Macintosh 512K Part 1: Unboxing and Restoration

[@musicmakelightning]

Brings back such memories. I bought a Mac Plus in 1986, for $2500. At the time, I was seriously risking my infant child's college education by doing that. But I so dearly loved that computer, and I joined the Mac Developer's program, and tried to use MPW. But I wound up getting Lightspeed C, and writing code as much as I could. I did a bunch of shareware, and I think that for 2 years straight all I did was write code on the thing. Inevitably, I wound up having to replace the flyback and associated caps. And when I started to make real money in Silicon Valley, I bought a MacII, and broke the bank again. (I type this now on a MacPro garbage can...I have never ended my relationship to Apple, though it's getting close to time to move on.) I still have that Mac Plus and all my discs. But it has been living in my garage for the past decades...your video makes me feel I should give it a try. But I think that first, I'll replace all the caps in the power supply, especially the HV video caps. Thanks for the video. Joe

[@sittingstill3578]

My older brother was really into shareware in the late 80s and likely had some of your software. He had a 128K with a DOVE board and 1MB of RAM. Lots of good memories playing Tetris, Lode Runner, etc. I remember so many evenings watching him master Crystal Raider with his super cool trackball.

[@いがぴょん-w3p]

Today I got a Mcintosh 512k . But it may not work. I am grateful to have come across this video. Thank you for making the video.

[@ericplatt6884]

I did Mac consulting and repair for about 25 years starting in the late 80's. This included repairing the Mac 128K onwards - analog board, floppy disks, etc. down to the component level. If you ever need some help, let me know. By the way you can adjust the video on these one-piece Macs via the holes on the side of the analog board: vertical and horiz. size, focus, intensity... use a plastic tool like they used in old TVs.

[@mcg7969]

I uas to have a 512k in my youth. I remember the issue with the floppy disk. To take the disks out I would put a paper clip in the eject hole to hold the disk up and use a pen or little screw driver under the disk and push it out. FYI: One issue I had with it was the screen would go out. To get it back on you would need to hit the side of the machine. This was because of some soldering joints cracked on the video board (?) on the side because there was no cooling. Thank you for the memories!

[@Nicoya]

The mac cracker or case cracker was not the long torx bit. It was a sort of duck-bill plier tool that wedged into the seam between the two case halves and spread it apart without digging into the plastic. If the computer had never been disassembled since it was manufactured the case halves would tend to stick together rather tenaciously, and thus often required a tool to break them apart.

[@donjaksa4071]

I just bought a M0135 HD 20 and it did not work I watched this video and pulled the cover off the Rodime drive and gave the disc a little push It broke free and NOW IT WORKS PERFECTLY Thanks

[@CuriousMarc]

@Don Jaksa: Thanks for the note. We might have discovered a common failure mode.

[@terrydear4038]

I bought a 512Ke in 1987 with an ImageWriter for only $4300 Aus. Revolutionised my design business. Still have it, the box, packaging, software, manuals and warranty stuff.

[@mikeall7012]

First time I've seen the guys face and when I did I had this flashback to undergrad C For EEs. The resemblance is uncanny. Love the videos!

[@stupossibleify]

I never get tired of watching your videos, Marc. Thanks for making the effort for all our enjoyment.

[@budude2]

Have you ever done a video of your lab space? I'm intrigued that it looks like your living room with marble/granite floors and columns in the doorways!

[@wdavem]

The long box with just the mouse sent me back. I remember the audio cassettes it came with to help you set it up had music that was supposed to run as long as each step took to load.

[@theartist124]

That faulty gear was really interesting, amazing after all of these I can still remember it all.

[@littlejason99]

OMG, I remember playing Dark Castle on my uncle's Mac back in the 80's! Wow, that brought back memories!

[@supernova6486]

The 512Ke can use System 6.0.8 I had one and a Mac Plus at some point years ago.

[@ramonrichie9683]

Used to upgrade these to 2 meg of ram, (and later 4Meg) soldering extra memory chips, caps and a selector circuit. Thanks to the Mac engineers making all the lines available! A boot disk with finder and a "ram disk" really made the thing fly. Created many a school report... and still remember a fellow student saying, "what good is the drawing, you can't print it anyways..." Until the printer started buzzing and an exact replica What You See is What you Get appeared on paper.... Great apps MacDraw/MacDraft/WriteNow even FileMaker (still around) ran on those cute boxes.

[@Jwdude123]

Had one. Couldn’t wait to get the Mac plus

[@DandyDon1]

BBN had SE30s which made the Mac Plus which the head of engineering used look like well.....um......

[@cavejohnson4306]

Suckers, I had the apple 3!

[@markcummings150]

At 8:20 the floppy disk drive is an Apple 3.5 Drive and is not suitable for the Apple //c as mentioned. Very interesting restoration video.

[@jk86tech]

Nice to see the Mac working :) I experienced the same gear-material-problem on an old Philips CD player from 1990, were it was the only gear that was yellow and broken in the whole mechanics. You have a very nice environment there to work on your vintage PCs :)

[@Bakamoichigei]

1:03 Considering the planned obsolescence s**tshow they've made all their recent products and their hostility towards Right to Repair, I derive a not-insignificant amount of joy from the idea of somebody literally showing up on Apple's doorstep with a vintage Macintosh and demanding to have it repaired. 😂 I miss my Macintosh 512K 🙁 I remember downloading the shareware version of Mac Missiles from Compuserv over our 1200bps modem...

[@CuriousMarc]

Lol. I should enlist Louis Rossman to come along and actually do it :-)

[@zh84]

My first university had a "MacLab" with a couple of dozen of these machines, two networked ImageWriters, and a networked LaserWriter (only for completed assignments, not drafts.) They had all been expanded to 1MB of RAM, but they had two floppy drives, and copying a disk was a painful operation.

[@wishusknight3009]

Color Classic was probably one of their most striking designs from the early macs. And perhaps the LC and matching monitor.

[@525Lines]

When I was in college in '86, I had the Coleco Adam which I got for sale for $300. The word processor was actually pretty useful.

[@kjamison5951]

Nice purchase! I have Pluses and later compact Macs.

[@lawrencedoliveiro9104]

17:04 Look how fast that boot screen came up. I believe that is the MiniFinder you are looking at, not the full Finder. It was useful to save space on the floppies, particularly the old single-density ones. By the time I became a regular Mac user, it wasn’t so necessary.

[@zacksargent]

I found a black and white version of this at the Dayton Hamvention. The owner didn't know where it had come from, but I saw some telltale screen burn in that, under further inspection, showed that it was used often to manage a battery of solenoids. It didn't have a back like that, as it had been stripped of its casings long ago.

[@jbloodwo]

Dang that. Thing is clean on the inside.

[@dysfunctionalwombat]

I had one of those 800k drives (the external one) which is designed for the IIGS. It motor seized, caught fire, and surged the IWM in the IIGS, in the process, killing the IWM, making the computer useless

[@THEtechknight]

Luckily there is a guy who 3d prints and sells these very gears. They are notorious for that, and its due to age by getting a bit more brittle, but more importantly, the mechanism itself gums up and makes it much more difficult for the eject mechanism to work so it shears off the teeth.

[@CuriousMarc]

In my case the mechanism was perfectly free. The gear material degraded all by itself.

[@JEMHull-gf9el]

Wow that brings back memories!

[@tibipics]

I agree, that's a really cute computer!

[@mrjsv4935]

Cool unboxing video :) I was in commercial school in the early 1990's and we used this kind of MacIntosh among other computers (PC with Windows 3.1 and 3.11). Adobe Illustrator was one of the softwares we used with MacIntosh. Some other program for audio recording, editing and mixing for learning how to do radio commercials but I don't remember anymore what was the name of that software. After I got used to the one button mouse, I found the system easy to use :) Switching back and forth between disks brings Commodore Amiga 500 in my mind ;)

[@ashtori3435]

tips and tricks - very nice

[@lawrencedoliveiro9104]

Does anybody still have one of the original 128K or 512K models? Those single-sided 400K floppy drives made the most amazing musical sounds. The grunting of the 800K drives was just never the same.

[@lawrencedoliveiro9104]

Sorry, meant “single-density”, not “single-sided”. Both formats were double-sided.

[@rwdplz1]

Restoring one now, August '84, replaced all the caps, but has a sad mac memory error, 040006. Removed the problem chip and put a socket in its place, waiting for the replacement chip to arrive. The 400k disk drive (older than the 800k one in the video) was glued solid, the old lube dried out. Cleaned and re-lubed, should work fine now if it reads.

[@Frisenette]

You’re a wonderful guy Marc! There is a new way to remove bromide flame retardant browning BTW. Use an ozone generator, a small heater, a fan and a plastic box to put all of it into. Supply power and let the whole thing sit for a couple of hours. The advantage of this method is: No dependency on UV, no chance of blotchiness from uneven “development”, no unpleasant fluids involved, and a slow, mild process that’s easy to control.

[@Muonium1]

Does it work as thoroughly as the peroxide? Have you done it? I might get one of those $2 ozone generators off ebay to try it

[@Frisenette]

10mintwo it works slower but more meticulously and evenly. Just make sure to have a small fan to get flowing air around every crevice. Also the heat should be safe for the plastic and not concentrated on one spot. So don’t aim the fan directly at the object. Get a nice circular flow going. You run very little risk of overdoing it with this method. Just check every couple of hours. And yes I’ve done it. 😎

[@Frisenette]

BTW don’t make the mistake of thinking you can put the whole thing in the box. A lot of electronics don’t like oxidizing. Of course very simple stuff like lamps or things only of plastic will be fine.

[@BCProgramming]

The yellowing/browning is not a result of Brominated Flame retardant additives, it is an inherent property of ABS plastics, because the Butadiene polymer can be encouraged to oxidize when given enough energy, typically via UV. ABS Plastics usually incorporate UV absorbers in the formula which attempt to react with UV before the butadiene can oxidize to slow down the colour change and brittleness. The yellowing comes from the carbonyl radicals which are the product of the oxidization, which will then react freely with other parts of the polymer, creating compounds which instill a yellow colour. Both this approach (Ozone) and the typical hydrogen peroxide treatment actually do more harm than good; they restore the cosmetic appearance of the plastic, but they do so by greatly accelerating the oxidization by making oxygen more available as well as providing the needed catalyzing energy. This allows the carbonyl compounds to themselves be oxidized into smaller, colourless compounds. However the problem is that during this process the original oxidization is greatly accelerated- it just happens that the products of that reaction are oxidized as well. this can make the plastic more brittle. Worse still, any remaining UV absorbers are pretty much stripped out by beingfoxidized themselves, meaning that the yellowing/browning will always return and the colour will degrade much faster

[@Muonium1]

Very rare to find the actual correct explanation of what's going on. The bromine myth reigns supreme virtually everywhere. You should post somewhere popular and visible to search engines. My question is though, just how MUCH does it accelerate embrittlement and subsequent discoloration? If it's another 10 years, for a ceiling fan who cares, for an antique electronics part it's a bad choice...

[@lawrencedoliveiro9104]

12:15 Notice the analog board along the left side. Remember the vents along both sides, on the top? The left one would feel noticeably warmer than the right one. Also note no fans: cooling was purely convection-based.

[@GlennLittleford]

The crumbling plastic gear. Its designed to fail. I've seen the same plastic gears fail in car odometers, only the one gear, others are fine. Replacement gears are available from manufacturer for over $20 plus $100 fitting. Also seen this in older CD and cassette players, one drive belt will turn to sticky black paste after a few years, all other belts in the mechanism are fine.

[@doalwa]

Very nice! Never heard of this game Dark Castle before. Looks really impressive for the time!

[@johnfalkenstine8377]

Unemployed, I needed a neat nice resume. Across from the University of Arizona on Park Avenue was a small storefront and you could rent time on an Mac and using the software I did generate a nice resume. Complete with a printout and $$$ dollars for the rental time.

[@rwdplz1]

3 of the 4 800k drives I've fixed had bad eject gears, the plastic on that one gear just turns to dust

[@lawrencedoliveiro9104]

20:00 swap-swap-swap ... been there, done that ...

[@jefft4044]

Dark Castle was great but the sequel, Beyond Dark Castle, was arguably even better. Another early Mac game standout was Uninvited.

[@KerryWongBlog]

What a joy! Brought back memories. BTW, didn't see the LED for the disk drive working?

[@CuriousMarc]

Not in this video. It's certainly a dead patato at this point of the story.

[@RonLaws]

That disk drive clearly saw a lot of action!

[@sideburn]

I had the exact issue with my Mac plus. Broken eject gear. I bought the same repro ones on eBay :)

[@irel4ever]

I just dug mine out. It powered up. The mouse wouldn't work. Smoke started poring out of the back. Pulled the plug and threw a fire blanket on it. All clear. Wondering what to do with it now ?

[@RonLaws]

even in 1985, this computer was still ahead of its time in terms of what it delivered to the end user. the GUI that we know today didn't really take off fully as the "Norm" until the start of the 90s, with Windows 95 cementing its place as the default user experience in the PC space as the successor to Windows 3.11 which up until that point was still an optional piece of software to the system in most cases.

[@525Lines]

The Apple IIGS was out at the same time, I think, and had a color display.

[@Frisenette]

Amiga OS was in some ways superior to Mac OS. But both of them looked like amateur hour compared to what Parc and Architecture Machine Group put out in the 70's and early 80's.

[@lawrencedoliveiro9104]

Apple did add some technical innovations on top of what Xerox PARC did -- like trying to avoid modes, and having proper cut/copy/paste. But its main innovation was in making the technology more affordable. Which was in itself an amazing achievement. Comparing the Macintosh and the Amiga, the Macintosh implemented its graphics through a hardware-independent layer, the Amiga didn’t. This is why Macintosh software found it easier to move to higher-resolution screens later, while the Amiga apps had so much trouble.

[@Chriva]

Apple has never invented anything. You're delirious :D

[@525Lines]

Who gets the tag inventor is not the guy who really invents it but the guy who runs with the idea or has the best use for the idea. The PC world best exemplifies the expression, "Good inventors borrow, great inventors steal."

[@idahofur]

Nice Box.

[@compu85]

Does your HD20 have the Nisa disk inside? If so it's an early model. I'd love to have one... it's one of 2 hard disks Apple's disk division made, the other being the 10mb Widget used with the Lisa. Looking forward to that video!

[@CuriousMarc]

No, it's a Rodime with a completely proprietary interface. I don't know about the "Nisa"..

[@compu85]

Ah, as I understand it that's the plug compatible drive Apple used after they killed off their disk division.

[@fostercathead]

I'm sure that after Steve had his accountants calculate the retail selling price of the Macintosh, he said, "Raise the price by $1000.00, I'll keep the money myself!"

[@prillewitz]

OMG how many RPM’s did that drill do? Why don’t you print that gear?

[@DandyDon1]

To think we actually were able to get work done on these at BBN (Bolt Beranek & Newman)!

[@DandyDon1]

I have a bunch of stuff which I "acquired" from the BBN servers for the early Mac.

[@DandyDon1]

Marc cares....that is what's most important! ;)

[@shanestrains548]

Where can you find one of these computers at cuz I'm looking at eBay and stuff like that and I can't find one

[@SEGAClownboss]

That was fun

[@jeremytravis360]

When I worked in a school the kids used to nick the mouse balls.

[@nealelliott]

It looks like the alto's illegitimate son.

[@zh84]

After a fashion, it is. Grandson, perhaps, as the Alto's son was the Xerox Star.

[@hans429]

Wen the floppy dfive is broken... is it a Flop? Or a Wordplay?

[@muholovmuholov8265]

+CuriousMarc . Thank you! Once again convinced that IBM with open architecture is better.

[@heyhocodyo97]

My Macintosh 512k has a plastic mouse holder that's supposed to be mounted to the side of the computer does anyone know what to use to mount it? Glue or double sided tape?

[@razametaza]

@11:00 you really missed an opportunity to make it round there.

[@evan__kumar]

12:14 15:46 16:32

[@RedstoneMiner18]

IN BOX? What did it cost?

[@mm-hl7gh]

retrobright it !

[@cavejohnson4306]

This is how it was originally sold, trust me I bought one new.

[@DAVIDGREGORYKERR]

You uncovered an easteregg

[@RedTroPc]

blud has a boxed 512Ke

[@douro20]

I believe Dell still moulds their logo into their packaging.

[@CuriousMarc]

Yeah! Kudos to them. I think a lot of people picked up from Apple.

[@StampStories]

+CuriousMarc commodore used to do it on the 64C styrofoam as well I believe.

[@MrSpathiphyllum]

I've watched joueur du grenier's review of Dark Castle. I hope that this version of the game is not as bad as the genesis/megadrive's version.

[@CuriousMarc]

It's excellent. This is one of the best games I know on the early MacIntosh. The graphics, amiation and sound are exceptional. Myst is way at the top also.

[@infinitecanadian]

Which country are you from? I detect a French accent, but there are several countries (including my own) where French is spoken.

[@douro20]

Does Dark Castle have its own OS?

[@CuriousMarc]

No, it just runs the Mini-Finder (from Apple) instead of the Finder to save space on the diskette. I can't remember what OS was on the diskette, I think System 4.2. It will run under System 6 very well, and I even managed to make it work on 7.0.1 on my Mac SE/30, but that was very hard.

[@chrispza]

Can anyone come up with a reason for Apple using Torx-head screws? Were they even then in the "You cannot repair or mod your Apple equipment. Take it to the Genius Bar" mindset?

[@francistheodorecatte]

KerissP Steve Jobs' idea was for the Macintosh to be an appliance, much how the iPhone became later. so yes, preventing end users opening them up was more-or-less the reason for the torx bits and deeply inset top screws (that at the time, required a custom torx bit to loosen). customer pressure, rampant success of IBM PC clones, and Steve Jobs' exit in the late 80's changed that attitude toward the Macintosh line in Apple corporate leadership, at least until Steve Jobs returned to Apple...

[@princeprints8765]

13:42 floppy repair

[@universalightoflove]

wow

[@tubeincompetence]

So that's there the name Zak MacKracken comes from? ;)

[@salvo5108]

CuriousMarc, please accept me as your apprentice, I can make excellent espresso and I am a PhD student in ECE field of concentration HPC with FFTs...I want to do what you do 😭😭...could you make videos advising how we can get started in learning the skills that you have..such as advice...how to debug electronic boards..what a work shop should contain etc.

[@CuriousMarc]

“I can make excellent espresso” - you are hired!

[@T3sl4]

Marc Missiles

[@harunal-muhajir5555]

Tim Williams That’s his porno name.

[@jimboblivesforever]

"Fortunately, there is something that doesn't work on the mac" - now that's a sentence you don't hear very often!

[@DandyDon1]

Which always seems to be evident when the "bomb" appears on the screen.

[@joemAwesomeMan]

Its a thing that I hear too often

[@prismstudios001]

You wouldn`t have had any issues at all if you had not bragged about it out loud where it can hear you. NEVER talk about how well any device or machine is running where it can hear you, as it will immediately do something awful.

[@Blaskottesuryoutube]

Est-tu français ? 😂

[@CuriousMarc]

Mais oui! And Luca is very Italian.