Volume IV
Power and Color
From expandable towers to design experiments, this era charts Apple at its most ambitious — and most troubled. The machines were extraordinary. The company nearly went bankrupt making them.
The Towers
The Narrative
In the early 1990s, Apple built the fastest personal computers money could buy. No corner was cut. No expense was spared. The price tags reflected it.
Macintosh IIcx
Apple • 1989
A slimmed-down IIx in a smaller case — the first Mac that fit under a monitor. The IIcx proved that expandable Macs didn't have to be tower-sized.
Macintosh IIci
Apple • 1989
The IIci was the first Mac with a built-in cache slot and was so popular that it stayed in production for three years. A workhorse that outlasted most of its contemporaries.
Macintosh IIfx
RareApple • 1990
Apple called it 'wicked fast' in the ads. At $10,000 in 1990, it cost more than most cars. The IIfx used a 40 MHz 68030, dedicated I/O processors for each expansion slot, and custom DRAM timing Apple developed in-house. The fastest 68030 Mac ever shipped.
Quadra 700
Apple • 1991
The first 68040 Mac. Quiet, fast, and expensive — a professional's tool in a desktop case that looks like it was designed for a bank vault. 25 MHz 68040, onboard Ethernet, 20MB RAM standard. No expense spared.
When Color Arrived
1993 was the year the Mac stopped being beige. Apple shipped a compact Mac with a color screen, an all-black Mac with a TV tuner, and dozens of Performa models at every price point.
Macintosh TV
Apple • 1993
One of only 10,000 ever made. The only all-black Mac Apple ever sold commercially. It had a real TV tuner — you could watch cable through your Mac. Fully recapped analog board and logic board. Still works, including the TV.
Color Classic
Apple • 1993
Apple's last compact Mac, and the first with color. The Color Classic had a fixed 512×384 display — smaller than every other Mac of its era. This one carries the 'Mystic' upgrade: a Color Classic II logic board, giving it a 68030 and double the original RAM.
Performa 6400/200
Apple • 1996
The Performa line was Apple's attempt to sell Macs through consumer channels — Sears, Circuit City, warehouse clubs. The 6400 is notable for its "pizza box" minitower design and the G3 upgrade it carries.
Design Experiments
The Narrative
By the mid-1990s, Apple was experimenting. Not all of it worked. Some of it — the TAM, the 540c — was extraordinary.
PowerBook 540c
Apple • 1994
The PowerBook 500 series had a built-in trackpad before anyone else. The 540c 'Blackbird' was the top of the line — active-matrix color, 33 MHz 68LC040, stereo speakers. A machine so good it embarrassed the PC competition for years.
Twentieth Anniversary Mac
Very RareApple • 1997
2,000 units, each hand-delivered by a Macintosh specialist in a business suit, with a bottle of champagne. This one runs Mac OS 9, BeOS 5.0.3, and has been upgraded to a G3 400MHz. Twenty years of Apple history in a single machine.