Macintosh II & Apple IIc Monitor

nubnub said:

I've got a working Macintosh II. It seems to be fully working other than the dead batteries soldered on the board. I can get it started by "jump starting" it with a 3v supply. I managed to get a working monitor (not the original Mac II monitor). The Mac II boots up to the desktop, but I don't have a keyboard or mouse to play with it at all.

Is there much interesting in Macintosh II's? I did not see any listing on Ebay. Not sure if that means it utterly worthless or rare.

I also have what I believe is an Apple IIc Monochrome Monitor. It simply says "Monitor" on the back. Model No. G090H. I don't know if this is functional, I don't have anything to connect to it to test. It powers on. It has a single RCA connector on the back. 3 adjustment knobs. (Unfortunately I didn't know the stand was for the monitor and passed it up) Manufactured date of April 1984.

Lastly I've got some Macintosh IIsi's and PowerMacs 7200s I haven't looked through yet.

Click to expand...

You can test the Apple IIc monitor by plugging just about any audio/visual device that has an RCA jack in to it. (VCR, DVD player, game console, etc.)

You can also plug in that monitor and turn up the contrast/brightness. Most of the time you'll get a lit green screen. If you see that, you've got a really good chance that it just works.

I'd say the Macintosh II is rather rare. It was a $5,500 computer when new so I can't imagine many were sold. Then many of those that did buy one likely did a IIx and/or IIfx motherboard upgrade later on. I used to own a Mac II that had been upgraded to a IIfx by the owner. Now I wish I had kept it.

Occasionally I search for them on eBay but can never find them. I have no idea what they are worth. But it must be something as it was the first of the Mac II line and the first heavily upgradeable Mac.

Last mention I recall of the II, was the couch:

http://www.bradlands.com/scrapbooks/mac2couch.html

My first computer was almost a //c and with dads help, ended up being a Macintosh II. I still think about the software that taught how to use the mouse with a game to pop balloons, that turned into birds and flew off the screen. Think that was OS5. Hardest thing was finding Mac software that didn't crash, everything had to be 'color ready'.

Mine came bare bones with 4x 256k chips and a 40mb, 5.25 HD. I made many upgrades over the years, 105mb, more 256k chips, then 1mb chips, 4, then 8. Second superdrive. NuBus 2400 modem to connect to Prodigy, then AOL. The screen was an Apple RGB, 640x480x8bit. It was a mini Trinitron, complete with that support wire thats visible across the bottom. They are distinct for curving across while being totally straight up and down. The connector looked like a VGA, but was wider with 2 rows of pins instead of 3.

Around the time the motherboard started to die, I met an apple employee at Macworld who had a IIx motherboard in his garage (he'd upgraded to the IIfx). With that installed, I bought the daystar digital 40mhz processor swap kit. Had that thing for over 10 years before giving it to my sister. Think she traded it for a PowerBook.

It was a huge investment but ended up sparking an IT career that returned many times its cost and still forms the basis for important skills today.