larger footprint of the display.

In 1986 came the introduction of the AppleColor RGB Monitor, a 12″ analog RGB display designed specifically for the Apple IIGS computer. It supported a resolution of 640×400 interlaced (640×200 non-interlaced) and could be used by the Macintosh II, in a limited fashion, with the Apple High Resolution Display Video Card. Also introduced that year was the Apple Monochrome Monitor, which cosmetically was identical to the former model but was a black and white composite display suitable in external appearance for the Apple IIGS, Apple IIc or Apple IIc Plus.

The second generation of displays were built into the Lisa and Macintosh computers. The Macintosh had a 9-inch monochrome display that could display 512×342 pixels which would be used in all monochrome Compact Macintosh computers.

A new external AppleColor High-Resolution RGB Monitor was introduced in 1987 for the Macintosh II. It had a 13″ Trinitron CRT (the first Apple display to use an aperture grille CRT) with a fixed resolution of 640×480 pixels. The Macintosh II was a modular system with no internal display and was able to drive up to six displays simultaneously using multiple graphics cards. The desktop spanned multiple displays, and windows could be moved between displays or straddle them. In 1989, Apple introduced a series of monochrome displays for the Macintosh, the 20″ Macintosh Two Page Monochrome Display which could display two pages side by side, the 15″ Macintosh Portrait Display with a vertical orientation to display one page, and the 12″ High-Resolution Monochrome Monitor. In 1990, two 12″ displays were introduced for the low end, a 640×480 monochrome model and a 512×384 color model (560×384 for compatibility with Apple IIe Card), meant for the Macintosh LC. These were succeeded by the Apple Macintosh 16″ Color Display, and Apple Macintosh 20″ Color Display with resolutions of 640×480, 832×624 and 1152×870, respectively. There were also the Apple Performa Plus Display (a low-end Goldstar-built 14″ display with 640×480 resolution) for the Macintosh Performa series and the Apple Color Plus 14″ Display.

The Macintosh Color Classic introduced a 10″ color Trinitron display to the Classic compact Macintosh, with a slightly enhanced resolution of 512×384 (560×384 to accommodate the Apple IIe Card) like the standalone 12″ color display. Apple continued the all-in-one series with the larger 14″ Macintosh LC 500 series, featuring a 14″, 640×480 Trinitron CRT until the LC 580 in 1995, which heralded the switch to shadow mask CRTs for the remainder of Apple"s all-in-one computers until the switch to LCDs in 2002. The last Macintosh to include an integrated CRT was the eMac, which boosted the display area to 17″ with support up to 1280×960 resolution. It used a 4th generation flat-screen CRT and was discontinued in 2006.

The fourth generation of displays were introduced simultaneously with the Blue & White Power Macintosh G3 in 1999, which included the translucent plastics of the iMac (initially white and blue "blueberry", then white and grey "graphite" upon the introduction of the Power Mac G4). The displays were also designed with same translucent look. The Apple Studio Display series of CRT displays were available in a 17″ Diamondtron and a 21″ Trinitron CRT, both driven by an LG-Manufactured chassis. The 17″ displays were notorious for faulty flybacks and failing in a manner that could destroy the monitor and catch fire. It"s also reported that these monitors can destroy GPU"s, and sometimes the entire computer. The last Apple external CRT display was introduced in 2000 along with the Power Mac G4 Cube. Both it and the new LCD Studio Displays featured clear plastics to match the Cube, and the new Apple Display Connector, which provided power, USB, and video signals to the display through a single cable. It was available only in a 17″ flat screen Diamondtron CRT. It was discontinued the following year.

The history of Apple LCDs started in 1984 when the Apple Flat Panel Display was introduced for the Apple IIc computer, principally to enhance the IIc"s portability (see Apple IIc Portability enhancements). This monochrome display was capable of 80 columns by 24 lines, as well as double hi-res graphics, but had an odd aspect ratio (making images look vertically squished) and required a very strong external light source, such as a desk lamp or direct sunlight to be used. Even then it had a very poor contrast overall and was quite expensive (US$600), contributing to its poor sales and consequently it dropping from the market not long after its introduction. An estimated 10,000 IIc LCD displays were produced.

The next attempt at a flat panel was with the Macintosh Portable. More of a "luggable" than a laptop, it contained a high-resolution, active-matrix, 1-bit black & white, 9.8″ LCD with 640×400 resolution. Like the IIc Flat Panel, it was not backlit and required a bright light source to be used. A second generation model employed a backlit LCD. The PowerBook and MacBook series would continue to use LCD displays, following an industry-wide evolution from black-and-white to grayscale to color and ranging from 9″ to 17″. Two primary technologies were used, active matrix (higher quality and more expensive) and passive matrix displays (lower quality and cheaper). By 1998 all laptops would use active-matrix color LCDs, though the Newton products and eMate portables would continue to use black and white LCDs. Apple"s current MacBook portable displays include LED backlighting and support either 2560×1600 or 2880×1800 pixel resolutions depending on screen size. The iPod series used black-and-white or color LCDs, the iPhone line uses LCD and OLED displays, and the Apple Watch uses OLED.

In 1997, Apple released the Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh (TAM), its first all-in-one desktop with an LCD display. Drawing heavily from PowerBook technology, the TAM featured a 12.1″ active matrix LCD capable of displaying up to 16 bit color at 800×600. While Apple chose to retain traditional and cheaper CRTs for its all-in-one desktop line for the next 4 years, the TAM is undoubtedly the predecessor for the successful LCD-based iMac line of all-in-one desktops starting with the iMac G4 released in 2002. A substantial upgrade over the TAM, it contained a 15″ LCD supporting up to 1024×768 resolution. It was followed by a 17″ and 20″ models boasting resolution of up to 1680 × 1050. In 2005, the iMac G5 dropped the 15″ configuration and in 2007, the new iMac dropped the 17″ and added a 24″ to the line-up, further boosting resolution to 1920 x 1200. In October 2009, new iMac models moved to 16:9 aspect ratio screens at 21.5 and 27 inches.

The first desktop color flat-panel was introduced on March 17, 1998, with the 15″ Apple Studio Display (15-inch flat panel) which had a resolution of 1024×768. After the eMate, it was one of the first Apple products to feature translucent plastics, two months before the unveiling of the iMac. Apple called its dark blue color "azul". It had a DA-15 input as well as S-video, composite video, ADB and audio connectors, though no onboard speakers. In January 1999 the coloring was changed to match the blue and white of the new Power Macintosh G3s, and the connector changed to DE-15 VGA.

The 22″ widescreen Power Mac G4 and in the beginning was sold only as an option to the Power Mac G4, selling for US$3,999. It had a native resolution of 1600×1024 and used a DVI connector. The display had a striped look on the bezel, similar to previous Studio Displays and iMacs. In December, the colors of the 15″ display were changed to "graphite" to match the new Power Mac G4s, and the input was changed from VGA to DVI, the audio and video features dropped, and the ADB functionality replaced by a two-port USB hub.

In 2000 the 22″ Cinema Displays switched to the ADC interface, and the 15″ Studio Display was remodeled to match the Cinema Display"s easel-like form factor and also featured the Apple Display Connector. In 2001 an LCD-based 17″ Studio Display was introduced, with a resolution of 1280×1024. In 2002 Apple introduced the

In 2004 a new line was introduced, utilizing the same 20″ and 23″ panels alongside a new 30″ model, for $3,299. The displays had a sleek aluminum enclosure with a much narrower bezel than their predecessors. The 20″ model featured a 1680×1050 resolution, the 23″ 1920×1200, and the 30″ 2560×1600. The 30″ version requires a dual-link interface, because a single-link DVI connection (the most common type) doesn"t have enough bandwidth to provide a picture to a display of this resolution. Initially, the only graphics cards that could power the new 30″ display were the Nvidia GeForce 6800 DDL series, available in both GT and Ultra forms. The DDL suffix signified the dual-link DVI capability. The less expensive of the two cards retailed for US$499, raising the net cost of owning and using the display to nearly $3,800. Later graphics options included the NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500; the card included two dual-link DVI connectors which allowed a Power Mac G5 to run two 30″ Cinema Displays simultaneously with the total number of pixels working out to 8.2 million.

In 2006 along with the introduction of the Mac Pro, Apple lowered the price of the 30″ Cinema Display to US$1999. The Mac Pro featured an NVIDIA GeForce 7300GT as the graphics card in its base configuration which is capable of running a 30″ Cinema Display and another 23″ display simultaneously. The Mac Pro is also available with both the ATI Radeon X1900XT card and the NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 as build-to-order options. Each of these cards is capable of driving two 30″ Cinema Displays.

With the introduction of the Unibody MacBook family, Apple introduced the 24-inch LED Cinema Display, its first desktop display to use the new Mini DisplayPort connector, and also the first with an LED-backlit LCD. It had built-in speakers, a powered 3-port USB hub on the rear, an iSight camera and microphone, and a MagSafe power adapter for laptops. It also connected by USB for peripherals. It has a resolution of 1920×1200 and retailed for US$899.00. In 2010 it was replaced with a new 27-inch version with a resolution of 2560×1440.

After Apple discontinued production of standalone displays in 2016, they partnered with LG to design the UltraFine line, with a 21.5-inch 4K display and 27-inch 5K display (27MD5KA-B), released in November 2016 alongside the Thunderbolt 3-enabled MacBook Pro.USB-C connector, with the 27-inch version integrating Thunderbolt 3 connectivity. On the rear of the displays is a three port USB-C hub. The 21.5-inch version provides up to 60W charging power, while the 27-inch provides up to 85W. The 21.5-inch is compatible with all Macs with a USB-C port, while the 27-inch version can only be used natively at full resolution with Macs with Thunderbolt 3, which includes all Macs with USB-C except the Retina MacBook. The 27-inch model is compatible with older Thunderbolt 2-equipped Macs using an adapter, but is limited to displaying their maximum output resolution.

Standard 15-pin high-density DE-15 VGA connector, first included on some Power Macintosh 9600 models and most PowerPC PowerBooks, and available on all current Macintoshes via a short adaptor cable.

The Apple Display Connector (ADC), which carries DVI, VGA, USB and power in one connector, was used on the PowerMac G4 and early models of the PowerMac G5.

A DVI connector was used on the 2001-2002 titanium PowerBook G4; all aluminum PowerBook G4 15” and 17”; all aluminum MacBook Pro 15″ and 17″ models; Mac Mini G4, Power Mac G4, G5; Intel Mac Mini, and Mac Pro 2006–2012. PowerBook G4 12”, iMac G5 and Intel white iMacs mini-DVI ports.

A mini-VGA connector, which can provide VGA via a short adaptor cable. It appears on the white iBook, eMac, iMac G4 and G5, and first generation 12-inch PowerBook G4. Later models also support a composite and S-video adapter attached to this port.

The Retina MacBook introduced USB-C connectivity for displays. The 2016 MacBook Pro uses a combination Thunderbolt 3 USB-C connector. They are backwards compatible with HDMI and DisplayPort.

The Apple Video Adapter was specially designed to allow users to connect to S-video or composite video devices. The video adapter cable plugs into the video output port (Mini-VGA) built into the back of certain Macintosh computers. The video output port supports VGA, S-Video and Composite video out. The Apple Video Adapter is for S-Video or Composite video output only, use a separate Apple VGA Adapter for VGA video output options. With the Apple Video Adapter you can connect to your TV, VCR, or overhead projector via S-Video or Composite cables.

The Apple VGA Display Adapter was specially designed to allow users to connect certain Macintosh computers to an extra VGA display or external projector (equipped with VGA) for 24-bit video-mirroring. The VGA cable from your external display or projector cable plugs into the Mini-VGA video port built into your Macintosh via the Apple VGA Display Adapter.

Compatible with: eMac, iMac G5, iMac G4 flat-panel, 12-inch PowerBook G4, or iBooks having a Mini-VGA port. Most Macintosh computers with the Mini-VGA port can also use the Apple Video Adapter for S-video & Composite output options.

12-inch PowerBook G4 (first generation) models supported video-mirroring and extended video desktop modes through a mini-VGA port. All 15 and 17 inch PowerBook G4 models have a DVI port as well as an S-Video out port. The mini-VGA port on the 12-inch PowerBook was replaced by a mini-DVI port starting with the second revision of the machine.

"Apple"s Online Store Now Offering New 5K 27-Inch LG UltraFine Display". www.macrumors.com. Archived from the original on September 26, 2022. Retrieved April 3, 2020.

The Color Classic was pretty shite as a computer. The Color Classic II was a good one, but Apple decided Americans and Canadians wouldn’t be allowed to have them. There were several crippled/hobbled models of Macintosh Apple would have been much better off having never made – or not deliberately sabotaging their hardware capabilities.

Apple made the IIsi with one small bank of RAM soldered to the mainboard, and one bank of SIMM sockets. Not a bad idea for a lower cost model based on the IIci. But then they had its built in video use main RAM for video RAM, and made it have to alternate access to Bank A between the CPU and Video. The IIsi RAM Muncher extension was written to use up all the non-video space in Bank A to do nothing so that whenever the system checked for needing CPU access to Bank A it would instantly get handed back to video. The other dumb thing Apple did to the IIsi was use the same PDS connection on the SE30, IIci, and IIsi, but have each of the three incompatible so addon cards would have to be specifically designed for each model or use an adapter. The aftermarket settled on making adapters for many of the 68030 Macs to the IIci PDS.

The LC, the only Mac to use the 68020 CPU, was hard limited to only being able to use up to 10 megabytes RAM, 2 megabytes soldered plus two 30 pin slots for a pair of 4 meg SIMMs. Despite that and other limitations (such as the lack of a math coprocessor socket and running a 32bit CPU on a 16 bit bus), it had 256K of dedicated VRAM, which could be upgraded to 512K. The LC II was a slightly tweaked LC. It had a 68030, still on 16 bit bus. Same deal with VRAM as the LC. It supported an FPU, but that used the PDS. Fortunately, like with the IIsi, several expansion cards came with an FPU, but that made upgrades like network cards more expensive if you wanted one with an FPU. Still had the same 10 meg RAM limit but had 4 meg soldered so to get to 10 meg, 12 meg had to be installed. The computer just ignored 2 meg of RAM.

The most crippled Macintosh ever was the Mac TV. They took a Performa AV and made it awful. Max RAM was 8 megs, at a time when 16 meg *minimum* was becoming the norm in the PC clone world. The computer display topped out at 256 colors while the TV display was capable of 32bit color, only in full screen. Single frame captures could be made from the TV tuner, video capture wasn’t possible. Why Apple didn’t just take their best 68K Performa, put it in a black case, give it a remote control, and call *that* Mac TV is a question a lot of people would love to know the answer to. Why did Apple go on and on about the “convergence” of computers and audio-visual entertainment, then made the shittiest Macintosh to champion their “convergence” machine???

Here’s a list of Apple gear that could have and should have been better, though not updated since 2014 https://lowendmac.com/2014/road-apples-second-class-macs/

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Introduced as the first sub-$1,000 Macintosh in October 1990, the basic Classic came with 1 MB of RAM, a SuperDrive, and space to mount an internal SCSI hard drive. The hard drive version came with 2 MB of memory and a 40 MB hard drive. RAM expansion was via a 1 MB daughter card with two open slots, which could accept a pair of 256 KB or 1 MB SIMMs. This made memory upgrades far easier than on the Plus or SE, since the motherboard didn’t have to be removed. At the same time, it means you should avoid any used Classic without 2 MB or more memory unless you have a source for the memory card.

What Apple was thinking releasing an 8 MHz computer so late in the game is beyond me. By 1990, 8 MHz was just too slow for practical use, although that didn’t keep Apple from selling it or people from buying it. At this point, a 16 MHz Classic would have been sweet (see our review of the 16 MHz Brainstorm upgrade in a Mac Plus for details on that).

A feature unique to the Classic is the ability to boot from ROM by holding down command-option-x-o at startup. The ROM Disk is called “Boot Disk” and is 357 KB in size. The ROM Disk uses Finder 6.1.x and System 6.0.3 – this combination is specifically designed for the Classic. The only control panels are General, Brightness, and Startup Disk. MacsBug and AppleShare Prep are also part of the System, which loads into 294 KB of the Classic’s RAM. Because this is in ROM, there is no way to add anything to the ROM Disk.

Color display? Aura Systems made ScuzzyGraph II, a SCSI peripheral that provided 8-color video for people who didn’t want to buy (or couldn’t afford) a Mac II. 1989 cost was $995 to $2,495, depending on resolution.

You can convert a non-working compact Mac into a Macquarium. (Please, don’t even think of converting a working one – you can always find someone interested on the Classic Macs or Vintage Macs lists.)

A Vintage Mac Network Can Be as Useful as a Modern One, Carl Nygren, My Turn, 2008.04.08. Old Macs can exchange data and share an Internet connection very nicely using Apple’s old LocalTalk networking.

Creating Classic Mac Boot Floppies in OS X, Paul Brierley, The ‘Book Beat, 2008.08.07. Yes, it is possible to create a boot floppy for the Classic Mac OS using an OS X Mac that doesn’t have Classic. Here’s how.

Know Your Mac’s Upgrade Options, Phil Herlihy, The Usefulness Equation, 2008.08.26. Any Mac can be upgraded, but it’s a question of what can be upgraded – RAM, hard drive, video, CPU – and how far it can be upgraded.

Why You Should Partition Your Mac’s Hard Drive, Dan Knight, Mac Musings, 2008.12.11. “At the very least, it makes sense to have a second partition with a bootable version of the Mac OS, so if you have problems with your work partition, you can boot from the ’emergency’ partition to run Disk Utility and other diagnostics.”

Antique Macs are still useful computers, Charles W Moore, From the MacCave, 2008.09.09. Charles W Moore’s first online article looks at the utility of compact Macs – and foreshadows his longterm affection for PowerBooks.

Cracking Open the Apple Macintosh Classic, Mark Kaelin, Tech Republic, 06.17. “In this Cracking Open Photo Gallery, TechRepublic examines just what went into a Mac Classic – and what technology was like in 1991.”

Supporting a classic Mac ‘habit’ on the cheap, Rick Lawson, Pioneers in Mac Development, 2008.06.09. Mac nostalgia leads to a year-long rediscovery of the pleasures of old Macs and the classic Mac OS.

Digital vs. film photography, megapixel myths, G3/G4 SuperDrive upgrade, and a newly acquired Mac Classic, Dan Knight, Low End Mac Mailbag, 2008.01.11. The differences between film and digital photography, the value of old 35mm SLRs, the importance of good lenses, a $50 18x dual-layer SuperDrive, and writing on a Mac Classic.

Vintage Mac Networking and File Exchange, Adam Rosen, Adam’s Apple, 2007.12.19. How to network vintage Macs with modern Macs and tips on exchanging files using floppies, Zip disks, and other media.

Getting Inside Vintage Macs and Swapping Out Bad Parts, Adam Rosen, Adam’s Apple, 2007.12.14. When an old Mac dies, the best source of parts is usually another dead Mac with different failed parts.

Solving Mac Startup Problems, Adam Rosen, Adam’s Apple, 2007.12.12. When your old Mac won’t boot, the most likely culprits are a dead PRAM battery or a failed (or failing) hard drive.

Mac approaching 25th birthday, OS 8 on Performa 630, Mac Classics in use 24/7, and more, Dan Knight, Low End Mac Mailbag, 2007.12.04. Also more thoughts on vampire video, realigning the Road Apple label, the fate of DropStuff, and an unidentified cable in a Power Mac 8600.

Better and Safer Surfing with Internet Explorer and the Classic Mac OS, Max Wallgren, Mac Daniel, 2007.11.06. Tips on which browsers work best with different Mac OS versions plus extra software to clean cookies and caches, detect viruses, handle downloads, etc.

A (Mac) classic spookfest, Tommy Thomas, Welcome to Macintosh, 2007.10.31. How to set up those old compact Macs with screen savers to enhance your Halloween experience.

Simple Macs for Simple Tasks, Tommy Thomas, Welcome to Macintosh, 2007.10.19. Long live 680×0 Macs and the classic Mac OS. For simple tasks such as writing, they can provide a great, low distraction environment.

8 MHz forever? Apple’s Macintosh Classic was no faster than the first Mac, Leo Titus LeBron V, Collection Spotlight, 2007.09.26. A successor to the 1986 Mac Plus and 1987 Mac SE, the 1990 Mac Classic was slow, limited, and barely enough for basic tasks like writing.

Interchangeabilty and Compatibility of Apple 1.4 MB Floppy SuperDrives, Sonic Purity, Mac Daniel, 2007.09.26. Apple used two kinds of high-density floppy drives on Macs, auto-inject and manual inject. Can they be swapped?

My first mobile Mac: A Classic II, Jacek A. Rochacki, Miscellaneous Ramblings, 2007.06.25. When a PowerBook 100 was beyond the author’s means, he bought a second-hand Mac Classic II and fabricated his own carrying case to make it mobile.

Mac System 7.5.5 Can Do Anything Mac OS 7.6.1 Can, Tyler Sable, Classic Restorations, 2007.06.04. Yes, it is possible to run Internet Explorer 5.1.7 and SoundJam with System 7.5.5. You just need to have all the updates – and make one modification for SoundJam.

Importance of G3 support in 10.5, clever USB/FireWire solution, upgrade options, and more, Dan Knight, Low End Mac Mailbag, 2007.05.01. Also the loss of the PowerBook brand, upgrading to an Intel iMac, Korg and the Mac, Quadra boot problems, and the value of a Mac Classic.

Format Any Drive for Older Macs with Patched Apple Tools, Tyler Sable, Classic Restorations, 2007.04.25. Apple HD SC Setup and Drive Setup only work with Apple branded hard drives – until you apply the patches linked to this article.

Making floppies and CDs for older Macs using modern Macs, Windows, and Linux PCs, Tyler Sable, Classic Restorations, 2007.03.15. Older Macs use HFS floppies and CDs. Here are the free resources you’ll need to write floppies or CDs for vintage Macs using your modern computer.

Jag’s House, where older Macs still rock, Tommy Thomas, Welcome to Macintosh, 2006.09.25. Over a decade old, Jag’s House is the oldest Mac website supporting classic Macs and remains a great resource for vintage Mac users.

30 days of old school computing: Setting up a Mac Classic II, Ted Hodges, Vintage Mac Living, 2006.09.07. Fond memories of using a Classic II in elementary school lead to it being the first Mac set up for a month of vintage, very low-end computing.

Vintage Macs with System 6 run circles around 3 GHz Windows 2000 PC, Tyler Sable, Classic Restorations, 2006.07.06. Which grows faster, hardware speed or software bloat? These benchmarks show vintage Macs let you be productive much more quickly than modern Windows PCs.

Floppy drive observations: A compleat guide to Mac floppy drives and disk formats, Scott Baret, Online Tech Journal, 2006.06.29. A history of the Mac floppy from the 400K drive in the Mac 128K through the manual-inject 1.4M SuperDrives used in the late 1990s.

Compact Flash with SCSI Macs, PB 1400 CD-RW upgrade problems, and Web incompatibilities, Dan Knight, Low End Mac Mailbag, 2006.06.16. Suggested ways to use Compact Flash with vintage Macs and PowerBooks, problems getting CD-RW to work with a PowerBook 1400, and more thoughts on website incompatibilities.

Moving files from your new Mac to your vintage Mac, Paul Brierley, The ‘Book Beat, 2006.06.13. Old Macs use floppies; new ones don’t. Old Macs use AppleTalk; Tiger doesn’t support it. New Macs can burn CDs, but old CD drives can’t always read CD-R. So how do you move the files?

System 7.5 and Mac OS 7.6: The beginning and end of an era, Tyler Sable, Classic Restorations, 2006.02.15. System 7.5 and Mac OS 7.6 introduced many new features and greater modernity while staying within reach of most early Macintosh models.

System 7: Bigger, better, more expandable, and a bit slower than System 6, Tyler Sable, Classic Restorations, 2006.01.04. The early versions of System 7 provide broader capability for modern tasks than System 6 while still being practical for even the lowliest Macs.

Web browser tips for the classic Mac OS, Nathan Thompson, Embracing Obsolescence, 2006.01.03. Tips on getting the most out of WaMCom, Mozilla, Internet Explorer, iCab, Opera, and WannaBe using the classic Mac OS.

The Joy of Six: Apple’s fast, svelte, reliable, and still usable System 6, Tyler Sable, Classic Restorations, 2005.12.06. System 6 was small enough to run quickly from an 800K floppy yet powerful enough to support 2 GB partitions, 24-bit video, and the Internet.

10 things new classic Mac owners should know, Paul Brierley, The ‘Book Beat, 2005.12.06. New to compact Macs? Ten things you really should know before you get too confused.

How to set up your own Mac Plus (or later) web server, Joe Rivera, Mac Fallout Shelter, 2005.11.29. All you need is an old Mac Plus with 4 MB of RAM, a hard drive, System 7 or later, some free software, and an Internet connection.

Which system software is best for my vintage Mac?, Tyler Sable, Classic Restorations, 2005.11.22. Which system software works best depends to a great extent on just which Mac you have and how much RAM is installed.

Mac SE alive and kicking on Web, Leander Kahney, Wired, 2004.05.19. “…a pair of German Web designers has created a working simulation of Apple Computer’s classic Mac SE on the Web.” Very cool.

The compact Mac trio: Hardware overview, Dan Knight, The Old Gray Mac, 2001.07.30. Introduction to and hardware overview of the Mac Plus, SE, and Classic.

Never connect an Apple II 5.25″ floppy drive to the Mac’s floppy port. Doing so can ruin the floppy controller, meaning you can’t even use the internal drive any longer.

Macs with black-and-white only displays (1-bit, no grays) may find Netscape Navigator 3 makes it impossible to view some pages and sites. The workaround is to use Navigator 2.

Reliably supports serial speeds to 19.2 kbps, although default is 9600 bps. May have better throughput at 28.8 kbps despite some dropped and retransmitted packets. Throughput with a 56k modem may be limited. See 56k modem page. For more information on Mac serial ports, read Macintosh Serial Throughput.

It all started in 2005 when Apple announced the Mac Mini G4, we realized that this new machine opened a new untapped market for budget Macs. Recognizing that its small size was both a blessing and a challenge we conceived an under-desk mount. Such a mount would both protect the Mac and declutter the user’s desk space.

In early 2005 we received an early machine and began the design work. This new mount would be called DashMini. Within 3 months of Apple’s launch we had production units ready and began shipping these units worldwide. We choose to use polycarbonate plastic to be extremely durable as a chair could come into contact with the mount. Within the first two years several competitors all entered the market, all with designs using much cheaper and much weaker acrylic plastic. We remained the product category leader until late 2010 when Apple announce a new design a slimmer profile.

In 2017 we decided to go big and create something really unique and exciting. We designed a completely custom engineered, artistically interpreted clear case for the Macintosh SE and SE/30.

This was the first time in history anyone has ever attempted to produce a custom Mac case of this kind. The original goal was to create a case design artistically inspired from the prototype Macintosh SE clear case. We first launched the project on Kickstarter to ensure enough interest and we exceed all goals, even stretch goals!

The Macintosh was the beginning of the personal computer, and one that all-in-one machines like the iMac owe a lot to. Apple has moved on from its near-40-year-old design, but Ian Zelbo has returned to it, a concept designer who collaborates with leakers like Jon Prosser. As the images below show, Zelbo has imagined what the classic Macintosh could look like if Apple swapped in a few new parts.

For one, Zelbo has included modern I/O, such as HDMI and USB Type-C ports. Sadly, there is no sign of the MagSafe connector with which Apple has equipped the 24-inch iMac, the MacBook Pro 14 and the MacBook Pro 16. Still, Zelbo has included the latter two"s trademark notched display, a bone of contention among laptop and Apple fans. Incidentally, Samsung has recently brought the notch to the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra, albeit on a smaller scale.

There are only 4 screws on the back of the Classic II that hold the case together. Two on the bottom near the ports, and two on the top near the built in handle. Removal of the two near the handle require a longer tool to reach in the deep sockets. Once the screws are removed, it was a little difficult prying the front panel from the rear. I am not sure if it is designed that way or if it was the age of the plastic. Essentially the internals are mounted on a frame and screwed to the front panel, so the back is just a cover.

I searched around and found others who have done a similar mod. There are really no high definition panels out there in this small of a size. I suppose an iPad mini with retina display at 7.9 inches would be high resolution, but good luck finding a driver for it. The best I could find was 8.0 inches at 1024x768. There are plenty of 800x600, but I wanted the best I could find. I could not find anything between 8 and 9, as 8.7 would have been optimal. The 1994 Color Classic had a 10" CRT with 512x384 resolution. The Classic II had 9" monochrome CRT 512x342. My mod has a smaller screen and 4x the pixels.

The screen I chose was off eBay, a kit with LVDS driver board. When I received it, initially it worked great, then it fizzled out. I think it was a bad driver board, so I ordered a separate replacement, and it failed to work as well. I then thought it was possibly the screen so I ordered a 2nd screen. The 2nd one was dim, so I ordered a 3rd screen. Still dim, so ordered a 3rd board, different design. Screen one was confirmed dead, screen 2 and 3 worked fine with board 3. Lots of waste on this project, SMH.

The driver board supports multiple inputs (VGA, HDMI, composite 1 and 2). There are on screen controls to adjust the typical LCD monitor and the original controller came with an IR remote as well as a control panel. The 3rd driver board did not have the IR sensor mounted, so I stole it from the first fried controller. Since the original Classic II had tube monitor adjustments hidden on the rear behind a detachable panel, I thought that was the ideal place to put this screen control panel as well. I had to design and 3D print an interface panel, and figure out how to mount it, and then cut out a hole for it in the back case. I could not see the button icons when printed in black, so I printed them in white for the contrast. The internal VGA out from the GT730 drives the LCD VGA input. The HDMI input is directed to the rear panel so this Classic II can be used as an external monitor (just a pure goofy effect). The HDMI from the GT730 goes to the rear panel so you can drive an external monitor with this Hackintosh (think HTPC in the living room, or large desktop monitor).

Some of the all time classic Macintosh computers are the all-in-one compact Macs from the late 80’s and early 90’s. Praised for their beautiful industrial design and portability they are iconic, they are also in my eyes, kind of useless. Keep in mind this is coming from a gamer and someone who has not been enthralled to apple. There’s plenty of good things I can say about the old macs and in particular the Macintosh Classic (not to be confused with classic Macintosh’s in general). They are portable, have a sleek design, are user friendly and helped launch desktop publishing among other things, they have there place but as a game machine or even just everyday computing or web browsing well, not so much. I can just say if I had a compact mac and my friends had a 386 PC with even a crappy sound card and VGA card I would be terribly jealous. The Macintosh classic is a later iteration of the early compact macs which include the Macintosh Plus, Macintosh SE and others. It is in almost all ways a step backwards from the Macintosh SE/30 which preceded it but it still brings some nice improvements over some of the earlier Macs. It should be noted though that this model was intended as a low-end Macintosh and for first time users so efforts were made to keep costs low. Like most classic Macs you’ll see these going for stupid high prices on Craigslist or eBay a lot of the time. Be patient, I picked this one off of Craigslist with mouse and keyboard for $25. the gentleman I bought it off of recovered it from a school years ago and didn’t want to see it go to waste.

The Mac Classic uses a fairly simple design. As can be seen the monitor came with the unit and was built in. The monitor is a 9 inch monochrome black and white CRT display. The image from these monitors is actually pretty good. The one here is bright and sharp. In one way the monitor being built in makes setup very simple as well as helps portability but being stuck with black and white can be a major drawback. This comes from someone who loves black and white movies and I’m certainly not a graphics centric person but for games its just limiting. It does lend a certain style though to games meant to be played on this system. Under the monitor you can also see the standard Mac SuperDrive a 1.44MB floppy drive able to read mac and ms-dos floppies. Screen brightness is now software controlled so no brightness dials are on the case.

Here is the back of the unit. I always liked the little handle on the top of the older compact Mac cases, its a nice touch. From left to right we have a ADB port for your apple mouse or keyboard (or both since they were made to be daisy chained), a DB 19 port for an external floppy, a DB 25 SCSI port for SCSI stuff, and two mini din ports for printer and modem. Lastly is a convenient little headphone jack for the Monaural four-voice sound with 8-bit digital/analog conversion using 22-kHz sampling rate. (thank you Vwestlife at the vintage computer forums for that info).

this is the left side of the Mac. these are the interrupt and restart buttons. I know in the older compact macs you had to get a little plastic switch thing that you would install onto the case to access these buttons. It looks like these buttons finally became official on the Mac classic.

Now on to getting inside these. Like all the early all in one Macs these were not meant to be tinkered with by the average Joe and to help ensure that the case was screwed closed by 4 TORX screws, 2 of which at the top are extremely recessed and hard to get to without a special rare “mac cracker” tool or a long handled T15 TORX screwdriver. Originally I could not find a T15 screwdriver that was long enough so I had to make my own. I stripped a hard plastic pen and jammed a T15 screwdriver head into it from one of those interchangeable screwdrivers and that worked pretty well. eventually i did find a long enough T15 screwdriver at an ACE hardware store for a few bucks. here’s a picture of it.

Here we have the very crowded inside of the Mac Classic. As an added bonus we have an exposed monitor and capacitors so you get the thrilling opportunity to severely shock and or kill yourself if you touch the wrong part. really just completely stay away from the monitor and the stuff on the right of the case.

The max RAM that the Mac Classic can detect is 4MB. 1MB of RAM is on the motherboard and 3MB more are accessible via the special RAM daughter board pictured above. The RAM daughter board has 1MB of RAM soldered on and 2 30 pin slots for an additional 2MB of 30 pin RAM. Avoid buying a Mac Classic with only 1MB of RAM since it is missing the proprietary RAM expansion card. This easily accessible board is a great improvement over earlier compact Macs where in order to expand RAM you needed to remove the entire motherboard and on certain models and motherboard revisions actually cut capacitors in order to get the max RAM amount.

3) this is the tray for the hard drive. the Classic uses SCSI drives and mine is a 40MB drive which came shipped with this Mac. Remember to use Apple brand SCSI hard drives for the least amount of trouble. Under the hard drive tray is the floppy drive. the hard drive tray slides off with the removal of a screw.

Once the power cord, floppy drive and hard drive cables are disconnected the board should slid out with very little trouble. The motherboard is very small compared to the earlier compact Macs and is roughly half their size.

1) special connector for the Mac Classic RAM expansion card. this is used for nothing but the RAM card. I believe that the line of 8 chips to the right of the connector is the 1MB of on board RAM.

Here is an underside shot of the Mac. As you can see the Motherboard leaves lots of space so there is room now for the fan to blow downward under the mac. make sure your Mac has its little legs lifting it above the surface else I can imagine overheating issues may arise.

The Mac classic came with the Apple keyboard II as standard as well as the one button apple mouse. The power button on the keyboard is not necessary to turn the Mac on as the rear power switch will work fine and will boot the Mac on power up. System 6.0.3 is in ROM and can be accessed by holding command + option + X + O keys during boot. I have system 6.0.7 installed on hard drive. Its very suited for this computer and boots up very quickly. You can put system 7.5.5 on this Mac but it kinda bogs things down a bit as the 68k CPU on this Mac isn’t very fast.

bottom line on this Mac is that I do like the improvements to the design such as the easy RAM expansion compared to earlier models but there really isn’t much room for any other type of expansion and there are no expansion slots on the motherboard. The CPU is a bit underpowered for the time and I really struggle to find any use for this Mac except as a system 6 novelty platform. If you want a classic compact Mac find an SE/30. The cases make good aquarium mods though.

The Macintosh Classic was a personal computer produced by Apple Computer, Inc. between 1990 and 1992. The Macintosh Classic was the first Macintosh computer to sell for less than US$1,000. “Classic Mac” is also the name for a series of operating systems developed for the Macintosh family of personal computers from 1984 to 2001 by Apple.

The Macintosh Classic was produced because of the success of the Original Macintosh, the Macintosh Plus, and the Macintosh SE. The Classic’s system specifications are similar to the original Macintosh computers and include the same 9-inch monochrome CRT display, 512 by 342-pixel resolution, and 4-megabyte memory of the older Macintosh personal computers. By not updating the Classic with newer technology, Apple ensured compatibility with Mac’s software base and enabled a lower price. The Classic was 25 percent faster than the Macintosh Plus computer and featured a standard Apple SuperDrive 3.-inch floppy disk drive.

The comparatively low price of the Classic and the availability of education software led to the Classic’s popularity in education. The Classic was sold alongside the Macintosh Classic II, which was more powerful, in 1991.

Macintosh Classic personal computers include the name “Macintosh Classic” in the bottom left-hand corner of the device’s display. They also generally include the Apple logo from the 1990s, which depicted an apple with colorful stripes and a bite taken out of it.

On these classic Macs, these problems usually come from a faulty analog board. Typically it’s bad capacitors or a flyback transformer. If it’s bad caps, this can be fixed but you may need to substitute some of the obsolete values and tantalum caps. If the flyback is bad, then you might as well get a tested/refurbished analog board and use this one for extra parts unless you can do the flyback swap.

The CRT had long since blown out, so he removed it and swapped in a modern LCD screen, then added NES – USB converters to get the controllers to work. A powered USB hub routes into the Pi, which runs the Emulation Station to get those classic 8 bit games.

There’s not a lot to say here except bravo. Actually, one thing worth noting: not only is the display of the iPad is almost exactly the same size as the Classic’s, but it’s also almost exactly twice the resolution (1024×768 vs 512 × 342). Someone get an System 6 emulator on this thing, stat!

The Apple IIc Plus (identified as ROM "5") was the first IIc model to see significant changes. The three major changes were the internalization of the powersupply (previously an external brick-on-a-rope as users liked to call it), a built-in 800 kB 3.5 floppy drive replacing the older 5.25, and finally, the equivalent of a ZipChip 4 MHz accelerator built-in. Apple licensed the add-on technology from Zip Technologies to incorporate the accelerator as standard in the IIc+, though in doing so, broke it out into an ASIC, SRAM and a faster 65C02 (the ZipChip had all that intergrated into a tall 40-pin DIP chip). Other major changes included a keyboard layout that matched the IIgs and Mac SE, changing of the serial port connectors from DIN-5 to mini DIN-8 and an internal modem connector, although the latter never saw any products to use it.

Some third parties produced hardrives for the IIc and IIc+, although since they communicated through the floppy disk port, they were rather slow. External battery packs and flat panel LCD screens had also been sold for a period of time, helping to make the IIc a true portable to those who could afford these peripherals.

The Apple //c was offered by Apple not only with the two displays listed (9" monochrome and LCD), but also was avilable a special RGB 13" monitor in snow white and with a stand to make it fit the //c. It can also be used with any composite monitor, or even with a TV set using the included RF modulator.

The original //c was the first Apple ][ computer to use the IWM chip, an integrated and upgraded version of Woz"s Disk ][ controller. It wasn"t the first computer using it, however: it had debuted in the original Macintosh, three months before.

James Colby has created an awesome Mac mod. He had gutted a classic Mac, and replaced its inner working with an LCD display and a Mac Mini. He’s using it for a Jukebox, but this could be your full blown Mac if you really wanted.