An Apple Macintosh Color Classic computer upgraded with a 33 MHz 68LC040 logic board from an LC 575, known as the "Mystic" upgrade among Color Classic fans.
The name "Mystic" comes from an old, now defunct, Japanese Mac modding site (The Gabezing Room) that popularized the upgrade. They also had a resolution hack to get 640x480 which fortunately has been archived elsewhere and is still available. This allows you to play a LOT more of the great arcade style games for the Mac that need a 640x480 display.
That's a nice upgrade, especially the 128Mb IBM SIMM that you installed 7 years ago! I have just pulled out some of my collection and boxes in storage, and the first box had a few LC 575 logic boards! As well as some LC 630 and Performa 580 logic boards... my unboxing video will hopefully be up soon.
Cool stuff! The Color Classic is one of my favorite Macs. I've always known about the Mystic upgrade, but I never knew it was as simple as sliding out the old motherboard and sliding the new one in.
Macintosh collectors come up with some of the wackiest names for modifications: "Mystic" upgrade, "clock chipping" instead of overclocking (ill never understand that one...)
Clock chipping I think is because instead of using jumpers, DIP switches or BIOS to change the clock speed, you actually have to change out a chip on the board
This video makes me miss my Macintosh TV a little bit. But it's in good hands now. These old Macs just make me really nostalgic. EDIT: Also the interesting thing is "Mystic" is the codename for the Power Mac G4. Hm.
watching your videos. Use to collect alot of used computers myself from family and friends. I've always been fascinated by legacy computers and their software/hardware. You definitely fulfill the nerd in me. Thanks!! Jason - NE
I am glad to see you made a video about this! I remember you responding to a comment of mine on the Macintosh classic video that you had one of these. I have been waiting with baited breath ever since!
The Color Classic was fun to use back in the day, because the screen was very good for the time. There really weren't very many, though. I knew some Mac folks and actually had a chance to play with one, and the rare Macintosh TV. That was a black LC 550 with a tuner card.
Reminds me of when I upgraded my old desktop from 64MB to 256MB, it'd count 3 times all the way to "262144 KB OK" and took about 1 or 2 minutes (at least you could only make it count RAM once instead of 3 times on that BIOS)
I bought one of these just to do this mod on and I will say that it's the best thing that can be done considering how slow the original motherboard was. I used it for months as an alarm clock that would wake me up every morning and then shut itself down later on that day. The hourly chime was a piece from the "Car Song" by Elastica. 1 17-1 33 :) This by far is my favorite of all my 68k's because of performing like a PowerMac, in which is how it got it's name "Mystic" and plus by being color. There's also a "Takky" upgrade, in which I would never attempt to do. Also, I used a dremer tool to cut out portions of the hatch to fit with the new board and used liquid nails to fill in the extra holes to keep the dust out.
So, do you have two Color Classics? Or is this the same machine as the unmodded one you showed in another video? From what I read, some people have successfully run 800x600 on their Mystic CCs, but clarity suffers due to the dot pitch of the CRT, and in some cases the picture doesn't reach the full width of the CRT without lowering the refresh rate to seizure-inducing values.
I only have one Color Classic, the modded one shown here. Maybe you're thinking of the regular Macintosh Classic (not Color) that I also have? The CC's CRT is fuzzy even at 640x480 -- I would not want to use it at 800x600 even if it did work!
vwestlife I was thinking of your other CC video, but you clearly state that it was upgraded in the description, so I must have neglected to read it. My bad. Did you get it in its Mystic form, or did you upgrade it?
Actually, here in Canada (and Japan) they released a Colour Classic II. They are not to expensive here but in the U.S they are quite rare and expensive.
Wow. When you're way zoomed in on the CRT, it makes me want to look away from the screen periodically to avoid headaches, even though I'm watching the video on an LCD. :)
I used one of the Mac classics in 6th grade. I liked it b/c it had a mouse and was better than the apple IIe machines. There was a cricket chirp sound on it. Then another school I went to in 1997 had a Mac LC II I was able to get it to play Audio CDs once you can get past the initialize disk error and that was from the CD ROM drive. The drives that required the CD caddy.
It is hard to say if the ebay seller of these chips is doing a re-badge job or not. This was quite common in the 80's and 90's with amd cpu's being wiped and re-labeled to an Intel. Or a SX would be badged as a DX etc... I would not be surprised to find this happened with motorola cpu's back then too.
Awwww what a nice little machine. Are such things rare in the UK too? I don't remember ever seeing many. 68040 LC socketed? Perhaps a dead Amiga accelerator board contains the 68040?
There's one of these on eBay now currently selling for $750 USD. That is virtually the same as a base spec iPad Pro. It'd have to be a really die-hard fan that bought it since its ability to get online is virtually nil.
People buy the Color Classic more for its appearance than for its actual performance or usability as a computer. The actual selling prices for Color Classics on eBay range from about $100 to $400 depending on the condition and how upgraded it is.
My G3 PowerMac that came with 32MB RAM does the same thing at bootup. I always reset it to skip the ram check, because it takes about 2 minutes to complete
nice ,. i like your videos ,. please try more software challenges like trying to run a full length video ,. or trying a game or something ,. thank you ,. fan from India
It was great when Apple finally abandoned the 68k CPUs and moved to PowerPC CPUs then later to x64. I stopped buying Macs for a long time until they finally abandoned MacOS and adopted MacOS X (UNIX based). A lot of great features in MacOS but it crashed frequently. Now I am waiting for an ARM based MacOSX that can run on tablets. I am not a fan of iOS.
AirScholar Actually the 040 running at 33MHz or faster was a very fast CPU. Well it ran System 7 nicely. One of my favorite Macs from that era was the Quadra 650 and 840AV. They were faster than the first generation PPCs when it had to run in emulation mode. Once the third generation RISC PPCs showed up the power was evident. The G3 tower Mac was a beast at the time.
Some old B&W programs work, and some don't. Generally the really early Mac software (1984-1986) won't run on a color machine, but most software made after the Mac II was introduced in 1987 will run fine.
thats pretty cool about old macs. Too bad you cant take like a G3 iMac or a G4 power book, put an intel Mac board in them to keep them current these days.
There are PowerPC logic boards in a form factor that will fit in the Color Classic, but they require extensive rewiring in order to work: www.applefritter.com/powercolorclassic/stuartbell/pcc2
Felicitaciones todos los vídeos son bien realizados y me agradaría Ver videos en español o subtitulados apple computer Es muy importante en vida Desde ya agradezco su respuesta
Sim City's been around since the 80s I think, it was released on the Acorn BBC micro computer and the Commodore 64 and I think it may have been released on the Sinclair ZX Spectrum too if I'm not mistaken. I know a version of Sim City exists for the Macintosh SE, that was probably released in the very early 90s like 1990 or 1991 or something. I'd assume that Maxis released later versions of Sim City for computers like this one. Sim City 2000 wasn't the first version. Actually, I think Lazy Game Reviews has a video that talks about the timeline of Sim City releases.
Lachlant1984 I used Sim City on my old Mac LCIII in 1993 with a 12" greyscale monitor. I assume it would have run on the Classic, just lower video quality.
I have 132MB of RAM and 1MB of VRAM in my Quadra 610 with a 64080@25MHz; with OS 7.1 I can't even get close to filling it up, even when running Netscape and internetting over my AUI ethernet transceiver. I can even run a 1024x768 display at 16bit color.
The name "Mystic" comes from an old, now defunct, Japanese Mac modding site (The Gabezing Room) that popularized the upgrade. They also had a resolution hack to get 640x480 which fortunately has been archived elsewhere and is still available. This allows you to play a LOT more of the great arcade style games for the Mac that need a 640x480 display.
That's a nice upgrade, especially the 128Mb IBM SIMM that you installed 7 years ago! I have just pulled out some of my collection and boxes in storage, and the first box had a few LC 575 logic boards! As well as some LC 630 and Performa 580 logic boards... my unboxing video will hopefully be up soon.
Cool stuff! The Color Classic is one of my favorite Macs. I've always known about the Mystic upgrade, but I never knew it was as simple as sliding out the old motherboard and sliding the new one in.
Bonus points for knowing how to focus your camera and use its light properly. Why have so few people on UA-cam figured that out?
Macintosh collectors come up with some of the wackiest names for modifications: "Mystic" upgrade, "clock chipping" instead of overclocking (ill never understand that one...)
Mystic was the codename for the canceled Macintosh Color classic III
Macintosh collectors come up with the wackiest names for stuff done in real life because they think different. *sc* but, yeah. true.
Clock chipping I think is because instead of using jumpers, DIP switches or BIOS to change the clock speed, you actually have to change out a chip on the board
@@80486sx It was meant to have the LC575 motherboard in it, hence it's called a 'Mystic' upgrade
This video makes me miss my Macintosh TV a little bit. But it's in good hands now.
These old Macs just make me really nostalgic.
EDIT: Also the interesting thing is "Mystic" is the codename for the Power Mac G4. Hm.
watching your videos. Use to collect alot of used computers myself from family and friends. I've always been fascinated by legacy computers and their software/hardware. You definitely fulfill the nerd in me. Thanks!! Jason - NE
The reason the serial port has a plug in it is because when a modem is installed in the Comm slot, it disables the modem serial port.
I am glad to see you made a video about this! I remember you responding to a comment of mine on the Macintosh classic video that you had one of these. I have been waiting with baited breath ever since!
The Color Classic was fun to use back in the day, because the screen was very good for the time. There really weren't very many, though. I knew some Mac folks and actually had a chance to play with one, and the rare Macintosh TV. That was a black LC 550 with a tuner card.
You can modify the System file of Mac OS 8 to get it to run on a 68030… I did it on my Macintosh IIsi, and it worked, but was pretty slow.
gotta love the colour classic much better than the other black and white ones.
Reminds me of when I upgraded my old desktop from 64MB to 256MB, it'd count 3 times all the way to "262144 KB OK" and took about 1 or 2 minutes (at least you could only make it count RAM once instead of 3 times on that BIOS)
What a neat machine. Old Macintoshs are just so cool.
I love hacked computers. So much funner to make something work a way it wasn't "designed" to do.
when you have more ram storage than hdd storage
I bought one of these just to do this mod on and I will say that it's the best thing that can be done considering how slow the original motherboard was. I used it for months as an alarm clock that would wake me up every morning and then shut itself down later on that day. The hourly chime was a piece from the "Car Song" by Elastica. 1 17-1 33 :) This by far is my favorite of all my 68k's because of performing like a PowerMac, in which is how it got it's name "Mystic" and plus by being color. There's also a "Takky" upgrade, in which I would never attempt to do. Also, I used a dremer tool to cut out portions of the hatch to fit with the new board and used liquid nails to fill in the extra holes to keep the dust out.
So, do you have two Color Classics? Or is this the same machine as the unmodded one you showed in another video?
From what I read, some people have successfully run 800x600 on their Mystic CCs, but clarity suffers due to the dot pitch of the CRT, and in some cases the picture doesn't reach the full width of the CRT without lowering the refresh rate to seizure-inducing values.
I only have one Color Classic, the modded one shown here. Maybe you're thinking of the regular Macintosh Classic (not Color) that I also have? The CC's CRT is fuzzy even at 640x480 -- I would not want to use it at 800x600 even if it did work!
vwestlife I was thinking of your other CC video, but you clearly state that it was upgraded in the description, so I must have neglected to read it. My bad.
Did you get it in its Mystic form, or did you upgrade it?
***** It was already upgraded when I got it, although I added the extra RAM.
+vwestlife But didn't you also find one at the recycling center?
+the mre nerd Yes, but that was well after I posted my original comment. So *now* he has two.
4:15 Samsung and IBM together on the same memory board? yeah the 90's computer landscape was weird. Also remember Apple approved Macintosh clones?
Actually, here in Canada (and Japan) they released a Colour Classic II. They are not to expensive here but in the U.S they are quite rare and expensive.
Wow. When you're way zoomed in on the CRT, it makes me want to look away from the screen periodically to avoid headaches, even though I'm watching the video on an LCD. :)
I used one of the Mac classics in 6th grade. I liked it b/c it had a mouse and was better than the apple IIe machines. There was a cricket chirp sound on it. Then another school I went to in 1997 had a Mac LC II I was able to get it to play Audio CDs once you can get past the initialize disk error and that was from the CD ROM drive. The drives that required the CD caddy.
It’s called mystic because that was the Codename for the cancelled color classic III
The black expansion slot is NuBus slot IIRC.
Nope, LC PDS.
It is hard to say if the ebay seller of these chips is doing a re-badge job or not. This was quite common in the 80's and 90's with amd cpu's being wiped and re-labeled to an Intel. Or a SX would be badged as a DX etc... I would not be surprised to find this happened with motorola cpu's back then too.
Awwww what a nice little machine. Are such things rare in the UK too? I don't remember ever seeing many. 68040 LC socketed? Perhaps a dead Amiga accelerator board contains the 68040?
There's one of these on eBay now currently selling for $750 USD. That is virtually the same as a base spec iPad Pro. It'd have to be a really die-hard fan that bought it since its ability to get online is virtually nil.
People buy the Color Classic more for its appearance than for its actual performance or usability as a computer. The actual selling prices for Color Classics on eBay range from about $100 to $400 depending on the condition and how upgraded it is.
+vwestlife really? i think it's damn ugly if i'm honest
why so rare?
Great video, I have an old Color Classic (stock) that I'd like to upgrade soon. Thx for the info.
The first color Mac that I looked at in the early 90s (I don't remember which model) cost $10,000 new.
Maybe that chip was supposed to say: "iBM".
Awesome stuff. I still have a Color Classic case minus the motherboard. Looks like I have a few options as to which logic board I can install.
Where do you keep finding this stuff? Here in Canada it's nearly IMPOSSIBLE to find vintage Mac anything.
you need an apple2 card for that, fantastic.
that computer looks like the rainbow kitten converted to minecraft blocks
My G3 PowerMac that came with 32MB RAM does the same thing at bootup. I always reset it to skip the ram check, because it takes about 2 minutes to complete
nice ,. i like your videos ,. please try more software challenges like trying to run a full length video ,. or trying a game or something ,. thank you ,. fan from India
It was great when Apple finally abandoned the 68k CPUs and moved to PowerPC CPUs then later to x64.
I stopped buying Macs for a long time until they finally abandoned MacOS and adopted MacOS X (UNIX based).
A lot of great features in MacOS but it crashed frequently.
Now I am waiting for an ARM based MacOSX that can run on tablets.
I am not a fan of iOS.
iOS is a modified version of Mac OS X lol
AirScholar Actually the 040 running at 33MHz or faster was a very fast CPU. Well it ran System 7 nicely. One of my favorite Macs from that era was the Quadra 650 and 840AV. They were faster than the first generation PPCs when it had to run in emulation mode. Once the third generation RISC PPCs showed up the power was evident. The G3 tower Mac was a beast at the time.
Didnt even know they made these O_o
Found one 68 040 33Mhz cpu on ebay just to add that you can find the cpu
i got lucky someone listed a 68040 25mgz cpu for $10 and it runs fine at 33mhz! but i will put a 486 cooler on it
Think RAM works because its buffered? Thats why its higher all those chips on the bottom. It would not work on typical PC from what i remember
I think mystic was the codename for the cancelled successor to colour classic ||
Congratulation ....
Quite an amazing machine of it's age - PC's were shit in 1994, multimedia-wise...
Fantastic machine! Can you run older black and white Macintosh games on this?
Some old B&W programs work, and some don't. Generally the really early Mac software (1984-1986) won't run on a color machine, but most software made after the Mac II was introduced in 1987 will run fine.
Great vid
Sweet :) QC
Nice machine. Do you ever sell these?
thats pretty cool about old macs. Too bad you cant take like a G3 iMac or a G4 power book, put an intel Mac board in them to keep them current these days.
jesus christ isnt more ram supposed to make things faster? that startup time.. chriiiiist
I like the Orban on the right way more..
You know that was a vent, not a spea... oh.
8:39 "Created: Sun, Oct 21, 1956, 7:09 PM"...
What version of macOS is this? I've got a Macintosh 6116cd and it runs similar I'm just not there to check...
As I showed in the video, it is running Mac OS 8.0.
VWestlife oh sorry I mustn't have been paying attention at the time. But good video!
Too bad they didn't have a PPC board in that form factor. It would be cool to run OS 9 on that.
There are PowerPC logic boards in a form factor that will fit in the Color Classic, but they require extensive rewiring in order to work: www.applefritter.com/powercolorclassic/stuartbell/pcc2
That's cool to know. Thanks.
I would love to rebuild the battery, any idea?
Where you using the new mic you did a video on?
No. This was recorded with the same Canon FS200 camcorder that I've been using for most of my videos since I got it in late 2009.
oh ok, i thought it sounded different for some reason
So the "mystic" version can run Mac OS 8.1, then? Interesting.
True... Much like PowerPCs before the iMac G3 can only run up to 9.1, iirc.
Are you thinking of selling any of your windows 95 computers with a cd-rom drive on ebay?
I don't have any Windows 95 computers with a CD-ROM drive.
vwestlife just wondering
Felicitaciones todos los vídeos son bien realizados y me agradaría
Ver videos en español o subtitulados apple computer
Es muy importante en vida
Desde ya agradezco su respuesta
English dude!!
Commodorefan64 que?
yes! yes!!!
everybody still uses the word scuzzie why
Because it's how you pronounce SCSI.
will the MAC Classic take a proper PowerPC Processor?
Not without major custom modifications.
Does the LC040 have an MMU built in?
christo930 The 68LC040 only lacks the FPU. The 68EC040 lacks both the FPU and the MMU.
Do you know if any SimCity version exists for a Macintosh Classic or SE?
Yes it does. I don't know what version number it is, but I know that SimCity was released for early Macs.
Robert OS Tester Wasn't the first Sim City for DOS?
Robert OS Tester Oh no you're right. I remember it was Sim City 2000 for DOS and Windows 95.
Sim City's been around since the 80s I think, it was released on the Acorn BBC micro computer and the Commodore 64 and I think it may have been released on the Sinclair ZX Spectrum too if I'm not mistaken. I know a version of Sim City exists for the Macintosh SE, that was probably released in the very early 90s like 1990 or 1991 or something. I'd assume that Maxis released later versions of Sim City for computers like this one. Sim City 2000 wasn't the first version. Actually, I think Lazy Game Reviews has a video that talks about the timeline of Sim City releases.
Lachlant1984
I used Sim City on my old Mac LCIII in 1993 with a 12" greyscale monitor. I assume it would have run on the Classic, just lower video quality.
jan 1, 1904; nice
Oh yes..
9:57 lol
Why don't you just cut out that thing
I have 132MB of RAM and 1MB of VRAM in my Quadra 610 with a 64080@25MHz; with OS 7.1 I can't even get close to filling it up, even when running Netscape and internetting over my AUI ethernet transceiver. I can even run a 1024x768 display at 16bit color.
Could you use this to look at modern day web sites?
though bet stuff like youtube dont go LOL.
Didnt even know they made these O_o