Apple's 1984 Ad with a twist...

Sharon Fraats · January 8th, 2004, 12:00 AM

Since we are Mac addicts may I ask which was the first MacIntosh model you owned.

Mine was a 512ke.

Ken Tanaka · January 8th, 2004, 01:57 AM

<blushing>
Well, Sharon, I am a newcomer to the Mac world. I worked almost exclusively in the PC world since even before the PC was created. (The Imsai 8080 was the first "personal" computer with which I worked.) It wasn't until after I retired that I converted to Macs (and haven't looked back).

My first Mac, a 500MHz dual G4, is still on my desk...collecting dust these days. But I've certainly tried to make up for lost time. In the past 2 years I've purchased two desktops (my current main workhorse is a dual 1GHz G4) and three Powerbooks (500MHz G3 Pismo, 500MHz G4 TiBook, and a 1GHz G4 TiBook). The darn things are like peanuts...I can't stop grabbing them!

Jeff Farris · January 8th, 2004, 09:50 AM

First one I used was the original. I struck out on my own a couple years later and bought a MacPlus (cool! an internal hard drive!)

Sharon Fraats · January 8th, 2004, 11:53 AM

Yeah! How big was the drive.

Jeff Farris · January 10th, 2004, 07:50 PM

Couldn't remember, Sharon, so I looked it up. I was wrong. The Plus didn't have an internal. I had a "huge" 10Mb external. My MacII was my first with an internal drive -- an unfillable 40Mb.

JFTR -- you can look up the spec sheet on ANY Macintosh at Apple's site -- even the original (but not AppleII's).

Boyd Ostroff · January 10th, 2004, 08:46 PM

There was a product called the "Hyperdrive" from a company called GCC which was an aftermarket hard drive that was introduced for the Mac 512k ("fat Mac"). It was very expensive and required modification of your computer to install. IIRC the capacity was 5 MB. Never actually used one however.

I had a Mac 512k, which I upgraded to a 523ke (a ROM upgrade and swap for an 800k internal floppy drive), and I remember buying an Apple Hard Disk 20 external drive as soon as it came out. I think it cost $1,000 but offered the seemingly limitless capacity of 20 megabytes! This was perhaps the slowest hard drive ever made; it connected to the Mac using the external floppy drive port. But we sure thought it was cool back in 1985... :-)

Sharon Fraats · January 10th, 2004, 09:01 PM

On my RAM Disk from the 512ke I had the operating system and one program MacWrite which the documents had to be saved there. On another RAM Disk I had MacPaint WOW one whole application with the System Software.

John Locke · January 10th, 2004, 09:24 PM

The first Mac I used was at a university library back in 1986. I can't remember what the model was, but I remember thinking that the first Mac I owned, the little screen box model, was a BIG improvement.

Now people are making those into aquariums.

January 8th, 2004, 01:57 AM	#17
Ken Tanaka Retired DV Info Net Almunus Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 6,943	<blushing> Well, Sharon, I am a newcomer to the Mac world. I worked almost exclusively in the PC world since even before the PC was created. (The Imsai 8080 was the first "personal" computer with which I worked.) It wasn't until after I retired that I converted to Macs (and haven't looked back). My first Mac, a 500MHz dual G4, is still on my desk...collecting dust these days. But I've certainly tried to make up for lost time. In the past 2 years I've purchased two desktops (my current main workhorse is a dual 1GHz G4) and three Powerbooks (500MHz G3 Pismo, 500MHz G4 TiBook, and a 1GHz G4 TiBook). The darn things are like peanuts...I can't stop grabbing them! __________________ Lady X Films: A lady with a boring wardrobe...and a global mission. Hey, you don't have enough stuff! Buy with confidence from our sponsors. Hand-picked as the best in the business...Really! See some of my work one frame at a time: www.KenTanaka.com

January 8th, 2004, 09:50 AM	#18
Jeff Farris Regular Crew Join Date: May 2002 Location: Kansas City, MO Posts: 102	First one I used was the original. I struck out on my own a couple years later and bought a MacPlus (cool! an internal hard drive!) __________________ Jeff Farris

January 10th, 2004, 07:50 PM	#20
Jeff Farris Regular Crew Join Date: May 2002 Location: Kansas City, MO Posts: 102	Couldn't remember, Sharon, so I looked it up. I was wrong. The Plus didn't have an internal. I had a "huge" 10Mb external. My MacII was my first with an internal drive -- an unfillable 40Mb. JFTR -- you can look up the spec sheet on ANY Macintosh at Apple's site -- even the original (but not AppleII's). __________________ Jeff Farris

January 10th, 2004, 09:24 PM	#23
John Locke Retired DV Info Net Almunus Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Austin, TX USA Posts: 2,882	The first Mac I used was at a university library back in 1986. I can't remember what the model was, but I remember thinking that the first Mac I owned, the little screen box model, was a BIG improvement. Now people are making those into aquariums. __________________ John Locke SursumFilms.com

January 8th, 2004, 12:00 AM	#16
Sharon Fraats Regular Crew Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: chicago, ill Posts: 190	Since we are Mac addicts may I ask which was the first MacIntosh model you owned. Mine was a 512ke.

January 8th, 2004, 11:53 AM	#19
Sharon Fraats Regular Crew Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: chicago, ill Posts: 190	Yeah! How big was the drive.

January 10th, 2004, 08:46 PM	#21
Boyd Ostroff Wrangler Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Mays Landing, NJ Posts: 11,801	There was a product called the "Hyperdrive" from a company called GCC which was an aftermarket hard drive that was introduced for the Mac 512k ("fat Mac"). It was very expensive and required modification of your computer to install. IIRC the capacity was 5 MB. Never actually used one however. I had a Mac 512k, which I upgraded to a 523ke (a ROM upgrade and swap for an 800k internal floppy drive), and I remember buying an Apple Hard Disk 20 external drive as soon as it came out. I think it cost $1,000 but offered the seemingly limitless capacity of 20 megabytes! This was perhaps the slowest hard drive ever made; it connected to the Mac using the external floppy drive port. But we sure thought it was cool back in 1985... :-)

January 10th, 2004, 09:01 PM	#22
Sharon Fraats Regular Crew Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: chicago, ill Posts: 190	On my RAM Disk from the 512ke I had the operating system and one program MacWrite which the documents had to be saved there. On another RAM Disk I had MacPaint WOW one whole application with the System Software.