My First Mac

From Plus to Power Mac

Jsteel2001 - 2001.01.30

The first Mac I ever used was my mother's computer. It was a Mac Plus that my grandfather gave her in 1992 after we moved to Florida. My mother had specifically told us that the computer was for work only, not for playing games. Yeah, right,we know how long that lasted.

My absolute favorite game of all time (still today) is Stuntcopter. I loved playing that game on the little Mac Plus. My favorite thing was drop the guy on the horse - but I digress. My mother used that computer faithfully for a few years, and then she bought a Quadra 605 when it first came out. Again, this was a business computer, not a toy. Ha ha. One year we got a SupraExpress 33.6 modem and AOL 2.5. We were on the Net! That is when I realized how incredibly slow it was compared to my friends' computers. The Quadra 605 and I had a love/hate relationship.

When my mom bought a Compaq in 1998, she gave me the 605. I customized and upgraded that thing as much as I could (short of a PPC upgrade), and I ran System 7.5.3 when Apple released it for free from their site. Unfortunately, the monitor died (a rather odd occurrence), but we did have an old PC VGA monitor, so I got an adapter for that and plugged it in.

My friend, Karen, who owns a Performa 6360, made fun of my computer and called me "Little Quadra Boy." Needless to say, when her computer was zapped by lightning and became the world's biggest beige paperweight, I was the first to laugh.

I used that Quadra 605 all the way up until 1999, when I accidentally killed it by turning the computer around - and the monitor adapter sticking out the back hit the wall and cracked the motherboard. Oops.

I was "Macless" for a while, but my school was getting rid of an LC II, so I managed to get it. I just liked having it in the room, and sometimes I turned it on and played with the icons.

My mom's office's art department was getting rid of their computers, so my mom managed to get me one of them. It was a Performa 637CD. I loved it! It was the first Mac I ever owned with a CD-ROM. It was also faster than my Quadra 605 (R.I.P.).

I upgraded the Perform to OS 8 and maxed out the RAM. It had Photoshop 3 on it, so I was particularly happy. I gave it to my sister for Christmas and purchased a Performa 6115CD for my little brother off eBay (I love eBay!). I also purchased a Quadra 700 and a Performa 6360 for myself.

I'm using the 700 until my 6360 comes in, but I'm still sorting through the mess the previous owner left on the hard drive.

Now for the fun part. In 1999, the school yearbook teacher switched over to using desktop publishing for the yearbook and bought three new 450 MHz G4s (YIPPEE!!!). She needed some guidance, though. That's where I came in. I became the "Technical Editor" (the guy they call out of class when they accidentally kick a power cord out and can't figure out what they did). I also had to network the following (in a "creative" way): three G4s, two 7200/120s, six 5500/225s, a HP LaserJet 4MP, and a StyleWriter II (the same kind I use at home for all my printing needs; it's my favorite). I now "run" the yearbook computer lab, which is pretty cool.