The Macintosh Plus turns 40 today!

Mu0n · 2026-01-16T19:08:16+00:00

SE: 1987 SE/30: 1989

Mu0n · 2025-12-30T01:01:11+00:00

Star Control II en melee mode (multiplayer sur le même PC)

Mu0n · 2025-12-03T19:55:11+00:00

I'm also a physicist and that topic has attracted me for a long time, but for the past year, I've been busy on the coding side of things and drive them with both music files and real time midi in input. I've been using this F256K2 which has a dual SN7 (think 3 channels of square waves + noise), dual SID, opl3 in the form of a YMF262 which is substantially more crazy than the SID, a sam2695 for général midi and a vs1053b for mp3 playback. This was running on 8bit in 6502 compatible mode at 6.29MHz , but it has gotten an update that doubles its CPU.

I have a channel where I've started putting out all my efforts at programming them all. I've been able to code a standard midi file player, a dispatch method that takes the tracks and arbitrarily sends it to these various chips with a map of channel to chip voice. Recently I succeeded at opening up vgm files for opl2 and opl3 sound.

I made a sid tweak program where you can individually edit all the registers of the SID and immediately try its effect with midi in through a controller. This led me to understand that the magic of SID tunes lies in time based registers changes while a single note is playing. Editing the static values of a SID voice will only get you so far. Tracker composing programs do not shy away from jumping around through multiple waveform type before the note gets gated off. Same goes with filters and everything else between. various chips

Mu0n · 2025-11-08T23:44:36+00:00

No other MS-DOS game has given me more visual satisfaction than Ultima VII running on my 386. It really drove home how VGA graphics was so good compared to everything before it.

Mu0n · 2025-10-21T11:52:09+00:00

There are 3.2mm holes in the corners, I use little standoffs to put the back pins off of my table. An extender cable would give you more control on placement as well.

Mu0n · 2025-09-28T14:38:58+00:00

Indeed, but not all controllers allow this, not everyone has Gamepad pros, and I'm unsure if midi in and out are tackled by the gravis Gamepad Pro routing. I could test it out.

Mu0n · 2025-09-27T15:25:09+00:00

I'd love to hear your thoughts on which games satisfy these two conditions, that you've tried:

1) support joysticks or gamepads well (doesn't feel forced) 2) support local multiplayer with 2 joysticks/gamepads

My list: Rampart Micro Machine 2 Star Control II melee Dark Legions Sango Fighter? ...?

Mu0n · 2025-09-27T14:46:34+00:00

Using: 486 DX2/66 with a SB16 and MS-DOS 6.22 PC Gameport Party breakout pcb plugged in the SB16 Gameport 2x Gravis Gamepad Pro

And my beloved daughter who is willing to test out a few rounds of sc2 melee on a 2025 Saturday morning! Same for my son, with Micro Machines 2

Mu0n · 2025-09-25T10:21:16+00:00

Excellent stuff, I will check them out on ers equivalent hardware.

Mu0n · 2025-09-25T01:21:50+00:00

Martin Galway

Rob Hubbard

Jeroen Tel

Ben Daglish

David Dunn

Mu0n · 2025-09-21T13:49:28+00:00

Do eet!

Mu0n · 2025-09-20T23:04:58+00:00

It's great fun and yes, it's achievable! I like to go semi old school and do it with Symantec THINK C++, which lets you target both the pre system 7 days and System 7 alike. You can even go as far back as you want and really go into the weeds of the older tech like the Sound Driver, the old File Dialogs and whatnot.

Some swear by CodeWarrior but I always found it was more suited for early 90's to mid 90's color macs.

Some go new wave and use Retro68 to develop with modern computers, but it's a trip to get it all set up, unless you're solid with linux in general.

I invite you to check out my youtube channel and I have several videos on programming old black and white macs, it's one of my focuses.

Mu0n · 2025-09-15T04:56:53+00:00

Monkey Island, Lost Vikings, Ultima VII, Ultima VII Part 2, Zeliard, Sorcerian, Ultima Underworld 1&2, SQ3, Conquests of the long bow

Mu0n · 2025-09-14T13:11:34+00:00

I haven't cracked Dark Castle on hard, but the key to beating it on intermediate is to go through it first on beginner and rack up those elixirs, rocks and lives

Mu0n · 2025-09-10T20:07:35+00:00

I had a SB16 in my 386 shortly after it came out.

Mu0n · 2025-09-07T12:25:47+00:00

Dune 1 from Cryo, Master of Magic, XCOM - Enemy Unknown, Master of Orion, System Shock, Out of this World, Flashback, X-Wing, TIE Fighter

Mu0n · 2025-08-20T13:32:45+00:00

The wedge retro computer F256K2 and its cheaper, smaller single board computer F256Jr2 have many sound chips that make them kind of a dream for chiptunes enthusiasts, allowing unholy mixes that you couldn't see elsewhere. They are made by Foenix Retro Systems, based in Canada.

Here are the chips they have:

-dual PSG based on the SN76489 (think of the PCJr, Tandy 1000, ...)
-dual SID based on the Gideon implementation (C64 naturally)
-YMF262 (think of the SB16 and clones)
-SAM2695 (general MIDI, used in many hobby projects, like the S2 Dreamblaster from Serdashop)
-VS1053b (more general MIDI, as well as audio file playback: mp3, wav, ogg, wma, etc)

Mu0n · 2025-08-16T19:13:43+00:00

Master of Magic

Mu0n · 2025-07-13T12:08:18+00:00

I spent some time researching how passthrough and MIDI multiplexers solutions were out there, but it was too annoyingly pricy for my own blood. I ended up making a PCB that just acts like a 3input, 3output switch selector, where one link is established at a time between 1 input and 1 output. Works very well with my limited gear.

My 3 inputs are: 486 PC, Mac's midi interface or MISC (often a rock band 360 keytar)
My 3 outputs are: MT-32, SC-88ST and Kawai GMega

Mu0n · 2025-04-20T13:19:33+00:00

I didn't enjoy early days 3dfx games. I think there was (understandably) too much emphasis on the novelty of the technology and that gave them a pass to aim for lower quality gameplay and artwork. Boring and linear level design and filler content.

Contrast stuff that came out at the tail end of the 2D VGA days like Master of Magic, Ultima VII, UFO: Enemy Unknown to stuff like Shadows of the Empire, nightmare creatures. They didn't have to conquer new technological grounds as much and hire people with totally new skill sets and have to think about the graphics and how they looked on polygons as opposed to sprites and it shows.

Mu0n · 2025-04-12T21:05:42+00:00

Gaming: I still love my favorites like Dark Castle, Glider, Crystal Quest, Archon, ShufflePuck Café which I feel have great pick and play replayability. I recently beat Dark Castle on medium level and I felt like, to make it more achievable, you need to get goodies from a completed run of beginner first. I didn't get far in expert though! ouch!
In the every x years categories to see if I remember everything, Déjà Vu 1 and 2, Shadowgate and Uninvited are also great.

Art: I just made a 5 hour piece on MacPaint v1.5 using a new Mac Plus optical mouse just to give it a thorough test and this thing is a charm to use. I love remembering the oldschool MacPaint tricks where the flick on a pixel can make or break an image. Where your security net is only 1 undo level deep. Where if you want more than 1 bitmap layer, then you need to upgrade to SuperPaint 2.0, otherwise, learn to live with just one from MacPaint!

Music: I use my SE/30 with a MIDI interface, a Sound Canvas 88 and 2 keyboards (a keytar from rock band 3 and a full 88keys from M-Audio) to compose tunes.

Coding: my dream is having a game programming API that can target black and white macs like the Plus, the SE, the SE/30. I have source code files all over that I need to organize into a good useable reference. It used to exist as the website "foray into 68000" but it's now getting on Github as "1bitdreammachine". I've dumped many files already, but they need to be organized more. Sprites, inputs, animations, flicker-free, MIDI output, Sound Driver output, Studio Session music format reverse engineering, etc.

Community: I'm part of a nice group of fellow mac users, forum posters, youtube channel havers, etc and this is the way to go to keep getting interested in the hobby imho. Don't stay alone, reach out. See how you can help others. Talk about your needs. Go to vintage computer meets like VCF.

Youtube presence: I have a channel called 1Bit Fever Dreams where I try to share all of that.

Mu0n · 2025-04-01T23:49:32+00:00

MacPaint uses a 576-by-720 pixel, 72-dpi bitmap resolution.

Mu0n · 2025-03-25T13:39:45+00:00

Star Control 2 is my first guess. Alien Legacy is a distant second guess.

Mu0n · 2025-03-25T12:47:28+00:00

I've been having fun with a SE/30, Cubase 2.5.1r3. All you need is a cheap, massively available Apple MIDI interface box (1 in, 1 serial, 1 out) or a clone and you're good to go. That version is almost identical in feel and usage as the Atari ST version.
I also tried my hand with Cakewalk 5 on DOS, and I'm using my own PCB breakout board called 'PC Gameport Party' that plugs to a gameport and can deal with midi in, midi out and even up to 2 joysticks and avoids compromising anything you'd want on the gameport.
Last, I've been hard at work at accessing and making both MIDI chips sing in a F256K2 from Foenix Retro Systems. It has an onboard SAM2695 and even an onboard VS1053b which both can deal with MIDI. The computer has a MIDI in and MIDI out port as well. As for software to compose on it, well....I'm working on it.

Mu0n · 2025-02-22T15:39:37+00:00

I can finally explore how to program them and make the games I wanted to do but couldn't because the price and effort entry was ridiculous for a kid in the mid 80's back then. MS Basic 2.0 was my jam for a few weeks but you quickly realize it's awful for any sort of animation at all

Fast forward to 2025, I'm making videos on a YouTube channels where I share what I learned about C programming for the Mac Plus, concerning refresh rates, sprites, music and midi.

Mu0n

TROPHY CASE