Racintosh Plus – Rackmount Mac Plus

I lost my beloved Mac Plus, the computer that made me become a programmer, because of COVID.

Shortly before COVID hit, I fired it up to see if it still worked, and within like a minute, a certain capacitor (that is a common and well-known failure point) fried, and it was dead. I brought it to a computer repair store to fix, and then COVID and its lockdowns hit.

When I returned months later to see what was up after my phone calls weren't returned, turns out the whole place had shut down and I to this day have no idea where my Mac Plus went. :/

They had me at "4 months of work just to make a stupid pun."

Brilliant. Got my old Macintosh Plus out a few months ago and flipped it on and unfortunately that let out some of the “magic smoke” that keeps all electronics running. I think it’s an electrolytic cap that blew. Just too old. Will have to find time to refurb it.

It's crucial to label, in large, letters, "BUTTONS" and "MICRO-SD SLOT", in case you forget later.

I've preserved a number of machines by building them in to rackmount cases. It never occurred to me to make a faux product out of them. This is amazing! The graphics and detail are wonderful.

Oh fun memories! "Crystal Quest" and "Beyond Dark Castle", which I played on an SE are still some of my favorite games.

No...no Programmer switch.

Close, they wired the Reset button!

But, no Programmer switch.

It's very hard to contain my disappointment. Bridge too far I guess.

I wish I still had my Mac Plus. Upgraded from a 512Ke, 40Mb drive, and a Radius 020 accelerator with 68881. Still limited to 4Mb, And I ran 7.0.1 and 6.0.8. Any testing with The two screen panning programs? Stepping out II? I played Spaceward Ho! to death on it.

Reminds me very much of my college project where my roommates and I repackaged a Commodore 64 into an IBM PC form factor, complete with external keyboard.

Difficulty: College was in a town without a Radio Shack, and none of us had cars.

I love this so much. Space saved, hardware hackage, and improved with modern substitutes.

I kinda wished it had a panoply of external SCSI devices like a floppy drive, a CD ROM, and a ZIP drive (needs driver v.4.2 ) for good measure.

Naming it Racintosh instead of Rackintosh is... Definitely one of the decisions of all time