‡ Apple's recommended System file is version 3.2 (or 3.3 as an AppleShare client), with 4.1 as the maximum. † Apple's recommended System file is version 2.0, with 3.2 as the maximum. This would later include the SE FDHD (SuperDrive), which replaced the SE in August 1989.
** M5011 was used for Macintosh SE machines configured with internal hard drives. * 'P' after the model number indicates a 220-240V power supply (Europe, Asia, Australia), as opposed to a 110-120V power supply (North America, Japan). Macintosh hardware releases Table of hardware releases before System 7 (May 1991) Date E-Maculation is a good place to check on the progress of other early Macintosh emulation projects.įinally, Big Mess o' Wires offers the essential piece of equipment for anyone who owns a functional early Macintosh and wants to use it: a floppy/hard disk emulator that allows you to save your work to a current SD memory card.
Mini vMac is an excellent Macintosh Plus, SE, and 128K emulator that runs on Mac OS X and earlier, as well as Linux and Windows. First-hand history is available at Folklore and Making the Macintosh.
Expert Classic Mac Tech Info is available in a PDF document here. Discussions include Vintage Macs, System 6, and 68k Macintosh Liberation Army.
Download sites include Macintosh Repository, Macintosh Garden, MacFixer. Sites with information about various aspects of early Macs include Low End Mac, Mac Daniel, 68k Mac FAQ, Mac 128 Update, Mac SE Support, Mac GUI, The Mothership, The Vintage Mac Museum, GUIdebook. Understandably, this Apple article has been widely used as a source of (mis)information on the Internet, including Wikipedia. See my discussion of how this mess was made: The develop CD and its spawn. These mistakes then carry over to Apple's tech specs and other documentation for early Macintosh hardware online. But the numbers are ill-conceived, and the early timeline is simply not accurate. The article assigns ex post facto version numbers to earlier releases and presents a timeline.
Apple Macintosh before System 7 Hardware releases~Software releases Macintosh 128K and 512K~manuals~software bundles Macintosh Plus and 512K e~manuals~software bundles Macintosh 512K/800~Macintosh ED Apple OEM upgrades Disk images~Working with older disk images The develop CD and its spawnĪll information presented here is based on primary sources, mainly original, unmodified Apple disks and other Apple documentation.Īnyone interested in this history must be especially careful when reviewing the information presented in Apple Knowledge Base article TA31885, Macintosh: System Software Version History, a secondary source that contains major errors: This software and cassette were bundled with the Apple Macintosh System Software. It visually guides you through the use of Macintosh, the Finder, and typical Macintosh applications. Guided Tour of Macintosh Mac128k This is a software and audio cassette demonstration of the Apple Macintosh. Officially the System revision was 1.0, but the internal number reported '0.97'. It used a flat file system (MFS) that only emulated folders.
It was released in 1984 with the original Macintosh and ran with 128k RAM, 400k 3.5' floppy drive, monochrome video, and a mouse. System 1.0 (0.97), Finder 1.0 was the first official, stable release. Macintosh Plus, BasiliskII also emulates 68K but supports newer hardware as well e.g. Emulators: BasiliskII, MinivMac Mini vMac emulates the 68K processor macs (older software) e.g.