Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
LOL Oh yeah, never thought it was possible as I actually was using windows 95/98se and gaming through this period, but I had completely forgotten about that time in computing history before plug n play USB was a common
I didn’t even have any USB devices when I ran Win9x so it never mattered LOL.
Keyboard: PS/2
Mouse: PS/2
Joystick: Sound card
Microphone: Sound card
Speakers: Sound card
Modem: serial
PDA: serial
Printer: parallel
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: TheShortTimer
I didn’t even have any USB devices when I ran ‘98 so it never mattered LOL.
Keyboard: PS/2
Mouse: PS/2
Joystick: Sound card
Microphone: Sound card
Speakers: Sound card
Modem: serial
PDA: serial
Printer: parallel

The set-up on my Win 9x box was similar to yours: heck, I used pure DOS on that machine for a year before eventually (and under duress) adopting an MS-DOS 6.22/Win 9x configuration. :D

By the time I started getting into the USB ecosystem (2001/2002) I had moved on to W2K.

It wasn't till 2005 that I began to embrace USB and that was mainly under Win 9x - an arduous experience, on reflection. A year later saw me purchase my first Mac and my slow but sure road to Damascus began. :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Amethyst1
My first 95/98 experience was on my 486. 98 was pretty darn slow but you use whatcha got. When I discovered online 3d gaming (ie: Shogomad) I quickly scrounged together enough money to put together my first gaming AMD K6-2 550mhz box with 256mb PC133, IIRC a 6GB hard drive (might've been 8) and a TNT. Dont recall the lobo but it did have two USB1.1 ports.

I was an early-ish adopter of USB peripherals with my Logitech wingman gaming mouse (still have it). For those who are unfamiliar, there is a NIB unit here: 1999 Wingman Gaming mouse. IIRC my first USB drive of sorts was actually a external zip250 that I needed for college purchased in 98 for an html web dev class.Memory is kinda murky but I think that's right. I also picked up a USB scanner somewhere in there as well but I honestly cant recall where in that 1998-2000 time frame I exactly purchased it.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Amethyst1
So I'm working a bit on the second iMac. With it having an upgraded processor, I've upgraded the RAM, and want to see about putting versions of OS 10 on it, and how far I can push that. But before I started putting versions of 10 on, I figure I should make sure the firmware is up to date. I downloaded the firmware 1.2 for tray loader iMacs, which is a bin file that it can't open. It asks for carbonlib 1.6.0 or later.

So I downloaded an installer for carbonlib.

Which comes as a .bin file as well.

Which also asks for carbonlib 1.6.0 in order to open it.

I'm seeing things about stuffit expander - but I can't find an installer for that in any kind of sane or rational formatting. Disk image files that nothing does anything with. I did find an .iso, which I burned to CD-R, which my iMac doesn't know what to do with it.

None of this makes any sense to me. Used to be, you wanted to install something, you download an installer, and run it. How do I get any of this to work?
 
So I'm working a bit on the second iMac. With it having an upgraded processor, I've upgraded the RAM, and want to see about putting versions of OS 10 on it, and how far I can push that. But before I started putting versions of 10 on, I figure I should make sure the firmware is up to date. I downloaded the firmware 1.2 for tray loader iMacs, which is a bin file that it can't open. It asks for carbonlib 1.6.0 or later.

So I downloaded an installer for carbonlib.

Which comes as a .bin file as well.

Which also asks for carbonlib 1.6.0 in order to open it.

I'm seeing things about stuffit expander - but I can't find an installer for that in any kind of sane or rational formatting. Disk image files that nothing does anything with. I did find an .iso, which I burned to CD-R, which my iMac doesn't know what to do with it.

None of this makes any sense to me. Used to be, you wanted to install something, you download an installer, and run it. How do I get any of this to work?
Hi,
I know your frustration.
For all those problems with OS 9 installations, I have found that Stuffit Expander + Toast Titanium will serve all your needs. Both can be found on Macintosh Garden, and the files can be transferred to the iMac via any USB (formatted as Apple Partition Map in Disk Utility).
If you can, try to extract the Toast and Stuffit files to their simplest point on another Mac before transferring to the iMac, but I think it should be fine either way. I think I use Toast Titanium 5.02, and it just works. It mounts .iso files.
 
None of this makes any sense to me.

You're playing with outdated hardware and software. Pieces of needed software are all over the place. Some pieces are packaged in the format that old Mac OS doesn't readily understand because it's packaged for today's users to use their today's PC or Mac to write files that are needed to resurrect dead old Macs.

And you never have real experience dealing with the software (Mac OS) which you seem to dislike the last time you used it long ago. You must prepare for a lot of frustration.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: TheShortTimer
None of this makes any sense to me. Used to be, you wanted to install something, you download an installer, and run it. How do I get any of this to work?

The free, downloadable books that I linked to in my earlier post would help you make sense of how to get it all to work.
 
Haven't had a chance to go over this and try to find a way to open these files on the macs. But they are still working on OS9, without much that I can do on them for now, until I find some time for some more tinkering.

Took some time today to go over the spare CD-ROM tray drives - only 1 bad one in the batch, which seems to be a physical problem, once it opened it won't close again. Something jamming it. Might even be fixable - but I wasted enough time on these.

So I have 2 strawberry 3 tangerine and 2 lime spare tray CD-ROM drives that are confirmed working (did a full OS install from each drive). Not sure what the demand for these are, going rate, or best way to sell them to those that would need them. Searching ebay sold items, I can only find one that sold in Australia, and the original lot of 10 I bought, so I have no idea what the going rate is. But I'd love to sell them for a reasonable price, and get these in the right hands to help with any efforts out there of keeping these old machines going.
 
I'm not in Australia - the only ebay sold listing (to get an idea of what they sell for) I could find was from Australia. I'm in the US.
 
Ah my bad, sorry!
EBay may still be best, since it’s international, and for such a niche item, you may need to be willing to offer the parts worldwide.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.