One thing you need to do with the old OS Macs is rebuild the desktop. Sometimes the Mac will do it on it's own, especially when switching OSes at Startup as I am wont to do.
One reason to go from 6 to 7 is for more sensitive mouse tracking. There are reasons for slow tracking but not really in gaming which is honestly the only real reason I personally have for old computers. Modern machines have faster and better and generally cheaper, EASIER productivity programs. Open/Libre Office? Yes thank you!
My current pre anything benchmarks.
You want more better performance for business or black and white apps? Go into Black and White mode and like it!
If something runs a bit too fast in Black and White mode you can go into 16....
Or 4 color mode and keep some speed but not go full bore out there. 4 Color mode seems to be the best compromise for programs that have no framerate limit.
All the stuff that was on the machine to start with. Mostly boring ass productivity applications.
Well I can solve THAT problem. And then my problems involve grinding XP in VERY old ass RPGs. While the Mac versions of many classic titles have the most modern quality of life features (albeit many in black and white only) they are still of their time.
Since some of my upgrades have arrived I give the case a fair scrubbing with a wire pad that takes off a bit of paint and a "Magic Eraser". I don't get deep into the little nooks and crannies but compared to the digusting thing it was it is much improved.
I do the same to the monitor as best I can without taking it apart. I use some epoxy on the cracks which takes a good week to properly be unsticky.
The case is MUCH improved now but we can see the yellowed plastic thanks to UV light taking a toll over nearly 30 years. And I have a cracked tab to get more epoxy to put on there right. I think I am probably just going to spraypaint this thing in a nice dark blue with maybe some purple for the bottom half.
My new toy open! Covered in dust but otherwise looks good. No exploded or corroded batteries or capacitors though having a Sony power supply I should replace most of the capacitors within it ASAP.
Out with the 4 megabytes of RAM..
In with 22 bucks and 16 megabytes of NEW!
Swapping RAM is very easy but sadly on a IIsi all 4 slots must be filled with the same type at once. No partial measures here!
And a shiny new battery to keep the clock and my settings set!
Yes that is a 1991 expiration date on that old battery. And the little plastic cover that was a pain to remove. Sadly the RAM did not work. Nothing came up on the screen at all and a minute or two later a thing I believe they call "The Chimes of Doom" came up. I got a refund and even though Ebay said I didn't have to return it I spent 6 bucks to ship the RAM back in case I am just a dumbass. There is no way to know if it was just a bad stick or not given the way the IIsi handles RAM. The new battery however works like a boss.
And my VGA dongle arrives! There are many flavors and amount of DIP switches. This one is mine.
And now you have to put it in, screw it in, then plug and maybe screw in a VGA cable on top of that. Extra desk space required.
And this is what I get on a very old ass VGA monitor. Given I don't feel like opening it up to fix a bunch of knobs I decide to try it on my HDTV.
Selecting a couple of DIP switches the dongle to a dongle to the HDTV is giving me the correct signal information but that is it. Perhaps it is because it is a VGA dongle into a DVI input and it is too much dongle? My Dreamcast is fine with it but who is to say the Mac approves?
My LCD computer monitor? IT WORKS WE GET SIGNAL MAIN SCREEN TURN ON.
I have pretty colors now!
Do some adjusting and now I have a pretty blue background with some purple.
Sadly my 1.3 model Floppy Emu decided to die during all of this so I can only test with After Dark which is an old screensaver mostly famous for a Flying Toaster module this version doesn't have. But I have color and its nice working color.
This 22" monitor has dual inputs for VGA and DVI. And is happy to auto switch to whichever input is on.
I switch to a proper aspect ratio instead of widescreen. Sharpness does a bit but it is still being upscaled so isn't quite as sharp as it is on the black and white monitor. However I only get 10 1/4 or so viewing inches diagonally on it, whereas on this monitor it is around 17 1/2. And color. Kind of a no brainer.
A reminder of what the seller showed this machine to be.
Yeah the shipping cracked the screen plastic. I could be a baby and get some cash back but honestly 65 or so shipped for this machine was a STEAL so I really don't care.
Next time we get some sweet!
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