PTherapist wrote:Decided to try and give my Mac Mini G4 1.25GHz some purpose, so I installed Mac OS 9.2.2 onto it via the custom setup CD that's […]
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Decided to try and give my Mac Mini G4 1.25GHz some purpose, so I installed Mac OS 9.2.2 onto it via the custom setup CD that's available.
Wow, Mac OS 9 positively flies on this thing! 😲
It's now my fastest classic Mac OS system. Only running on the stock 512MB RAM too, which appears to be more than enough for OS 9.
This Mac Mini is the only G4 Mac I own, as such I've never experienced Mac OS 9 running on G4 hardware before, so it feels insanely fast to me, especially when compared with the OS that originally came with it - Mac OS X 10.3 Panther.
Now to start installing & playing some games. In the past it was never particularly great for playing classic Mac OS games, as it's limited hardware was compounded by the limitations of Classic Environment in Mac OS X. Running OS 9 natively is so much nicer and should make this Mini a lot more fun to use.
OS 9 on a 1+ GHz G4 and a Radeon 9200, like in my MDDs, feels wonderfully responsive (cooperative multitasking notwithstanding, such a shame that it took Apple so long to catch up to the Amiga there), and it'll pretty much manhandle any OS 9-era game you throw at it. Why not try Unreal Tournament or Deus Ex on for size? First-gen Unreal Engine loves fast CPUs like that, x86 and PowerPC alike.
The only drawback is the lack of ADB for Thrustmaster FCS joysticks, if you're getting into pre-InputSprocket flight sims (Flying Nightmares, A-10 Attack!/Cuba!), but other than that, a USB stick and USB Overdrive might do the trick.
brostenen wrote:If the 4000 has the same circuit as an 1200, when dealing with the sound. Then I know there are a fix-it-up video on YouTube, featuring a 1200, with nearly the same symptoms that you describe. Perhaps it is worth having a look at that video.
Oh, I can find Amiga 1200 videos all day on the subject, but finding Amiga 4000 videos is another matter entirely. Makes sense when the A1200's the affordable home computer and the A4000's the big box expensive workstation, but it makes things a bit confusing when they're referencing different labels from what I see on the A4000 board.
The other troublesome part is that most of the videos mention heavily distorted or no audio on one or both channels, which is not the failure I have here. The OPAMPs in the audio circuit seem fine voltage-wise, but measuring from the respective channel capacitor pads to the resistors just before the RCA outputs shows a couple ohms more resistance on the right one than the left one.
Even so, that doesn't explain why both jacks are outputting the same two channels instead of two different channels each, as designed. It's driving me a bit crazy, since that's the only problem left with this A4000 that I can find. It works just fine otherwise, even if Gloom and Alien Breed 3D (II) are demanding me to get a 68060 or a Vampire.
TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:They are money drains. I see classic computers like classic cars. The money you put into them you will never ever get back out.
Depends on what classic computers you're pursuing. If it's commodity IBM-compatible PC hardware, you can forget about potentially getting your money back, unless you have some really sought-after sound or graphics cards.
Macs don't fare much better either, except for a select few models like the original 128k/512k, SE/30, Color Classic, and IIfx, possibly 9600, MDD G4 and quad G5 on the PowerPC side of things, and most of those models are either historical or just really nostalgic to the community. Even so, they sold enough of them that they're not too hard to find, and prices are low to maybe a few hundred dollars.
Amigas and X68000s, on the other hand? You'll be paying crazy money to get into those, unless you just luck into meeting the right person locally like I did, but rest assured, you won't have any trouble reselling it all if you get bored, and even stand to make some mad profit if you make non-working systems work again.
I've seen A4000Ts (without keyboard, mouse and monitor, even) and 68060/PowerPC accelerators sell for over $1,000 on eBay recently, as well as a US NTSC Escom A1200 Magic Pack that was new in box. CD32s sell for around $400, Neo-Geo AES levels of pricing. X68000s are harder to gauge, but probably around $700-800 for an XVI, going by what friends told me.
Unfortunately, this sort of takes the fun out of the hobby for me, because half of the appeal for setting up retro computers was that you could do it for dirt cheap. Not so in recent years; Amiga and X68000 aside, the prices on 3dfx cards have skyrocketed, I'm pretty sure the same happened to Gravis Ultrasound cards even earlier than that, and for all I know, ISA Sound Blasters are following suit. My boxed AWE32 CT2760 certainly wasn't cheap.
