Seeking Mac G3 software
 

Setting eBay aside, what's a good retail resource for software that'll run on a 350MHz G3 iMac?

(Three guesses what I picked up on the cheap today.)

anything?
Well, probably not Final Cut Pro HD but as long as you've got OSX you'll find all the normal stuff including office will run just fine, I set up one recently for a friend.

It's running OS 9.1 for now. It's a 64MB RAM iMac, so at the very least I'd want to put more RAM in it before attempting OS X, and probably a bigger HD as well.

all depends what you want it for, yea 128 or ideally 256 would be a good idea but it'll run with 128.

VSP,

Bundy Computers on 18th and Chestnut in Philadelphia for some older mac SW,
www.hardcoremac.com for some online,
and Springboard Media at 22nd and Walnut in Philadelphia for a very large Mac SW selection.

It's here, it works, and it is in fact a Grape 333MHz Rev.D iMac. Seems fine so far, even if a ton of software I'm looking at (including Firefox) requires OS X. Time to dig up some bigger SODIMMs.

VSP, you can get up to 288MB into it
 

VSP,

My fiancee has the "Strawberry" rev of that iMac. It'll take up to a 256MB SODIMM in the memory slot, giving you 288MB.

It also has a 6GB or so drive. Panther installed fine on it and worked. Tiger needs firewire, which yours does not have.

In other words, you can get the basics to run on it :).

Mitch

Panther would do nicely, from what I'm reading. It has 9.1 on it right now, and I downloaded the 9.2.1 and 9.2.2 upgrades from Apple's site. (Thankfully, I can go PC -> CDR -> iMac with little difficulty.) If I go from 9.2.2 to Panther, do I need an Upgrade or a Full Install disc for that?

I'm looking into memory now. From what I've found, the 333 MHz Rev.Ds can be finicky about memory; some like 256MB SODIMMS, some don't. Regardless, just about everything that looks like it'd be fun requires some flavor of OSX.

You guys should ask tw for some help. He's da man on this kind of stuff.

Networking question:

I have an Athlon 1300 running 98SE, the aforementioned iMac currently running OS 9, and a Verizon ADSL connection. If I plug my DSL modem into either computer, it connects to the account just fine. Obviously, though, I would like to have both connected at once, wirelessly if possible.

Anyone have experiences with router/adapter brands that worked (or didn't) cross-platform specifically? I have a reasonable belief that most router brands will work well enough cabled with this setup, but I don't want to drop a lot of cash on a USB adaptor and find out that it's not compatible.

(This model of iMac does not have an AirPort slot.)

Also, will the router allow the Athlon and iMac to see each other's files, or do I need additional hardware for that? (I'm sure that tinkering on the software level will be required.)

The protocols at that level should have nothing to do with platforms....

vsp,

I had good success with what I believe were Samsung SODIMMs with that rev of iMac. I say that only because I have a 333Mhz one running with 288MB.

You can upgrade from 9.2.2 to 10.3. I did a similar upgrade on my mother's iBook (from 10.1, but she kept it booted into Classic mode aka 9.2). Your Desktop items will be in the root Desktop directory, but it will work.

About routers...I've had no issues with my Powerbook on Linksys, Netgear, D-Link, and SMC routers :). As long as it serves up DHCP, your Mac will work. Especially if it runs OS X.

Mitch

A 256MB SODIMM is on its way. Fingers crossed. Putting Panther on a 6GB HD may be a bit cramped, but this'll at least make it possible.

External USB CDRW also on its way, on the cheap via eBay. It won't burn fast over a USB 1.1 connection, but it should at least work and that's all I need for it to do.

And Battle-Girl justifies the purchase in and of itself.

If I want to play Chiral, I need Classic.

Okay, so a basic router will work. How about wireless USB adapters? I see dozens of them on eBay that are Windows-compatible, but very few that will play nice with Macs, let alone OS 9 Macs.

USB Wireless adapters...apparently that rev of iMac doesn't have the ability to use them.

However, something like: http://www.smalldog.com/product/33628

would work just fine.

Panther will take up about 2GB of that hard drive.

Mitch

I've found the "Classic" function to be buggy and unusable. I always have to partition the drive and have two complete OS installs.

Two caveats to that: (1) I do not have a 9.x install disc for reinstallation purposes and (2) my existing drive is 6 GB, so repartitioning could cause serious space problems.

It's running 9.2.2 now, at least. The installers were bombing until I figured out that I needed to download a newer version of Stuffit Expander.

Well, there are <a href=http://www.macwireless.com/html/products/11g_11b_cards/11bUSB.html> this</a> and <a href="http://cgi.ebay.com/MacWireless-USB-to-802-11b-Adapter-MAC-Apple-NEW_W0QQitemZ5820513585QQcategoryZ80061QQssPageNameZWD1VQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem">this</a>, among others. I'm just itchy about dropping $70 on such a solution.

And now I've seen it all. One of the OS 9 games I tracked down that looked interesting was Airburst, a novel 360-degree take on Warlords. Ten bucks to register to unlock most of the content, sounded good to me, so I went to the website... and found that the game had been replaced by its successor, Airburst Extreme, which requires OS X, 256MB RAM and a faster processor than I have. Registration links pointed to Freeverse Software, which no longer offered Airburst as an option.

I _wrote to the author_, saying "Hi, I would LIKE TO SEND YOU MONEY in return for a registration code." He wrote back saying "No can do, you'll have to buy the new version to unlock the original or track down a compilation disc."

I would like to repeat this for emphasis. A shareware author _turned down_ the opportunity to have someone register his product and give him money in return.

Hah?

Hail eBay; I picked up one of these for $20 today. We'll see how well it works once my router arrives as well.

That's awesome. If I ever get (or make) a PVR, that could be handy.

I got my 256MB SODIMM in the mail today, opened the system carefully according to Apple's instructions, installed the memory, closed up shop and rebooted.

Started out fine. It loaded right up, showed 320MB (256 Top, 64 Bottom), and ran all right.

Then the crashes started. Sometimes it would lock up on startup with Address Errors or Quicktime Instruction Errors. Sometimes it would load, I'd run certain programs and be fine, and others would screw up. Eventually it got to where every reboot had an error.

I opened it up, took the new RAM out, and rebooted; it seemed to stabilize things.

DAMN. I really wanted extra RAM in this sucker to let me run OS X. Might I have one of the Rev.Ds that can't handle 256MB SODIMMs, might I have inadvertantly fried the RAM despite being careful, or do I need to tweak things in OS 9.2.2 to account for the change in hardware?

Actually, it _might_ be the firmware; I'm reading that 256MB modules may require the 1.2 firmware upgrade.

Now how do I tell what firmware is already installed on this sucker?

EDIT: Booted into Open Firmware, I see 3.0f2 from April 1999, which is apparently the latest available for this model (1.2). Shit.

could be just a dodgy stick of ram....

On the plus side, the seller has offered to send a replacement of a different brand, and the wireless bridge works perfectly. I'm typing this from the iMac with the transceivers 15 feet apart. Just need a router now.

Hurrah, the router AND the replacement RAM worked. iMac now has 320MB RAM (time to dig up Panther) and the two are sharing the DSL connection nicely.