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Macintosh 2004 Case Mod

Posted by timothy on from the sincerest-form-of-modding dept.

NOTD665 writes "'On January 24 [1984], Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you'll see why 1984 won't be like "1984."' This was the pronouncement at the end of Apple's commercial, which TV Guide magazine would later deem the greatest commercial of all time. Aired during the 1983 Super Bowl, the now famous Apple Macintosh '1984' commercial informed the world that the age of modern, home PCs was coming. Get ready. Here comes the Mac... Finally, one fateful day in December, the Mac's slumber was awoken yet again. It was time for the Mac to be reborn." Too bad it doesn't run Mac OS X.

9 of 378 comments (clear)

  1. A bit perverse, but cool by ScottSpeaks! · · Score: 4, Insightful
    OK, let's skip all the "Why would he waste all his time converting his Mac into a Windows PC? He needs to get a life!" comments and go straight to the "Wow, that's a cool piece of work!" remarks. It is. Beats my gradual conversion of similar-vintage PCs Limited Turbo XT into a Pentium/150 Linux web server, hands down.

    Still, I'd give him more points if A) he'd instead transplanted the guts of an iLamp, an iBook, or a MacCube into it, so it would still be a Mac, and/or B) found an LCD to mount in place of the window.

    And to be honest, if I ever get the nerve to eviscerate my Mac SE, I think I'd rather turn it into an aquarium.

    1. Re:A bit perverse, but cool by Omega996 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      so why did you put PC parts in it again? I'm not making the link here...

    2. Re:A bit perverse, but cool by ScottSpeaks! · · Score: 4, Insightful
      that statement makes exactly zero sense.

      I've been thinking about it, and it makes a bit more sense if you forget about the branding and platform identity. What he did was to take the case of the first "modern home PC" (which by his definition happens to be the original Apple Macintosh, and yeah he got the wrong model) and update into a current "modern home PC". It may not be a direct descent, but a WinXP system is one of the heirs of Macintosh.

      His mistake was to emphasize the Apple logo in his updated version, which may honor the company that made the first, but misidentifies the theme of his current construction.

  2. weak by seanadams.com · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is a really weak case mod. Step 1: find square box. step 2: stuff a pc in said square box.

    It would have been interesting if it had incorporated some kind of technical/artistic/nostalgic trick. For example: using modern mac parts (g4 cube maybe) and fitting a new display in place of the original. Or better yet, figure out how to get the old display working on a new machine. Or neatly fit new connectors (usb, firewire, ethernet) in place of the old, etc. This is just a motherboard in a different box - there is nothing interesting or clever about it.

    1. Re:weak by twitter · · Score: 4, Insightful
      Agreed. It would have been better had they crammed a LCD into it. The whole point of the original was that it was easy to use and lug around. Additionally, the addition of the DVD was pointless without a screen and not really much use with one. A network card is all you need to get useful infomration on and off any computer, why screw up a face for a soon to be obsolete media? It would have looked much nicer with a screen. A picture of the sigs on the back of the empty box would hae made the perfect wallpaper for a computer that could stand on it's own again. If the built in screen is too small to be usefull, run an X server and tie into it with another computer that has a reasonable screen.

      Of course, it's not too late for them to do something like that. The disk drive bay is gone forever, but they could rig up a screen.

      --

      Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.

  3. Re:Sacrilege! by adrianbaugh · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Not only that, but the finished project looks butt-ugly too.

    It would have been far cooler if he'd fitted a TFT screen instead of his window. Come to think of it, it would have been better all round if he'd got a modern mac, taken it apart and fitted the gubbins inside the old case.

    --
    "'I pass the test,' she said. 'I will diminish, and go into the West, and remain Galadriel.'"
    - JRR Tolkien.
  4. Re:Original hardware... by gobbo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I have a 512ke right here. Have thought about modding it several times over the years, especially when the kids convinced me to buy a fish ;-)

    I can't bring myself to do it. It boots in 17 seconds (System 1) and runs MS Word v.3 (hanging indents, columns, drop caps, woo!) offa one floppy - documents go on the other. The other system disk I have has Daleks and Kidpix on it. It doesn't crash, feels faster than it should. Dammit, it's still getting used, 19 years later! The desktop gui really hasn't changed all that much. My concern is the longevity of the few remaining 800k floppies I've scrounged.

    I can get it networked via LocalTalk with some hijinks and a System 4 disk I have buried somewhere. Rest assured that if I do find webserving software that'll run on it, I won't tell /. the URL. Any webserver suggestions for system 4, oldtimers?

    --
    Damn those pesky terrorists
  5. Re:Sacrilege! by lindsayt · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Right on. When I saw the headline on slashdot, I expected somebody had disassembled perhaps an iMac G4 (little round motherboard) and packed it inside the old case, with a small tft screen. Now *that* would be kewl. This, this is just butt-ugly and pointless:

    (1) It uses the all-in-one computer as just a simple case;

    (2) It cuts big ugly holes not just in the back (where it's acceptable) but in the front as well, where it destroys the look;

    and

    (3) It's *NOT A MAC*!!!!!

    I mean, okay, I might forgive them if they at least had something like Executor running a MacOS in full-screen mode within their PC hardware, but even that would be pretty big stretch.

    Really lame, I wish I hadn't wasted my time reading about it. This is the moral equivalent of taking a 1984 Honda Accord and packing the engine and transmission from a 2004 Kia Rio into it - pointless in all aspects.

    --
    I did not design this game/I did not name the stakes/I just happen to like apples/And I am not afraid of snakes-AniD
  6. Re:Sacrilege! by Awptimus+Prime · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It would have been far cooler if he'd fitted a TFT screen instead of his window.

    That's what I expected to see when I began my downward scroll towards the final product.

    I don't really think this case mod deserves a /. headline, personally. It doesn't look very good, but that is my opinion.

    My system looks almost like a G4 with the aluminum case and G4 keyboard. Perhaps I could take some pictures, talk about how I spent 4 hours making a bezel and get slashdotted..

    Speaking of which.. 4 hours to make a custom bezel?! My god man. I think a paraplegic could do it faster. I did a plastic one in less than an hour with a dremel and plastic cement. Looked perfect. I used a dremel to cut an aluminum one for the last game system in about 45 minutes. Maybe he was high? No, I was high when I did both of mine. Hmm