Macintosh Plus: Hardware, Software, Programming Overview

[@juangotoh]

I used to use Lightspeed Pascal on a Macintosh Plus. I remember it being a fun development environment because it was easy to debug and compiled fast.

[@perfectionbox]

Takes me back. I coded in C++ with MPW on a Mac Plus with a 10 (maybe 20) MB hard disk.

[@change3920]

I love this as in a spirit of retro programming. Please keep it coming more.

[@smcic]

my mac plus does have 2.5M of ram. I upgraded it by removing two of the 256Kb simm sticks and adding 2 1Mb sticks. I clipped the resistor, and it does show 2.5Mb of ram in the finder.

[@RamLaska]

7:18 Seeing that Control Panel really takes me back.

[@jaimie1938]

Great video! I never had an old Macintosh cus they were a little before my time but there's something so appealing about this old hardware. Thanks for showing it off :)

[@stewartfullerton1965]

In the words of Clint Basinger, The wonders of having one disk drive.

[@josuem1072]

Holy shit that is an awesome computer, pretty advance for the 80’s, great video!

[@andre-le-bone-aparte]

Just found your channel. Excellent Content - another sub for you sir!

[@shotdeadx3425]

The video was loading and you scared the crap out of me when I heard someone talking to me in my left ear. Great Video though!

[@JohnAranita]

The Mac Plus was so cool to me.

[@Levelworm]

4MB of memory! That's a luxury sir~~

[@aaroninclub]

yes because a higher up programming language wouldn't be practical if you had much less..

[@softwave1662]

This is so cool! Retro programming is awesome!

[@bss1250]

Thanks, I think so too, I have several other videos on retro programming including more in depth on early Mac Pascal and Windows 3 if youre interested

[@TheSulross]

first paycheck in a career of software development was for programming this computer (Mac Plus) using Apple's MPW. worked in a group along side EE and they would let me borrow their MC68000 logic analyzer. I would pop the case off and connect the probe to the MC68000 CPU. was able to use that to solve memory stomping bugs

[@bss1250]

Very cool, its a shame this sort of debugging cant really be done on modern Apple products since Apple keeps all the technical details secret (I wonder if anyones tried to figure the bus pinout of the M1?)

[@PaleoEntertainment]

Love the video! This may sound like a strange request, but may I use this video for a project? I'm working on an analogue horror series that takes place in 1986-87, and this footage of your Macintosh Plus is perfect for what I'm looking for! Your voice wouldn't be featured in the video at all, just the footage. I'd also be editing the screen to show disk/file names and programs other than the ones you show here. If this is alright with you I would greatly appreciate your permission!

[@bss1250]

Sure you can use it

[@PaleoEntertainment]

@@bss1250 Thanks so much!

[@MarcoCarmonaT]

Nice. I’m wondering what the “Power” button does in your program.

[@phoenixalpha5789]

Thanks mate, very refreshing.

[@mialle]

Thanks heaps for making this video!

[@CartoonPhreak]

14:55 My Power Macintosh G4 doesn’t do that since I transferred the downloaded files from my Android tablet to my notebook computer then from my notebook computer to my USB flash drive then from my USB flash drive to the hard drive

[@TopherBlairMusic]

The Macintosh is a complete enigma to me. What exactly was it used for back then? I know you could game on DOS but, I'm guessing just business apps on the Macintosh? Also the black and white only screen seems like it would drive me insane.

[@bss1250]

One big area these were used in was desktop publishing and graphic design. The price point of these machines was generally higher than PC clones people wouldve bought for DOS gaming

[@TopherBlairMusic]

@@bss1250 Sure, but I mean if you're a kid back in the day it seems like they didn't do enough to inspire any kind of loyalty among the consumer market. I guess that's what I really was wondering, how outside of graphic design anyone actually grew to like Apple computers back then. I can see it now but if I had a mac and saw Doom running on DOS back then, I'd probably go home and dump my mac in the trash.

[@remerico]

There were plenty of games for classic Macintosh in the 80’s back then. Puzzle Gallery, Armor Alley, Number Munchers, Strategic Conquest, Dark Castle, to name a few. Aside from gaming we used to write school homework and reports on the Macintosh Classic back then as a kid. It was a magical experience, and using a mouse to navigate files and folders was much more engaging than a black screen DOS command prompt. I would agree on the black and white screen, but remember that this was a Mac from the 80’s, Doom wasn’t even released until 1993, and most equivalent PC’s back then would only have CGA graphics with those bright cyan and magenta colors.

[@jeanrodrigues6249]

integer

[@adid.5585]

It’s sad that the Macintosh did not have a physical disk eject mechanism, but instead you had to eject only from the OS. If you had a disk stuck in there, you either had to power up the machine, or use a sharp tool to stick in the hole near the floppy drive to remove it, I guess. This wasn’t very convenient.

[@WinrichNaujoks]

There is a little hole on the side of the slot where you can stick a paper clip in to eject the disk manually.

[@adid.5585]

@@WinrichNaujoks That's what I was saying, and this wasn't very convenient.

[@doughoffman9463]

It wasn't really very inconvenient. The REASON Apple did this was to avoid having the impatient manually eject a disk when they shouldn't, such as during a disk read or write. Data corruption could result. My 2015 Macbook Pro complains if you just yank a thumb drive or external disk without first "ejecting" it via software. I expect that even the newest 2023 Macs behave the same.

[@muslimempirestudentofknowl8650]

Damm we come far This was 35 years ago

[@halfsourlizard9319]

It's truly remarkable how behind Mac and Windows were ... Unix had pre-emptive multitasking in the '60s.

[@kirishima638]

It also ran on super computers that only huge companies or universities could afford. And Unix systems typically shipped without any software in the 70s and early 80s. You had to write your own programs.

[@commandpost1]

This is really cool. I’d recommend maybe breaking up the video but useful. I’ve been interested in programming in Mac OS and couldn’t find a video at all

[@bss1250]

I have been thinking about making a more in depth video on programing for the mac plus, I don’t think most people have seen what its like to program a GUI in a non-OOP language. Personally I think OOP is overrated

[@trulyspinach]

Awesome video!

[@roseblack6089]

god,the computer so long age.but so cool

[@drevilvegan]

such a thing was my first computer. unfortunately i gave it away. today i thought to get one again. do you know a good source to get a fully refurbished one??

[@jessihawkins9116]

have you tried walmart?

[@RedTroPc]

Try your local marketplace. Also they're a bit hard to find for cheap these days

[@Mohkaa]

what floppy disk did you use

[@bss1250]

This uses double sided double density (720k, although with apples variable speed drive they can hold 800k) 3.5 inch floppy disks

[@dimkir100]

I wonder if Turbo Pascal 1.1 is compatible with System 6.0.5? (I wonder which version do you have there?)

[@bss1250]

Usually I use versions of System 3 or 4, but Turbo Pascal should work fine with System 6 and possibly higher.

[@aaroninclub]

I believe I saw multi finder greyed out in the Special menu, was that not supported on the Plus hardware? That allows for true multi tasking??

[@bss1250]

Its been a while since I made this video so I dont remember exactly, but I know sometimes System Software 3 applications dont take full advantage of the full 4MB

[@aaroninclub]

@@bss1250 I don't quite understand, what does that specifically have to do with multifinder being greyed out? I thought that Multi Finder didn't come out until like Mac OS 5 or something?

[@kevinhayes685]

MultiFinder came in System 6 and worked on a Mac Plus.

[@halfsourlizard9319]

Never tried Pascal on Mac ... could you just use a normal editor (Vi or Ed or something), instead? (I don't even understand how people did terminal things/actually interacted with the OS more directly...

[@halfsourlizard9319]

s/$/)/

[@miladirani4313]

How do you about software , electronic, mechanical engineering!!!???

[@bss1250]

I went to college for computer engineering which helped with the electronics stuff, but in general I just like to play around with stuff and figure things out

[@WhoisPhillyMDeck]

What system version is this. 4.?

[@bss1250]

Either 4 or 3, I dont remember exactly which one

[@WhoisPhillyMDeck]

Ok.

[@goodra999]

how much does this cost now if it was BNIB?

[@bss1250]

The base model cost $2,599 in 1986, which is equivalent to $5,957.61 today

[@tomservo5007]

how long did it take to compile the program?

[@bss1250]

I did this video about 2 years ago so I don’t exactly remember, but it wasn’t too long. Most of the time would’ve been disk access since I was running this off floppies with no hard drive. I don’t think it took more than 10mins though.

[@tomservo5007]

@@bss1250 ah, I didn't check the date of the video, my bad. Thank you for answering!

[@alexcastro7339]

I have a Mac plus, but it doesn't say it on the front... There is just the apple logo... On the back it says "Mac Plus 1 Megabyte"...The serial number next to the brightness control says F44053BM0001W.... Doesn't this mean it was built in 1984?.. I'm a little confused. Can you help?... I thought the Plus didn't go back to 1984....I guess it was upgraded like yours is, right?

[@bss1250]

Yes, if it has just the Apple logo on the front and says “Mac Plus” on the back it was upgraded. If you really want to, I’d imagine you could try to locate a back, a 400k floppy drive, and a 128K motherboard and take yours back to 1984

[@alexcastro7339]

@@bss1250 Thanks a lot

[@alexcastro7339]

@@bss1250 One last question.... Looking at the serial number, do I have the first 512k made? I'm seeing that it says M0001W...... Doesn't that mean it's the first one produced?

[@bss1250]

No thats the model number, not the serial number

[@alexcastro7339]

@@bss1250 Ok.... Thanks again ... That totally makes sense...duh But I guess it's still cool that it's one of the first models of the Mac. 😉

[@345.explore]

So it 512ke?

[@bss1250]

If you’re asking about the amount of memory it has, it has 4MB

[@mariusberger3297]

The Mac plus can in fact take uneven amounts of RAM. I have mine running on 2.5MB

[@bss1250]

Thats interesting, I didnt realize that was possible because when you upgrade from the original 1MB you have to remove a resistor to tell the machine its been upgraded. I just assumed with that resistor removed the machine would expect 4MB, is there any other mod you had to to to get it to work on 2.5MB?

[@mariusberger3297]

bss1250 tbh I don't know, I bought mine with the 2.5MB upgrade already installed

[@bateriaAA]

A E S T H E T I C

[@samk2266]

i still like it better than Win10

[@pankoza]

vaporwave plus

[@pantherharri12224]

/ music plays

[@jeanrodrigues6249]

key

[@jeanrodrigues6249]

matriz

[@jeanrodrigues6249]

except

[@jeanrodrigues6249]

constante

[@jeanrodrigues6249]

Floppy

[@jeanrodrigues6249]

Floppy