hey everyone it's Colin how's it going
the classic compact Macintosh is an icon
in the retro computing world but one
particular model really took on a life
of its own this time let's have a look
at the max color classic the year was
1993 color screens on Macs were the norm
yet Apple's all-in-one computer the
classic two still sported a black and
white display having debuted a year and
a half prior the machine was showing its
age On February 10th Apple released the
color classic true to its name it
continued with the compact form factor
but for the first time in the series it
featured a 10 inch color display it was
powered by a 16 megahertz motorola 68030
processor and came with four megabytes
of RAM and a 48 e or 160 megabyte hard
drive the design of the color classic
was in some ways the biggest change
previous models were boxy and flat sided
while the color classic made extensive
use of compound curves the machine was
the first to use a new Apple design
language called espresso which would
soon be seen in other products as a
replacement for the previous style known
as Snow White
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despite the color display and fresh new
appearance the color classic garnered
mixed reviews it was praised for its
crisp Trinitron screen and the addition
of an expansion slot on the motherboard
but the design was a radical departure
that some found jarring what's more its
performance was considered just mediocre
and its maximum RAM limit of 10 Meg's
was a major limitation another Mac the
lc3 launched alongside the color classic
and was considered a superior value
because of its faster processor and
higher ram limit as you might imagine
the machine didn't sell terribly well
Apple tried to remedy this by releasing
the color classic to later in the year
it was essentially the same machine but
doubled the processor speed and bumped
the maximum RAM to 36 megabytes
yet curiously the company only launched
it in a few select countries in Europe
along with Canada and Japan sales remain
slow and ultimately the color classic
was discontinued only about a year after
its launch in March 1994 with the color
classic - following suit in May they
would be the last compact Macs Apple
would ever make but that's not the end
of this story one country that happened
to take a liking of the color classic
was Japan its introduction had been held
at the Tokyo Macworld Expo and as some
predicted it found popularity due to its
small footprint and color screen some
who bought it simply accepted its
limited performance but others did
something about it
a group of technically minded owners
banded together and form the club for
creating the strongest color classic
they would end up pioneering the three
major modifications that offered the
biggest improvements to the computer the
first involve changing the screen
resolution 512 by 384 was similar to
what previous compact Mac's had used but
was too low for some software to run
such as games a method to boost this to
640 by 480 was figured out which
involved delicate modifications to the
system's high voltage analog board this
led to the first performance upgrade for
the color classic Apple had introduced
the concept of a slide-out motherboard
with the system meant to make the
installation of RAM and expansion cards
easier it was a design the company
continued with subsequent models like
the LC 520 from mid 1993 one particular
computer the LC 575 was the key to a
solid color classic upgrade it offered a
33 megahertz 6800 40 processor which
gave a noticeable performance increase
and allowed the installation of Mac OS 8
its motherboard was pin compatible with
that of the color classic so one only
needed to swap the two and then either
perform the screen resolution mod or
simply install a software extension this
would eventually be called the mystic
mod after the supposed codename for a
color classic three project that Apple
canceled
and even more daring modification was
developed some time later as Apple made
the switch to PowerPC processors it
retains the slide-out motherboard in
some models but the boards were bigger
and simply didn't work if slid into a
color classics chassis two members of
the club devised the process called the
tacky mod a portmanteau of their screen
names tack and a key it involves
completely disassembling the machine and
not only replacing the motherboards edge
connector and rewiring a substantial
portion of it but also moving it further
back in the chassis it took a lot of
work and was fairly risky but ultimately
produced color classics that were many
times more powerful as time went on an
English translation of the club's
website became available and some color
classic owners around the world began
performing the modifications this
spurred some new ideas as well like
installing stereo speakers g3 processor
accelerator cards and television tuners
and swapping out the floppy drive for a
slot loading cd-rom color classic
modding reached its peak in the late 90s
and while doing so was by no means
common it did garner some curious
attention a number of sites dedicated to
the topic sprang up and even the New
York Times ran an article on the
practice in August 2000 the desire to
upgrade these machines has long since
faded even in their most powerful form
they're simply no longer capable of
running modern software they were fairly
uncommon machines to begin with and
their numbers continue to dwindle these
days color classics routinely sell for
several hundred dollars on ebay while it
may not have been the most powerful or
successful machine of its time the color
classic certainly ended the era of the
compact Mac on an interesting note one
could argue that no other computer since
has enjoyed quite as fascinating of a
life after death
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