Questions tagged [apple-macintosh]
For questions about Apple's Macintosh line of computers.
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Mac Plus refusing to read disks
OK, so I was gifted a Mac Plus a couple weeks ago, and finally got it up and running a couple days ago (had to wait for mouse and a couple lots of disks for it to arrive, since it came as just the Mac ...
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How does the Apple IIgs color compare to the Apple Macintosh color?
There has been an interesting discussion of how to convert Classic Macintosh Color to sRGB, which begs a second question. How does color on the IIgs compare to that of Classic Macintosh? I'm asking ...
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Classic Mac OS colors to modern RGB
I want to find a way to convert RGB colors used by classic Mac OS to RGB colors that are understandable to modern image editors and to web browsers.
The two palettes that are subjects of my interest ...
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What is the motherboard part number for the Macintosh IIci that required parity memory?
This is an extension of an answer I posted years ago to the Retrocomputing question:
How did Apple fail to tap the business and scientific markets?
Most (all?) IBM PC systems required parity memory, ...
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Why was MacOS unix certified?
As I understand it most Linux distros adhere to the UNIX specifications while only a few actually get UNIX certified. If plenty of Linux distros can happily adhere to the standard without being ...
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Did the original Macintosh not have any MIDI or similar music capabilities?
The original version of Shadowgate for the Macintosh is an eerie experience after you have played the NES version, with its amazing soundtrack. The Mac version is entirely mute, save for some random ...
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Recently acquired a Macintosh Plus M0001A, and it won't boot
I recently got a Mac Plus model M0001A. It came with an Ultra Drive 20 external hard drive, a keyboard and a mouse.
Both the Mac and the external drive seem to work fine other than it won't boot up, I ...
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Reviving a Mac Mini (PowerPc) - Not booting correctly: video is out of sync, blinking, usb boot not enabled
I come from superuser.com where I asked this, but was told to post here for further help
https://superuser.com/questions/1772907/mac-mini-g4-powerpc-wont-boot-how-can-i-reset-it-to-factory-defaults?...
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What were the 189 GUI design elements that Apple claimed 'look and feel' copyright over?
According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Computer,_Inc._v._Microsoft_Corp.
Apple listed 189 GUI elements; the court decided that 179 of these elements had been licensed to Microsoft in the ...
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Which wires need to be changed to use a Gotek floppy emulator on an Apple Mac?
Preamble
I own a Gotek floppy emulator that I use with my BBC Model B. It is the latest model with the Artery AT32F435 MCU1, so there is a lot of memory space and processing power for future features ...
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What was the last Mac in the obelisk form factor?
In the 80s, most home computers had the CPU and keyboard in a single unit with monitor and disk drive separate; most business computers had the CPU and disk drives in a 'desktop' horizontal case (...
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Was there a way to play an hourly custom sound on Macs circa 1985-1995?
I have a memory of my dad's old Macintosh playing a custom sound every hour. It was his a capella rendition of the Westminster Quarters.
This was decades ago and my memory could be faulty. Was this ...
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First Macintosh word processor with a built-in outliner?
The release of Think Tank and MORE are considered major events in the early history of the Mac. But these were standalone products.
Does anyone know...
when MS Word added outlining capabilities?
the ...
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Will Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard" Rosetta technology work inside a virtual machine for OS 9 applications?
I'm hoping this question sneaks by the 'is-it-really-retro' censors :-) because it involves a classic OS but running under (modern) virtualization.
As far as I can tell, Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard&...
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Need help finding an old 90s edutainment game with "Number Line" Train
This is an old edutainment game that I used to play at school. We used Mac OS 9 there. This game taught you all about various subjects (possibly focusing on math?), all taking place in a zoo or ...
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Sending an executable to an old Macintosh SE using serial port
I'm working with an old Macintosh SE and with a modern computer. I've managed to establish a communication between the two linking the USB serial of my modern computer to the modem serial port of the ...
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How did the classic Macintosh come to use Eurocard connectors?
Almost all of the mainstream classic desktop computers that had internal slots relied on the card-edge type of connector. The classic Macintosh computers were one exception to this "rule" (...
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How did early computers handle mice?
Early computer mice worked by sending a series of pulses; the more rapid the movement, the higher the frequency. How was this handled at the computer end?
At one level, it sounds easy: just run a loop,...
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How prevalent is the CR (classic MacOS) line ending today? [closed]
In a parser library I am maintaining, I stopped recognizing singular Carriage Return characters as line endings to reduce complexity in the tokenizer's position tracking code, a perennial source of ...
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Which versions of StuffIt introduced backwards-incompatible changes to the file format?
In order to help people who want to integration-test tools which shell out to The Unarchiver's lsar and unar utilities, I'm trying to build a legally clean repository of test archives in StuffIt SIT ...
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Looking for a 90s Macintosh background pattern collection
I've been trying to find a collection of desktop patterns for Macintosh that I had for System 7 back in the day.
I remember it as a specific application that you ran to set the patterns (as opposed to ...
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Send serial data to Macintosh SE?
I am new to anything vintage computing and would like to build a simple project with my Macintosh SE. My Hello World goal here is to simply show a string of text received from the serial port on the ...
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What was this almost-magic Mac data conversion tool?
In the mid 1990s I was working for a large construction/engineering consultancy. We'd often engage the services of an acoustic consultant who used a wonderful piece of software to convert all manner ...
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How did the "Programmer's Switch" work on early Macintosh Computers?
The early Apple Macintosh computers (original Mac, Mac 512K, Mac Plus) all came with a "Programmer's Switch" installed on the side. I believe this persisted for a long time, with the switch ...
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How to write Apple IIgs .po disk images to Floppy Disks with an older Mac
I recently acquired an Apple IIgs with two 3.5" floppy drives and no hard disk. I'm very seasoned with older Macs, but I have no experience within the Apple II world.
I search for a way to create ...
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Macintosh Plus always resets on power up
I have a Macintosh Plus, which as soon as I turn it on shows the floppy icon and then resets itself immediately afterwards. Note that it does so as soon as it needs to power up the floppy drive. For ...
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Macintosh SE 30 displays half of the lower screen
I have a problem with my Macintosh SE / 30. More precisely, I only see the underside on the screen, ie from the center to the bottom. The other half, the one from the center up, appears completely ...
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What HyperCard extensions did Myst use?
The original Macintosh version of Myst was written in HyperCard.
According to https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20549685
Adding useful features, such as uploading those HTML files to a web server, ...
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Basilisk II how mount unix filesystem
I use Linux Bassilisk II
I setup unix path
but how I can read file from it?
It not appear in my desktop
My system is in .sit file, how I can read file?
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Would it be possible to run Discord on Macintosh System 7?
I'm toying with the idea of using System 7 as my daily work station at home, most probably via Basilisk II running on some Linux flavour, but possibly on an actual Performa 5200.
One piece of modern ...
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I can't read DS 1MB floppy disks
Using an USB external floppy drive, I've been able to use my Mac to back up files from a big box of 3.5 inch floppies (800K, HD 1.4MB). But I cannot even read my DS 1MB floppies using either the ...
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Macintosh II ROM Replacement
I'd like to upgrade my Macintosh II to FDHD, I have a SWIM chip (to replace the WIM chip), but don't know how to burn the ROMS.
The upgrade process I'm trying to do is described in the book: "...
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How to mount Macintosh Performa's HFS (not HFS+) Filesystem
I own a Macintosh Performa 360 and 420 with a 250 MB drive.
Currently I plan about migrating to a modern system like Windows Linux or Mac.
I could make sure, that I can still read my data, copied to a ...
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What source-code management tools were available for Classic Mac OS development?
I've been reacquainting myself with classic Mac OS programming (e.g. the Toolbox, MacsBug, THINK Pascal/C, etc.) and became curious how software engineering best practices were ...practiced... using ...
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Macintosh IIci not booting
I have an old Macintosh IIci that worked until a few weeks ago but now doesn't turn on anymore.
When I press the power button on the keyboard all the lights on the keyboard and the one on the main ...
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Who did what exactly for the original Shadowgate (1987) Macintosh video game? [closed]
I primarily know Shadowgate from the wonderful NES port, which was ported by some Japanese company and whose Japanese musician composed the beautiful, iconic music which I frankly thought was there ...
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Is it possible to change keyboard key maps on System 6?
For aesthetic reasons, I would prefer to run a US-english variant of System 6.0.8, but all my keyboards are of a Scandinavian layout. Is it possible to swap key maps (using ResEdit?) to use my Finnish ...
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Did the original Shadowgate for the Macintosh (1987) not have "take" or "leave" command?
I'm very familiar with what I consider to be the "real" version of Shadowgate -- the NES port. Today, I noticed this screenshot from the actual original:
There is no "take" or &...
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How and why did Intel make the PCI bus "CPU Agnostic"?
Intel invented the original 32/64-bit PCI bus in the early 1990s to replace the decade old ISA bus used in PC's. It was immediately popular (in comparison to Micro Channel or EISA), being both faster ...
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How to transfer software from website to a Classic (SE/30) Macintosh
I have an SE/30 and want to get some software off of vintage-software internet sites. The machine does not have an AppleTalk card, Ethernet card or even a modem attached. What is the best method of ...
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Glitch in the display of a Mac SE/30
I found an old Macintosh SE/30 in the basement and fired it up recently, only to find that there's some kind of problem with the built-in CRT. I don't really know how to describe it, though. Can ...
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How to get out of Apple IIe mode on Macintosh Color Classic?
I just picked-up a Macintosh Color Classic with an Apple IIe card. I've never used one of these before but was able to get it to enter into Apple IIe mode. However, I cannot seem to figure out how to ...
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Why is my Macintosh LC 475 playing chimes of death when I install more ram?
I bought an LC 475 for parts and repair on ebay. When it arrived it seemed to work okay but the video was all stripey. After some diagnosing I spotted a rotten trace near the the VRAM simms. I ...
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How did 68k-based Macs (or other contemporary systems) detect how much RAM was installed?
If I upgraded, say, a Macintosh II with larger SIMMs, naturally the machine detected that additional RAM. But how did it perform that check? Does it simply sweep all addresses until it fails? Or ...
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What was the first computer malware that could infect Mac systems?
The number of malware that can infect Mac computers has increased significantly last decade (2010-2019), particularly scams (including tech support scams) and fake anti-malware apps. since when ...
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Side-scrolling shooter game for the Macintosh from the 1990s
I'm trying to find an early to mid 90s Macintosh game.
It was a side scrolling shooter in the style of R Type.
You flew a spaceship that looked vaguely like the USS Enterprise from Star Trek, albeit ...
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Advice for heatsinking an old CPU
I’m refurbishing my middle school computer, a Macintosh Performa 635CD which has the Motorola 68LC040 processor. It is a 33 MHz chip. This era didn’t use any sort of heat spreader or heat sink, and ...
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Were Mac systems faster than Windows in processing performance? [closed]
This could be due to Mac OS having performance optimizations to run on Mac hardware? As far as I know this has been happening since the first Mac from 1984 (128k) and the release of Windows 1.0 (1985)....
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How to work around the PRAM battery for a "Titanium" Powerbook G4
Years ago I was the original owner of a "Titanium" PowerBook G4. Eventually, the unit bricked itself and refused to power on. Some quick research at the time led me to believe the PRAM battery was ...
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Original Mac clock frequency
Why was the crystal clock frequency for the original Macintosh (128k,Plus, etc.) 15.667 MHz, instead of a multiple of 8 MHz (which was the maximum clock frequency for the speed grade of MC68000 ...
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