On the back of the case lies a sticker with a serial number, reading “C714082M0001AP”: Time for inspection !įrom the outside, this Mac seemed in good conditions. The mouse also seemed to be working fine. A screen going on and off while slapping the case could have been a sign of bad connections or cracked solder joints on the analog board.Īt least, the CRT wasn’t broken during the shipment, which was my major concern. I shook the case a bit, slapped (gently) on both sides of the case. I was suspecting something could be wrong with the flyback transformer. On top of the noise coming from the drive, there were also funky electrostatic noises (but no sparks), coming out of the case. There is probably something wrong with the floppy disk drive … I was expecting the question mark to keep blinking. The blinking cross is displayed whenever the drive cannot read a disk. Not good, since there was no disk inserted. A few seconds later, the Mac displayed a floppy disk with a blinking cross, as pictured here: The internal floppy disk drive started making creepy noises. Yeah ! The Mac booted up to the point where it needed to load MacOS, displaying a 3 ½-inch floppy disk with the usual blinking question mark: I was greeted by the “Bong” startup sound. Even though it was most certainly unsafe (since nothing was checked yet), I plugged the Mac in and pushed the power button on.Ĭrossing fingers. But the Mac Plus came neatly packaged, with no apparent signs of anything broken: In the end, after 2-3 weeks of intense researches, I settled for an offer with a reasonable price (250€, including shipping). Most of them had to be handpicked 100’s of kilometers from where I live (I don’t drive). Some were obvious scams (wrong keyboard, wrong mouse, major differences between pics and descriptions, …). Some Macs were in (very) bad shapes and/or incomplete. Since I was happy with both Sinclairs ( ZX81 and Spectrum) and the Amstrad CPC 464, I went straight to Leboncoin web site. It wasn’t that bad, though using a joystick and arrow keys instead of a mouse wasn’t the best user experience ! By 1988, I had pushed my trusty Amstrad to its limits, and since there was no way I could afford a Macintosh, I bought a Jackintosh instead.ģ5 years later, it was about time I got a Macintosh Plus ! Oh boy, I was hooked ! I went home and started writing a MacPaint clone … for my Amstrad CPC. For some reasons, everyone could get hands-on with them. Now, that was something !Īnd then … next to these amazing workstations, there was a stand filled with 4 or 5 Macintosh Plus. I happily skipped this part to went straight to a Silicon Graphics IRIS (1000 or 2000 series, I can’t remember) stand were they were demonstrated. The boring PC part of the expo was … well … boring. It was my first computer expo, and I preciously kept that ticket : It was in 1987, I was 16 and I managed to get a free ticket to the Infora expo. I remember quite well my first real-life encounter with a Macintosh Plus. What the hell, why won’t I make that dream come true ? Then, years and years later … I caught the vintage computer fever. Nice memories.īut the one I dreamed of in the late 80’s was – of course – the Macintosh. It had been brought at school by the father of one the students, and, being nerdy, I had the chance to be one the selected few to get access to it. The first Apple computer I ever touched was an Apple II+, in 1982 if memory serves. I am, at this very moment, typing this text on a MacBook Pro, listening to music on AirPods Pro and wearing an Apple Watch at the wrist. By now, the apartment is now filled with Apple hardware, including an iPad pro, 2 Apple TVs, 4 HomePods and HomeKit devices in every room. Since then, I went down the rabbit hole, with a 3rd generation iPod (2003), a Mac Mini G4 (2005), a 4th generation iPod nano (2006), a first generation iPhone (2007), an iPhone 3G (2008), a first generation MacBook Air (2008) and so on. The first Mac I ever bought was a 12″ PowerBook G4, in 2003. Nevertheless, it took me a long time to actually own an Apple device.
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