Salute to a Classic II- Max Thom
Stahl
With a nostalgic tear in my eye, I remember my first Mac. It was a
little Macintosh Classic II
that my father bought when I was just six or seven. I didn't really
pay much attention  to
what he did with it; I gather mostly it was spreadsheets and junklets
having to do with word processing and SPSS (a statistical analysis
program that's older than the digital hills). What I remember most was the games. You may remember them: old school 68K games that weren't designed
around good graphics or even good programming. They were just there,
and if you liked them you could send a couple of dollars to whoever
had made them. The 68K era was a time where programmers made games so
that they could play them, and if anyone else wanted to join in on
the fun, they could, and if they enjoyed themselves enough, they
could show their appreciation however they saw fit. Of course, I
didn't realize all that back then: I just played the games and
marveled at how much nicer this "Macintosh" thingy was than the old
IBM PC in the other room. I picked up the nuances of the graphic user interface almost
immediately, and, with the help of my father, learned the basics (and
a bit more) of the operating system. It was so much easier than DOS! And, at the same time, it was so
much more stable than Windows 3.11, which I, being a seven-year-old,
totally could not comprehend. A year or so later, I wrote all my reports on the same Mac
Classic, and I wrote some of my better works of fiction years later
than that on the same machine. When I was eight, it had been
augmented by an external hard drive and something new called a
CD-ROM, which mystified me and gave me no end of amusement. Right now, my old friend is still with me, in a way. It resides in
an unused corner of my music studio, next to the right channel of my
stereo system, just across the room from where I sit while typing
this. Regretfully, time did take its toll on my oldest friend, and
right now it has some monitor problems that I gave up on a few months
ago. I have three SE/30s to make
up for it, but it just isn't the same. Many of my more enthusiastic compatriots out there in the
Macintosh world will understand: you can never forget your first
anything, but it's especially hard to forget your first Mac. To my Mac Classic: I salute you.
My First Macintosh- My First Mac Clone, Spencer, 8/15/00.
Sometimes your first Mac isn't even made by Apple.
- Midlife Mac lover, Chris Volpe, 7/18/00.
"I once vowed I'd never own a computer, but that began to change
when I left journalism in 1998...."
- Salute to a Classic II, Max Thom Stahl,
7/11/00. "What I remember most was the games."
- When Randy met Mac, Randy Peterson,
7/4/00. "Maybe I finally had real work to do, and getting it done
was more important to me than the mental exercise of coaxing a
computer into submission."
- The Cure for "Mac Envy," Dave Beekman,
6/28/00. "After almost ten years, I've finally found the cure for
Mac envy: buy a Mac."
- My First Mac index
Want to share your story on My First Mac? Send email to
dan.knight@lowendmac.com. Recent New Content on LEM- Building rumors, fooling
Slashdot, Anne Onymus with Dan Knight, 8/18. We didn't set out
to fool Slashdot or anyone else -- and we explain how to build
your own rumors.
- Don't upgrade that Quadra
630, Adam Robert Guha, Apple Archive, 8/18. Most upgrades for
this particular model just don't make economic sense.
- Browse different, Dan
Knight, Mac Musings, 8/18. One way browsers could improve the Web
surfing experience.
- Mac-N-DOS list. Yes, it's
a bad pun, but if you have to use both Macs and Windows, this new
list could be a great resource.
- New iMacs: Something for
everyone, Kel Taylor, Mac to the Future, 8/17. "...the iMac
has grown into a family, and a large one at that."
- Apple ditching G4, Anne
Onymus, 8/17. Apple embraces IBM and the G5, leaving Motorola
behind.
- Happy Birthday, iMac!, Dan
Knight, iMac Channel, 8/16. "The iMac has redefined the industry
and redefined Apple as a trendsetter."
- Be thankful for Apple
secrecy, Stephen Van Esch, Mac Scope, 8/16. There really is a
good side to Apple secrecy.
- The Land Before Silicon,
Manuel Mejia, Mac Daniel, 8/16. Travels in Russia with a PowerBook
100.
- The G4 Cube and Radeon fans,
Paulo Rodrigues, Tangerine Fusion, 8/16. How ATI spilled a trade
secret. Oops.
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Mac: Receive email information on new links.
- <go to My
First Mac index>
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