First Post, Just found your community here and adding to the tested hardware for the Mac Mini G4:
Items I've purchased and tested:
Roland Firewire FA-101 -
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What is working:
- Audio recording from Cubase VST/32, Live 4
- All inputs were recognized and able to record from Live & Cubase
- Midi input + output worked in both Live & Cubase
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Midi Cable Used:
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NUOSIYA MIDI to USB Interface Cable 4.5FT- Other brands are defaulting to USB-2, and this was the brand & cable that worked
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IOS USB Cable used for connecting the Midi Cable to USB on the iPad
- The midi cable purchased was recognized by the iPad with a standard usb to lightning cable.
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SUNTRSI USB Portable Camera Adapter*
Midi Device Used For Testing:
- I have an older iPad Air running iOS 12.5.7, with TouchOSC version 1.9.12.19
- Was able to send and receive midi data and touch control tracks, effects, etc.
- Also used Cubasis LE 2 on the iPad to test sending and receiving data.
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Sound / Video Cable:
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FOINNEX VGA to HDMI Adapter Converter with Audio- This converter with an older DVI to VGA cable I had from my retired powerbook worked for getting both video and sound.
- It didn't create the native sound experience, but I could route the sound a mixer and control the volume.
- No issues with 60FPS refresh rate. Tested with Quake & Unreal Tournament to see if the converter worked, it does.
- Side note, it does get a little hot, so I had a 120mm fan near it blow fresh air on the mini vents and ports.
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USB Audio, Native Sound Cable-
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USB Headset Adapter,ANDAPA USB Audio Adapter Stereo External Sound Card with 3.5mm Headphone and Microphone- This cable works with USB-1 and shows up as USB audio on OS9.
- Was helpful as an alternative to buying older M-Audio gear to just get basic audio controls.
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Other Devices- Had used a older OWC Firewire 400 Sata device to do all the file transfers and getting data out of the mini
- Had trouble finding any native game controller support for OS9
- Was able to get PlayStation PSX1 games and native PS1+USB adaptor to work with
Connectix Virtual Game Station- Swapped out my Powerbook 15" DVD-RW and plugged it into the Mac-Mini, no issues to read DVD-RW for transfers
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Razer Tartarus V2 Gaming Keypad-
Razer Naga Trinity Gaming Mouse: 16,000 DPI- Both Razer gaming devices worked really well and was a noticeable upgrade to Quake & Unreal Tournament
* USB Gaming Controllers:Didn't Work: MacAlley iShock Gaming Controller-
- This requires some specific version of drivers, that I wasn't able to find on archive.org
- I got v2 of the driver to load and install, but still struggled with getting it to work.
- What did work was...
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- The brand is
Rii X8 Mini Wireless Controller Touchpad and
Rii RK707 3 in 1 Wireless Portable Game Controller
- The USB Keys with the Rii devices were recognized as USB-1 and worked. The "gaming" wireless device showed up as a native gaming controller in TombRaider, Quake, and Unreal Tournament.
- The Rii gaming device wasn't "rumble shock" but it did show up with Playstation games inside of Connectix.
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Networking- Setup a VM with Parallels to run a 10.5 Leopard Server and have it be the master
Timbuktu File Server- This let me have access to shared folders from Leopard, to a Samba SMB Server.
- Transfer speeds max out at 10MB, per sec - but for stuff that isn't too large, it was fine. Otherwise it's the Firewire Drive.
Overall, it's a cool experience and the quietest (fast) G4 for retro gaming and music making.
Was pretty happy once the iPad with the TouchOSC worked with the right cable inside of Live.
Makes working on some remixes a different experience using touch and older software.
The next step is to learn more about Apple Restore and making an image of all the Gaming Setup so that others can just have a "one and done" setup for retro gaming.
The
Connectix Virtual Game Station was picky and needed certain installs from a set of files I found on archive.org - but it works now.
Was able to play Metal Gear Solid with no issues on the G4.
It's nice to be able to use a machine, mostly offline, and have a snappy gaming experience.
Thanks again to all those that have contributed the community here, looking forward to sharing more!