Adam Rosen I am a vintage Mac collector in the Boston, MA, US area, and an Apple Certified Macintosh consultant doing business under the name Oakbog. I've been using Macs for over three decades and counting!
My colleague, computer historian David Greelish, has started work on a documentary about a seminal Apple computer which changed the world. Not the Macintosh, but Before Macintosh: the Apple Lisa. The Lisa was the first commercially available computer to bring the Graphical User Interface (GUI) outside of the laboratory, with windows, menus, a mouse and fonts in documents. The story of its development, the people behind it, and the legacy of this groundbreaking machine will be the focus of the production.
As the curator of the Vintage Mac Museum, I have been interviewed for the film to provide perspective on the system’s history and development. Some of my vintage Mac collection is included as well (this always makes the equipment happy), and a teaser trailer for the film has just been released:
Check back periodically at theapplelisafilm.com for additional trailers and information about the film.
Longtime Macintosh users certainly remember Clarus the DogCow, a quirky and unusual component of the original Mac OS. Clarus is a hybrid digital entity falling somewhere between a Dog and a Cow (aka DogCow). She was born in 1983 in Apple’s labs during the Macintosh creation, as a character in the Cairo font designed by Susan Kare. In 1986 she mutated with System 5 to become the bitmapped creature that displays print setting options for the LaserWriter.
In 1989 a legendary and tongue-in-cheek Apple developer document, DTS TechNote #31, officially recognized this critter as “Clarus the Dogcow” and she soon became the mascot of the DTS Team:
“The dogcow has no natural enemies, but the meager population manages to keep itself in check through its own stupidity. They have a nasty tendency to graze off cliffs (in fact, there are no known “cliff-dwelling dogcows” left in existence) and to get lost in the weeds.” (DTS TechNote #31)
Clarus has the ability to flip, invert, shrink to fit or do a “precision alignment”. Her vocalization combines the moo of the cow with the woof of the dog, resulting in the unmistakable moof sound we all know and love.
Clarus was the star of some of the first QuickTime movies made in Apple’s labs. In 1993 Apple installed sculptures on their campus depicting celebrated icons from original Mac OS, and many Apple employees took pictures of themselves with the famous DogCow.
“Since dogcows are two dimensional, they will stand facing a viewer “on edge” to avoid being seen […] The reason that the dogcow can invert has to do with the fact that it’s genes have about as much order as the crowd at a Sex Pistols concert.” (DTS TechNote #31)
Clarus was sacrified to the cause of modernity when Mac OS X appeared, but she nevertheless remains a beloved memory of 8 bit days gone by. More information can be found at the comprehensive Clarus the DogCow: Moof Museum or the archived Apple Developer Connection (ADC) site A Nest of Dogcattle (via Archive.org)
Part of keeping our digital heritage alive is the ability to run software from years past. This may be for historical reasons, for performing current work, or just to play old games. But with the passage of time running classic software on original hardware becomes more difficult. Vintage computers are getting harder to maintain, or no longer exist, consigning old software to the digital graveyard.
Emulation is a solution for this problem. An emulator allows users to run software designed for one computer environment and processor inside a host system with a different kind of processor. The emulator is a shell, a “software computer” that interfaces the two and provides a mechanism to interchange files between environments. A side benefit is that old software usually runs much faster on the more current hardware.
A recent job at the Mac Museum proved the usefulness of emulators again. My client was using an early 1990s graphics program called Imagic to process satellite weather maps. He had created many custom macros to process the data, but the application was long abandoned and would only run on 68k based Macs. So for over two decades he has been juggling a small stable of Quadras to run this software, which got older and more finicky over time.
At wits end with failing hardware, he asked me about alternatives. Emulation to the rescue. Using Basilisk II configured to emulate a Quadra running System 7.5.3, I was able to install a copy of Imagic and verify it worked. My client then purchased a modern Mac and we transferred the setup to his system. After some configuration and training we were in business: the software ran super fast, my client was very relieved, and the Quadras can now enter their long deserved retirement.
Here are some of the more popular emulators for running vintage Mac software:
Mini vMac Mini vMac is a 68k Mac Plus emulator available for a surprising number of platforms (including your iPhone), supporting Mac System Software version 1 up through 7.5.5. If you’ve ever wanted to see what the original Mac was like or play with Talking Moose under System 6, Mini VMac is for you. • Setup Guide
Basilisk II Basilisk II moves the needle forward by emulating either a Mac IIci (68030) or Quadra (68040) running System 7 through 8.1. This is a more complex effort supporting networking with other computers and printers, and a shared folder allows for transfer of files between emulator and host OS. • Setup Guide
SheepShaver SheepShaver is a PowerPC Macintosh emulator (a companion to Basilisk) supporting System 7.5.2 through Mac OS 9.0.4, When running OS 9 SheepShaver works reasonably well as a partial substitute for Classic mode on modern systems with a wide range of old Mac software. • Setup Guide
For best results you should try to emulate the processor type and operating system that your software was designed for. Configuration steps vary, see the Setup Guides for each emulator for details. Macintosh Garden has a good summary of how to install software into your emulator.
One thing all these emulators have in common is the need for a Macintosh ROM file to be available. Emaculation has a summary of methods for extracting ROM files from existing Macs or otherwise obtaining the images.
Online Emulators
If you don’t want to install anything and bother with configuration and finding ROM files, a number of emulators are available online using tools like JavaScript and CSS. Think about that: you can now run an entire early Macintosh inside a web browser. Here are a few worth checking out:
Sometimes my vintage and professional Mac lives collide, and I wind up working on a consulting job involving a system old enough to be in the Mac Museum. Such was the case this week with an iBook G4 I encountered, which appears to have had quite a life.
This particular system is a 2003 12-inch iBook G4. It started life as the business laptop for a professional dancer, and endured a decade of being lugged around the world and used as a daily driver in the field before it got too old to be of use as a primary computer.
It then passed on to her husband, a painter, to use in his studio (an outside shed) for displaying and projecting photographs. Unheated in winter, un-air conditioned in summer, the little iBook lasted another several years while acquiring the most amazing coat of random paint droplets I’ve ever seen on a computer.
A few weeks ago, destiny called. My clients’ house was nearly hit by a lightning strike. Fortunately the bolt hit the ground nearby instead but still fried some electronics, including the iBook G4 in the backyard studio. After taking stock (nobody was hurt) and dealing with insurance, I was called in to help recover photos from the backup drive and erase any data which might remain on the internal hard drive.
Now to be honest, the iBook has never been one of my favorite Macs. The G3 model introduced WiFi (Airport) and translucent plastics to Mac laptops, but the top heavy design looked like a toilet bowl seat painted in garish day-glo colors. The all white rectangular G4 models were much more civilized, but getting the hard drive out of a G4 iBook is an unnecessarily difficult, swear word evoking exercise.
However they are designed for rough use and built like tanks, so on a hunch I decided to try booting using a different AC adapter before tearing apart the computer. Lo and behold it started on the first try! Chime, a slow boot cycle, and then a dim desktop appeared behind the flecks of paint. I just had to bring the brightness up and the system was a good as – err – a decade and a half old computer.
I recovered the remainder of my clients’ data, then erased the hard drive. I think this iBook can finally be retired in honor: truly a Life Well Lived. However, it may now qualify as a work of art given the extremely unique paint job it proudly sports!
How many generations of Mac technology (both hardware and software) can you cram into a single Macintosh? Inquiring minds need to know! I haven’t nearly hit the limit yet, but here’s a good start towards answering the question. Introducing the Macintosh Wayback Machine:
• 24″ Intel iMac running OS X El Capitan
• Apple ADB Extended Keyboard II
• Apple 9-pin mouse model M0100
• Mac OS X Snow Leopard (VMWare)
• Mac OS 9 (SheepShaver)
• System 6.0.8 (Mini vMac)
I clearly have too much time on my hands, but this just had to be done.
The 24″ Intel iMac is one of my favorite designs. It has a nice big screen, is fairly easy to service (by Apple standards), and has been upgraded with a zippy SSD. These machines contain FireWire ports along with USB2 connectors so it’s easy to connect external drives from multiple Mac eras.
The ADB Extended Keyboard II is legendary among Mac users – they don’t make ’em like this anymore. It’s huge by modern standards and takes up way more desk space than required, but has a deep, firm mechanical typing action that would make a modern MacBook Pro blush with envy. A Griffin iMate ADB-USB adapter connects the beast to the iMac, which was a common adapter back in the day.
I knew this project had to happen when I learned about RetroConnector’s 9-pin to USB adapter for the Apple M0100 Mouse. This device allows the original Macintosh mouse to work with any USB equipped computer. Visually this is brilliant, and really adds to the gestalt of the project. In use the geriatric mouse is somewhat pokey on a big screen and less accurate than modern optical mice – but hey, it works! (Update: RetroConnector has told me the tracking speed is adjustable in the adapter – perfect :)
The system uses a semi-transparent power cord from a first generation G3 iMac. I would have used a beige Mac Plus cord but its right angle plug doesn’t work well with the newer iMac’s round recessed port.
Of course a computer is more than just hardware, and the software side of the Mac is what we’ve interacted with for decades. Apple revises the Mac OS every year now and over time drops compatibility for older applications (Classic, PowerPC, 32-bit, etc.) Virtualization and emulation solve part of this problem.
OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 runs all current Mac OS software (both 32 and 64 bit), modern web browsers, iTunes, iCloud, etc. It’s a good current OS version and the last supported release for this machine.
In OS X Lion 10.7 Apple dropped support for running PowerPC apps. Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.8 was the last version to include this capability (Rosetta), so the Wayback Machine is running Snow Leopard Server inside VMWare to overcome this limitation. The setup allows the use of older OS X software such as Microsoft Office 2004, Adobe CS2 and obsolete versions of the Apple Airport Utility.
To access Classic apps I installed SheepShaver – inside Snow Leopard – running Mac OS 9.0.4. This emulator supports much pre-OS X era software as long as it doesn’t require virtual memory. It isn’t as well integrated as Classic mode, but it’s cool to see Mac OS 9 booting on your Intel machine!
Why stop there? Mini vMac is another venerable tool which emulates a Macintosh Plus and runs on many platforms (Macs, PC, Linux, etc.) Using disk image files you can run anything from the original Mac System Software through System 7.5.5. I have System 6.0.8 installed along with first generation releases of MacPaint, MacDraw and MacWrite. Talking Moose still gives me a laugh!
The deeper you go into emulation the slower things get. Snow Leopard inside VMWare runs quite well. SheepShaver inside a virtualized Snow Leopard runs decently, you could use it to get work done. Mini vMac inside virtualized Snow Leopard is somewhat slow. Fortunately I can run both SheepShaver and Mini vMac directly under El Cap if needed.
When I woke up the morning following setup, the iMac’s screen was black and I heard a strange fluttering sound coming from the system. I thought the hardware was failing, but no, After Dark had started inside Mini vMac and was running Flying Toasters with sound enabled! Another blast from the past.
A fun little project, and one which I’m sure will grow with time.
A new addition to the collection has recently arrived, one I’m quite excited about. Captured alive from the wilds of geekdom, the VMM is now the caretaker of an elusive JLPGA PowerBook 170 in all its multicolor glory.
In 1992 Apple manufactured approximately 500 multi-colored PowerBook 170 models to commemorate the Japanese Ladies Professional Golf Association (JLPGA) tournament. This was during the John Sculley era so co-marketing promotions were common at the company.
The PowerBook 170 was quite a machine for it’s day. This first generation PowerBook replaced the older Macintosh Portable with a much smaller, lighter design, 9.8-inch active matrix display, 25MHz 68030 processor, up to 8MB of RAM, 2.5″ SCSI HD and a built-in modem. It was a favorite for business and professional users, and the form factor lasted several generations.
Personally, I remember having my first case of PowerBook Envy lusting after a colleague’s 170…
The JLPGA PowerBook 170 has the same innards as a standard PB170, this wasn’t a high performance model. Rather its rarity derives from the color case and that fact that only 500 are known to have been made. Replacing the standard battleship grey components are a dark blue palmrest and screen bezel, white top and bottom panels, yellow hinges, red sliding panels and green rotating feet. It is similar to the multicolor Apple logo color scheme and is really quite striking in appearance.
Also unique about this PowerBook is the mixed Japanese-English keyboard. This was a promo item for Japan so you don’t often see these kinds of keyboards outside that region. I’ll need to find a Japanese version of System 7.1 to run on this puppy for completeness.
The hinged door panel which covers the rear cable ports (missing on my unit) is also red in color. However this panel is something which gets lost on nearly all 100 series Powerbooks, and with one exception every JLPGA PB170 I’ve seen listed on eBay is missing the red rear door. This frequently lost panel may literally be one of the most rare parts Apple has ever produced!
Like most PowerBook 170 models the VMM JLPGA experiences the infamous tunnel vision screen effect: after warming up the screen corners turn black and the display tunnels down to an oval window. Sadly this is a common problem on the 170 and no permanent fix is known.
As with all things, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. MacWorld magazine definitely appreciated it:
If you ever set your hands upon this colorful machine, you’ll have yourself quite a prize… Apple must have had a field day picking the colors for this machine. It sports a mostly blue body with a white lid and base, red battery doors and contrast sliders, yellow hinge caps and trackball, and green elevating feet. Other than all that, it appears to be a relatively unassuming PowerBook 170.
However Fortune magazine disagrees, calling it one of the six ugliest Apple products ever:
More the product of a questionable color scheme than poor industrial design, this commemorative Mac is extremely rare. Some 500 were made in honor of the JLPGA golf tournament in Japan.
Beautiful or garish, the JLPGA PowerBook 170 is a rare beast in the Mac collecting world. I am very fortunate to have the opportunity to add this gem to my collection.
She was born in 1983 in Apple’s labs during the Macintosh creation, as a character in the Cairo font designed by Susan Kare. In 1986 she mutated with System 5 to become the bitmapped creature that displays print setting options for the LaserWriter. 
