I lost my beloved Mac Plus, the computer that made me become a programmer, because of COVID.
Shortly before COVID hit, I fired it up to see if it still worked, and within like a minute, a certain capacitor (that is a common and well-known failure point) fried, and it was dead. I brought it to a computer repair store to fix, and then COVID and its lockdowns hit.
When I returned months later to see what was up after my phone calls weren't returned, turns out the whole place had shut down and I to this day have no idea where my Mac Plus went. :/
Brilliant. Got my old Macintosh Plus out a few months ago and flipped it on and unfortunately that let out some of the “magic smoke” that keeps all electronics running. I think it’s an electrolytic cap that blew. Just too old. Will have to find time to refurb it.
I've preserved a number of machines by building them in to rackmount cases. It never occurred to me to make a faux product out of them. This is amazing! The graphics and detail are wonderful.
Reminds me very much of my college project where my roommates and I repackaged a Commodore 64 into an IBM PC form factor, complete with external keyboard.
Difficulty: College was in a town without a Radio Shack, and none of us had cars.
Racintosh Plus – Rackmount Mac Plus
(identity4.com)130 points by zdw 8 September 2025 | 33 comments
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Shortly before COVID hit, I fired it up to see if it still worked, and within like a minute, a certain capacitor (that is a common and well-known failure point) fried, and it was dead. I brought it to a computer repair store to fix, and then COVID and its lockdowns hit.
When I returned months later to see what was up after my phone calls weren't returned, turns out the whole place had shut down and I to this day have no idea where my Mac Plus went. :/
Close, they wired the Reset button!
But, no Programmer switch.
It's very hard to contain my disappointment. Bridge too far I guess.
Difficulty: College was in a town without a Radio Shack, and none of us had cars.
I kinda wished it had a panoply of external SCSI devices like a floppy drive, a CD ROM, and a ZIP drive (needs driver v.4.2 ) for good measure.