My retro gaming iMac!

[dandeco]

Last week at my workplace's satellite warehouse location, I picked up an iMac G3 with the intent to use it for retro purposes, mostly playing older Mac-compatible computer games, especially ones from my childhood...

It's an early 2001 400 MHz Indigo iMac, the base-line model with a CD-ROM drive (this model was most likely really popular with schools), but for my purposes, it's adequate. At least it's also got a couple of FireWire 400 ports! Here I am updating the firmware before I perform any upgrades.

The hardware upgrades. I replaced the dead PRAM battery with a new one, replaced the 20 GB hard drive originally installed with a 60 GB hard drive (7200 RPM, too) and maxed out the RAM to 1 GB.

Installing Mac OS 9.2 onto the new hard drive.

Thanks to the FireWire 400 ports, here I am able to transfer some of my files and software installers to the iMac via Target Disk Mode. I had to use my PowerBook G4 for this, due to some of the installers being too old to mount or copy properly on modern Mac OS versions. Some I also had to burn to CD-Rs using the PowerBook, but it's worth the results.

Good ol' KidWorks 2, with its' funny text-to-speech engine I had so much fun with as a kid.

The Simpsons Cartoon Studio also seems to run better on this iMac G3 than when I try to run the Windows version on XP (where it goes to fast to make decent animations).

The Edmarks Early Learning House games I had fun playing in elementary school.

Look, I can even edit standard-def video on this iMac using iMovie 2! While it does feel a bit more limited compared to subsequent versions (let alone the current iMovie), it does have a fun retro charm, and was also one of the earliest appearances of the "Aqua" interface.

 

[dandeco]

Oh, JUST great! Everything was working fine until tonight, when during a song on iTunes the speakers suddenly sounded distorted! A quick Google search revealed that my iMac G3's speakers have succumbed to the foam rot problem that's common to this particular computer, and it IS fixable. So now I'll need to order replacement speakers and foam pieces for it...

 

[TheShortTimer]

Great find and nice work with the upgrades, installation and gaming - not to mention also pulling off a bit of video editing as well!

Oh, JUST great! Everything was working fine until tonight, when during a song on iTunes the speakers suddenly sounded distorted! A quick Google search revealed that my iMac G3's speakers have succumbed to the foam rot problem that's common to this particular computer, and it IS fixable. So now I'll need to order replacement speakers and foam pieces for it...

When you tackle this, please share with us the steps because I also have an iMac G3 with the same issue and I resorted to using headphones as a solution.

 

[dandeco]

Oh, JUST great! Everything was working fine until tonight, when during a song on iTunes the speakers suddenly sounded distorted! A quick Google search revealed that my iMac G3's speakers have succumbed to the foam rot problem that's common to this particular computer, and it IS fixable. So now I'll need to order replacement speakers and foam pieces for it...

Well, after holding off for a while after getting my PowerMac G4 MDD, I finally went and ordered replacement speakers for the iMac G3! They should come in later this week.

 

[dandeco]

The new speakers came, complete with plastic housings!

It was tricky releasing the old speaker housings, especially when such a flathead screwdriver wouldn't easily fit into the hole the long clip goes through. But I managed to get both out in less than a half hour.

The new speakers in use, playing a song on iTunes 2!

 

[TheShortTimer]

Nice work!

 

[dandeco]

Since my iMac G3 has FireWire, I can boot it into Target Disk Mode for sharing files! But it only really works with another PowerPC Mac, like my 17" PowerBook G4 here. Plus, I can wirelessly do network sharing between my M1 MacBook Air and the PowerBook G4 for adding music files and such to the iMac G3.