Slix's PowerPC Mac Collection!

#1 Post by **Slix** » Sat Mar 10, 2018 12:34 pm

Hello everyone!

I'm Slix, and I collect PowerPC Classic Macs and other old Apple things. Here is a write up about my collection, last edited March 10, 2018. You can find more about my collection in my fairly regularly updated Twitter Moment. This collection of posts was compiled on PowerPC Macs using Pages '09. Without further ado, enjoy!

Table of Contents:

#2 Post by **Slix** » Sat Mar 10, 2018 12:34 pm

1. A Brief History

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My PowerPC Mac collection and fascination has gone back almost 2 decades at this point. I used my first Mac, a Power Macintosh 6500, when I was about 3 years old. It was my parents’ computer, and until we got our Grape iMac G3 DV, it was the only computer I ever used. When we got the iMac G3 for Christmas, it was used by me maybe the most out of the entire family! I played countless hours of Bugdom, Cro-Mag Rally, and other Classic Mac games of the time, like Pac the Man and Bub and Bob. All the while, my dad was teaching me various things about using the Mac: What “Apple-Q” does, how to create aliases of my games so I don’t accidentally mess up the original files, how to change minor things with Terminal, and how the Mac OS X Server NetBoot works. Later on, my family got an eMac, and then later an aluminum Intel iMac, which I used during high school, until I bought myself a MacBook Air 13”, which I still am using as my main computer.

When I was about 7, my family got me my first computer of my own, a Performa 550. It was a huge computer, but I didn’t care. It let me play my games, and it played CDs, so the few CDs I had at the time could be played with the brushed metal look of the Apple CD Player. I spent hours playing the Pokémon: 2.B.A. Master soundtrack on my Performa. Not long after, I got my first laptop, what I remember as a PowerBook 140. It had a black and white screen, and I remember playing various games on there, with the funky 1 row of arrow keys and the trackball. Eventually I came into possession of a tray-loading iMac G3 Tangerine. This was now the computer I used with the few CDs I had to play music in my room. After some time, these computers all were sold.

In middle school, my dad came across a PowerBook G3 Pismo from work that he gave to my sister and I. She never really ended up using it, but this was around the time I had my own iTunes library, with an actual collection of music I liked, so I used this PowerBook to sync my iPod shuffle and iPod nano. I also began browsing the internet with this laptop, and I used the DVD drive to watch episodes of LOST before I was caught up to live television. I remember fondly of wanting to upgrade it to Tiger so I could use Dashboard. During this time too, my dad got ahold of 2 iMac G3 summer 2001 models, Indigo and Snow, which he set up with network accounts for my sister and I to use in the basement, which I still think was a super cool of an idea for a family like ours.

It wasn’t until right before college and into college that I started collecting Macs more intentionally. Before college started, I had gotten an iMac G4 15” and an iBook G3 14”. Shortly after college started, we came across a lot of 10 iMac G3 models of various colors on eBay that was local, so we bought them all, and I later sold some of the duplicates. In the past couple years since then, I’ve gotten a few dozen PowerPC Macs. A Mac Mini, PowerBooks, iBooks, more various iMacs, and a few Power Macs. It’s safe to say that I have more computers than any one person could ever need, but I like using them off and on, and some serve real purposes; some are used to import CDs I come across, some are used as a secondary display for reading articles, and of course, I still play lots of old Mac games on them that no longer run on Intel Macs of today.

#3 Post by **Slix** » Sat Mar 10, 2018 12:34 pm

2. A Bit About My Lineup

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2a. iMacs

I will start by saying that not all of these Macs are in regular use, unfortunately. Some are at my dad’s house, and some are at my mom’s house. They are all (with the exception of a few I haven’t found names for, or don’t fully work at the moment) named after Pokémon as well. My Mac OS X Server is named GTS, or, Global Trade Station, and it houses all of the Pokémon.

iMac G3 Tray-Load

- Bondi Blue
- Grape
- Lime
- Tangerine
- Strawberry

These iMacs sadly have not been set up yet, mainly due to lack of desk space currently. They all do work, though. These are all 333 MHz models, minus the Bondi Blue which is a 233 MHz. I’d like to get an early Mac OS X Server version working with these, so they can run a disk-less Mac OS 9 or 10.1 or 10.2 from a server perhaps.

The Bondi Blue has a semi-broken CRT that pops when it’s running, and it probably isn’t incredibly safe to use, so it probably won’t be much more than a display piece until it’s fixed eventually maybe.

The Grape iMac has a replaced CD drive, with a Bondi Blue one being in it instead, for some reason. It was like that when I got it.

iMac G3 Slot-Load

- Strawberry
- Blueberry
- Tangerine
- Lime
- Graphite
- Indigo
-Snow
-Snow
-Blue Dalmatian

These Macs are in fairly regular use for games and testing my server settings with. With the exception of the Graphite iMac, which is actually my little brother’s and at my mom’s house, these are all set up on desks in my room at my dad’s house. They are each all at least 400 MHz, so they all can run Tiger from my server pretty well, even with lower RAM in some of them.

iMac G4

- 15” 700 MHz (running Mac OS X Tiger Server)
- 15” 800 MHz
- 17” 1.25 GHz

Here, we have some interesting ones. We’ve had these in our household since I was in high school. The lowest spec’d one got 10.4 Server because it had the biggest hard drive, and the 17” is actually my sister’s iMac, but I’ve been keeping it along with mine while she’s at school.

The Mac OS X Server, running 10.4 is a nice addition. It allows me to NetBoot other Macs on the network from it, so I can run diskless Macs with the OS and user data being pulled over the network from the server. All of the user folder data is then stored on the server, so you can log in to any of the Macs and have your data right where you left it. Just like a school computer lab! A nice side effect is that any new Macs I get can be easily wiped and installed in minutes from a pre-setup version of Mac OS X I have stored on the server. I’ve done this for 10.2, 10.3, and 10.4, and a few variants for different types of hardware. These Macs are a joy to use, and the screens are really nice to be able to move them around.

iMac G5

- 17” 1.8 GHz
- 17” 1.8 GHz (Not working - busted capacitors)

I don’t use my G5 a lot, and actually only bought it at a garage sale because it was cheap and worked, and came with a keyboard and mouse. The broken one was my aunt and uncle’s, and they gave me the box it came in too, which is pretty neat. They used it for a number of years until the capacitors inside it blew up and they figured buying a new Mac Mini was more worth it. I’m worried that the working one I have will stop working eventually too, since sometimes it goes to sleep and then shuts itself down after a while... We’ll see.

#4 Post by **Slix** » Sat Mar 10, 2018 12:34 pm

2b. Power Macs and Mac Minis

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Power Mac G3

- Blue and White G3 300 MHz

Here is one of the oldest Macs I currently have, a 300 MHz G3. This one is interesting since it has some of the oldest hardware, yet can run Mac OS X up to Tiger, and quite well! I have it set up with only 256 MB of RAM, just to see how much I can push it.

Power Mac G4

- AGP 500 MHz
- Gigabit Dual 450 MHz
- Mirror Drive Door Single 1.25 GHz

My Power Mac G4s are some of my favorite machines actually. they’re so versatile, and I like that they can take up only a little room compared to an iMac of similar vintage. I used to have the 500 MHz and the MDD in use when I was staying on campus in college, since I had extra monitors I could use with them. They were nice for light internet browsing and some older games. I have two Apple Studio Displays, both 17 inch, but one is the CRT and one is a flat panel LCD. They both use the ADC video cable, so it’s nice that the DP 450 MHz and MDD both have the ADC connectors built in. Sadly, my LCD Studio Display has a weak leg, and it doesn’t stand up straight, so it’s a little annoying to use, but it still looks nice.

Power Mac 8600/300

- 300 MHz

This is a one-off PowerPC Mac I got ahold of from a family friend. It was in regular use for graphic design for a while, and it’s still running Mac OS 8.5.1. It’s set up in my basement at my mom’s as a display piece more than anything. Sometimes I boot it up to watch some After Dark screensavers. Bad Dog and Flying Toasters!

Mac Mini G4

- 1.5 GHz

I got this Mac about a year ago and haven’t really started using it until recently. It’s a nice little machine, super quiet, and actually faster than I was expecting! It runs TenFourFox much better than most of my older PowerPC Macs I’ve used it on.

#5 Post by **Slix** » Sat Mar 10, 2018 12:50 pm

2c. iBooks and PowerBooks

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iBook G3

- Clamshell Indigo 366 MHz
- 12” 500 MHz
- 14” 700 MHz

My mom used the 12 inch iBook G3 from about 2010 until she got her iPad in 2012, and it stood the test of time, even getting the CD drive practically torn out by my infant brother at the time. That model, and the 14 inch iBooks aren’t used much for the sole reason that the keyboards stink a lot, especially when used for a while. If the CD drive wasn’t permanently stuck open and the internal hard drive was bigger than 6 GB, I’d probably carry this machine around more, it’s a neat little laptop. The Clamshell’s screen is small, but it’s fun to use. I’ve used it a few times for typing up papers for classes.

PowerBook G3

- "Wallstreet" 233 MHz
- "PDQ" 300 MHz
- "Pismo" (Not working - busted power supply)

I’ve gotten these all as hand me downs. The Pismo was in regular use from about 2000 until 2016 or so by my uncle in Ireland. He used it with Jaguar (!) that entire time, and it was used as a personal server for his security camera while he was away from home. The power supply got fried eventually, so he left it with my collection, to look pretty on a shelf instead of in the trash. The Wallstreet was my aunt and uncle’s, but they rarely used it and it sat in a closet for a number of years before ending up with me. The screen backlight flickers sometimes, but it works, as does the PDQ. It’s a little frustrating to use these laptops in this day and age however, due to the size and weight of them, plus them being limited to older OSes.

PowerBook G4

- Titanium 500 MHz
- Titanium 800 MHz
- Aluminum 15” 1.67 GHz
- Aluminum 12" 1.33 GHz

My favorite of the PowerBooks I own is probably the Titanium. In my case, it’s my 800 MHz one, because I decked that one out with an adapter to fit a 32 GB SSD in it. It’s quite fast with that in there! The other Titanium was bought from the same guy as the first, and it’s currently not doing much, I just got it because it was a low price. The Aluminum PowerBook 15" is pretty nice too, since it has AirPort, Ethernet, FireWire 400 and 800, and USB, all in a fairly small design, so it’s a nice computer to use to troubleshoot lots of different hardware. It also runs Leopard so it has the AirPort Utility that can work with many of the models of AirPorts that were around until recently. The 12" PowerBook is my most recent addition, and it's so compact! The batter on mine is still good so I've taken it to different places to browse the internet or play games on it, and it's a delight to use.

2d. Honorable Not-PowerPC-But-Still-Older Mentions

- Mac Mini Core Duo 1.66 GHz
- MacBook Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz
- iMac 20” Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz

These were all handed down to me and my family as well. The iMac is currently being used for random tasks my dad needs in his computer space in the basement. The Mac Mini was actually my Gramma’s for a number of years until Snow Leopard became too much of a burden to use regularly and we got her a newer Mac Mini. I’ve recently used that Mac Mini for the microphone jack and Snow Leopard’s QuickTime X’s audio recording for the old games on my PowerPCs that I’ve been uploading to YouTube. The MacBook is honestly one of my favorite laptop designs of all time. My dad had one years ago for work, and I liked the keyboard and the feel of the plastic a lot. This machine is nice because it runs a somewhat modern Intel OS X and still has support as of right now, with El Capitan.

#6 Post by **Slix** » Sat Mar 10, 2018 1:04 pm

3. The Mac Rooms

3a. Teleport to the Past...

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In my room at my mom’s house, I have a desk with 2 screens, the iMac G5, Mac Mini G4, Power Mac G4 500 MHz, and Power Mac G3. The best part of this set up is that if I want to use more than one of the Macs, I can simply use Teleport, a neat little application that allows one keyboard and mouse to control another Mac nearby, letting the cursor “teleport” to the next screen, as if by magic. I have the set up here that both the G4s are on the left most screen, switchable with the display itself. Both of them can then control the iMac and the G3 by moving the cursor to the right most side of the screen.

In this example, I have a keyboard and mouse plugged into Hitmonlee, on the left, and go to the right to control Lapras, then to the right again to control Blastoise. There is then a 3 linked chain of controlled Macs happening. Teleport only allows you to put computers attached to the sides of the Mac you use to configure. However, if you do a chain like this, there isn’t a limit to how far you can go! I’ve had this working between 6 or 7 Macs at once before, and it was really cool to see them connecting to one another down the line. A wireless keyboard and mouse could be really useful in this situation! I will recommend setting the Macs that don’t have keyboards in a situation like this to automatically login when booted up so you can avoid having to screen share to control the login window.

The site recently went down, but the links are available still through the Wayback Machine. You can use version 1.0.1 on PowerPC Macs, from 10.3-10.5, and version 1.0.2 on Intel Macs running 10.6 to current, and they all work together.

3b. Basement Lounge

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At my mom’s house, we have a large desk area in the basement play room. Recently it hasn’t been as accessible, since we had some flood damage and stuff had to be moved around, but I have my Power Mac 8600 and the Intel Mac Mini down there, along with the iMac G5 in the box and the PowerBook G3 Pismo box. The Mac Mini has Front Row, which works with the original Apple Remote to allow for easy DVD playing. Other than what is there right now, I hope to have enough space on the desk to put a Tray-Load iMac G3 or two there. I also have some older desk speakers down there to listen to music if I want to workout on the exercise bike in the room.

3c. Mac Cave

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At my dad’s house, my room has a bit more space. I have enough room for a larger L-shaped desk that holds 4 iMacs G3s on one side, and 1 on the other side, along with one of my Apple Cinema Displays for my MDD. To the left of that desk, and to the right of my bed is a small corner table that holds the 17” iMac G4. I sometimes will throw a music CD or DVD on that iMac G4 and turn the screen towards my bed so I can relax and use it a little bit. The Apple Pro Speakers are phenomenal even today in how good they sound. There is a small desk-table that is underneath my wall mounted TV that holds 3 more iMac G3s. On the other side of the room, I have a smaller desk that has my iMac G4 Server and a disk-less Power Mac G4 with the CRT Apple Cinema Display hooked to it.

All of these Macs are hooked to the same network, a subnetwork of our main house’s network from an older “flying saucer” AirPort Extreme, and the Server can dish out NetBoot data to all of them there. The nice thing here too is that since the AirPort has WEP capabilities, it can work with all of the older devices in the house that don’t work with the newer 802.11n WPA networks, such as an iBook G3. It also makes it easy to transfer data between my MacBook Air and the iMac G3s, too, for example. Occasionally I’ll load up the PowerPC version of Spotify to test-run an album I might want to buy, since the iMac G3 and G4 speakers sound so nice!

#7 Post by **Slix** » Sat Mar 10, 2018 1:14 pm

4. Some Favorite Games

- Active Lancer
- Alchemy
- Apeiron
- Apeiron X
- Billy Frontier
- Bub & Bob
- Bugdom
- Bugdom 2
- Candy Crisis
- ColorFall
- CrashBall
- Creatures
- Creature 3 (Exodus)/Docking Station
- Cro-Mag Rally
- Crystal Crazy
- Deimos Rising
- Enigmo
- Enigmo 2
- Firefall
- Greebles
- Infocom games (including Zork)
- Koji the Frog
- MacDo
- Marble Blast Gold
- Mighty Mike (Or, Power Pete, in some circles)
- Nanosaur
- Nanosaur 2
- Otto Matic
- Pac the Man
- Pac the Man X
- PacMac Deluxe
- Pop-Pop
- Star Wars Episode 1 Racer
- Weekend Warrior
- Widget Workshop
- Wingnuts
- You Don’t Know Jack!

I played most of these growing up. Pretty much all of them are unique in some way, whether that means they were Mac-only, or they were clones based on an old arcade game. Pangea's games are worth noting, since they took up so much of my childhood and are still fun to play today. If any of these games are interesting sounding to you, let me know, and I can try to hook you up with a copy of it! Many of these are not for sale anymore, but can be found around the internet if you look hard enough.

5. Some Notable Apps

- After Dark (v. 4.0)
- Comic Life (v. 1.5.5)
- Fliqlo
- Pixelmator (v. 1.5)
~~- Spotify~~
- TenFourFox
- Teleport (v. 1.0.1)
- Leopard WebKit

After Dark was a set of screensavers, including Flying Toasters and Bad Dog!, some of my favorites. Comic Life is a neat app that lets you make little comics using photos you have on your Mac or with an iSight camera. Fliqlo is a screensaver that works from 10.4 all the way to 10.13, and it's a giant flip clock showing the time. Pixelmator cannot be purchased for these old Macs anymore, but the older version works nicely on Tiger and Leopard. ~~Spotify's older version is nice too, and still functions for playing and searching music.~~ Spotify does not work on PowerPC Macs anymore, unfortunately. TenFourFox is essential for these old Macs, to browse the internet in today's day and age, and Leopard WebKit is quite fast too. I use eyoungren's tweaks for TenFourFox to speed up browsing. Teleport was mention above, and can be found here.

This page was last updated on 3/12/19.

Lee · #8 Post by **Lee** » Tue Jan 15, 2019 1:37 pm

That is a mega collection! I am very much impressed and jealous.

#9 Post by **Crashinggg** » Sat Apr 20, 2019 1:16 am

I love how your list of favorite games is just a list of like all of the games you have, and I must say rest in peace to the Mac cave. I am happy that your basement lounge is getting an upgrade and you will have kind of a Mac Attic soon if your room counts, since it is just higher up in your house. I hope once those are completely set up you'll share those with us too.

P.S. Now that I have read all of this I feel mentally exhausted. XD

Icefox101 · #10 Post by **Icefox101** » Sun Jul 31, 2022 10:18 am

Woah, sweet collection you got there!

Quick question: How long did it take for you to acquire all of these Macs? Did you already have them, or did you get them from somewhere else?

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Slix's PowerPC Mac Collection!

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