The Legacy Corner
I received a letter from a reader asking where he might find older system software, especially versions of System 6. Apple provides only System 6.08 on their download page, and has gone to court to prevent individuals from posting Apple software on their own sites, even if Apple has discontinued support for it. It’s a sad situation worthy of a rant, but I’ll leave that for another day.
To answer the question, a great source for older software and info is the Apple Club disc, from the now-defunct Apple Club. In the mid-1990s Apple had a Web-based, members-only Apple Club where members paid for (supposedly) faster access to Apple’s software downloads pages. Each member was sent a bootable CD, containing all the latest software, called the Apple Club disc. It contains complete versions of System 6.03, 6.05, and 6.08, along with all the software and system updates through the System 7.5.5 update. It also contains many Apple TILs from the mid 90s, becoming a valuable research tool for older Macs as well.
See if you can find a friend who still has one of these, or maybe check with your local Mac User Group. MUG members are notorious pack-rats—I’m sure someone still has one around. If you still can’t find one, e-mail me and I’ll try to hook you up with someone who has one.
Trivia
Each month we feature a few legacy Mac trivia questions. The answers are at the end of the column. If you have a trivia question you would like to include, e-mail me.
- Which Mac model was the first to use 72-pin SIMM memory chips?
- Which Mac model was the last to use a 9-inch black-and-white monitor?
Links
The Legacy Corner would also like to provide links to interesting Web sites that promote older Mac use and help. If you know of a good site please let me know and I’ll post it in a future column.
This month I’d like to mention a newsletter published by my new Mac friends, Eric Schwarz and John Christie, called The Classic Mac Weekly. It’s an evolving publication dedicated to the continued use of older Macs, and contains lots of info to keep your older Mac up and running. You can subscribe to Classic Mac Weekly to have it e-mailed to you by contacting subscribe_classic@mac.com. Eric also writes a column called “The Power Of Mac” for the previously recommended legacy Mac site, Low End Mac.
Tips
This month’s tip concerns upgrading any of the 630 series Macs: Performa, LC, or Quadra. To upgrade to PowerPC performance in any of these models you can replace the stock motherboard with one from a 6200: either a 75 or 100 MHz 603 chip. Or, if you can find one, you can use a 120 MHz PPC 603e motherboard from a Performa 6320. Any of these three options will allow you to use PowerPC native software and increase the maximum RAM capacity from 32 MB to 64 MB.
Next Month
Next month I’d like to feature some games that can be run on older Macs. I have my favorites, but what are yours? E-mail me and I’ll compile a list to publish. Remember, the games must be compatible with older systems, preferably come on floppies, and not require too much in the way of memory.
Quote of The Month
“The US Constitution may not be a perfect document, but it surely beats the heck out of whatever our Government is using as a guideline these days.”
Trivia Answers
- The LC III
- The Classic II
• • •
Have a great month! Ed Goss, the doyen of ATPM.
Copyright © 2001 Edward Goss,
egoss@atpm.com.
Also in This Series
- Picking the Optimal OS for Your Mac—Part 2 · October 2003
- Picking the Optimal OS for Your Mac · September 2003
- Bluetooth & 68K Browsers · January 2003
- Where to Get Free and Inexpensive Software for Legacy Macs · November 2002
- The Legacy Corner · June 2002
- The Legacy Corner · May 2002
- The Legacy Corner · April 2002
- The Legacy Corner · September 2001
- The Legacy Corner · August 2001
- Complete Archive
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