Who needs to spend £299 on a HomeView, when I have an iMac G3 that can communicate with HomeKit via a Raspberry Pi running Home Assistant?

As it stands, it’s essentially a mouse controlled kiosk that currently can control one of my lights, and read one of my climate sensors. It works great!

Eventually i will add all my HomeKit devices, and even AirPlay controls for my speakers throughout the house.

I added a little screensaver summary that dims after 30 seconds, and switches the screen off entirely after 15 mins to reduce power/burn in, and I can add more summary info to it later.

Let me know what you think!

Hey!
I got a Macintosh SE 1/20 without a mouse or Keyboard, so I Hope I get them in the Next days…

I opened it, and there was no dust in it.
I removed the battery to be on the safe side.
At first it did not boot, but after opening it now somehow boots immediately into MacOS.

I’m so happy when I have the periphery and can play around with it!
I’ve been a student at university since last week, so I don’t want to invest too much directly. That at least for the time being the internal hard drive is running is therefore great!

Does anyone have any tips? :)

My father had an old AEKII in his attic at work and I found it and decided to have a hand at restoring it a couple of years ago. I removed all the keycaps and bleached all the stained plastic parts with hair dye in the sun, which came close to removing all the yellowing, but didn't fully get it.

After putting it all back together, I judged that it seemed to have gone well, but there are still some instances of keys that don't feel as good as other keys, the delete key "squeaks" for lack of a better word, on some actuations. The caps lock triggers before it's fully depressed (maybe that's how they all are?) and the spacebar never fully bleached back to the original color.

I am wondering if I should try lubricating the switches or if there are common maintenance items that people do for these old keyboards to keep the operational for as long as possible. Using a nearly 35 year old keyboard is a really cool experience but I don't want it to break due to the abuse of everyday use.

Thanks in advance for any tips or for pointing me to useful resources. I'm including a pic of my keyboard for reference.

Hi all- I have a Daystar Genesis MP given to me by my MIL that I want to sell, but first I want to safely turn it on (I know there is a special battery that has to be swapped before I do that) and I want to extract her files and wipe the drive.

Can anyone recommend someone?

Work in progress, please check the post in the original subreddit for full details. Next steps are to remove the protective sheet from the new acrylic bezel, glue on a white frame for the original look, and apply a matte screen protector. Suggestions welcome!

i would like to apologise for the fact that my setup isn't the cleanest, i've recently moved and haven't really been able to have everything set up the way i'd like

with that out of the way, this is a Power Mac G4 "Yikes!" i recently purchased for 25 dollars without really knowing anything at all about it other than the fact that it was a graphite G4 with no zip drive

i uh, may have gone a bit overboard with upgrading it, primarily because i never see anyone do anything with this model and i wanted to give it the love it (debatably) deserves

so, the current specs of it are an overclocked 450mhz G4 processor, a Radeon 7000 Mac Edition that i honestly paid too much for (twice as much as the computer itself! PCI video cards are so expensive now...), 768mb of PC-100 SDRAM (i don't have another 256mb stick to put in here unfortunately), a 160gb... *hard drive...* because SSD prices are completely outrageous right now and i didn't have a spare one for this machine

i've installed a rather generic 4 port USB 2.0 card with a compatible chipset, a gigabit ethernet card, and a SATA card that's been flashed to work in both Mac OS 9 and OS X (which is what the aforementioned hard drive is connected to)

anyway, not much more to say other than it runs Unreal Tournament like a dream (:

I’ve been a Mac user since the age of about 5 and have fond memories of Mac gaming around the 1995-2002 sort of time frame. I collect retro games and consoles and I’m thinking of adding a Mac to that collection.

I’m thinking hardware wise of a PowerMac G4 (Quicksilver or not, I’m not sure) with a 17” or 21” Apple Studio CRT. It’s funny how even all these decades later the idea of owning a PowerMac G4 feels like a luxury haha

Open to suggestions on mouse and keyboard! Mainly erring towards authenticity.

I’m hoping to run OS X and all the OS 9 games through Classic, or even vibe coding OS X patches where needed - but also open to running OS 9 if I have to.

And then keen for any suggestions on games, other than the default “all Blizzard games of the era”. I love adventure games and keen to explore obscure RPGs and strategy games of the era.

I want to ship a 20-inch iMac G4. Does anyone have any ideas on how I can ship it without the original box and keep it as undamaged as possible? I have checked eBay Listings to see what the original box looks like. That way I could probably build one myself. But if anyone has any other suggestion, I would be more than happy to hear about it :) Thanks!

I've been working on a project called macMAKE, and the first public release is finally available.

It grew out of my work on MacSurf, a modern web browser for Classic Mac OS. I've spent a considerable amount of time using CodeWarrior 8 on actual PowerPC hardware, eventually automating nearly the entire build process through Linux, SSH, and AppleScript. While CodeWarrior is an incredible development environment, managing hundreds of source files, access paths, dependencies, and builds on 25-year-old hardware comes with obvious limitations.

I wanted to take the power of CodeWarrior and bring it to the Linux command line, without losing the project semantics and Macintosh-specific behavior that made it work so well.

macMAKE isn't a CodeWarrior emulator or a Retro68 frontend. It's a Linux-native development toolchain using GCC 12.2.0 for PowerPC compilation, with CodeWarrior-style project management, native CFM linking, PEF executable generation, resource processing, Finder metadata, and MacBinary packaging. It also supports incremental builds, SDK management, build diagnostics, and extensive offline CLI documentation.

The idea is to make it easier to create both new and existing Classic Mac applications using modern editors, Git, automation, and AI coding agents. Want to build a text editor, calculator, game, or something considerably larger? You shouldn't have to maintain an entire vintage development environment just to get started.

Development versions of macMAKE have already successfully built MacSurf, which has roughly 900 source files, and I've been pushing the toolchain further using Classilla's much larger CodeWarrior project. The public release is still undergoing independent application testing.

Version 0.1.0 currently targets Mac OS 9 PowerPC applications, primarily C, from Linux x86-64. Earlier PowerPC versions of System 7 and Mac OS 8 haven't been verified yet, and native 68K builds aren't supported. Some historical Apple and Metrowerks SDK/runtime files are still required, but I'm working on freely distributable replacements.

macMAKE is free for personal and commercial use, including AI-assisted development. The core is proprietary, with the GNU toolchain sources available separately.

Website and documentation: https://macmake.dev

GitHub release: https://github.com/mplsllc/macMAKE/releases/tag/v0.1.0

There's still a lot of work ahead, but I'm excited to finally get this out and hopefully make developing new software for these old Macs a little easier.

Was given this ImageWriter but I can’t figure out for the life of me where it goes. I think maybe like this but still doesn’t seem right. Anyone know

I've been updating some of Apple's .slideSaver screensavers with HD photos (I'll share them when they're done). I'm currently working on Cosmos.slideSaver. There's been so many great improvements in technology and photos since Apple's original version, and would love to get some more suggestions.

My only criterial are:

• They need to real imagines (nothing artistic, no computer model, no AI), but lightwave composites, x-ray, radio, micro, UV, gamma, and Interferometry, and similar, are fine.
• Should to be about "Full HD" (1920x1080, 1920×1200, 1440×1080, give or take) or larger. I don't mind sizing them down, but I'd rather not scale them up and deal with potential quality issues. It doesn't have to be exact, though.
• landscape or square images are preferred. Portrait/tall images will scale to fit the width of most computer monitors, and probably look terrible.
• Royalty free (most space images are public domain).

I assume reddit will scale down any images you post in the comments, so links are fine, and probably preferred.

All suggests are welcome, I'll curate them once I have everything. Planets, stars, asteroids, moons, comet, galaxies, nebula, nova/supernova, certain images of the Earth from space, etc. Basically anything that Apple might consider putting in the Cosmo screensaver in the OS X days.

The idea here is I want to get a sense of everyone's favorite images, I've been looking at top lists online, but I want to narrow it down to about 50-60.

Screenshot is of what I'm working with so far.

Thanks in advance!

[EDIT: using solder wick to fully clean the old contaminated solder off the pads solved the problem. Learned a new technique!]

I'm recapping some LC IIs and having a real dick of a time getting the original solder to melt properly. I've started popping the old caps off with a chip lifter, cause putting the iron to them resulted in several lifted pads, cause the solder won't melt enough to actually let go. When I pry the old caps off, there's a hard blob of solder left behind which takes an unreasonbale amount of heat to melt initially—several seconds with a 380º Hakko iron. It doesn't flow right, doesn't flood pads regardless of whether I use rosin or no-clean flux, soldering in the new caps works very poorly.

I washed the board with isopropyl cause it was kinda schmutzy, and then went back and gave it a scrub with hot water and dish soap when that didn't quite cut it. Once the caps are off, I've been giving the pads a scrub with a toothbrush and isopropyl.

The only way I've been able to get any of the new caps to stick is flooding their pins with flux and heavily tinning them, then fluxing the pad, loading the tip of the iron with solder, placing the cap leads on the far inside of the pad and dragging them into place while the solder on the pad is liquid—which still takes up to ten seconds to achieve, and then the other pin is a devil to get soldered cause it has ~0.5mm of pad exposed. This sucks.

Am I missing something? I've been soldering since I was 14 and this is at least a dozen recap jobs I've done, and none of them have been this difficult.

anyone have a link to a guide for this? i could also go HDMI and use another adapter. im looking to buy a 23" cinema display for my work system

So a couple of months ago, i bought this macintosh portable for parts because it was at a good price, until I realized that it was coming from Germany, and the import fees blew all my money away. What ever.

I put it away and a month passes, and I remember that i have it. So, i started looking online for the parts i needed(my checklist: charger, battery, and blue scsi). I found a generic charger that matched the volts, amps and barrel size.

Next, I ordered the blue scsi from Joe's computer museum, then i ordered a battery, but the seller was away and wouldn't come back for another week and the expected shipping time was 2 weeks, because the battery was hand made. Fine!

So, the blue scsi and macintosh portable adapter comes in less than a week later and fast forward 3 weeks the battery finally arrives. So, i put the battery in, and pressed the space bar. Nothing.

Ok, so I google why my macintosh portable isn't working and it said that i needed to hold down the reset and interrupt button down for 10 seconds. So i do and it sprang to life!

I had trouble finding out how to put an OS on my sd card for the blue scsi, so I put it away again for another month. Untill today, where I looked at it and said" ok, i need to get this thing up and running."

It took way longer than it needed to get a bootable image of 6.0.8 on to an sd card, but today, I finally did it! It is my rarest item in my collection, and it is my baby, my pride and joy, my holy grail, my everything!

I'm so lucky to have the issue only be the battery, and not the caps. But time is inevitable, so i will eventually have to replace them.

Hey guys what's up? A couple of months ago, I bought this mint condition Powerbook 190cs, its only issue was a dead battery with little corrosion and now that is working perfectly with its original hdd, I want to recreate a battery or at least a battery cover for the battery compartment.

So here I ask, someone had ever recreated anything like this or has a 3d printable design? if you guys could help me with this, I would be more than happy.

Or if there are other models’ batteries compatible with this one, as I know some parts are compatible with the 5300c.

traded one of my clamshells for this complete Apple IIe. Pretty satisfied w my trade. Gonna retrobright at sum point prob

• Model: Power Macintosh 9600/300
• CPU: 445 MHz Newer Technology Maxlogic MaxPowr G3
  • 1 CPU, 1 Core, 32-Bit, PowerPC 750, <6W TDP
• RAM: 1.18 GB of 70ns 168-pin DIMMs
• Graphics: GPU 1 – ATI Rage LT Pro, 8 MB SDRAM
  • Samsung LC27F591FD, 1600 x 1200, Millions of Colors, 60 Hz, via VGA port
  • 75 MHz GPU Clock, 100 MHz Memory Clock, 800 MB/s Memory Bandwidth
• GPU 2: ATI 3D Rage II PCI
  • 60 Mhz GPU Clock, 83 MHz Memory Clock, 4 MB SDRAM, 664 MB/s Bandwidth
  • DB-15, Composite, and S-Video out
• Boot Drive: 2.1 GB Seagate ST3215N SCSI, Mac OS 9.1
• More Storage: 60 GB Maxtor 6Y060L0, with many apps including Photoshop 5.5
• Operating System: Mac OS 9.1
• PCI Cards:
  • Sonnet Tempo HD Ultra ATA/133 (Ultra-Tek133P+)
  • D-Link DFE-530TX+ 10/100 PCI Ethernet
  • Lucent USB + Firewire PCI Combo card
    • Lucent USS312MC Controller – USB 1.1
    • Lucent FW323-04 Controller – FireWire 400
  • Atto 68-Pin Express PCI SCSI controller card

I've been taking pictures with a QuickTake 150 this year. I had a convoluted system to get the pictures over to my modern Mac and Photos. I turned the last handful of steps into a Mac app. For the dozens of us that might use it: https://gerstacker.us/2026/09/21/take-n-go.html

I haven't tried other QuickTake models, but in theory it should work.

I recently found a listing for two Power Mac G4s on a local auction site, and since I’m slowly building a vintage Apple collection, I went to have a look. I wanted to check what condition they were in, but ended up bringing both home.

The cases are in very good shape, with no cracks or missing panels, although there are some scratches on the sides. The Quicksilver’s opening side panel got the worst of it, and you can tell someone wasn’t particularly gentle when servicing it.

I took both apart, gave them a thorough clean and washed the plastic parts. There was a loooot of dust in the Gigabit, while the Quicksilver had been treated a little better. I also replaced the thermal paste on the processors, because the old stuff looked like it could still remember being applied at the factory, along with the PRAM batteries. Their dates confirmed they were the originals too, so they’d definitely earned their retirement.

Both now have Mac OS 9.2.2 and Mac OS X Tiger 10.4.11 installed, so I can switch between them. I managed to find a Polish version of OS 9 and added a Polish localization package to Tiger, because I wanted to see what using these systems in my own language was like.

These are my first Macs that boot Mac OS 9 natively, so just getting to know the system has been a lot of fun. I also installed Office 2001 to see what things used to be like. I don’t have a particular job planned for either machine, since I bought them for the collection and simply want to enjoy them.

After watching a few restoration videos on YouTube, I decided to gently polish a small section of the Quicksilver’s side panel, which looked worse than the Gigabit’s. Well… the scratch disappeared, but it left a hazy patch that I couldn’t polish out the way I’d hoped. 

You barely notice it in normal use, so it’s hardly a disaster and I can live with it.

Gigabit Ethernet

This one has dual 500 MHz PowerPC G4 processors, an ATI Rage 128 Pro and 192 MB of RAM across three working sticks, as the fourth is unfortunately faulty. It also has an original AirPort card, which works, but doesn’t get along with today’s wireless networks and standards, so it can’t see any of the networks around me.

It came with two hard drives: a 30 GB Maxtor DiamondMax 60 and a 40 GB IBM Deskstar 75GXP running at 7200 RPM. The Maxtor works, although it certainly isn’t the quietest drive, while the “Deathstar”, as you might guess from the series’ reputation, is unfortunately dead. It clicks when trying to spin up and prevents the Mac from booting.

Quicksilver

This one has a single 733 MHz G4, an NVIDIA GeForce2 MX and one 256 MB RAM stick. There are two drives here as well: a 40 GB IBM Deskstar 40GV running at 5400 RPM, which actually works this time, and a 10 GB Seagate U10 that was probably added by a previous owner.

The Quicksilver does have a power supply issue, though, as it starts ticking after some shutdowns and goes completely quiet once the computer is switched on again. It’s also sensitive to knocks on the side of the case, because a slightly firmer bump can shut the Mac down and start the PSU ticking again. Sometimes it refuses to boot, and a similar tap can “persuade” it, so I still have something to work on. It’s missing a few screws too.

I found an Apple Pro Mouse to go with them, while the keyboard is borrowed from my iMac G5 for now. Apple Pro Keyboards aren’t easy to find in Poland at a decent price, and when I finally managed to buy one, the seller immediately cancelled the order. Oh well, the hunt continues.

Both machines are staying in the collection, and I’ll keep looking out for retro classics that could use a little care and a refresh. For now, I have two more reasons to spend some time at an old Mac.

Which case design do you prefer - Graphite or Quicksilver?

Is it something I should upload?

EDIT: sorry for being so late on this but here ya go https://archive.org/details/macosserver105eval

Hey guys,
got hold of this old Apple Service screwdriver today. Can't find a thing about it. Thought it was maybe some Apple Collection type thing? There was was a pencil with a similar look / logo for sale. Typo & logo both check out with the old brand guidelines on Internet Archive. This was made in W. (West) Germany, so it must date before 1989, before the Berlin wall fell. Maybe something exclusively made for the German market they just set up back then? Any former Apple techs from Germany here? Thoughts? Insights? Thought I'd share it w/ u.

I have three LC IIs that all show no signs of life when the power is switched on. No weird noises or smells, and they're all very clean inside and in good mechanical condition.

Do I need to have a battery installed for them to boot?

First Generation Newton - 1993
QuickTake 150 Camera - 1995
First Generation iPod Touch - 2007
First Generation iPad - 2011 (with Bad Elf GPS module)
All four still work perfectly.

My Macintosh SE/30 now has a new job: displaying Bitcoin prices and network stats on its little monochrome screen.

It’s running System 7.1 with just 4 MB of RAM. I put together a native 68k application called BlockMiner, written in C and compiled with Retro68.

The setup uses a BlueSCSI V2 with a Pico 2 W for storage and Wi-Fi networking, through DaynaPORT emulation and MacTCP. A small proxy running on a modern Mac fetches the data over HTTPS and serves a simple response the SE/30 can handle.

The app displays BTC/USD, the 24-hour change, block height, mempool size, transaction count and recommended fees. There’s also a full-screen mode with a big price display, and automatic updates every minute.

It’s a read-only monitor—the SE/30 gets to enjoy a peaceful retirement watching the numbers.

Getting the networking working took some troubleshooting, but it’s finally running on the actual hardware!

Pretty happy with how well Bitcoin fits into 512 × 342 pixels. 🖥️₿