Welcome to MARCHintosh 2021!
Like DOScember and SEPTandy, the Macintosh now has its own time in the spotlight: MARCHintosh. Throughout March, content creators across various platforms will be producing content of classic 68k and PowerPC-powered Macintosh computers and their software and accessories, from the 1984 Macintosh 128k to the last PowerPC-based PowerMacintosh G5 computers.
During MARCHintosh, I plan to release weekly posts looking at vintage Macintosh software genres and seeing what you can do with a 68000-powered Mac. (More on that later.) The posts will be released every Monday at noon.
Since my MARCHintosh posts will focus on multiple applications, they may be lengthy.
Hardware
Instead of switching out my Macs weekly like usual, I plan to do things a little different for MARCHintosh 2021.
For MARCHintosh, I will strictly be using my stock 1988 Macintosh SE. It’s a dual-floppy model with the stock 800k/double-density drives, the stock Motorola 68000 @ 8 MHz, and a whopping 1 MB of memory.
I will be slightly cheating on storage since I will be using a FloppyEmu in HD-20 emulation mode to access applications and transfer files between the SE and my modern MacBook Pro. However, don’t worry. In terms of writing posts, the SE will be doing the brunt of the work as it will also be responsible for exporting the Word 4.0 file to a RTF file that TextEdit and modern Word can read on my MacBook.
My stock 1988 Macintosh SE is completely stock – no work has been done on it, yet. I still need to recap it – something I plan on doing sometime in the near future. While I can see other vintage computer enthusiasts cringe while I say this, the original Varta PRAM battery is still installed and – most interestingly – still keeps time and date perfectly.
My MARCHintosh 2021 submissions will be focused on seeing what you can accomplish with a 68000-powered compact Mac that has only 1 MB of memory installed. Surprisingly (or not), you can do more than many would expect.
System Software
I run System 6.0.8 on the stock 1988 Macintosh SE. System 6 runs comfortably on compact and 68000-powered Macs. With 1 MB of memory installed, System 6 is the newest operating system you can run. (System 7 requires at least 2 MB of RAM.)
System 6 introduced the ability to create macros, and improved the MultiFinder tool used for multitasking. (System 7, introduced in 1991, dropped MultiFinder as System 7 handled multitasking natively.)
While System 6.0.8 itself was released in May 1991 (less than two weeks after my 1991 Macintosh Classic – which runs System 6.0.7 – was made), System 6 iterations were released between April 1988 and March 1992. (System 6.0.8 was released alongside System 7.0, the then-much-awaited upgrade to the Macintosh operating system.)
I am super excited to begin creating content for MARCHintosh 2021. I am also excited to see what fellow Macintosh enthusiasts create this month – be sure to follow #MARCHintosh on your favorite social media and content publication platforms to see what others are sharing. (I will also be trying to retweet content by others on my Twitter at @gfuller_blog.)
In addition to my planned MARCHintosh content – I will also be creating miscellaneous Macintosh-related, and unrelated, content throughout the month. (Spoiler: I’m starting a “restoration” project soon!)
#MARCHintosh Event Logo concept and design by Javier Rivera | YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC550QsLjbk-zxUv4u717EJQ | Twitter: @javierivera