Apple’s official Mac licensing program in the mid-90s only lasted a bit over two years, but some companies came out with clones so compelling they almost put Apple out of business.
MeowToast 1/2AA battery adapter (not always in stock): https://www.etsy.com/shop/GeekyBitRetroPCParts
Music featured at 18:26 by Dan Mason: https://danmason.bandcamp.com/album/void
Sources:
“For Apple, Clones and Competition,” New York Times, December 29, 1994.
“Power Computing swamped by Mac demand,” Computerworld, November 4, 1996.
“Mac OS Systems,” MacUser, September 1996.
“Power Computing Widens the Gap,” Macworld, September 1996.
PowerTower Pro cache module photo: https://www.recycledgoods.com/power-computing-corp-power-tower-pro-225-apple-clone-225-45-mhz-processor-3-2-gb-hhd-128-mb-ram-tower/
“Quantum Leap,” Macworld, July 1998.
“275MHz Mac Powerhouse,” Macworld, September 1997.
“Apple Eliminates the Top Clone Vendor,” Macworld, November 1997.
Computer Chronicles Mac clones episode: https://archive.org/details/MacClone95
“The Vast Mac Expanse,” Macworld, December 1996.
Power Mac 8500 photo: https://www.mediaarchaeologylab.com/collection/apple-power-macintosh-8500180-f8f54c2
“Apple misses mark; reports $708M loss,” Computerworld, April 21, 1997.
“Why Apple Pulled the Plug,” Macworld, November 1997.
Micropolis hard drive photo: https://imgur.com/PuaMB
“Double Troubles Send APS to Chapter 11,” https://www.wired.com/1998/02/double-troubles-send-aps-to-chapter-11/
“LaCie to Purchase APS,” https://tidbits.com/1998/03/09/la-cie-to-purchase-aps-2/
“Power Computing offers clones with a difference,” InfoWorld, October 30, 1995.
Power Computing Mac OS 8 CD photo courtesy Action Retro: https://www.youtube.com/actionretro
“Apple shoots its clones and tries to go it alone,” InfoWorld, September 8, 1997.
00:00 – Introduction
00:31 – One fast Mac
01:46 – Someone’s been in here…
02:24 – Hard drive upgrade from a competitor
04:23 – Lots of RAM
05:10 – Add-in PCI cards
06:32 – Modular CPU card
07:18 – Something’s missing…
07:49 – Time for more upgrades
09:15 – Modern PRAM battery replacement
11:37 – OS installation and peripherals
13:25 – These benchmarks suck
14:23 – Putting the power back into this PowerTower
16:01 – The Mac clone drama
19:13 – Death of a clone maker
20:38 – USB problems
21:23 – This thing was pretty badass in its day
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Music by Epidemic Sound (https://www.epidemicsound.com).
Intro music by BoxCat Games (https://freemusicarchive.org/music/BoxCat_Games).
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117th
An example of why closed platforms eventually fail. The mac is a failure in the grand scheme of things.
Brilliant. As usual.
14:53 haha wow, don't usually see my small-ish midwestern hometown on retro PC parts very often! I've also never heard of that INTEREX, Inc./XLR8 company either. Hmm, there's a Google search in my future…
Hey Colin, how’s it going? I love all the research and company history offered in this video, fantastic video!
PowerComputing was the top performance clone maker because they pushed the machines as hard as possible. They were supposed to release a model with a 60MHz bus but I don't think it ever happened since none of Apple's Tsunami custom support chips were rated over 50MHz and PCC probably couldn't get enough that were stable at 60MHz. Also, if I had the choice between the sturdy and easy-to-use case of a PowerTower Pro vs. the cheaply built and difficult-to-service 9500, it's not hard to see why more people would've preferred the PowerTower Pro (or Umax S900 or Daystar Genesis): Apple's desktop designs were atrocious in the mid-90s.
That "L2 cache" card you found is actually a ROM for one of the earlier G1/NuBus models (they used ROM SIMMs, both Apple and clones), and the similar G1 L2 cache modules would also be incompatible here. If you want to go back to the stock CPU, check around for a G2/PCI cache module. They're not uncommon, but you may have trouble finding a 1MB variant. As for USB, look for anything with an OPTi FireLink chipset. These were shipped onboard USB-based Macs for years and are trouble-free. Also any NEC USB 2.0 chipset (though you won't get the 2.0 speeds in Classic Mac OS).
I had a PowerCenter Pro 210 which I absolutely loved.
I have some kind of Mac Clone like that in my storage shed. In about 2004 I took possession of it for a lawsuit – the lawyer asked me to keep it intact for when the case went to trial. And that was last I heard about the trial! I think that 18 years later it is probably safe for me to stop storing it.
LMAO CD burners were NOT common in the late 90s. You basically had to be rich to have one
Jobs was the best fraud of the century!
I seem to remember 3rd party USB cards having their own drivers most of the time. These days it's a little easier to find drivers by the chipset and get yourself a deal, but in the classic Mac OS days it was so challenging to find Mac compatible cards unless they were by a Sonnet or OWC or something.
I would 3rd party all the new age accessories to bring this bad boy to its maximum potential.
Nice ai upscaled images bruv
Importantly, these machines were supposed to adhere to the new "Common Hardware Reference Platform" which was supported by Digital (Alpha) and MIPS and would have ultimately allowed running Windows NT, which vs MacOS 7, was a no-contest. Apple absolutely did not have a proper OS to compete at all and Jobs knew it.
USB cards with NEC chipset are the most compatible
Ooouuu, i had that 225. Its like time machine going to my earlier days. I was a mac man up to 2002 scaling down after introduction of osX 10.0 which i just hated. Double g4, grey imac, grey clamshell and 2x 12 inch + 1x 15 inch power books finished my over 10 years and over 60 in total machines (+ external scsi flat and film scanners, cd burners, both omegas, syquest, zips, laser & ink printers, idiotic dvd- drives, first wacoms and more) apple adventure. Still got plus/minus 20 complete (and maybe working) incl futured power pc, black and white tulips (table top performa with philips tv tuners in it and remotes = direct pre-imac). Got to undust the strorage and move few cubic meters of stuff one day to get there and check whats salvable.
Couldn't you just install the ZIP drive in the top drive bay and not use the power adapter cable at all?
The Mac clones are so much fun to play with.
A PowerComputing clone is high on my dream list of vintage Macs to add to my collection. Still wish I hadn't gone with a Performa 6220CD and waited just a little bit to get a PowerBase 180 or something.
2:52 Just noticed that the headline in the ad reads "It does 0-60 in 3 nanoseconds" "Fuzzy dice ot included"
NEC USB chipset just works
I was buying cars at £5, selling them at £25. None ever came back
I think that the USB card worked but they was not hot swappable if you powered down and boot with the USB drive already inserted it should see it but anyway great video and a nice blast from the past.
Am so happy we don't use ribbon cable anymore
I find this very interesting the clones were giving Apple a run for their money and they literally had to buy out the competition! If you can't beat them, buy them, then kill them. 😂
Old computers makes my ocd go crazy. No cable management possible 😂
Yeah, 20 minutes or so is perfect for your videos.
I used to use one of these back when I was a graphic artist to render complex 3d graphs in mathematics. They were definitely necessary back in the mid to late 90s for that
Imagine if Sony said yes to installing Mac OS on their VAIO
Oh yes the beige mac clones. It wasn't that you didn't have a choice on the PC. If you ignored the white. You could pick from several sizes and designs of tower and desktop cases. The problem is was cost. You had to pay more $$$ for it and tons of generic built clones used cheap and ugly looking white cases.
I own a PowerMac 7600. I've owned it for years. It came with a PPC 604e cpu, 32 mb of ram and 1gb hard drive. I bought a 350 mhz G3 upgrade for it. I easily get that cpu up to 400 mhz. I upgraded the ram to something like 256 mb too, something that would have been insane back in the day. Oh and a Ati rage 128 mac edition video card. I can boot anything from Mac OS 7.5 to Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar. It's a neat mac. I have many of the Macintosh magazines from the day reviewing these clones. In many ways I aways thought the idea was kind of silly. Apple is Apple and anything that costs Apple can't exist long. The clones was an example of this. But the idea wasn't without merit. It was thought that the risc cpus like 601 and 604 would help AIM (Apple IBM and Motorola) dominate the market and help break Intel and thus Microsofts virtual monopoly. It didn't of course happen. But it's not as if the respective companies deeply invested themselves in doing that either. They made CPUs, systems and a few alternative operating systems then kind of walked away.
Had a 250 with the 400MHz G3 upgrade back in 2014 from a rummage sale. They were great machines.
I sold my 400MHz card last year at a swap meet and still have the rest of the machine, but it's in very rough shape after getting manhandled in a move. I'm probably going to part it out.
my gms/softex softs terrible and way different then urs what do i do
Ali USB cards were a massive PITA on the PC market too – they were known for it when I was building those "early" towers.
Didn't they try sellimg the systems with another OS tied to it ?
imagine almost going bankrupt as soon as you get fair competition.
i don't get why apple still exists.