During the 1990s when Apple produced external CRT displays, they built DB-15 video ports into Macintosh computers. Product manuals of the time referred to the port as the “Macintosh video port” and in the later 1990s, the “Monitor port.”
An Apple Service Source document for the Power Macintosh/Server G3 Minitower shows the port in a diagram labeled as the “Monitor Port.”
I have three different versions of this adapter that allows a Macintosh with this DB-15 monitor port to be used with a “standard” VGA monitor. The three versions I have are platinum, clear, and black. The black example is unopened. All three designs have the Apple logo.
During the 1990s when Apple first entered the external display market, they used the DB-15 video port. Product manuals of the time referred to the port as the “Macintosh video port” or later, the “Monitor port.”
An Apple Service Source document for the Macintosh LC Series/Quadra 605 (Macintosh LC, Macintosh LC II, Macintosh LC III, Macintosh LC 475, Macintosh Quadra 605) specifies the video standard as: “DB-15 monitor port for built-in video; DA-15 connector.”
This Apple Video Card Accessory (part number 513-0091-A) allowed “standard” VGA monitor to be used with a Macintosh computer.
Beginning in 1995 with the PowerBook 190, Apple laptops shipped with an expansion bay for both Apple and third-party drives. The drives were “hot-swappable,” meaning that the user could pull out one drive and replace it with another without restarting the laptop.
This PowerBook Floppy Drive Expansion Bay Module from 1995 is an early example. This module works with the PowerBook 190 and 5300-series PowerBooks. This example is from one of the PowerBook 5300-series laptops in my collection.
This original Macintosh Mouse, Model M0100, shipped with a Macintosh 512K. This mouse was compatible with the Apple Lisa and was the same mouse that shipped with the original Macintosh.
The original Macintosh Mouse used a DE-9 connector and remained unchanged until 1987 when its color was altered to Platinium (with Smoke accents) to match the Macintosh Plus. Like all early Macintosh mouse designs, it used only one button to control the famously easy-to-use Macintosh operating systems of the time.
The Macintosh Keyboard, Model M0110, was included with the original Macintosh. This keyboard was also shipped with the Macintosh 512K.
This keyboard may be the simplest of all Apple keyboards because it lacks arrow keys and a numeric keypad. It used a telephone-style connector (RJ-10) to connect to the Macintosh, but the cable was wired differently than a standard telephone cord (a telephone cord is not interchangeable and will result in device damage).
This keyboard also introduced the “Command” key and symbol to the world. Apple II computers were in wide use at the time and included the “open Apple” key (a key with the outline of the Apple logo) and a “closed Apple” key (a key with a solid Apple logo), both used for shortcut and other functions before the Macintosh. (The Open- and Closed-Apple keys were also used on the Apple Lisa.) The “Command” key and symbol were used on this original Macintosh Keyboard and functioned similarly to the “Open Apple” key on the IIe. The keyboard that replaced this original Macintosh Keyboard design, the Apple Desktop Bus Keyboard, continued the tradition of the “Open-Apple” symbol by printing the Open-Apple on the same key as the Command symbol.
For years, users (especially teachers, including me) referred to keyboard shortcuts using the “Open-Apple” terminology, such as “Open-Apple-C” (for Edit > Copy) or “Open-Apple-P” (for File > Print), instead of using the arguably more elegant, and now standard term, “Command.”
At the time the original Macintosh was released, the computer was considered portable, due to its relatively small size (compared to its competitors) and the fact that the laptop computer was not yet widely available. (Apple would not release their first laptop, the Macintosh Portable, until 1989—a machine that was barely portable and cost over $7,000 at the time.) The original Macintosh design included a built-in handle and similarly sized models were offered from 1984 until the Color Classic II was discontinued in 1995.
Apple captured this opportunity to release the Soft Carrying Case that would fit all the “classic” Macintosh computers. The Soft Carrying Case was dark beige with black straps. Internally, the Soft Carrying Case has a soft, beige, fleece-like lining with compartments for the mouse, keyboard, manual/disks/cables, and a large central space for the Macintosh. Since the original Macintosh models had no internal hard drives, 3.5-inch floppy disks were required to run the operating system and programs.
The case could be used as a carry-on for air travel, but contains a Warning tag: “This bag is designed for carry-on use only. Use an ATA Spec. 300, category 1 approved container for checking your computer as luggage or shipping it as cargo.”
My collection currently includes two Soft Carrying Cases. One was a gift, and this example was included with the purchase of my Macintosh 512K. Verifying the exact name of of this product required some research. I finally located an Apple-based source in a 19-page brochure released in 1983 before the original Macintosh release. The brochure touts, “At less than 20 pounds in weight, Macintosh is easily carried from here to there. But handles always help. This durable, water-resistant carrying case is thickly padded so the Macintosh main unit, keyboard, mouse, manual and disks fit snugly inside.”
An Apple white paper summarized the Apple Personal Modem 300/1200 features:
“The Apple Personal Modem is a compact, 1200/300-baud modem that provides a cost-effective data communications solution for any Apple personal computer system. With the modem and appropriate software, your Macintosh or Apple II computer can communicate with other personal computers, minicomputers, and mainframes to send reports and graphs between offices, access data bases and commercial information services, find out the latest stock prices, or shop and bank from your own home.”
At the time of its release, the modem worked with several types of Macintosh and other Apple computers: Macintosh (128K, 512K, 512K Enhanced), Macintosh Plus, Macintosh SE, Macintosh II, Apple II GS, Apple IIe, Apple III, Macintosh XL, and Lisa. The modem did not ship with cables because several different interfaces were in use at the time: Apple System/Peripheral-8 Cable (Macintosh Plus, Macintosh SE, Macintosh II, or Apple IlGS); Macintosh Peripheral-8 Cable (Macintosh 128K, 512K, 512K Enhanced); Apple IIe Peripheral-8 Cable; Apple Ile Modem-8 Cable (Apple Ile, Apple II Plus, Apple II, Apple III, Macintosh XL, Lisa); and other computers with an RS-232 port.
This modem in my collection appears to have never been used, and all original paperwork, manuals, and packaging was included in the box. Thus, I was able to provide an “unboxing” of a 1987 product. Note that the internal packaging is mostly styrofoam and the Apple logo is embossed in two different locations in the styrofoam.
The Macintosh Mouse used a rubber roller ball and a single, rectangle-shaped button. The first version of the Macintosh Mouse was beige to match the color of the original Macintosh, but was offered in platinum beginning in 1987 to match other Apple computers of the time.
This Macintosh Mouse design was based upon the mouse that shipped with the Lisa. The Lisa mouse also used the DE-9 connector and had a single button. The Lisa mouse used a steel ball for tracking.
The Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh, sometimes referred to as the “TAM,” is a truly unique Macintosh.
It featured a 250 MHz PowerPC 603e processor, 32 MB of RAM, a 2.0 GB hard drive, a vertical 4X CD-ROM drive, S-video input, TV/FM Radio capability, a floppy Superdrive, and a custom Bose-designed speaker system. The TAM uses a unique ADB (Apple Desktop Bus) keyboard with an integrated trackpad and Italian leather palm rest. It did not ship with a mouse. The TAM includes a base unit that houses a subwoofer and the computer’s power supply, connected by a thick cable.
When powered on, the TAM plays a startup chime unique to this computer.
Apple manufactured 12,000 Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh computers and released 11,601 of them. When first offered, the price was $7,499. Halfway through its product cycle, Apple dropped the price to $3,500. When the product was discontinued in March 1998, the price dropped to $1,995.
When released, the Apple website devoted six full web pages to the TAM. One page boasted “Concierge Service” for TAM owners that described a “Three-Year Limited Hardware Warranty,” “Three-Year Call Telephone Support,” and a setup service:
“On-Site Setup. Apple will arrange to have your TAM delivered to your doorstep. A trained field technician will set up the hardware and basic software, make sure the system is operational, and answer questions you may have about the system.”
Another webpage highlighted the use of the TAM in the 1997 movie Batman and Robin (that also featured the eMate 300).
The Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh was created to celebrate April 1, 1996, the twentieth anniversary of the day that Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne formed Apple Computer. The TAM was announced on March 20, 1997.
The TAM was among the first design projects involving Jonathan Ive, Apple’s long-time CDO (Chief Design Officer).
The release of the Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh marked the appearance of Apple’s first all-in-one desktop computer to use a flat panel display. Another all-in-one flat panel Apple desktop would not be released until 2002 when the first flat panel iMac was released.
The original Macintosh was released in January 1984 as the “Apple Macintosh.” After November 1984 a 512K version was offered and the computers were referred to as the Macintosh 128K and Macintosh 512K. (Internally, the original Macintosh differed from the Macintosh 128K so they are technically two different computers.)
The original Macintosh had a distinctive beige case with a handle and a 9-inch monochrome screen. The selling price when released was $2,495.
The Macintosh was introduced to the American public by the iconic “1984” television commercial directed by Ridley Scott. The commercial aired on CBS during the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII on January 22, 1984. The voiceover stated: “On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you’ll see why 1984 won’t be like 1984.”
The Macintosh introduced several “firsts” in a relatively inexpensive consumer-level personal computer:
built-in 3.5-inch floppy disk drive
consistent user experience and user interface among applications
an all-in-one design (combining the CPU, monitor, and peripherals into a single unit)
graphical user interface controlled by the point-and-click features of an included mouse to access pull-down menus and click icons
WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) printing
Overall, the Macintosh allowed a user to focus on the work they were doing, rather than struggling to make the computer function.
The original iMac included a Motorola 68000 microprocessor running at 7.8336 MHz, 128 KB RAM, a one-bit (black-and-white) 9-inch CRT with a resolution of 512×342, and a single 400 KB single-sided 3.5-inch floppy disk drive (with no internal storage).
The original Macintosh was floppy-disk-based. A “Startup Disk” on a single disk could be temporarily ejected as the computer was used to allow documents to be saved or to allow it to run another application stored on another disk. The computer’s operating system was named System 1.0 and consisted of System 0.97 and Finder 1.0. The highest-level OS that can be run on the original Macintosh was System 3.2 and Finder 5.3. The Macintosh shipped with the applications MacPaint and MacWrite.
The original Macintosh did not include a cooling fan, instead relying on convection cooling. The absence of the fan made the computer run quietly.
Inside the case, the original Macintosh was signed by the entire Macintosh Division at Apple (c. 1982). The signatures are molded on the internal plastic and include: Peggy Alexio, Colette Askeland, Bill Atkinson, Steve Balog, Bob Belleville, Mike Boich, Bill Bull, Matt Carter, Berry Cash, Debi Coleman, George Crow, Donn Denman, Christopher Espinosa, Bill Fernandez, Martin Haeberli, Andy Hertzfeld, Joanna Hoffman, Rod Holt, Bruce Horn, Hap Horn, Brian Howard, Steve Jobs, Larry Kenyon, Patti King, Daniel Kottke, Angeline Lo, Ivan Mach, Jerrold Manock, Mary Ellen McCammon, Vicki Milledge, Mike Murray, Ron Nicholson Jr., Terry Oyama, Benjamin Pang, Jef Raskin, Ed Riddle, Brian Robertson, Dave Roots, Patricia Sharp, Burrell Smith, Bryan Stearns, Lynn Takahashi, Guy “Bud” Tribble, Randy Wigginton, Linda Wilkin, Steve Wozniak, Pamela Wyman, and Laszlo Zidek.
