1980s Mac SE

November 18, 2004 7:33 PM

AppleFilter: I am now the proud owner of a Macintosh SE from 1987-ish. Now what the hell am I supposed to do with it? Complete details inside.

My sister recently had to liquidate all the various storage locations she'd been sticking her life's detritus into, so I, having just gotten a largeish new apartment, offered to take some of the more useful things off her hands. But one thing I ended up taking was her entire old (very old) computer setup, which includes:

--A Macintosh SE, with spacious 20MB hard drive, the ultra-advanced Mac OS 6.0, and a blazing 1MB of RAM. Includes keyboard, mouse, etc., and it still works like a charm.
--Its printer (an old AppleWriter), with a bunch of unused ribbons.
--A veritable crapload of software -- Hypercard, Microsoft Word, GraphicWorks, etc. -- all with original manuals; plus a variety of (copied) games, all on 3.5" floppies.

The first instinct, of course, is "Flog it on eBay!" But people are listing Mac SE's there for $1 and not getting bids. So what should I do? Are there charitable organizations out there who'd be interested in a computer this riotously ancient? I mean, I'm tempted to just keep it and play Shufflepuck Cafe all day for the rest of my life, but I really shouldn't. So? Suggestions? I'd prefer for them to be the kind of suggestions that net me money, or at least a warm glow of a good deed done, as opposed to "Hollow it out and make a sick aquarium," but I'll take a couple of those for color and interest.

posted by logovisual to computers & internet (13 comments total)

Shufflepuck cafe! Tetris! That game where you have to pick up all the crystals and get through the little gate, while avoiding the big fatties that take ten shots to kill!

This may not earn you money, but I say fill it with the best of ye old mac games and invite your similarly-aged friends over for 80s nostalgia parties. I've learned the hard way that you can't get old-school tetris for OSX (can you? prove me wrong, please prove me wrong...).
posted by bonheur at 7:59 PM on November 18, 2004

oh wow, bonheur just brought back child hood memories... I think that game was crystal quest, but I'm not sure it'll run on an SE. Shufflepuck though, that's good times.


I don't think you have a hope as far as doing anything 'useful' with it; you could make an aquarium, maybe? You have creative options, it's more a matter of the time you're willing to put into it... I wouldn't mind an SE piggy bank. I think as far as nostalgia parties, you can do better then a 11" screen and 8bit graphics... but if you were into those old games, that could be a fun option too.
posted by cmyr at 8:15 PM on November 18, 2004

Does it say SE/30 or just SE? A Mac SE is a worthless piece of junk. An SE/30 is actually pretty decent hardware, although you'd never know it from the crappy screen.

If I remember correctly, the SE/30 can run A/UX, Apple's first attempt at a Unix OS.

If it's just an SE, I don't think you'd be able to give it away. Find an abandonware software site and play long lost games.
posted by majick at 8:21 PM on November 18, 2004

Off the top of my head:

1. Put it in your kitchen and run one of the zillions of recipes/cocktails hypercard stacks.

2. Enable it for internet with an appletalk-ethernet adaptor, run MacTCP and Netscape 1.0 on it, then:

a. Put it in your living room, beside the CDs. Run the iTunes webserver on your Big Mac. (details if you ask, can't be bothered right now). Use the SE to control the Tunez to your airport express from the Living Room.

b. Set google.com/palm to your homepage, and never be more than a few clicks away from a top fact.

c. Check your email in whatever room in the house you currently can't.

3. Forget the web. Use it when you Must Get Work Done. No distractions on that thing: just write, write, write. Write official letters. Write a blog (hook appleshare to post). Keep a spreadsheet budget.

4. Put a CD Player in it. Tres cool.
posted by bonaldi at 8:24 PM on November 18, 2004

Apple provides System 7.5.3 on their ftp site. Low End Macs has direct links plus hardware references and legacy software recommendations.
posted by beowulf573 at 8:40 PM on November 18, 2004

Hypercard! Such fun!
posted by five fresh fish at 9:20 PM on November 18, 2004

Macintosh Garden

Mac-Site-list, HTML Version 5.0.0

Go nuts.
posted by Scoo at 10:04 PM on November 18, 2004

I say to stop at 7.5.1, not go all the way to 7.5.3.
I have many fond memories of that particular version of the Mac OS. But it's probably a 7.5.3 stand-alone.

If I had it, I might use if for word processing. I remember doing pretty complicated audio editing (SoundEdit 16! Whither goest thou?!) on my little SE, and not the SE-30, mind you, with it's super-advanced 68030.

Now that I think about it, the 68040 is about the lowest-end processor that I would consider trying to play with. That bad boy was a tank.
posted by squirrel at 10:17 PM on November 18, 2004

You could give it to Strong Bad. I hear he needs a new computer.
posted by Smart Dalek at 1:32 AM on November 19, 2004

when I was in art school, I put together 4 macSEs and had them run porn (which i'd painstakingly pieced together using a gif animation program, an old version of hypercard, and PHOTOSHOP MOTHERFUCKING ONE OH.)

unless you're planning on doing retro-visuals (which I've seen before, and yeah, you're gonna need more than one), it's pretty much worthless, unless you're a big worldbuilder fan, in which case, well.

start it up.

the project was well-received, but not enough to get me into the honors studios at berkeley, an apparently hotly contested position. Usually that allocade is given primarily to painters, being berkeley as it is. they're not a big new media school. then again, the project wasn't that awesome. however, it did prominently feature some popular porn art-teest who i can't recall. hope that helps.
posted by fishfucker at 3:00 AM on November 19, 2004

yeah. that so doesn't help. sell it to some art sucker.
posted by fishfucker at 3:01 AM on November 19, 2004

You could make some wonderful music on it.

I had an old Mac Plus, and for a Christmas party one year I managed to find some old song composing software and wrote out a bunch of carols/easy pop songs.

There's is nothing better than hearing a tinny/bleepy version of 'Wonderful Christmastime' coming out of a Mac Plus. Except for, well, real music.

Also, try to find Kung Fu Chivalry. That game roxxors.
posted by hughbot at 7:26 AM on November 19, 2004

you can plug it into a mac network (via appleshare through a newer mac) and browse everyone else's secure files at will, no passwords asked. previously discussed on AskMe here.
posted by caution live frogs at 10:29 AM on November 19, 2004