Macintosh Plus Story

[@TheSulross]

Plus is when the Mac finally became a viable computer - first job from university was programming the Mac Plus, used MPW Object Pascal, C, and Asm. Project used a trackball Mac as a kiosk console to operate a laser photo plotter for imagining printed circuit boards, as described in Gerber files, onto a sheet of film. The rasterization code ran on device embedded MC68K so could graphically preview the PCB on the Mac screen before committing to film. I personally owned a 128K Mac, which I did the soldering to upgrade to a 512K fat Mac - used Macbugs monitor and Lightspeed C for learning to program the Mac. So was very familiar with all three of these first Macs.

[@marksimonson74]

I don't think I mention it in the video (although I meant to), but I also owned an original 128K, upgraded to 512K (for $1000), upgraded again to add a third-party SCSI port ($250); and upgraded again to a Mac Plus (for another $1000-$4750 in all!). I replaced it with an actual Mac Plus when the price on those came down, selling the original to a friend. Some time later he told me that smoke started coming out of it. Not sure what became of it.

[@TheSulross]

Was a rather different era relative to now in this respect: The company I worked for in that first programming job sent myself and my boss to take a week long Mac programming course at Cupertino. The class consisted of all young guys like myself, except for my boss who was an older married guy. This training department at Apple was ran by a woman - older than myself given I was fresh out of college but definitely easy on the eyes; a lot of her assistants were younger women (probably all them single). So on a celebratory night after training they arranged to take the group out to a Benihana. My boss bowed out (he had the rental car) but this woman in charge said she’d come by and pick me up at my hotel. So she shows up in a convertible Mustang - instead of going straight to the event we went driving around the area with the top down. (Was some special treatment was not expecting - attractive lady, cool car…) We finally go on to the restaurant - where the food and drinks flowed, then this lady in charge had her female underlings pair up with us guys and get out on the dance floor. I don’t think Apple or any tech company conducts their product training programs like this any more. 😊

[@marksimonson74]

@@TheSulross That's pretty wild. Different era, for sure.

[@cxa24]

I had some incredible software for Snow Leopard that I will probably never find again :(

[@HK_808]

Nice im working on recapping my plus currently

[@jonotaylor5011]

100% important part of computing history!

[@alberthuman-being7257]

You Mentioned: Making FONTS (in Fontographer) on the Mac-Plus (was it 512 pixels across-the-top?) screen ... --> And I immediately-Remembered: How completely-TRANSFORMING was: Stepping-Out II !!! :-o ... Not-only could one Configure a Much Larger: Almost-SQUARE-dimension (Whatever pixel-dimensions would be JUST large-enough!) Screen-size for PageMaker, such that an ENTIRE: TWO-Page Layout would be READABLE! (Not "Greeked"?) ----> BUT, also in Fontographer You could ENLARGE a Font-Character: Large-Enough: To SEE the Outlines SMOOTHLY! :-) -- Of course the Mac-Plus PHYSICAL-Screen was still the SAME-size ... but as your-Mouse came to: the Screen-Edge: ... Stepping-Out-II would INSTANTLY-Scroll: to the REST of the Virtually-LARGER-Screen !!! :-o :-) BELIEVE me ... IF you can Install: Stepping-Out-II on Your Mac-Plus ... the Small-Screen will BE: VERY-Useable !!! -- As it works INSTANTLY ... as Contrasted with: VERY Painfully-SLOW: Screen Refreshes !!! ;-) :-)

[@alberthuman-being7257]

I began using the one-internal + one external 3.5"-floppy-drive: 128K or 512K Mac in 1984-85 ... And a couple of years Later I had a Mac-Plus with the 3rd-Party: 32 MHz 68030 processor board + 4 MB RAM Put inside it! :-) (A SCSI External-Case with a 40MB Quantum HD was soooo Different to: just 2 Floppy Drives! :-o )

[@alberthuman-being7257]

The original Apple Dot-Matrix printer was NOT much use! ... But, ONCE You GOT: A PostScript Laser-Printer ... the Sky was the Limit! :-o ..... MY first PostScript Laser-Printer was an (ugly)-NEC LED one, which was $3,000 with CHEAPER Consumables too... -- As the Apple LaserWriter was $5,000 !!! (And they were all: 300 DPI at-that-time! [Later NEXT had a "whopping": 400 DPI!]) I've Spent: 35 YEARS on-and-off: Being into: MAKING: PostScript Fonts (FontLab-8 has now Replaced Fontographer) ... -- But, It SEEMS that: PostScript Fonts are passe now ... with Social-Media & Cellphone-Videos ... Still: My present: M2 Pro Mac-Mini + Sony 43" 4K TV-Screen for My "Monitor" ... is the BEST: Font Work-Station that I have EVER HAD! ;-)

[@marksimonson74]

I remember Stepping Out. Pretty cool, but nothing beats a physically larger screen, which I already had by the time it existed. I only remember using it on a laptop.

[@johnwelander]

I liked the pace of the video; means I can keep up and enjoy the content, unlike most others. Thanks for your work.

[@marksimonson74]

Thanks!

[@linuxuberuser]

You should have gotten an SE30 but I had an Plus growing up it was my first computer

[@marksimonson74]

Can't argue with that. Probably the best of all the compact Macs.

[@moeskido]

I wanted an SE/30 very much in 1990, but all I could afford was the SE FDHD.

[@linuxuberuser]

​@@moeskidoThat SE/30 has 2 chips made of pure gold. For that extra speed. No wonder its so expensive

[@Mainyehc]

Now I want one of these, too… What software did you demo? Fontographer? Edit: heh, asked too soon… Fontastic I didn’t really know, gotta check it out on my Basilisk II virtual machines, I guess. Also loving that LEGO case… They’re always a great alternative to 3D printing 🙃

[@marksimonson74]

I also demoed Adobe Illustrator 1.0 and a little bit of SuperPaint and Acta, all of which I used in making my first fonts.

[@VK2FVAX]

Great video. Really enjoyed it. Makes me want to get a bluescsi for my Plus. Thank you.

[@marksimonson74]

It's great. It makes it really easy to get things to and from the Plus and much smaller and quieter than a SCSI hard drive.

[@sideburn]

Did you do the diode mod to the plus so the scsi port powers the BlueSCSI? * oops I guess I shoulda waited til the end. Lol

[@marksimonson74]

Not yet

[@marksimonson74]

I did the mod today and it works beautifully. So nice to have one less thing to plug in. It was a little tricky removing the solder from the holes the diode goes into, but I managed.

[@sideburn]

@@marksimonson74 yeah I did mine too. Much better. You can even get it online with the bluescsi WiFi

[@Apple2gs]

Did you know the same year the Macintosh Plus was released, Apple introduced a vastly superior machine? It had 4,096 colors, a 640 horizontal pixel resolution, 32-voice wavetable synthesizer, a 16-bit CPU, built-in AppleTalk networking, the first appearance of the Apple Desktop Bus, 8 rear expansion ports and 8 internal expansion card slots, supported up to 8 megabytes RAM, full backwards compatibility with the classic Apple II line AND a Mac-like GUI with its own Toolbox...in *color*. A hybrid Apple II/Macintosh if you will. For some reason, Apple abandoned this revolutionary new computer and instead pushed the dull, boring and limited Macintosh. Back on the Macintosh Plus, I actually had 3 or 4 of them, but gave them away. Still have one Macintosh Plus motherboard, with the internal SCSI mod applied (and also an original Macintosh 128, upgraded internally to have most of the capabilities of the stock Plus, minus SCSI of course).

[@marksimonson74]

I remember at the time thinking it was impressive, but that it was too little too late for the Apple II line. It seems like Apple was hedging its bets, in case the Mac failed. It also felt like an effort to keep the Apple II revenue coming in, which was sustaining the company, until the Mac caught up.

[@WinrichNaujoks]

What do you mean they introduced it, when they actually abandoned it? Was this legendary computer every anything more than ideas on a piece of paper?

[@TheSulross]

The Mac could be viably programmed with a C compiler, which the software industry had largely shifted from writing in assembly language to high level language, and C was the predominate choice, which the MC68K CPU was extremely well geared for. The Intel x86 CPUs was also well geared for executing high level language compiled code generation. When the 6502 was enhanced to 16bit, they didn’t learn any lessons from other CPU designers as it still remained a piss poor CPU for compiled high level language development. Was a software developer then (still am) and saw this transition in the industry first hand. At that time a resume wasn’t seriously looked at if didn’t have C language programming experience. But beyond that, the Mac’s crisp B&W screen that had very good legibility for the day, was more useful to business and industry than the color graphics screen of a IIgs. My first job out of university was programming the Mac Plus for an industrial use in a hardware product. The factors just mentioned were all far more crucial than anything the IIgs had to offer that the Mac didn’t have.

[@MrThedennisblack]

@@WinrichNaujoksThey’re talking about the Apple IIGS which was a real product that Apple sold for a long time (1986-1992). It’s a really interesting computer and had some serious upsides compared to the Macs of the day, but it was also clear the Mac was the future.

[@365_Pussycat]

3:05 You should use Lithium rechargable cell. They dont leak.

[@marksimonson74]

Unfortunately, it's an unusual type of battery (4.5V 523), only available in alkaline as far as I can tell. There only seems to be one manufacturer making them currently.

[@365_Pussycat]

You gotta make a video on all the books behind you

[@marksimonson74]

The obligatory wall of books about type, as seen in every photo of a type designer. 🙂 Could happen.