Creative ideas for a iMac G3

[XxThatSamGuyxX]

Since i rescued an old iMac G3 from a waste disposal site, It's been sitting in the corner of my room, looking beautiful but doing very little.

Suggestions on something cool I can do to keep it in use?

Perfect working order but no internet.
:)

[doubleohseven]

Depending on the model, you could install an AirPort card so that it can have internet on it.

I undertstand that it's in perfect working order, but...why not turn it into a MacQuarium? :D

http://www.cynical-c.com/archives/bloggraphics/traygrapesmall2.jpg

[student_trap]

I'd love to turn mine into a dreamcast like this guy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrwMSQP-qPg), I just don't think i'd have the skill to make it look half as good!

[chrismacguy]

Turn it into a permanent memorial to Apple. Get it to play a loop of older apple ads / stevenotes! Not really useful, but plain cool. Or, on the useful front, turn it into a file server.

[spue2001]

Turn it into a permanent memorial to Apple. Get it to play a loop of older apple ads / stevenotes! Not really useful, but plain cool. Or, on the useful front, turn it into a file server.

ha ha , a monument to steve . i love it :D

[windowpain]

Heres another idea..an icat!

[dmmcintyre3]

Turn it into a permanent memorial to Apple. Get it to play a loop of older apple ads / stevenotes!

Good idea but will the G3 play it. My G3 PowerMac would not run newer quicktime files. I guess you could convert them to lower quality and then have it play them.

Install a intel Mac Mini in it and sell the parts

Heres another idea..an icat!
http://att.macrumors.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=171494&d=1242648283

don't make it a litter box but a cat bed would be a good idea

[gonyr]

I always meant to turn one into a jukebox. Something like this:

http://www.thepinballcompany.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=1003

but obviously at a much lower budget. I figured with some leftover lumber and a few weekends of spare time, I could do it for under $200, including the computer, but I never got around to tackling the project. Does anyone think this actually sells at that price?

[chrismacguy]

dmmcintyre3, So long as they aren't high resolution, they should play fine. Even if you have to run it under Mac OS X 10.2 / 10.3. The G3 should be fine, as I could play QuickTime movies okay on a G4/450 at 1440*900, so why shouldn't a relatively fast G3 (350+) play them at 800*600? I mean you could run iMovie on them (know for a fact iMovie 2-4 worked great on G3s)

[dmmcintyre3]

dmmcintyre3, So long as they aren't high resolution, they should play fine. Even if you have to run it under Mac OS X 10.2 / 10.3. The G3 should be fine, as I could play QuickTime movies okay on a G4/450 at 1440*900, so why shouldn't a relatively fast G3 (350+) play them at 800*600? I mean you could run iMovie on them (know for a fact iMovie 2-4 worked great on G3s)

I did put some videos on my PowerMac G3 and some would not play at all. It would give me an error.

I do think it was the version of quicktime for 1.2.8 was outdated though. It would play YouTube.

[chrismacguy]

dmmcintyre3 - Probably, as I could get some movies to playback on a PowerMac 9600 under System 7, but these were really outdated, it wouldn't play new movies at all. If I get one of these, Apple memorial it shall become.

[ozyr]

Old G3 iMac...

Load System 9 onto it.

Play Marathon on it! (That is what I use my original iMac G3 for). Plays the original Quake rather well too. Plus a bunch of other older games. :cool:

Even better, it is great on a LAN with games that will support it.


As for the mention of running Mac ads, there are plenty of older ones out there, that will run on an older Mac.

[chrismacguy]

I wonder if you could run Final Cut Pro 2 on it under Mac OS 9? Now that would be fun. Slow, but fun and cool to see (Imagine turning up at NAB and going "I edited a feature film on an iMac G3" and seeing the stares...)

[dmmcintyre3]

Old G3 iMac...

Load System 9 onto it.

Play Marathon on it! (That is what I use my original iMac G3 for). Plays the original Quake rather well too. Plus a bunch of other older games. :cool:

Even better, it is great on a LAN with games that will support it.


As for the mention of running Mac ads, there are plenty of older ones out there, that will run on an older Mac.

You can run just about any if you reduce the quality a bit of corse on a newer Mac like your MacBook.

[XxThatSamGuyxX]

Well thanks for all your ideas - I'd love to do something like the dreamcast one with it, but that'd take a bit more time and money than I have atm.

I took some brilliant old apple ads, linked them on iMovie and converted it into Apple Video.. some old codec.. in a .mov container and it played fine on Quicktime 4 on OS 8.6....
Got those looping atm looks pretty cool :D

Anyone know of any decent abandonware games I could pick up for it? Some old classics?

[nickwc]

Hi! I was lucky enough to find imac g3 today in my complex's garbage area. It had the keyboard and mouse but no power cord!! So I just brought it home and used a cord from a old monitor, viola! Now my question is this... Can I use a wireless dongle to connect to the internet? Because due to the g3 guide I cannot use a airport card.

Here are the specs:

iMac G3 (333 MHz)

The iMac G3 333 MHz was introduced on April 14, 1999. The only change to this iMac model is the processor speed.

Specifications
PowerPC G3 Processor 333 MHz (66 MHz bus)
Tray loading 24x CD-ROM
6 GB IDE Hard Disk Drive
32 MB of RAM (expandable to 384 MB)
6 MB of VRAM
Not compatible with AirPort cards
Ports: Ethernet, USB 1.1, 56k Modem, Stereo Audio In and Out

Software
The iMac 333 MHz shipped with Mac OS 8.5 along with AppleWorks.
The highest version of the Mac OS that is officially supported on the iMac is Mac OS X 10.3 "Panther".

Notes
This iMac is also known as Revision D, but it is referred to officially by Apple as the "iMac 333 MHz"

I want to install panther as well, but only if I can have it retrieve wifi some how. It is running os 8.6, so I will have to get os 9 first.

Thanks!

[three]

I installed the FLIQIQ clock on my iMac G3, and it's a good clock.

[Waffle Stomping]

I wanna know where you guys are finding all these iMac dumpsters.

[Hrududu]

Hi! I was lucky enough to find imac g3 today in my complex's garbage area. It had the keyboard and mouse but no power cord!! So I just brought it home and used a cord from a old monitor, viola! Now my question is this... Can I use a wireless dongle to connect to the internet? Because due to the g3 guide I cannot use a airport card.

Here are the specs:

iMac G3 (333 MHz)

The iMac G3 333 MHz was introduced on April 14, 1999. The only change to this iMac model is the processor speed.

Specifications
PowerPC G3 Processor 333 MHz (66 MHz bus)
Tray loading 24x CD-ROM
6 GB IDE Hard Disk Drive
32 MB of RAM (expandable to 384 MB)
6 MB of VRAM
Not compatible with AirPort cards
Ports: Ethernet, USB 1.1, 56k Modem, Stereo Audio In and Out

Software
The iMac 333 MHz shipped with Mac OS 8.5 along with AppleWorks.
The highest version of the Mac OS that is officially supported on the iMac is Mac OS X 10.3 "Panther".

Notes
This iMac is also known as Revision D, but it is referred to officially by Apple as the "iMac 333 MHz"

I want to install panther as well, but only if I can have it retrieve wifi some how. It is running os 8.6, so I will have to get os 9 first.

Thanks!
You can get a USB WiFi adapter for about $25 on ebay. How much RAM does yours have in it? If you're going to run OSX, the I would recommend a minimum of 320Mb of RAM to make it useful.

[coupdetat]

You can play Fallout and Fallout 2 on it, no problem. Diablo II would probably work fine, too.

Plus, Clarisworks and Office 2001 are still really useful and feel much snappier than a new Mac with Office 2008.

[morepower7]

the cat one lol