[RndTbl] sad Mac

[Mike Pfaiffer]

Dan Martin wrote:
> I have a Mac plus and a number of accessories for it, including a  
> printer and 2 external hard drives.

	I have one as well. It's still useful for playing old games. A number 
of companies have released their games free to download on the web. The 
key is finding it.

	The printer and the hard drives will be difficult to use on anything 
but an Apple// or Mac of the same era.

> The Mac video display will usually not come on, though sometimes it  
> will if left to run for a few minutes - I understand this is a common  
> and easily fixed problem for those who knew the Mac, but I really  
> don't have the room or use for it any more.

	Others have addressed the issue. I will confirm I had the same work 
done by a friend who may or may not be in Winnipeg anymore. It works.

> I do have some sensitive information on the external drives.  Is there  
> a reliable way to guarantee the info is erased without destroying the  
> drives?

	With old drives you could fill up the drive with a large file then 
reformat a number of times. I think the number was between 10 and 13. If 
you want the info backed up, I did at one point have a minimal security 
rating from the federal and provincial governments (it lapsed).

> The ideal solution for me, if such a thing exists, would be to run an  
> emulator in a modern machine (Mac, PC or Linux running on Intel), that  
> would be able to access the old drives through hardware that connects  
> the old attachments to USB.  Emulators may be available, but I don't  
> know about the hardware.

	There *is* a 68K Mac emulator available for Linux you can download. The 
people I talked with say it works. Again, they use it mostly for the old 
games so YMMV.

> I also have a Commodore 64 with external hardware that I would like to  
> emulate.

	There is quite a bit of development in the Commodore 64/128 world these 
days. So much so it is crossing over into the Apple// world. You my want 
to take a gander at the appropriate newsgroups for a couple of weeks. 
Additionally I suspect there is a C128 emulator available for download 
as well. I mean if they can do the 68K Mac and Apple// then they can 
certainly do the C64.

> I also have a crowbar and a sledge hammer, but a more elegant approach  
> is preferred.

	If nothing else the Mac can be used as a fish tank. Several people have 
discussed how they did it... Might be fun to scrap the insides, replace 
the monitor part with something new, and have a Soecris machine running 
the 68K emulator...

> -Dan
> 
> Dan Martin
> GP Hospital Practitioner
> Computer Scientist
> ummar143 at shaw.ca
> (204) 831-1746
> answering machine always on

				Later
				Mike