Hi my name is OldMacPro2 and I’m an appleholic

[eyoungren]

I think Ive got at least one C-64 and I know I’ve got a Vic-20 in storage if the rats haven’t chewed it up.

Also had a whole series of Ataris - 2600, 5200, 7800. Atari 400 and 800. I sold the only Jaguar I had. Guy from Brazil wanted it and had to let it go. The Ataris are boxed up and at the bottom of a huge pile of stuff.

Hundreds of years from now archeologists will dig through the remains and try to decipher the hieroglyphics if they don’t turn to dust first.

Never got in to the Ataris, but only because I was young at the time and it was my parents buying this stuff. I do not remember why, but it was the C64 they went with.

I did have a friend that had a Colecovision and got the ADAM computer thing with it. Having played on friends Ataris and this friends Colecovision my money would have been on Colecovision. Had much better graphics.

Alas, this was an Illustrator/Freehand thing. Atari won and Colecovision faded into the sunset.

 

[OldMacPro2]

I bought the Atari machines in thrift stores and yard sales, many years after they were discontinued.

Mainly, just to play games on them, although I did have the disk drive that went with them.

Atari was a real pioneer, so their systems were not as advanced in some ways.

In other ways, they were way ahead.

The guys who developed the Atari 5200, 400 and 800 left the company and started Amiga.

The Amiga can be seen as the real follow on to those early 8-bit systems.

BTW - Steve Jobs worked at Atari before he founded Apple.

There are rumors that he grabbed a 6502 chip from Atari for Woz to play with.

 

[OldMacPro2]

So, I'm at a thrift store last weekend, where I often shop. The owner literally pulls three Macbook Pros from some pile, along with a Magsafe charger. He says "You're an Apple guy, take this stuff home and look it over. Tell me if it's worth anything."

I say, Ummm..OK. What do you want me to do? Diagnose it and find out if any of them work? You want me to make an offer? Look up what they are selling for? What?

He says "I trust you, you're an honest guy. I don't have time to fool with Apple stuff, just take it and let me know what I should do with it."

So now, I am his "Apple guy"? I bought a well used Mac Pro 4,1 from him and now I am an expert?

The three Macbook Pros (15" and 17") were mid-2010 era and were probably dumped by a company who upgraded recently. All three were in relatively good shape, but would not boot, because the RAM and Hard Disks were missing.

I swapped in some RAM and an SSD. They all boot fine now and run High Sierra, which is the last MacOS officially supported on them.

Funny thing, I never considered myself an "Apple guy" or a Mac expert, or anything. But this slightly obsolete Apple stuff is showing up there for GIVEAWAY prices. Literally.

I feel like I am running a Intel-based Mac orphan's home or something.

 

[eyoungren]

So, I'm at a thrift store last weekend, where I often shop. The owner literally pulls three Macbook Pros from some pile, along with a Magsafe charger. He says "You're an Apple guy, take this stuff home and look it over. Tell me if it's worth anything."

I say, Ummm..OK. What do you want me to do? Diagnose it and find out if any of them work? You want me to make an offer? Look up what they are selling for? What?

He says "I trust you, you're an honest guy. I don't have time to fool with Apple stuff, just take it and let me know what I should do with it."

So now, I am his "Apple guy"? I bought a well used Mac Pro 4,1 from him and now I am an expert?

The three Macbook Pros (15" and 17") were mid-2010 era and were probably dumped by a company who upgraded recently. All three were in relatively good shape, but would not boot, because the RAM and Hard Disks were missing.

I swapped in some RAM and an SSD. They all boot fine now and run High Sierra, which is the last MacOS officially supported on them.

Funny thing, I never considered myself an "Apple guy" or a Mac expert, or anything. But this slightly obsolete Apple stuff is showing up there for GIVEAWAY prices. Literally.

I feel like I am running a Intel-based Mac orphan's home or something.

Hopefully you got compensated for your time and effort?

 

[phrehdd]

BBS. 1985, local Commodore 64 users group. I would have been 14.

I ran my own BBS from 1986 to 1992.

Well alas, another BBS person here. Very cool. I worked on one that was originally DLX and later, Galacticom (sp). I think things were far more fun back then (though the baud rates were stifling).

 

[eyoungren]

Well alas, another BBS person here. Very cool. I worked on one that was originally DLX and later, Galacticom (sp). I think things were far more fun back then (though the baud rates were stifling).

I got started with AABBS (All American BBS) by Nick Smith. At the time it was the only color BBS for the Commodore 64. That's where I learned ASCII graphics.

My own BBS was part-time nights and 24 hours on weekends on my own line. All my parents would allow. But in time I came to know a guy running a genealogical BBS in my small rural area. He sold me my first 1200bps Hayes for $100. Big step up from my 300bps modem.

I eventually upgraded to the C128 version of AABBS and had two 1541 drives and two 1581 drives. When I got a PC, I switched over to C-Net. But at that point I was involved in a bunch of other things so the BBS pretty much went away.

It was great fun during my high school years though. At one point, one of the users had his own BBS running on an Apple IIGS and we collaborated.

 

[phrehdd]

I got started with AABBS (All American BBS) by Nick Smith. At the time it was the only color BBS for the Commodore 64. That's where I learned ASCII graphics.

My own BBS was part-time nights and 24 hours on weekends on my own line. All my parents would allow. But in time I came to know a guy running a genealogical BBS in my small rural area. He sold me my first 1200bps Hayes for $100. Big step up from my 300bps modem.

I eventually upgraded to the C128 version of AABBS and had two 1541 drives and two 1581 drives. When I got a PC, I switched over to C-Net. But at that point I was involved in a bunch of other things so the BBS pretty much went away.

It was great fun during my high school years though. At one point, one of the users had his own BBS running on an Apple IIGS and we collaborated.

The BBS DLX used ANSI as well so there were symbols and colour. Galacticom made use of them as well. Again, I think those days were more fun. Btw, Commodore 64 never got the praise it deserved. It did things that DOS/IBM and Apple could not do. I'll just say that "Egghead Stores" were very popular through most of those years.

 

[eyoungren]

The BBS DLX used ANSI as well so there were symbols and colour. Galacticom made use of them as well. Again, I think those days were more fun. Btw, Commodore 64 never got the praise it deserved. It did things that DOS/IBM and Apple could not do. I'll just say that "Egghead Stores" were very popular through most of those years.

OMG, Egghead. A store name I haven't heard in years! Wow!

 

[OldMacPro2]

Hopefully you got compensated for your time and effort?

The joy of seeing the MacBook Pros live again was payment enough.

Actually, I had not done much done with this generation of MacBook Pro before, so I learned some things.

Was able to get High Sierra and Big Sur running on it, just fine (using the Open Core Legacy Patcher for BS).

I think the guy at the thrift store was deciding how to price them. When they did not have RAM or a hard drive, you know they just beep when you plug them in. So that left him with a blank stare.

He knows how to market used "regular PCs", but "Apple stuff" seems to confuse him. And he has a LOT of stuff to move, so I don't think he wanted to run down the rabbit hole of figuring it out.

It seems that a lot of about "ten-year old" Intel-based Macs are literally being given away around here. And not all of it is worn out.....there is definitely life left in a lot of it.

BTW - I am typing on one of the 15" MacBook Pros right now.

(My guess is, with the new M-chip series coming on strong, a lot of people are just giving up on Intel-based Macs. I don't mind picking them up cheap or even free in this case.)

 

[Rafterman]

He sold me my first 1200bps Hayes for $100. Big step up from my 300bps modem.

USRobotics 16.8k Dual-Standard modem. The epitome of modem-ing.

 

[OldMacPro2]

US Robotics 56k with built in compression. Could download 1kb a second (under perfect coditions.)

 

[Martyimac]

I have a working Apple IIgs with a working ImageWriter II printer. I have a tcMP also working but will only go up to Monterey which is fine by me. Then there is the wifes 2018 mini, my 24" M1 iMac and a Mac Studio and Studio Display. My name is Marty and I am an appleholic.

 

[OldMacPro2]

Went to a Hamfest fleamarket today and found a GTX 650 Ti for my Mac Pro 3,1. Only $20 and it works.

I had upgraded it to dual E5472 Xeons a few days ago ($30 from eBay).

If I keep this up, pretty soon I’ll have a wicked fast Mac Pro (assuming it’s still 2009).

 

[eyoungren]

Went to a Hamfest fleamarket today and found a GTX 650 Ti for my Mac Pro 3,1. Only $20 and it works.

I had upgraded it to dual E5472 Xeons a few days ago ($30 from eBay).

If I keep this up, pretty soon I’ll have a wicked fast Mac Pro (assuming it’s still 2009).

I have a 4,1 I upgraded to a 5,1. Running Mojave and typing this message on it.

 

[OldMacPro2]

I have a 4,1 I upgraded to a 5,1. Running Mojave and typing this message on it.

Got a 4,1 too, flashed to a 5,1.

Followed the thread in the Mac Pro forum and it worked.

I haven’t taken time to move it past High Sierra, but that is on my to do list.

 

[OldMacPro2]

Never got in to the Ataris, but only because I was young at the time and it was my parents buying this stuff. I do not remember why, but it was the C64 they went with.

I did have a friend that had a Colecovision and got the ADAM computer thing with it. Having played on friends Ataris and this friends Colecovision my money would have been on Colecovision. Had much better graphics.

Alas, this was an Illustrator/Freehand thing. Atari won and Colecovision faded into the sunset.

Oh I forgot to reply to this.

Yes, back when I was collecting all the Atari stuff, my friend Jeff was grabbing all the Coleco and Adam stuff he would find. I would hold the Coleco games I found for him and he would do the same for me with Atari games.

He was always telling me how superior the Coleco was. 😊

 

[OldMacPro2]

Got a 4,1 too, flashed to a 5,1.

Followed the thread in the Mac Pro forum and it worked.

I haven’t taken time to move it past High Sierra, but that is on my to do list.

Got it upgraded to Mojave finally.

Do I have to upgrade the CPUs to X56xx series get to Big Sur?

 

[OldMacPro2]

Well, I've gotten the three MacBook Pros (2009 era) working and one of them is off to a friend who is "test driving it".

The place where I got those said a couple more MacBooks of some unknown description are "available", so I will have to take a trip there soon and see what's cooking.

Last weekend, I (inadvertently) forgot to drive about 60 miles to pick up a 30" Cinema Display (he wants $100).

Wonder if that's still for sale? Hm....where to put it???

 

[OldMacPro2]

Didn't get the 30" Cinema HD display.

BUT, here is a MacMini and another MacBook Pro. I didn't pay for them (yet). My buddy the thrift store owner said "Take them home and see what you can do with them.)

I think the mini is a 2012 something. It's missing RAM, so I need to install some and check it out.

Quick check of the serial number says it's an i7, probably had 8GB and 1TB HDD from the factory. Very clean condition, so I expect adding a RAM module is all it needs to boot up.

The MacBook Pro is a 15" mid-2015, Retina. That's all I can find out right now.

And it uses the MagSafe2 port, so....no way to charge it (tonight). Charger is on order.

Help me before I buy more Apple stuff!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[phrehdd]

Didn't get the 30" Cinema HD display.

BUT, here is a MacMini and another MacBook Pro. I didn't pay for them (yet). My buddy the thrift store owner said "Take them home and see what you can do with them.)

I think the mini is a 2012 something. It's missing RAM, so I need to install some and check it out.

Quick check of the serial number says it's an i7, probably had 8GB and 1TB HDD from the factory. Very clean condition, so I expect adding a RAM module is all it needs to boot up.

The MacBook Pro is a 15" mid-2015, Retina. That's all I can find out right now.

And it uses the MagSafe2 port, so....no way to charge it (tonight). Charger is on order.

Help me before I buy more Apple stuff!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well I appreciate your taste. I had a 2012 Mini with i7 quad and an SSD added. Also have a 2015 15" MBP... Both served me extremely well. The Cinema Display by todays standard is well, not very good.

 

[OldMacPro2]

Well I appreciate your taste. I had a 2012 Mini with i7 quad and an SSD added. Also have a 2015 15" MBP... Both served me extremely well. The Cinema Display by todays standard is well, not very good.

I've got the Apple Cinema HD Display 23" (Model A1082) setup in my home office as my "third monitor"...it's off to the side of the two main monitors.

I believer the resolution is 1900x1200. Its nice and bright. Works good for me.

 

[phrehdd]

I've got the Apple Cinema HD Display 23" (Model A1082) setup in my home office as my "third monitor"...it's off to the side of the two main monitors.

I believer the resolution is 1900x1200. Its nice and bright. Works good for me.

I had the 30" and it was nice but not really bright. As I said, by today's standards it is a bit lagging considering many of the 27" offerings today and 32" as well. I have off to the side an old NEC 24" monitor that can be hardware calibrated that ended up getting more work than the Cinema 30." I parted with the Cinema and well, not sure why, still have the NEC 24" in storage. Glad you enjoy your 23" model and it serves you well.

 

[OldMacPro2]

I think my 23” is the updated model that is brighter than the original. Something I read said Apple upped it to 400 nits vs. the original 200. DPI and all that is still low compared to the 27” of course.
For what I need it’s fine and a bit nostalgic. If it’s dies sudendly, I wouldn’t bother to fix it, but for now, it’s out of a landfill.

 

[OldMacPro2]

Well I appreciate your taste. I had a 2012 Mini with i7 quad and an SSD added. Also have a 2015 15" MBP... Both served me extremely well. The Cinema Display by todays standard is well, not very good.

I was able to get the Mac Mini updated to Catalina, just as Apple dropped support, LOL…figures.

 

[OldMacPro2]

Ok, my friend had a nice 15” MacBook Pro 2012? model. We got that unlocked and upgraded to Mojave. It was an i7, 16GB RAM, with a 768GB ? SSD. Battery was good, seemed like it was barely used.

I already have several MBPs and so I passed on the chance to buy it from him.

He sent a nice 2017 iPad Pro home and asked me to give it a shot …unlocking it.

It was upgraded to IOS 15 something and is on somebody’s iCloud account. Too bad, because I probably would have made him a low ball offer if it was jailbreakable. From what I was able to find online, it’s not.