Nice!
I have the Desktop ( horizontal variant ) of the 233 mhz G3 beige.
This G3 is the most epic computer revival job i ever did.

I found it in PARTS in a garbage bag on the sidewalk. I was cued by the monitor that was beside the bag, then i saw part of the case through the bag.
I took that whole garbage bag home, rummaged through it. HDD and ram was missing but everything else was there, albeit in separate parts, completely gooed up in Dust and nicotine tar. The case was orange, and many plastic parts were broken.

I cleaned everything, glued broken plastics.
I put it all back together, added Ram and a hdd and the crazy thing just worked!!

MaxWar wrote:

Nice! I have the Desktop ( horizontal variant ) of the 233 mhz G3 beige. This G3 is the most epic computer revival job i ever d […]
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Nice!
I have the Desktop ( horizontal variant ) of the 233 mhz G3 beige.
This G3 is the most epic computer revival job i ever did.

I found it in PARTS in a garbage bag on the sidewalk. I was cued by the monitor that was beside the bag, then i saw part of the case through the bag.
I took that whole garbage bag home, rummaged through it. HDD and ram was missing but everything else was there, albeit in separate parts, completely gooed up in Dust and nicotine tar. The case was orange, and many plastic parts were broken.

I cleaned everything, glued broken plastics.
I put it all back together, added Ram and a hdd and the crazy thing just worked!!

OMG, that's nuts! but cool 😀 Looks like you can do a lot of upgrades to this guy too, I can't wait! What OS version you running on urs?

I added some pics..

try a flash maybe? i cant see anything.

luckybob wrote:

try a flash maybe? i cant see anything.

Yea, my camera is 'retro' and not in a good way. Flash usually washes everything out. I'll try and get some better pics taken though.

UPDATE: I haven't started pulling cards yet.. but it looks like a loaded model.. ZIP drive and everything!!

The bad news is.. after scrubbing down the case, part of it has that icky yellow color to it.. like the SNES with the flame retardant stuff in the plastic.

simbin wrote:

... What OS version you running on urs?

I have Mac os 9.2. I did not spend that much time using it. I set up a FTP to share some files with my PCs and tried to play Marathon.

However when playing Marathon the computer would often Hard crash.
Don't know if the problem is hardware related. I would need to spend more time troubleshooting it. Maybe it needs a recap or something?
I also played Civ2 a bit and it did not seem to have any problem.

If I squint, it looks like there is some sort of voodoo card in it! wow!

That isn't a G3, someone rebadged a PowerMac 8600. It might have a G3 CPU card, but that looks a lot like the stock 604e card. They are easily upgraded to a G3/G4 though. A real Beige G3 has a 3 slot tower and a ZIF CPU socket.

luckybob wrote:

If I squint, it looks like there is some sort of voodoo card in it! wow!

Please don't hurt your eyes!! :p I'm going to take some better pics, prob tomorrow. I'll also pull each card, so I can look them up and find out what they are.

As for the yellowing ABS plastic I mentioned earlier.. looks like I'll be making a hydrogen peroxide + oxiclean solution to put under a UV lamp.. more on that later too.

NJRoadfan wrote:

That isn't a G3, someone rebadged a PowerMac 8600. It might have a G3 CPU card, but that looks a lot like the stock 604e card. They are easily upgraded to a G3/G4 though. A real Beige G3 has a 3 slot tower and a ZIF CPU socket.

You might be right. The guy told me G3.. but it does say 8600/300 on the front of the case. I haven't investigated much. Fine with me.. just means it's even more RETRO heh!

luckybob wrote:

If I squint, it looks like there is some sort of voodoo card in it! wow!

It looks like a V1 to be exact 😦

It looks like a V1 to be exact

It looks absolutely nothing like a V1, actually. That's an OrangePC card, probably a620. Which is a fucking awesome score.

The video card is an iXMicro 'Twin Turbo 128', which was stock for most 8600 machines. It's a decent 2D card, supports up to 1920x1200 out of the box, but there's no 3D capability at all. I had one in my PowerTower Pro, but swapped it out for a Radeon 7000.

Can't see much of the NIC, but it's probably just a regular 10/100 deal. That's a common upgrade, since the onboard NIC is only 10mbit.

I've always thought of getting a G3 or G4 Mac as a retro machine, but I'm just not sure what to do with it.

Are there any interesting exclusive games from that era that are worth playing?
Or ports of other titles that are different on the mac?

New pics are in.. and Old Thrashbarg wins the prize!! It's indeed a OrangePC 620 and the other is a iXMICRO Twin Turbo 9135-388.

So do I hook these together, like I would a Voodoo2?

I'm also curious.. would any PCI Radeon 7000 work? Or does it have to have some sort of Apple BIOS?

Would need an apple BIOS

http://www.mactalk.com.au/18/288-flashing-pc- … s-card-mac.html

Old Thrashbarg wrote:

It looks absolutely nothing like a V1, actually. That's an OrangePC card, probably a620. Which is a fucking awesome score. […]
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It looks like a V1 to be exact

It looks absolutely nothing like a V1, actually. That's an OrangePC card, probably a620. Which is a fucking awesome score.

The video card is an iXMicro 'Twin Turbo 128', which was stock for most 8600 machines. It's a decent 2D card, supports up to 1920x1200 out of the box, but there's no 3D capability at all. I had one in my PowerTower Pro, but swapped it out for a Radeon 7000.

Can't see much of the NIC, but it's probably just a regular 10/100 deal. That's a common upgrade, since the onboard NIC is only 10mbit.

Being an old dick again 🙄 That card was installed down at the bottom and the card I was looking at was immediately installed above it.

For the PCI Radeon 7000, you can flash a PC card with the Mac ROM, that's probably the cheapest route. To make a long story short, get a 32MB ATi OEM card... you need one that looks like this. Fortunately they're fairly common. There's also a variant with DVI, which you can use if you want DVI, but those cards are harder to find than the VGA-only ones. The reason you want an ATi OEM card is because they can be directly flashed with the Mac ROM, while most third-party cards either require additional steps or don't work at all.

I can't remember where I downloaded the ROM from... if you can't find it, lemme know and I'll send you a copy along with the flashing tools and such.

As for the OrangePC card, yeah, you basically hook it up like you would a Voodoo card. Of course you'll need the software and such to go with it, which seems to still be available here.

Being an old dick again Sly That card was installed down at the bottom and the card I was looking at was immediately installed above it.

And that card looks absolutely nothing like a Voodoo1 either. Hell, that card doesn't even have a VGA passthrough port on it.

OK someone is effin with me.. I found an <EMPTY> Radeon 7000 box at the thrift store this morning!! Actually, it had the manual and driver disc. It was standing up in the middle of a row of boxed software.

I hit 5 thrift stores today and not a damn thing!! Sometimes you have bad days.. today was one of them. 🙁

Yesterday was a GREAT day though!! I count my blessings. 😀