This Rare Accelerator Only Works on This Mac

Поделиться
HTML-код
  • Опубликовано: 19 май 2023
  • Head to squarespace.com/ActionRetro to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using code ActionRetro
    Today we're building a super-rare Sonnet HARMONi upgraded Bondi Blue iMac G3!
    LINKS:
    ------------------
    🍎 Fixing the iMac's Display: • This iMac G3 Has a Ter...
    (Amazon links are affiliated links)
    ══════════════════════════
    💾 For more vintage Apple stuff, please subscribe: ruclips.net/user/ActionRetro?s...
    💾 Support these retro computing shenanigans on Patreon! / actionretro
    ══════════════════════════
    Check out my Amazon page with links to my tools, adapters, soldering equipment, camera gear and more: www.amazon.com/shop/actionretro
    ══════════════════════════
    💬 Come talk about old computers on the BitBang Social Mastodon! bitbang.social
    ══════════════════════════
    #iMac #PowerPC #Sonnet
  • НаукаНаука

Комментарии • 251

  • @charlesswansonii9319
    @charlesswansonii9319 Год назад +154

    I'd just leave it running Mac OS 9 to be honest. That's a perfect machine to be running the Marathon Trilogy on now.

    • @Adams-78
      @Adams-78 Год назад +4

      And emac still exist ;) for newer os on crt allinone

    • @iiiiiifggffggffgfgfg
      @iiiiiifggffggffgfgfg Год назад +2

      And all the other OS9 gaming.

    • @jlj945
      @jlj945 Год назад +5

      That’s not exactly the point of the channel, though. Also, it’s perfectly capable of having both installed.

    • @commentarysheep
      @commentarysheep Год назад

      Why not dual-boot? I agree with the guy before me; this channel is all about retro computer tinkering.

    • @nickwallette6201
      @nickwallette6201 Год назад +1

      I tried OS X 10.0 on my Bondi. It was... not pleasant. These things run OS 9 very well. OS X was too much for them.

  • @zerofox3d
    @zerofox3d Год назад +36

    The level of engineering that went into lots of the Sonnet upgrades was insane.

  • @akatsukilevi
    @akatsukilevi Год назад +36

    The 'denied' screen usually means that some compatibility check failed, got used to it during my hackintoshing time
    Usually setting the '-no-compat-check' flag on nvram does the trick(on hackintosh, using clover you can simply pass the flags, unsure how you could set it on the iMac G3)

    • @bobpegram8042
      @bobpegram8042 11 месяцев назад +1

      How do you do that? What should be typed in CLI? I ran into it with the video card on my H3 Blue & White when trying to install Adelie. Thanks.

    • @akatsukilevi
      @akatsukilevi 11 месяцев назад

      @@bobpegram8042 It's a boot flag argument, you can set it by using:
      $ sudo nvram boot-args="-v -no-compat-check"
      Basically, it just needs to be written into the NVRAM of the device into the 'boot-args' key
      If you're using Clover/OpenCore, or even one of the older Darwin bootloaders, you might have a option to pass arguments before booting

  • @florider_hd
    @florider_hd Год назад +84

    Hey i just wanted to tell you that your videos are cheering me up in a bad phase of my life. This came just the right time. Thanks Action Retro

    • @zatomlzxzanamolzy1253
      @zatomlzxzanamolzy1253 Год назад +10

      It's a good sign to recognise it as a "phase." I'll apologise in advance just in case. Sorry if this comes off as condescending, that's not what I intend. Don't let over thinkinking your feelings and situation hold you back, and just remember that everyone has bad times and regrets and mistakes that we all make more if an issue outbif than they're worth. Everything's going to be fine and you'll have a good life from now on. Good luck is coming your way, don't worry about it.

    • @florider_hd
      @florider_hd Год назад +1

      Thanks for your kind words! I hope you’re well and stay well!

    • @organiccold
      @organiccold Год назад +1

      Be strong 💪

    • @kazeko0
      @kazeko0 Год назад +2

      Hope things get better for you bro

    • @kryskarr23
      @kryskarr23 Год назад +1

      Same here. I’m pulling for you. Hope things are better soon.

  • @krishnapriyaka3261
    @krishnapriyaka3261 Год назад +3

    watching these retro Mac videos is making me feel relaxed.. maybe because those 90s graphic design aesthetics of Mac OS reminds me of a much simpler time in my life

  • @MarkyShaw
    @MarkyShaw Год назад +23

    There are so many crazy Mac upgrades I never knew existed! This is awesome. Those beeps sounded like the thing was on life support. Glad it pulled through like a champ!

  • @JustFixIt99
    @JustFixIt99 Год назад +38

    Would love to see you send the original CPU board to DosDude and have him shoehorn a G4 Sonnet upgrade card onto it. Would be an awesome colab if the two of you could make it work.

    • @DatBlueHusky
      @DatBlueHusky Год назад

      problem is the firmware might not work and brick it

    • @eDoc2020
      @eDoc2020 Год назад +3

      @@DatBlueHusky If it bricks, just unbrick it. It's not hard when you have the proper tools.

    • @eDoc2020
      @eDoc2020 11 месяцев назад

      @@PyrrhianScavenger An EEPROM programmer is what you need to unbrick something. Just burn the original firmware back. Obviously it's best to make a backup first, otherwise you'll need to try to find a copy online and hope there weren't any unique IDs stored there. If the firmware chip is socketed you just unplug it and pop it in the programmer. Otherwise you hope there's a connector for easy in-circuit programming, or a special clip might work. Worst case you need to desolder the chip.

  • @halfsourlizard9319
    @halfsourlizard9319 Год назад +5

    Few things are more satisfying than tech shenanigans to work around 'intellectual property' restrictions. Love seeing engineering that side-steps Apple's paternalistic b.s.

  • @GendoPrime
    @GendoPrime Год назад +5

    Next you need to "borrow" Steve's Voodoo 2 for the mezzanine slot.

  • @JohnSmith-xq1pz
    @JohnSmith-xq1pz Год назад +11

    The fact all these aftermart upgrades exist is telling of the diffrence between what Apple wanted and what the users wanted

    • @halfsourlizard9319
      @halfsourlizard9319 Год назад +4

      It's almost like Apple actually doesn't know what people want ...

  • @Kyle-xv5kv
    @Kyle-xv5kv Год назад +12

    I'm sure there is a voodoo card you can get which adds into the mez slot on the underside of the logic board. Combine that with this monster CPU upgrade you've got a brutally powerful retro gaming iMac!

    • @that_colin_guy
      @that_colin_guy Год назад +5

      Was about to comment this. That old mezzanine voodoo card is a rare bird.

    • @AmstradExin
      @AmstradExin Год назад +1

      You wouldn't believe how much of an upgrade a Voodoo is over a Ati Rage 2. With the Rage, Klingon Honor guard is barely playable and with a Voodoo 2 the framerate is maxed out.

  • @nucflashevent
    @nucflashevent 2 месяца назад

    11:40 -- It was very smart of Sonnet to keep the little cover at the bottom of the side panel so if you happened to be one of the few with a Rev A-B with a Mezzanine card it would still accommodate it.

  • @slowednation999
    @slowednation999 Год назад +4

    very cool video Sean ! i myself just scored the deal of a lifetime in my eyes. i went to a retro games store close to my town a few days ago, and in that store was sitting a basically pristine blueberry iMac G3. the 98 model with the tray loader. it didn’t have a price tag on it so i approached the store worker and asked how much they want for it cause it also came with its original accessories. they only wanted $100. as soon as he said that, i was sold and now it’s mine. i plan to do so much with it i have always wanted my own G3 ever since they came out and i was a little kid with no chance of ever getting that kind of money 😂 i’ve already successfully put Mac OS 9.2.2 on it. just thought i’d share.

    • @beenine5557
      @beenine5557 8 месяцев назад +1

      I love how our childhood dreams can come true!

  • @StarFireG3
    @StarFireG3 Год назад +2

    Glad to see people are still modding old Apple hardware. Too bad I sold my early Bondi Blue. But I still have an »Sonnet Encore G4 500« card for my G4 400 laying around. Someday I will install it.

  • @larrydanna
    @larrydanna Год назад +1

    “I guess I’ll read the instructions. Uh, not something I normally do.” At 6:01. Oh how I laughed, and laughed!! Priceless.

  • @CralexKokiri
    @CralexKokiri Год назад +2

    Awesome that you were able to get a brand new card and document the process for future enjoyment.

  • @8ullfrog
    @8ullfrog Год назад +4

    The firewire daughterboard was so elegantly designed, and then the parasite cord... wasn't.

    • @halfsourlizard9319
      @halfsourlizard9319 Год назад +1

      Oh, shit, we need to get power to it! Eh, just use a bodge wire.

    • @nickwallette6201
      @nickwallette6201 Год назад +1

      What else can you do? If there's no 12v on the CPU daughtercard socket, you can't just elegant your way into having it. :-) Not sure siphoning power from the logic (3.3v? 5v?) rails and using a boost converter would be wise, since you're passing that power on to an external device that consumes ??? amps, and is ... _hopefully_ ... well-behaved.

  • @NightimeDemon
    @NightimeDemon Год назад

    It's really cool to see what is possible on these old macs. I never used one growing up until middle school and high school, when macs were using x86-based processors. I've learned a lot from you about the history of these computers and see their appeal. Keep up the great work!

  • @wagnerpanther
    @wagnerpanther Год назад +1

    Great video! For whatever it's worth, I have a Harmoni G3 600 upgrade that I found preinstalled on a Rev B Bondi Blue and I haven't been able to run any Mac OS X versions from an SSD after weeks of tinkering (and I have tried about 4 different adaptors, half a dozen SSD's of different sizes, IDE SSD's, M2 to IDE, etc.). I could get some SSD's to work on Mac OS 8.1/8.6/9.22 triple boot but I often ended up having disc problems on the 9.22 partition. I'm happy with the speed I get with a 120GB 7200rpm IDE HDD that I borrowed from a Sawtooth G4. It feels really cool to have such power on a classic Blue.

  • @DavidStahlOLDHAPPyMACs
    @DavidStahlOLDHAPPyMACs Год назад +1

    Sean That is the slickest Upgrade by sonnet I have ever seen To bad that got rid of the Mezzanine slot on the later G3 iMacs

  • @alwinter
    @alwinter Год назад +2

    Whoa. That's a huge improvement! I didn't know this was possible.

  • @MrGencyExit64
    @MrGencyExit64 Год назад

    Through the magic of editing, the optical drive magically reappears :)

  • @performa9523
    @performa9523 Год назад +1

    Oh man that is wild! I didn't even know that they had upgrade cards for the original iMac- that's amazing!

  • @helloimacat000
    @helloimacat000 Год назад +36

    Who want a iMac G3 With most overlocked maxed power and mods?

    • @em5345-
      @em5345- Год назад +10

      Me.

    • @joseph58tech
      @joseph58tech Год назад +6

      Who doesn't?

    • @JohnSmith-xq1pz
      @JohnSmith-xq1pz Год назад +4

      @@joseph58tech Me lol. Life long windows user who's never owned a Apple product, strangely I still really ejoy this channel...
      I think it's the shenanigans

    • @gamingmark54
      @gamingmark54 Год назад +1

      ​@@joseph58tech me 😢

    • @pje_
      @pje_ Год назад +1

      yeah
      10 GHz with 128 cores
      ... on an iMac G3 😂

  • @AlexKiraly
    @AlexKiraly Год назад

    I just love the enthusiasm on this channel.

  • @notation254
    @notation254 Год назад +1

    Yo man, your channel is awesome. I just want to tell you that you're doing great work, and I look forward to your videos. Keep doing what you're doing.

  • @stevemcknelly5036
    @stevemcknelly5036 Год назад

    One of your better videos. I truly enjoyed it!

  • @nitrax8629
    @nitrax8629 Год назад

    Nice upgrade, though that Mezzanine slot is practically begging for a Voodoo 2 upgrade!

  • @ellenorbjornsdottir1166
    @ellenorbjornsdottir1166 Год назад

    Afaik, Sonnet is still around. They now make Thunderbolt peripherals, primarily for Macintoshes.

  • @kbhasi
    @kbhasi Год назад

    (13:06) The low pitched beeps it made while flashing the card ROMs reminded me of BBC News countdowns.

  • @MSmith-Photography
    @MSmith-Photography Год назад

    The upgrade shenanigans are a success!

  • @CasioMaker
    @CasioMaker Год назад +2

    Time for a spot of breakfast and the newest Action Retro video to keep me company

    • @ManleyEvangelista
      @ManleyEvangelista Год назад +2

      Watching this, while eating dinner for me!
      It's always a good Saturday night, whenever an ActionRetro video drops!

  • @MikeFromDownUnder
    @MikeFromDownUnder Год назад

    Thanks for sharing this.

  • @waydegutman7339
    @waydegutman7339 Год назад +3

    That was an interesting upgrade to watch. Cannot help but wonder what other upgrades that can be done to it. 🎉

    • @chrism869
      @chrism869 Год назад

      i wish i can take a break and get of, but i cant

  • @JayJay-88
    @JayJay-88 Год назад

    Yay, new Action Retro video 🥰

  • @sjgrall
    @sjgrall Год назад +1

    Maybe if I had gotten one of these plus a RAM upgrade, I'd have kept my then brand new 1999 Rev D (Lime) longer than just a few years.

  • @anumeon
    @anumeon Год назад +2

    Well it sure is a Solid A55 State storage media.

  • @RiggityWRECKED
    @RiggityWRECKED Месяц назад

    Sonnet is frickin awesome. Just recently picked up a McFiver for my 2012 Mac Pro 5,1

  • @theharbingerofconflation
    @theharbingerofconflation Год назад

    I hunted this thing all over ebay for 3 years, quite the accomplishment that you found and won one!

  • @wilsondavenport6939
    @wilsondavenport6939 Год назад +1

    ok i would love to see this mac running minecraft!

  • @Philfluffer
    @Philfluffer Год назад

    Daisy chaining adapters (more like conversion tech) usually is a recipe for a headache if not a complete failure.

  • @gaeljehnno
    @gaeljehnno Год назад

    I used the same model back in school. Whe used the ir port with a cellular phone for connecting to the internet back in the day.

  • @Neumaticgrunt
    @Neumaticgrunt Месяц назад

    Just put a G4 into my G3 slot loader, quite exciting when it just worked.

  • @liaminwales
    @liaminwales Год назад

    I loved my Imac G3, relay cool computer.
    The speakers where amazing, made almost all PC's sound so bad by contrast.

  • @BladeOlson
    @BladeOlson Год назад

    I absolutely owned this and it was super easy to install.

  • @1eyedwilli3
    @1eyedwilli3 Год назад

    I just bought an eMac 1.25 G4. IT WORKS perfect, but man that display is fuzzy.

  • @AnthonyChopra
    @AnthonyChopra Год назад

    3:01 "And we can test that later" *While u show Sorrow for the G3imac that you will put it in pain again of opening it*

  • @emantv5268
    @emantv5268 Год назад

    This upgrade card finally enables a first gen iMac to talk and sync to a first gen iPod! And DV video capture for iMovie!!

  • @ericwood3709
    @ericwood3709 Год назад +2

    Fix your CD-ROM, damn it. You failed to reattach the spring mechanism that keeps it pushed up toward the front. I learned that the hard way years ago.

  • @KennedoMaker
    @KennedoMaker Год назад

    Oo, I've been waiting for this upload since the little teaser in the G3 video haha

  • @jdmcs
    @jdmcs Год назад

    Nice upgrade!

  • @The-i-Shakk
    @The-i-Shakk Год назад

    Sweet video, I have a Rev A with all originals. Just replaced the PRAM Battery on it.

  • @benotsilent6703
    @benotsilent6703 Год назад

    0:55 - this is exactly why I subscribed to your channel.

  • @felixg3
    @felixg3 Год назад +1

    Hope to see you mod an eMac G4 sometime!

  • @MoominBoomin
    @MoominBoomin Год назад

    Why haven’t you showed up in my feed ever? Love this kind of content, happy to sub

  • @mel816
    @mel816 10 месяцев назад

    The tones during the ROM flashing remind me of those heart/patient monitors at hospitals😄 I wonder if it gives a "flatline" (long continuous tone) if there was an error in the flashing and fails to boot😛

  • @joepena5771
    @joepena5771 Год назад

    Now you have to upgrade the video too! The iMac Game Wizard Voodoo2 card.

  • @suddenlyvlogs
    @suddenlyvlogs Год назад +2

    Make sure you set up TimeMachine. Yknow, to back that A55 up.

  • @paulwalker427
    @paulwalker427 Год назад

    Splendid episode

  • @bltvd
    @bltvd 3 месяца назад

    “When you take a sip you buzz like a hornet / Billy Shakespeare wrote a whole bunch of sonnets”

  • @andyttm14
    @andyttm14 Год назад

    It sounds like a heart monitor is bleeping and it makes me think your computer is about to flatline or something😂 13:19

  • @95Comics
    @95Comics Год назад

    sonnet cards! my favorite! ive never had this one. or even seen it before only read about it. so awesome!

  • @dropes
    @dropes Год назад

    I haven't watched it yet (stopped literally at 1:02), but I just wanted to say that I love the onomatopoeias in your videos.

  • @georgesenda1952
    @georgesenda1952 Год назад +1

    I loved my G3 and iMac DV but hated that the cd drives would stop working and the same goes for my beloved clamshell I book.
    I hated the slot loading ones.
    I hope to get another G3 or G4 this year so I can play my older games with an external Apple CD drive.
    I still have all my Apple 2 computers, all 6 of them.
    I love older games.

    • @Scott__C
      @Scott__C Год назад +1

      I never had a problem with a slot loader myself.

  • @organiccold
    @organiccold Год назад

    Now, that was actually really cool :)

  • @alextirrellRI
    @alextirrellRI Год назад

    I love that this adds FireWire but also keeps the mezzanine slot.

  • @thenerd6192
    @thenerd6192 Год назад +2

    A daughter card of a daughter card? Like some kind of granddaughter card?

  • @bmichel5581
    @bmichel5581 Год назад +3

    I'm curious how this would stack up against Dosdude1's 400Mhz G4 / 1MB L2 upgrade he did to his slot loader

  • @zaxchannel2834
    @zaxchannel2834 Год назад

    I recall being sad I wasn't able to do a CPU upgrade in the 600MHz Snow iMac G3 I used to have :P

  • @fenixlolnope361
    @fenixlolnope361 Год назад

    Ugh I wanted this thing SO BAD as a kid. Literally turns any iMac into a modern PC.

  • @wifinesesi
    @wifinesesi 11 месяцев назад

    Enjoy it

  • @drewbeattie6346
    @drewbeattie6346 Год назад +6

    Pretty cool upgrade. Have to ask, what is that SSD to firewire adapter you got there?

    • @DatBlueHusky
      @DatBlueHusky Год назад

      its just a generic firewire external drive to a ssd. I have one thats 2.5 sata and i just stick a 120gb ssd in it

  • @GraemeWoller
    @GraemeWoller Год назад

    Rocking that NIN T-shirt, bro!!

  • @therobb5738
    @therobb5738 Год назад +1

    Love the Nine Inch Nails shirt

  • @keancv
    @keancv Год назад

    love the video. The sweaty palms is what makes everything worthwile. Rather than do the screen repair, F-B transformer, what about a mod to use a modern LCD?

  • @2dfx
    @2dfx Год назад +2

    I'm pretty sure the Sonnet ROM code modification breaks XPostFacto...could be mistaken though.

  • @SullySadface
    @SullySadface Год назад

    That's actually pretty neat. I'd love an old Jolly Rancher g3 just to chew on it
    yes, literally.

  • @stpworld
    @stpworld Год назад

    i have a dv imac and the schooo left all there stuff and made a cool start up screen to

  • @PhirePhlame
    @PhirePhlame Год назад +1

    Huh, judging by the beeps and the fact that it works while there's no ROM present on the system, there must be some kind of built-in service feature that the software uses to flash the ROM?

  • @MattJones210585
    @MattJones210585 Год назад +1

    Absolutely brilliant video. Same as all your content. As a fellow retro modder I salute you! Keep it up dude!

  • @wojiaobill
    @wojiaobill Год назад

    what a sweet-A55 drive

  • @weok-doing-things
    @weok-doing-things Год назад

    those beepings sounds like lifesupport lol

  • @mdkoehn
    @mdkoehn Год назад +1

    I wonder if it would be possible to erase or replace the ROM on the upgrade card to restore it to "new" state.

  • @okkrom
    @okkrom Год назад +2

    Can I call myself a shenaniganner?

    • @minty_Joe
      @minty_Joe Год назад +1

      Evil shenaniganner!

  • @brucesyvertsen2147
    @brucesyvertsen2147 Год назад

    Great timing. I just purchased one of these G3's. Now to start looking for the upgrade card :-) Also what brand is the smaller electric screwdriver you're using? Looks like something I need too! Very informative post.

    • @GrimeyJr
      @GrimeyJr Год назад +1

      Looks like a wow stick or similar.

    • @brucesyvertsen2147
      @brucesyvertsen2147 Год назад

      @@GrimeyJr thanks so much for that! Found and ordering.

  • @BladeOlson
    @BladeOlson Год назад

    I would suggest you keep this at OS 9, it is the ultimate 1st iMac RevB

  • @rickkarrer8370
    @rickkarrer8370 Год назад

    I wanted one of those so badly back when they were new, but couldn't justify the price. Ended up getting an eMac later instead lol.

  • @Killerspieler0815
    @Killerspieler0815 Год назад

    getting to the hard drive is not that annoying considering today´s user hostility of Apple´s Standards incl. "repair"-program ...
    but installing this old MacOS version from an external DVD-drive is amazing, Windows often had problems with it ...
    Edit: we have a heart beat, literally ...

  • @stevencarlson5422
    @stevencarlson5422 Год назад

    where in the world do you find this awesome stuff

  • @enilenis
    @enilenis Год назад

    The odds of the flyback transformer fixing the issue, I think, are minimal. Something's generating an extra drain. Some capacitor must have an ESR out of whack.

  • @asystole_
    @asystole_ 2 месяца назад

    Love the NIN t-shirt!

  • @tappdarden
    @tappdarden Год назад

    I had a rev D new. And I wanted this accelerator so much. Would be great to have FireWire !

  • @TUUK2006
    @TUUK2006 Год назад +1

    This over-animated, try-hard presentation style is bloody exhausting.

  • @banks3388
    @banks3388 Год назад

    If you get the very first iMac G3 with the Mezzanine card you can actually get a custom Voodooo 2 extreme card for it...

  • @brentconley8902
    @brentconley8902 8 месяцев назад

    Man, I was excited to see you try to play on it. Never happened lol

  • @morosmokhtar9532
    @morosmokhtar9532 Год назад

    PC guy here:
    Kinda sad apple doesn't allow this kind of tinkering with their toys anymore. I don't know why, but watching mac guys tinker with their stuff gives me nerd comradery vibes. Just the other day I jumped through some fun hoops to get USB-C on an older machine and I had a similar giddy reaction by the end lol. Anyways - long way of saying I liked your video and I hope you keep it up for many years to come.

  • @JakeR0bH
    @JakeR0bH Год назад

    HARMONi Overclock? More like HARMONi Overdrive!

  • @wskinnyodden
    @wskinnyodden Год назад +3

    Who knows why Firewire become named Firewire, I do :P
    Burning cables due to low quality thinner than it should be copper was the nick name and final name root cause in that order :P

  • @zatomlzxzanamolzy1253
    @zatomlzxzanamolzy1253 Год назад

    Feels like buying upgrades for a 1991 VHS 📼 player. It's working better now, but the videos have been uploaded to many digital mediums, and they're all better than all the upgrades in the world. It can make a VHS player match the quality. Much as this OS could probably be emulated on a microwave and still outperform this, even with every single ossible upgrade. 😆 🤣

    • @waterheart95
      @waterheart95 Год назад

      Classic Power PC MacOS emulation is currently does not much an actual mac in performance, especially if graphics or a task that actually hits the powerpc cpu.
      Sound emulation is also not the greatest also.

  • @jessestrobel2
    @jessestrobel2 Год назад

    Based T-shirt. I'm sure you know about TurboSynth!