Members Introduction... time to reflect on our past that got us here :)

[Bolkonskij]

Awesome, I'd say you fit right in, domii!

Keep us informed how your Mac Mini overclocking / cooling adventures goes :-)

[jonb70]

Hi all my name is Jon i live in the southwest of the Uk, Previously ive had no experience with the Mac but have just aquired a Mac mini g4. Hobbies include retro computers which i have a few Zx Spectrum, Amstrad cpc, C64, Amiga amongst other consoles. I also enjoy cycling, fishing & am a craft beer enthusiast.

[CircuitBored]

Hello everyone, I am Circuit Bored.

I am based in the UK and have been fiddling with old Macs for as long as I can remember, having started collecting computers "for real" around 2010. Recently I have started developing upgrades for some of them, the first of which is called "CircuitTalk" - a clone of the StealthSerial and gPort cards from the early 2000s. In short: it adds serial to New World Macs that do not have it as standard. The first card is focused on the AGP PowerMac G4s and the iMac G4 but I will be expanding the project out to the iMac G3, Blue and White G3 and PCI G4 in the next six months or so. In the long term this card will also make its way to the eMac and the Mac Mini, the latter posing a real challenge. At the moment I am slowly but surely figuring out the pinout of the G3's internal modem/debug connector.

My computer fleet currently has about forty machines in it, the highlights being a Macintosh SE/30 with an '040 upgrade, a Performa 475, a black Performa 5400 with a G3 upgrade, a near-mint SuperMac S900 (currently out of action), and a PowerMac G5 Quad with a fairly unique liquid cooling configuration. I have more G4 dektops than you can shake a stick at and a fair few PowerBooks too.

I occasionally make YouTube videos about old computers. Here's a link to my channel: youtube.com/CircuitBored I don't upload very often because video creation does not come naturally to me but I am proud of my recent videos. It's just a bit of fun really!

I've been lurking on this site for the better part of a decade, mostly just keeping an eye on the cool hacks and developments here. I currently have around a dozen machines that run OS 9 so I should probably take advantage of the pool of knowledge here!

All the best,
CB

[DieHard]

Such a pleasure to have you here CB... I just subscribed

Love the Roland Jupiter 80, great jam !

Jamming with the Jupiter-80 [Old Circuit Bored]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roR9SzKBG4E

[kahuna]

Hello everyone,
This is Jose. First post here. Nice to e-meet you all!
I'm originally from Spain but I live in western Canada now.

My story... well, my first computer was a ZX Spectrum +2, from there jumped into PC world for years; until I had enough money to buy my first MacBook, a black one with MacOS X. Since then I've been using a Mac as a daily driver. Fair advice, I'm a Linux guy as well

Recently, I became more and more interested in getting "vintage" computers and consoles, maybe because I'm "vintage" myself as well
I have restored a C64, an Amiga 1200... I have three variants of ZX Spectrums, many consoles...
In any case, the Apple PPC platform it something that has always caught my eye. I was at the Uni when iBooks, Powerbooks and PowerMacs where the kinda cool with those PowerPC CPUs, so easy to use, with so many cutting edge technology... and great looks as well! 

A couple of months ago I was lucky enough to get a PowerMac G5 that I've now with MacOSX, MorphOS (AmigaOS derivative) and of course, Linux (Gentoo in this case).

Also, and that's why I'm in this forum, so don't kick my ass out yet... I have an iBook G3 "clamshell". I've been working on it, now it has a 128GB MSATA to IDE drive and a fresh MacOS 9.2.2 installation. I have also purchased a 512MB RAM expansion (from OWC), but that's not being recognized. Anyway, I'll open a different post about it.

Great to be here, I'll see you around!

[DieHard]

Also, and that's why I'm in this forum, so don't kick my ass out yet...

Dear Kahuna,

You are welcome here.  We are very interested in various vintage OS topics and we are a refuge for those that wish to dabble in such lofty things

[adespoton]

Guess I'll do a short topical intro here

I started using Macs in 1998, using a Mac Plus and a digital scanner to write interactive HyperCard games.  I liked the idea of being able to write a recursive stack with supporting xfcns and xcmds to make it a truly (B&W) multimedia experience that wrote itself!

Then in 1990 I got my hands on a Korg WaveStation A/D, and starting with DMCS and then later expanding into other DAW tools, started to migrate my engraving into digital form to make my music come to life, even when I didn't have an orchestra or band handy

1990 also saw me get on the Internet via ZTerm, so I had a new place, via usenet newsgroups, to share my music.

I stayed in the 68k realm right up until 1999 when I jumped from Mac OS 7.6.1 to Mac OS 8.6 on a DV SE, right when I got my first digital handicam.  So then I was able to expand my multimedia experience by bringing some of the DSP on-board and doing a bunch of things in software that I used to depend on hardware for.

So while some in the community may know me for being involved in emulation from way back in the early 90s, music and graphics have always been what drew me to the Mac, and what kept me on 7.6.1 and 9.2.2 well after alternative OSes and hardware existed -- because some of the stuff people designed back then still doesn't have a modern equivalent (kind of like with violins).

[Cashed]

Thanks for sharing adespoton
If memory serves me right, I seem to recall seeing your name on E-Maculation & Mac Garden

Take good care of him, he's from outer space, an era from way back and his wealth of knowledge is bottomless.

[Disco_Stu23]

   Hello,  Disco Stu 23 Here.

I just typed a lengthy, thoughtful post, but it vanished 

But wanted to say "Hi" anyway.  Some Macs I have; Bondi Blue G3 Tower, Egg-shaped iMacs, Sawtooth G4, MDD, then a couple that won't boot into OS 9.

[Disco_Stu23]

Hello Again,  I will try a more informational post in the evening,  and explain my background in the Mac universe.

Back to work for me right now,  I'm farming, so Daylight hours.

[Sea Mac]

Hi, new member Sea Mac here ....

I've been using Mac's for decades now (3 or 4 ... I've lost track) and think they Peaked when they made my old workstation ... MD771LL/A with Dual Xeon X5675 CPUs clocked at 3.06 Ghz

I wouldn't even Accept NEW Apple hardware As a GIFT because of the crippling of the OS so you can't boot or RUN anything Apple doesn't like (Like a Linux Distro - or any APP they choose to ban) ... and the extreme planned obsolescence of the hardware. I think Apple hasn't made a GOOD System since 2012. The Round Trash Can Shaped Mac Pro introduced in 2013 Can't be expanded or upgraded in ANY way ... It is still good AS A Trash Can - but not much else.

I'll never buy new Crapple hardware ever ... and I can't upgrade this Tower past High Sierra. But I still use Mac OS 9 every day and enjoy my old Games in it all of the time.

There is a PPC Apple Tower Emulator called "SheepShaver" which runs under 64 bit Windows (7 - 10) or under Mac OS X 10.9 through  Mac OS 11.2 ... with Intel OR ARM Hardware.

Here's a Backup I uploaded of my Personal "Turnkey Classic" System setup: https://archive.org/details/sheepshaver_202201 if you want to run Mac OS 9 on your INTEL Or ARM Mac (Or your Windows System) with minimum fuss in setting it up.

(SheepShaver is running Mac OS 9.0.4 on an EMULATED PowerMac 9500 Series [New World ROM] with an 8 GB Hard Drive / 512 MB RAM / using a G4 PPC Processor running at 100 Mhz ... It THINKS! On a 12 core Workstation like Mine: this runs a bit faster than the 9500 PowerMac ever did ... on your system you can get this to run quite nicely!)

I still need to dig out my old G4 Towers if I want to use Software that relies upon the FPU Chip ... The Emulation ISN'T Perfect. (I failed to get "Speakable Items" to "Tell Me a Joke" - the MacinTalk software Can't "Listen and respond" in SheepShaver. But that is the Only thing I couldn't get to run with this great FREE Emulator.)

I have kept every computer back to the Timex 1000 ... so I have a nice collection of old Tower G4 I haven't booted up in years. But I love the older hardware and OSes Apple made before 2013 ... think that they aren't worth the Powder it would take to blow them to ... well - they lost their way and got all about profits and the experience went to hell over the years since then.

Even though I have the hardware to run OS 9 "For Real" I still prefer to run all of my beloved and badly missed OS 9 games and software In A Full Screen Classic Environment running within Mac OS X ... I already have this computer running: so why boot up a second one just to play old games?

But the minute I found this forum I joined it. And I abhor "Social Media" as much as I do Crapple's CURRENT hardware Offerings. Won't EVER Join "Facebook" or "Twitter" ... and wouldn't have the latest Apple System either ... I don't "Join" things IN General! But I WILL Join if my whole heart is in it ... every couple of years I find someplace I feel compatible with, and think I can be a useful contributor to.

You have VALUE that attracted me - I think those "Other" Social Media are worse than useless.

So, here I make another nest. I won't land just anywhere ... I'm very picky. But I feel at home, here.

Oh, and I'm autistic ... see things completely different from regular folks.
I also have a SMF 2.0.19 Forum ... and a nice Hosting Plan ... and I own 4 Domains.

And I'm a kindly old man ... who wishes he was Santa Claus. And I tried to do something with it ... not just wish I was. So I did this:
Software Santa .
It's a decent TRY ... 15 years of digging for Open Source software has a BIG heap of free stuff piled up. Hope you find something you LIKE!

Yep! The Crazies are Inside your Barn, NOW!!! Let's Celebrate: Your Tex Avery Sample Playlist

[DieHard]

A lot of really nice downloadable software on your site...

Thanks Santa and Welcome

Ohhh, I almost forgot... Santa gave us the "Tab icon" that now displays in your browser for macos9lives.com, hope you guys noticed it 

[Sea Mac]

A lot of really nice downloadable software on your site...

Thanks Santa and Welcome

A lot of People would be surprised ... that a LOT of the Open Source Software is actually Superior to the equivalent Closed Source "Proprietary" software!
The VLC Player https://www.videolan.org/ is a "Universal" media player that could easily replace a dozen "Stand Alone" type media players. It does EVERY stream / File / Media Type / Disk I've ever encountered and Dozens of Codecs I've never even seen. If you have VLC Media Player installed in your Applications folder, and you Clicked on one of my .m3u Playlist links ... It should just start streaming the Videos IN the Playlist ... RIGHT AWAY. (VLC is set as the default player for .m3u and .m3u8 playlists in your browser's file associations.)

The Playlist Linked to at the End of my introduction post, for instance, Starts playing 66 Tex Avery MGM cartoons in a row and runs for EIGHT Hours nonstop! And this shorter sub-playlist: https://archive.org/download/blitz-wolf-2021-restoration/Your%20Screwy%20Squirrel%20Playlist.m3u Only shows the 5 Tex Avery cartoons featuring "Screwy Squirrel" and skips the other 61 cartoons.
LibreOffice 7 https://www.libreoffice.org/ is MUCH Nicer than Microsoft Office PRO ... it has all of those functions (Except "Outlook" *) ... besides being totally FREE! * (Use "Thunderbird" https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/ to Replace "Outlook" for FREE.)
The G.I.M.P. https://gimp.org/ Replaces Adobe Photoshop - saves Hundreds of $$$$ - Your Total raster Image editor!Inkscape https://inkscape.org/ is Adobe Freehand liberated ... a total SVG Graphics solution you can do Anything with!Scribus https://www.scribus.net/ is Desktop Publishing like "Quark Express" without the $700 price tag ... Total page layout and publishing / printing solution! Even outputs Print Shop ready CYMK Plate layouts! Blender https://www.blender.org/ is a complete 2d/3d Modeling / Rendering / and Animation pipeline ... YOU can make amazing MOVIES like THESE:
Big Buck Bunny https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YE7VzlLtp-4
Or Elephant's Dream https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLkA0RELQ1g
and Spring https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhWc3b3KhnY

The only limits are your Imagination!!!

If the high price of Commercial software Like Photoshop / Illustrator / Quark Xpress (and many more) has kept you from pursuing your dream of making a living (or just some 'side money') as a Graphics Artist: Try these FREE Versions and search for "_______ Tutorials" to learn all you need to know. Pursue your Dream! They do all the things the Commercial Software Does!!
And SO MANY FREE GAMES!!! Have you tried "Super TUX Kart" yet?
https://supertuxkart.net/Main_Page
It is for Linux | Windows | macOS | and Android Devices. (You might have one of those handy.)

Check out the evolution of the gameplay and amazing graphics over the years:
Trailer for 0.8.1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WutAN4i98_o
Trailer for 0.9 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FEwDH7XU9Q
Trailer for 1.0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lm1TFDBiIIg
Trailer for 1.2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kNtEKfN4Hg
GAME Play for Version 1.2 (The last version of SuperTuxKart my old Hardware supports)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSgJ3LEeRZ0 
Trailer for 1.3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ef9vYcuEDL4

(I do not think you are ALLOWED to have this much fun ... you had better get permission from your Parents, First.)
Think of it like Super Mario Karts, but FREE, and with tons of free downloadable Tracks/Battle Arenas/and Karts Available. Play against others ONLINE!!! Multiple Race Modes (Including "Easter Eggs").
Oh, you are not finishing this game anytime soon!!!
I know I'll never get done playing this ... I'll die before I get bored with it. The Bots that come with the game can kick my A$$ so I always play on Novice mode ... sometimes I win. My Favorite Kart - right now - is "Dashie (Cyber Bunny)"
I do not have time, here, to share even a fraction of the fun stuff I've dug up ... it has taken me 15 years of searching to get a list of 5000 free things ... and too many of them are worthy of your time. I'll throw out treasure at random intervals as the mood strikes me.

C U Around!!!
Sea Mac[/b]

[IIO]

hope you guys noticed it 

of course. it was hard to avoid because the OS9lives icon resides in the symbol bar of my browser.

i am just surprised to hear that santa claus is involved, but what do i know about holidays in juley.

[Sea Mac]

Ohhh, I almost forgot... Santa gave us the "Tab icon" that now displays in your browser for macos9lives.com, hope you guys noticed it 

I have over 1,000 tabs open - distributed across 6 windows ... If I'm in the correct Window: I can now pick out which Tab (or TABS) has MacOS9Lives in it ... looks like 3 or 4 of them are open already!
And if you "Bookmark", or "Add to Favorites", this site, now ... the entry in your List of Favorites/Bookmarks also has this Distinctive Icon next to it!

From my (Autistic) point of view the "9 Lives" Tab Icon is ESSENTIAL to pick you ... out of a sea of open tabs ... and if your browser honors Icon sizes Larger than 16 by 16 ... there are sizes up to 256 X 256 to display ... which would be really pretty.

(It's my home, too ... now: so I'll try to make it NICER, If I Can. This tiny little improvement helps everybody out in some small way ... & Helps ME out in a BIG way ... 'Cause I'm not so organized.)

[smilesdavis]

hi everyone

just got my g4

400MHZ/1M CACHE/DVD-V/64 MB SD-RAM/10g HD/56K MDM

ok not bad for 10 eur.. i thought

then i opened it up

- Giga designs G-Accelerator G4/1.4 AGP/100 (5-1214G)
- ATI Rage 128 PRO
- Wired MediaPress X SDI is a full featured realtime MPEG encoding card for the Macintosh G4 and G5. Offering high quality realtime MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 encoding from a wide variety of inputs (composite, s-video, component and SDI), the MediaPress sells for $3799 US.
- Wired 4DVD card
- Media 100 P6000 + 14210 Vincent Junction box v rev 3

ook

also

3x Apple Minimac G4 1.42/512/80/Superdr TGT x3 - 10 euch each new in box

40 eur well invested

[DieHard]

- Giga designs G-Accelerator G4/1.4 AGP/100 (5-1214G)

https://everymac.com/upgrade_cards/gigadesigns/g_celerator/g_celerator_g4_1.4_agp_100.html

Ok, that's just crazy, you probably couldn't have found something that rare if if searched night and day, and if found would be $200 or more

- Wired MediaPress X SDI is a full featured realtime MPEG encoding card
- Wired 4DVD card
- Media 100 P6000 + 14210 Vincent Junction box v rev 3

Cool, but most likely too outdated to use..

I Think you bought a "Video Workstation" from a time machine that was probably $7K back in the day

40 eur well invested

Yes, very good score... finally someone beat the "Diehard Luck" when getting awesome stuff in an old unit

[smilesdavis]

ye i didnt even know those exist tbh

noctua fans upgrade soon for the giga and gfx
the psu i gotta see what fits

[smilesdavis]

is this a dual cpu or a single cpu upgrade? i fear its only a single cpu upgrade

[bakkus]

Hello all, bakkus here.

First of all: Thank you for such a helpful and well-stocked forum. There's really something for everyone here.
And thank you for keeping the old-school experience of MacOS alive!

I got started on my father's Macintosh 512k way back in the day, worked my way through his SE and SE/30.
Some time in the 90s we migrated to the PC platform, but I always had a soft spot for the Mac.

I was bitten by the nostalgia bug during the various COVID lockdowns, so I'm now a proud owner of various compacts, a IIfx - and an AGP G4 Dual 450MHz which is my main reason for being here on this forum.
Loaded it up with 9.2.2 from the Universal Installer disc, and planning on installing both Gentoo Linux and MorphOS (I just like the tinkering involved)