Hello all.

[GDB]

I have lurked here for a while but what with 50 or so working Macs around the house (mainly shelved but many actually get used) have decided to join up. I guess we people need to stick together.

 

Latest addition: a LaserWriter 8500 with a mere 14k printed pages. I like high-end Apple hardware, especially the stuff I could not afford in the 90s, and this piece is definitely destined to go back into service.

[TheNixer]

Welcome!  If you get the time, you should post a few pictures of your collection.

[GDB]

I don't think my photos could compete with yours!

[TheNixer]

To be honest, I just wanted to see your collection!  It's always interesting to see what everyone else has, what they deem collectable.  I still have my compact Macs but through various moves I've lost a good portion of what I had - and it makes me want to kick myself.  But I still have my favorites. 

I wonder how many of us go for the stuff we wish we had back then.  I wanted a Mac something awful in the late 80's but our family computer was a PCjr.  It wasn't until high school working on the school newspaper that I got to use a SE/30 extensively.  From there I was hooked.

 

[GDB]

Yes, I am much the same. I could not afford a Plus or an SE when I first bought a computer of my own (an Epson PC-XT clone) sometime in the summer of 1988, and with the price of Macs back then, I could not afford one for the next few years, either.

My first Mac was a Performa 600 that I bought on the cheap when discontinued, though I did buy it new in the box. Still have the old gal. I used it from 1993-99 in a home office, and wrote three books on the thing — it was just as fast for those purposes as anything is today, truth be told, so I did not complain much at the time.

Right through the 90s I was smitten by Apple software and hardware, and spent far too much spare time  drooling over the latest gear. I remember really being keen on those newfangled Quadra 840avs and 6500s and (let shock and awe fall on all who read) the 8600 and 9600 604ev machines. Oh boy, did I want one of those, as they shone in the bright lights of the showrooms! Jobs may have honed the Apple image, but Apple's designs were just as fabulous back then.

So, partly as I wanted them when I was younger, I collect them now. I have very little or no interest in more recent hardware as a collector (though I do use modern Apple gear), and tend to like the period 1986 or so to 1997 best (the post- and pre-Jobs era).

 

My collection includes:

a Mac128

Plus

SE

SE/30

Classic

Classic II

IIsi

IIci

IIfx

Performa 600 ('natch')

Color Classic (converted to CCII)

LCIII, 475, 575

Quadra 605, 950, 840av, 650, 660av

PowerMac 6100, 7200, 7500, 8600

G3s: beige tower and desktops

PowerBooks 145, 160, 180, 190, 270c, 540c, 2300c, DuoDock, 2400c (working perfectly with 4 hrs of battery life between two packs), 5300, 3400, Wallstreet, Pismo

Newton 2100, eMate 300

G4 Cube (dual 500)

Stylewriter II, 2200, LaserWriter 4/600, Pro 630, 12/640, 8500

Apple CRT monitors from 12"-20" incl a FP Display

... along with everyday tools: a G5 tower that is used extensively, a 12" G4 PB for portability, and the much more unwieldy 15" C2Duo MacBook Pro on which I am typing now.

 

A handful of my bits and pieces are on Flickr, though these days I do not have time to fiddle much: http://www.flickr.com/photos/35134131@N03/ .

[TheNixer]

That's funny - I've looked at those photos before!  I commented on your cleaned up Mac Plus keyboard almost two years ago.  You have some interesting cards and a fine Mac collection.  The things I consider the holy grail others seem not to mention.  I want all the stuff that's near impossible to find and ship.  I'd go crazy for an Apple Two Page Display and the card that goes with it for an SE or an SE/30.  And one of the original LaserWriters or a LaserWriter Plus.  Both of which probably wouldn't make it through any mail system.

 

I too have an Apple FPD.  I messed around with it last night some, they are really nice monitors.  There's actually one on eBay right now, which never happens. 

[GDB]

I happen to have a Radius greyscale two page display in very nice condition (presently connected to an 840av), and for the SE/30, a Radius SE/30 card that drives it (I don't know it it works -- I still have to test the card).

I'd like to know what Radius allowed for in terms of an extended desktop, but finding time to play with the hardware is the problem.

[TheNixer]

Are you kidding?  WOW.  So, does it look like this?  (Bottom setup, obviously).  

[GDB]

Well, you have answered my question with that photo: it would indeed be a proper extended desktop if I were to set it up. That makes me want to find a little spare time.... I have been pondering a hack that would hopefully let me combine a MacCon SE/30 ethernet card (presently needing a couple of capacitors replaced) and the two page graphics card; I gather that what I need is the 90º connector from a sacrificial IIsi pds card in order to stack the two in my SE/30. I think it will fit; we'll see. I have the pds card, but do not have the means to remove what I need from it. I suppose that these complications are what keep me from testing the two page display card, which in and of itself would not be a big deal. 

 

So no, I am not kidding, I do more or less have that bottom setup on shelves safely stacked away here in the house, awaiting my attentions. I say more or less because my Radius monitor is slightly different — a (later?) Radius Two Page Display/21gs. I am not sure what the one pictured is. Mine came from the publishing world, as you would expect, where it was used for PageMaker layout. The bezel on mine, however, looks like the one in the top photo rather than the bottom one, so it may also be contemporary with the SE/30. It sits a little higher on the desk than the ones in the pictures, there are brightness/ contrast buttons, and there is a power switch beneath the screen.

 

I have a couple of other SE/30 graphics cards, but the two page display card (so marked, as opposed to the other two that are merely full page diaplay cards — all three are in those photos I linked) has a BNC connection. This makes things a little awkward, but I think I have the cable that goes with the thing. All this needs to be tested....

 

About half of the gear came from someone who had gathered bits and pieces over many years from university surplus. I sort of inherited it when family circumstances required him to get it out of his house, and I amalgamated his collection with mine. The upshot is that now I have far too much! However, some of the pics are of that particular university surplus cache, which was much larger than what is pictured. There were nubus cards breeding with nubus cards in the dark, I think, and producing offspring.

 

I will have to try to ensure that it survives, as I seem to have a few real rarities.

[TheNixer]

Sorry, I meant to tell you that the secondary monitor does in fact extend the desktop.  There are several that do and it's a really awesome thing to witness on a compact Mac.  Here's my Mobius display connected to an SE.

If and when you set up your TPD you've got to take a picture.  I'd love to see the setup.  I've seen a 19 inch Radius like yours but never the 21 inch version.  There's currently a 19 inch Radius similar to yours on eBay but it's been there for quite a while.  If you're in to retro desktop publishing (and why wouldn't you be?) these displays make PageMaker magical.

I also have a Radius Pivot but only NUBUS cards for it - and the fact that yours are mating made for a rather hilarious visual image!  

I wish I could have gotten in on some sort of university surplus because I bet there's some really great stuff there.  Unfortunately I've gotten all of mine bit by bit.