Brand Spankin New Mac User, Brand Spankin Old iMac

K

KolorBlind

Registered
Hi everyone

I just received without a doubt the best EVER free item I have ever received in my life. A used, slightly upgraded Bondi Blue Rev.A 233mhz iMac.
I have always wanted a mac ever since I found out that my friends parents ran their business for like 9 years with an apple2 (i think its called) and never had any significant problems with it at all. Only problem, needless to say was money.
I have been a PC freak ever since then, getting real big into games there for a while, I was just suckered by all the available software, which turned out (sadly) to not be so available on a mac. So I have found my way around computers, building hundreds, repairing even more, and just plain geeking out on them for an ungodly amount of hours at a time. So needless to say, when I got my iMac home, plugged in the power, wireless keyb & mouse (which I couldn't get to install on my PC btw), sound, and lan cable, I was stunned to not only see that everything was working flawlessly as soon as it booted into the OS, but something was missing......all those *@#&^& driver windows, one after the next till you wanna pull your damn hair out.
See my PC's RAM got fried a couple weeks back and im in the process of upgrading/getting the POS to work again, lol. So now that I have this little beauty, the only thing Im even missing at all is Half-Life 2 which im not settin my hopes to high of running it on a 7 year old system.
But what I am curious about is just how much potential I have at my fingertips here. Here are the system specs as of today, now in about 4 days I will have another daughter card from a 333mHz iMac Rev.C (I believe) that I am told is totally interchangeable with my current daughter card, but here are the specs as they are now:

Bondi Blue iMac Rev.A
Mac OS X 10.3.9 (7W98)
-233mHz PowerPC 750 (2.2)
-256mb PC100 SO-DIMM (2 x 128mb)
-4mb VRAM (should be 6 I think, added 4 and shows up as 4 total, still workin on that)
-4GB HD (want to pop my 40GB Maxtor in as soon as my 160GB is here for my PC)
-Standard 24x CD-ROM (Tray Style)

So what Im pretty much wondering is how much fun can I have with this thing without spending more than It would be to buy a used 600mHz iMac or something to that affect. I would love to game on this iMac, but don't know how feasible that really is, or even what games to try looking into, what my limits and options are, etc. Just any way I can take advantage of the computer itself or just OSX in general, it is a fantastic Operating System.
I would love to find someone who has an oldy like this and has fattened it out a little bit, cuz I love the old look, gotta love that bondi blue, lol.
Well I believe I have typed enough for one post, im such a damn novelist sometimes my apologies. Thanks for anyone who red through the post, im really looking forward to getting into macs, I cant wait till I can afford a nice 1Ghz or better machine, they are really coming down in price recently.

Well again thanks everyone who read, im glad to finally be a part of the community and look very forward to talking with you all, please throw any suggestions, hints, tips, criticism, or whatever this way anytime, thanks!

See everyone Around
KolorBlind
 
Well the speed and processor of the iMac 10.3.9 is about the best OS X version to run on it. A Mac is a great computer and will love you if you love it back. What I am talking about is OS X preventative maintenance like Repairing Permissions. also OS X is based on Unix and Unix has many log files that have an automatic log file rotation script called cron that runs late at night. Apple even talks about it. Also since this is your first OS X machine I strongly suggest a manual book by David Pogue called Mac OS X: The Missing Manual. You will be surprised on how much you know after using this book.

Welcome to Mac world. You have stepped into the wider world of computing. Just remember this is not windows and keep a open mind of the difference of doing things. Good Luck.
 
As for gaming, you should look into shareware games. Most commercial games won't work on the 233 and even a 333MHz is too low. Very few games existed on the Mac platform when that machine was new and all the current games require much faster processors.

That being said, I found a lot of good shareware games on the Mac platform back then. The graphics were decent for the day (though will be outdated now). Try games made by the following companies: Spiderweb software, Freeverse, Ambrosia Software, Fantasoft and others. Many of the games are very good.
 
Try Lugaru (http://www.wolfire.com/lugaru.html). It says it needs a 400Mhz G3 but it runs fine on my PM G3 (a 350Mhz machine) and it's playable (though not at the best resolution!) on my sister's 233Mhz Rev.A iMac with less ram than yours.
Oh, and it kicks ass!
 
Tried downloading Lugaru, but when I hit the Mac Demo link it gives me an error page. I would love to try this on my work iMac 600 MHz....just to test, of course... ;)
 
You're a brave soul running OS X on the very first system that officially supports it (IIRC, the gray G3s haven't been supported in some time). If it were me, I'd go down to OS 9.1. But hey, if you find it usable, then go for it. I've never actually used OS X on such a system (I used it for years on a 450MHz iMac DV+).

You should definitely install 9.1, though. If you're looking for games, you should look for classic games made for Systems 7-9. A few of my favorites are:
Boogaloopers
Barrack
Bubble Trouble
Gridz
WarCraft 2
Myst
And then of course there are emulators. There's lots of fun to be had with MAME. :)

Some of these might run in Classic (if you want to use Classic, upgrade to OS 9.2.2, the latest). But personally I recommend booting into OS 9 if you want to play older games.
 
Thanks EVERYONE for your comments and suggestions, I have bookmarked some sites and taken notes as well.
As far as installing OS 9, would I need to upgrade the hard drive first? Its only a 4GB and I only have 2.25GB free. I was also curious about the motherboard, will only motherboards from iMac Rev.A - Rev.D fit into my mac? If so I think Ill stop upgrading this one, maybe take it back to ONLY OS 9 and save for a used 600-700mHz iMac. I assume the towers are probably more "upgradable" so to speak, than the iMacs, but not sure on that one either, plus I love the compact all-in-one system you get with the iMacs.
Well thanks again everyone for all the help and info, please keep hittin me with any info that I might find useful, I appreciate every bit of it.

Thanks Again
KolorBlind
 
I doubt you'd need to upgrade the hard drive for OS9. I just checked my installation of it and it uses less than 400mb including the basic applications. I also wouldn't worry too much about upgrading it, as I'm sure you'll still be able to get a lot of use out of it even on a 233mhz G3 processor. It may not be a workhorse, but it'll still work nicely as a music / office / web surfing / email machine.

Instead of spending cash on upgrades, I'd save your money towards a later one, such as an iMac G3-600 or if you can manage it a G4 iMac. Then, your Bondi can go into an alcove in the kitchen or lounge, rumpus room or workshop and be networked to the newer one. With the ability to share files, printers, music and Internet between the two, you'll find you can get a lot more use out of the old one.
 
Kolor Blind,
Use the Bondi Blue as a web surfing/e-mail machine.
It will be all you need for that.
In the meantime..
Save your bucks up for a good used g4 machine.
Check out www.lowendmac,com .
Look at their list of Used Mac Dealers .
There are some great deals , and some not so great ones there.
You'll get more productivity from a G4 .
Welcome to the club!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top