I started using Macs back in 1986, when the original Macintosh became my company’s first choice for creating overhead projector slides (remember THOSE?). This remained the case until 1997, when in a particularly misguided move, the company chose to replace ALL of its Macs with PCs (Windows 95 was deemed “good enough” and PCs were less expensive). I purchased my own personal Mac for the first time in 2006, and haven’t looked back since. Years ago, nostalgia for the old Macs I had used at work took hold of me, and I have been acquiring and restoring selected Macs ever since – typically ones that are the same model as, or very similar to, the ones I had at work.
Highlights from my current collection include a Macintosh Classic, a Macintosh SE, a Quadra 660AV, a Quadra 840AV, a Power Macintosh 7500/100 (upgraded with a 350 MHz NewerTech G3 Accelerator), a Power Macintosh 7300/200 (upgraded with a Sonnet 500 MHz G3 Accelerator), a PowerMac G3 All-In-One (the Molar Mac), a G4 Cube (upgraded with a 1.2 GHz Sonnet G4 Accelerator), a 2.3 GHz Dual Core PowerMac G5 (my first personal Mac), and the last of the G5s, a 2.5 GHz G5 Quad. I also have a 2.2 GHz 2008 MacBook Pro, a 3.2 GHz 2008 Mac Pro, Â a 3.4 GHz 2011 27″ iMac and the latest addition to the collection and my new “daily driver”, an M1 Max equipped Mac Studio. My favorite? The G4 Cube, hands down – the Cube defines style and innovation.
This blog charts my travels through “vintage Mac land”, where long forgotten problems crop up daily (what WERE the Type and Creator codes for that application anyway? 🙂 ). Along the way, as I solve problems and learn things of interest, I will document them here for the benefit of others who, like me, share a fascination with vintage Macs.
Lately I have expanded the scope of this blog to include the Apple IIGS as well. The Apple IIGS is not a Mac of course, but when running GS/OS, it feels so close to a System 6 Mac that I could not resist.
Thank you for visiting my blog – I hope you enjoy it!
Quadras, Cubes and G5s 
hi, i would like to to sell my quadra 840av . i just connected it after 13 years …. it is still working very well…any ideas? there is also a 44mb syquest drive with disks 🙂 and a working monitor of course … and software…
Hi, thanks for getting in touch. Can you tell me a little more about the machine (how much disk, how much RAM, what size of monitor, the monitor’s brand (is it Apple?), what version of Mac OS, what major software packages, etc.)? As well, where is the machine located? I might be interested in purchasing it from you if the price is reasonable, but if I do not want to purchase it, I could probably find you a buyer without too much difficulty. Of course, there is always eBay as well… Cheers, Michael
Andres, a fully functional Quadra 840AV fetches quite a steep price on eBay these days, typically over $1K. You should be able to do very well with yours there if you chose to go that route!
Hi, I have an original Macintosh PowerBook 165, and an original Centris 660av with original manuals and operating system, and also a ibm monitor. Would you or anyone be interested in buying it.? Ms. Thomas
i cannot get anything to open in the 400/ 800 meg file tha mac hasn’t got the translation .. i am trying to run mac project 2 in chubby bunny
Howdy! Just finished the final version of PPC Media Center. Might be of interest to your readers. Is very mature and functional for most all Mac systems from PPC (G4/G5) to Intel – 10.4-10.8. http://ppcluddite.blogspot.com/2016/06/new-ppc-media-center-version-6.html
Great blog, keep on writing!
I don’t have any modern macs but when I was a kid I loved my blue G3 mac and my macAddict CDs. I recently found an Apple II and my old G3 mac and I’m hoping to restore them too 😀
Hi hapymacs. I love your blog, it is really fun to follow your adventures. Hey, if you ever run out of space or grow tired of your ColorSync 850AV, I would love to but it off you.
Doh, i meant *buy* it off you 😛
Hi, thanks! I regret to have to say that the 850AV faulted out a few weeks ago, a flickering of the display, a sharp noise, and now it will not display any density greater than 800×600, which rather defeats the purpose of the beast. It is beyond my ability to repair it, but I am looking for someone who can. Shipping is an issue with something that weighs this much, so I am looking locally. I will update the readership here when I finally am successful in getting it fixed. Thanks again for your comments!
Thanks happymacs. BTW, the hair product Retr0bright is a terrific find. I have been manually mixing Retr0bright, breaking bad style in my basement – definitely keen to try it out.
Bad luck on the 850AV 😦
Hope you can get it operational again – but please don’t scrap it if you can’t as i would love to buy it and restore it.
I read your article about putting after dark on a mac with 9.1. But: can it be done with a one running 9.2.2, which is what I use?
Hello, I thought you might enjoy this page, which dates back a few years. I still have the PowerBook 100 that I wrote about, but haven’t fired it up recently:
http://www.columbia.edu/~em36/pb100/PowerBook100Wireless.html
Thanks Edward. You were right – that was a great read, and some inventive hardware on your behalf. Congratulations!
Hi HappyMacs! I recently for my birthday got a PowerMac 8500 that I’ll be upgrading up the hoohah as more of my parts come in, and I was thinking to run Linux on it (one of the aforementioned parts is a G3 upgrade card from defunct company Vimage VPower to transform it into a 500 MHz G3 powerhouse as compared to its 150 MHz 604). I had/had access to one of these beauties in the 90s when my dad had it as his main machine, but then he retired it for a TiBook 400MHz.. We got rid of the 8500 shortly thereafter, and I was sad.
Anyway, I came across your blog here when searching for a way to install Linux on Old World Macs like my 8500 and I’ve yet to try anything because I’m waiting on the upgrades. I did get as far as installing XPostFacto 4 (which installed BootX for me) and I tried to get a Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar install going, but I think it’s in a weird state because my only video output was the AV board’s output to my capture card, and now it’s stuck. I have a DB15-to-VGA adapter on order slated to arrive today, January 23rd, 2021, so I can see what the heck it’s doing, and go from there. I have 128 MB of RAM in there at the moment, but I have what I hope is compatible 128 MB modules (x8) to max it out to 1GB. Given how aggravatingly annoying it is to remove the logic board to perform that upgrade, I’ll wait for all my upgrades to arrive before I attempt it again (when I got it I did some exploratory surgery… we’ll call it that… causing a lot of brittle plastic casualties along the way, including the front power/reset button, and the CPU daughtercard retaining thing you have to move out of the way to access the PCI devices etc).
Anyway, I’mma try to first of all see if I can get a Linux CD I have burned booting up on there in any capacity with 128 MB of RAM. What’s the best way to be in contact with you if I need help?
Thanks,
Gaspar