Building a $14 Macintosh

Today, we're using the Pico Micro Mac project, along with a project from the endlessly cool ‪@RonsCompVids‬, to build an entire Macintosh 128K inside of a Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller!
⭐️ I auction old tech from my videos on Whatnot! whatnot.pxf.io...
⭐️ I use Bambu 3D printers bit.ly/bambu3D
LINKS:
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🍎 Pico Micro Mac: github.com/eva...
🍎 VGA hat kit: jcm-1.com/prod...
🍎 Firmware for flashin' to the Pico: picomac.bluescs...
🍎 USB OTG adapter for keyboard and mouse: amzn.to/3UpzzWz (you'll also need a USB hub if your keyboard doesn't have one!)
(Amazon links are affiliated links)
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💾 For more vintage Apple stuff, please subscribe: www.youtube.co...
💾 Support these retro computing shenanigans on Patreon! / actionretro
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Check out my Amazon page with links to my tools, adapters, soldering equipment, camera gear and more: www.amazon.com...
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💬 Come talk about old computers on the BitBang Social Mastodon! bitbang.social
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#Macintosh #RaspberryPi #PiPico

[@TaijanDean]

I was amazed by how sharp and clear the image was more than anything else. It's amazing what can be made these days by devout hobbyists and tech wizards!

[@MePeterNicholls]

The old monochrome Mac classic display was small but very sharp. I had one 😂

[@m4tt_314]

tbf I was playing around with SheepShaver and Basilisk… I was surprised that you can get 1920×1200 or even 3440×1440 no problem

[@TheSulross]

Shame the Pi Pico doesn’t have at least 2MB (like competitive products) - 256K and 512K is too stingy

[@benholroyd5221]

​@@TheSulrossdefine competitors. We're barely out of the 8bit microcontroller era.

[@oscarcharliezulu]

It’s astonishing that a hundred bucks of tech today can do what $5000 could buy in 1983.

[@andrewr1355]

Hey action retro! I just wanted to say I finally got my iMac G4 lampshade working with Mac OS X the other day and I was able to visit some wonderful non-SSL websites with it! Thank you so much for all you do to preserve these machines. They hold a special place in my heart as well.

[@suitandtieguy]

The Pico is unreal. I'm developing a MIDI-CV interface with one right now and the PWM is working great as my DAC. My last microcontroller product was significantly more complicated and expensive as this.

[@CyanTiger]

I wonder how hard it would be to add a hardware midi port. It would be awesome to use some of the old midi software like the Music Mouse and others.

[@strepeherbata]

Man, it frightens me that I understand what you've written here... How am I doing this?

[@suitandtieguy]

@@CyanTiger it's not difficult you can actually have a few ports because the PIOs can be configured as UARTs. Web search "midi uart optocoupler circuit"

[@TheSulross]

Wish it’s memory was 2MB instead of 256K or 512K

[@DaveEtchells]

This is one of the coolest things I’ve seen on YT in a month of Sundays! It’s so beyond amazing I had to pinch myself to be sure I wasn’t dreaming! (Fun fact, I had a business waaaay back in the day, upgrading 128k Macs to 512K “Fat Macs” and beyond. I have an old Mac sitting on a shelf in my lab that started life as a 128k but now has 2MB and a SCSI port, with a cute little 2.5” SCSI drive in a tiny case stuck to the back of it 😁 It’s incredible that you can make a 128k Mac clone these days with $15 of parts 🤯 Thanks for the interesting vid!)

[@aachaion]

One note -- the sound isn't a limitation of the hat. The umac emulator itself doesn't emulate sound. This looks fun! I'm totally building one for the heck of it. I wonder if you could use a Pico 2 and get 488K of RAM...

[@Nukle0n]

Would adding sound not be made easier with a DAC on the addon board? Even the real pi doesn't have a DAC and bitbangs the audio but it's also a lot faster

[@pseudotasuki]

Fun fact: it will run Doom. Just not in Mac OS.

[@cardboard8073]

seeing the Sillicon Graphics monitor makes me want to see Sean do SGI IRIX shenanigans, since he did mention before that he got a load of SGI hardware. the whole "build a macintosh using a Rasperry Pi Pico and some other stuff" idea sounds fun tbh.

[@SenileOtaku]

I was thinking of AIX, but I don't have access to RS/6000 (pSeries or System-P) hardware anymore.

[@gaioum7]

Yeah to SGI

[@tomwagner4516]

Hi Sean- I sent you a TRS80 mobile a few months ago with the case and accessories. You are one of my favorites. Thank you. Love it!

[@Dreamshadow1977]

Recently discovered Basilisk II and enjoying running it on my Linux desktop. Being able to play Empire and Technomaniac again was amazing. Still trying to get Spaceward Ho! and Pax Imperium running under Mac os 7.5.3.

[@kirishima638]

I’ve found Basilisk to be unstable. You will have better luck with SheepShaver.

[@EvertG8086]

@@kirishima638I’ve been playing old macOS visual novels. Using sheepshaver. I can recommend

[@EvertG8086]

@@kirishima638 Ive been playing os 9, visual novels. i can agree sheepshaver ftw!

[@dataterminal]

The original Macintosh was clearly an all in one computer. You need to open up a LCD or CRT and embed that tiny microcontroller. There is loads of space for it.

[@mal2ksc]

How about a portable black and white TV? I've got a 5 inch version that only gets used as a radio now since there are no analog broadcasts.

[@sideburn]

SonyWatchMac

[@SnipE_mS]

There’s another project with the pico that essentially runs like a Commodore 64. I think it’s called pico56. It’s pretty cool what this little microcontroller can do!

[@EricsEdgeVideos]

“The most cursed thing I’ve ever done.” - that sir, is a throw down!

[@DonVintaggio]

It should be mandatory that each video shows a censored thermal past scene, a graceful shutdown or an adapter chain of 4+ links.

[@joelcarson9514]

How far chip design and manufacturing has come. An early computer clone for nearly free. I now have a silly urge to put together an Amiga clone with an Rpi.

[@JohnPorter4096]

WOW. This is SO COOL. Could we go crazy... and... emulate a 512K version?!?!?!?

[@LoganKaval]

Nice OpenSUSE install. Glad to see a modern Linux user

[@aytviewer2421]

Man... I thought this was gonna be click bait. I thought wrong. AWESOME and VERY COOL PROJECT!!!!

[@andrewnugent9625]

I had a Mac 512 and still have a working Mac SE/30, awesome project!

[@BOULDERGEEK]

I also have an SE/30, and my 1987 Mac Plus, which was my first owned computer in college. Beat waiting for time in the labs. I still have an original NeXT Cube and maxed out SPARC 20.

[@simonupton-millard]

Bet it won't be long before sound is done, loads of cpu power and can use the Analog to digital pins to do it

[@EinChris75]

Just astonishing how far computing came in just so little time.

[@DimNussens]

Well, I was about to go to bed. Guess I'm putting that off for another 13:33 minutes.

[@BulbasaurForever]

Same

[@MF_Plissken]

audio on this would be nice :D. i always liked the old styled tracker and sequencer software^^

[@ConnahComputerSmith]

I would love to see someone build a drop-in replacement motherboard for a 128K/512K Mac that drives off one of these! Obviously, it would take a lot of work to get the signal to a compatible with the analog board, and to also get all the ports set up, but I'm sure with some skilled PCB designers (and maybe some more pins available to the Pico), it could be done! Great video as usual!

[@eDoc2020]

Outputting the video signal to the analog board would likely be the easiest part. The harder part would be making the other IO work (especially floppy).

[@curiousmind4870]

It's incredible how much technology has advanced. And has brought us fun, much fun to play with. Thanks!

[@MegaManNeo]

Interesting. I'll share your video with others who are into old Macs too. This looks cool, maybe I'll look into it myself someday.

[@MorganJohnson0]

I bet you could combine this with the VGA display, battery, case, and keyboard from the Pocket 386 and make a PicoMicroPowerbook?

[@andrew.nicholson]

Just ordered one. This will go great with my Drakware ADB2USB.

[@Francois_L_7933]

This is pretty much on par with the ESP32 Vic-20 project, as in fantastic I want one good 😊

[@cammelspit]

Holy shit, I had that exact model, at least the 22 inch drafting variant of it. Actually had several dozen of them, first time I ever used triple head mode in Windows ME/2000. Had my a friend who worked for an art firm who upgraded all their monitors just a couple years after getting them and I took a whole truck load of them, LITERALLY a proper ruck load of them. I used two of them plus an S-Video output to my TV. This is how I watched my first DVD as an aside. Ah the HOURS and HOURS of PC gaming I did on those monitors...

[@andresbravo2003]

This sounds fantastic.

[@alextirrellRI]

Even on a Pico it seems to be running a bit fast, although I realized the solid state storage vs a 400k floppy will speed things up.

[@webmonkees]

now if I could drive the mac's monitor I'd be set. what, they're valuable? huh.

[@donkimble]

Would it work with an old ADB Mac keyboard with an adapter? I’ve got a huge Mac keyboard that this might fit inside of. How cool would a Mac in a vintage Mac keyboard be?

[@3rdPersonProductions]

Awesome video, TYSM!! Love watching the soldering.

[@user-misho712]

Can you release more videos of the apple lisa?

[@sampellino]

10:35 I had the same issue trying to get things displayed on my Macintosh PowerPC. Something about sync-on-green is why it was not working? I tried the non-adjustable DB25 to VGA adapter and no dice. Those displays also have a really goofy refresh rate.

[@philtkaswahl2124]

"Misusing the marvels of modern engineering" could be a tagline for this channel.

[@MikesFutureRetro]

A 68040 version with color with system 8.1 would be a great companion. maybe call it "Micro Mac II Color"

[@jordananderson8299]

That's cool, now stuff it inside an old Mac that has a faulty motherboard and also make it cursed just like the clear blue Cursed Mac. Also, where the heck do you find a Pico for $4?? Because everywhere online as far as I can see they want $25 or even 50 for a Pi no matter what kind or generation.

[@dave4shmups]

That is a really cool project! I played games on my Dad’s Macintosh 512K, back in the late 1980s, and it was fun! Action Retro, before you switched to Ubuntu, what Linux distro were you using on your laptop?

[@hyperturbotechnomike]

Sadly, EU shipping is 47€ according to the website shipping cost calculation. Maybe i can build my own.

[@TheRetroMacintosh]

They are a fun project and these have been a round for a while in the UK especially the SD Version, the annoying thing is the screen size limitation and its inability to scale up to the monitor or LCD you use, but still a cool project with heaps of future potential

[@CubicleNate]

What a cool project thank you so much for sharing! I was looking for the software development kit for the Pico and outside of Thonny or VS Code, I am not sure what else there is so I think I'm missing something!

[@HenrikVendelbo]

The pico 2 might get you close to 500kb ram

[@Kaztled]

Now i wonder if it's possible a PCB that has PS/2 ports, printer and ethernet for the pico in order to replicate the ports used in original models to make old systems still reliable Many universities and government offices use still 80's Macintosh and Commodore 64 for simple things and that would be very helpful

[@iou4152]

Finally decided to try out microcontroller shenanigans because of this video! Love the vids ❤

[@murdockscott]

This is pretty fun, think I will build one! I am looking forward to future versions with more capabilities. 😀

[@glennorr3568]

Is there one with HDMI out.?

[@cmedeir]

This is freaking amazing! I love this.

[@stuaxo]

VGA is very flexible, can this output the proper resolution (or a doubled version) with the right config ?

[@Spectere]

10:35 Not gonna lie, I really wish AdapterZilla would have somehow made that setup work. :P

[@JarrodCoombes]

Ok, now this is seriously cool. I knew there was a reason I subscribe to you!!!

[@appleleptiker]

Right, didn't expect to see a "$14 Macintosh" today, but here I go, I guess

[@BadKarma714]

Is there any way to program in basic on a raspberry pie?

[@808jpm]

If you could change the frequency of the rgb signal output that might get your Apple display to work. I bet that monitor is fixed frequency and the VGA (RGB) signal is probably 60 hz not the 67 (66.7) hz required for the monitor.

[@tOSdude]

I wonder if you could make this output composite video instead of vga.

[@maxandroverinc.]

People should make Macintosh clones on single chips like they do for the NES

[@naorunaoru]

Surely there has to be a way to reconfigure the output resolution by building a custom image from source?

[@JapanPop]

I hit the like so fast. I can’t wait to do this with my pico!❤

[@anumeon]

The day when Action Retro did some Retro Action. :)

[@drunkenn00b]

HI! is it possible to activate noise reduction/filter for your vids? Sure - sometimes you want some noise from retro computer like when they boot up. But somehow the background noise was very unpleasent to me in this vid. thx

[@Njbuilder95t]

Is there any way to add memory? I would make one if I could use it like a maxed out old Mac

[@CameronReape]

It’s the Mac Pico!

[@konradszkudlarek]

Do you have Amiga ? If so, it would be great to see how ShapeShiffer is running. Back in the 90s i've played Civilization 2, WarCraft 2 on emulated Mac on Amiga 1200 030 8MB FAST and i remember that it ran quite comfortable.

[@CyanTiger]

I wonder how hard it would be to add a midi port to this. I really would love to run Laurie Spiegel's Music Mouse and other midi software.

[@patchso]

Your hair is just getting better and better mate!

[@paulstubbs7678]

Nice little project, although what's wrong with your LCD, so dim, like you've no backlight

[@SianaGearz]

You can get rp2040 and rp2350 boards with PSRAM, that could make for a good upgrade if supported by software.

[@chu-icehugehard1820]

It would be more interesting and useful if the emulator can make use of external SPI PSRAM. With this, the emulator can hold up to 8 megs of RAM with acceptable speed, and it's also possible to emulate high version of system software, or even color Macs like the II😮

[@JamesTenniswood]

I love it. I don't need it. I do want it.

[@patpopov]

11:55 It's not a continuity error if you inb4.

is there a similar project for the Raspberry pi 3B+?

[@bobobear1977]

Loving your openSuSE

[@SebastianOliva]

Happy to see my beloved openSUSE on your laptop :)

[@casperolesen9139]

Just watched this nice video on my 2008 MSI Wind U100 Notebook! 1.6 GHz Intel Atom Processor and 2. GB. Ram Not at all' a bad experience lowered resolution of course, but the screen is only 10 inches so perfectly acceptable! the wonder of Linux 32 bit still supported Many thanks for this exciting video

[@ctrlaltrees]

Ron is good people - as is Joe, for that matter!

[@jaspercas]

Does this work with smaller pi pico boards?

[@fluffycritter]

Huh, I have a bunch of Pi Picos around that I haven't had a use for after all. Maybe I'll have to get some VGA hats.

[@kietero]

Have you tested this with a system 7 image?

[@yoshi314]

it's a real show of technological advancement.

[@JohnSmith-xq1pz]

Apple How DARE you!!

[@Blue5wirl]

Highlight of the video for me is the black-with-green-highlights super-minimal install of Suse on the X1. Sleek AF.

[@strapazoot7141]

I have 2 questions. Can I install Music mouse on this, and can i make it output midi?

[@solodobo]

does it output color on color supported macos?

[@retropuffer2986]

Very cool project. Shufflepuck was def an awesome game! 😀

[@CralexKokiri]

Well shucks, I got mine a month or two ago but there wasn't an sd adapter available as an option at the time. I'll definitely be coming back later when I manage to get one.

[@Bubblestheghost]

This is so cool, I love it so much. I hate that I have no one in real life to talk to about it. 😂😂

[@AlexOlsenpang]

What arm cortex cpu there are like 3 types cortex-m, cortex-r and cotex-a

[@therealjpster]

The RP2040 chip on the Pico has two Cortex-M0+. The RP2350 on the new Pico 2 has two Cortex-M33. And also 520K of RAM instead of 262K.

[@LoesserOf2Evils]

What version of Mac OS Classic does this run?

[@cdl0]

3.2, according to the video.

[@LoesserOf2Evils]

@@cdl0, thanks! I missed the version when I watched the video.

[@matthewday7565]

Could you use a Pico 2 for more RAM?

[@singletona082]

Now for a challenge. Try daily drivering one of these to get work done that can be done on that computer.

[@totalkiller4]

Dose anyone know if this will work with the Pimoroni Pico DV Demo Base ? or do i need the parts shown in the video to make it work ?

[@cwaldrip]

What’s the limiter on the RAM size? The Pico or the emulator? 1024MB would be great…😊

[@yetzt]

I can't belive you traded your TAM for this.

[@ActionRetro]

TAM = Tiny Apple Macintosh

[@kodyblaze7507]

what linux distro is he using in 5:30 timestamp?

[@thermate93]

The launcher logo suggests OpenSUSE

[@GalenlevyPhoto]

Amazing how technology made these things really tiny in 40 years.

[@BanazirGalpsi1968]

If one could find superpaint on an archive site and download it could one of these devices run it?

[@BanazirGalpsi1968]

Used to love super paint. It was the best thing at the time

[@RussianSevereWeatherVideos]

That's awesome!

[@samuelbanya]

Anyone have a list of software that would actually benefit a VMiniMac instance like this? Also what Apple branded monitor would be cool for this too that would actually have v-sync capability?