This Rare Accelerator Only Works on This Mac

Ғылым және технология

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Today we're building a super-rare Sonnet HARMONi upgraded Bondi Blue iMac G3!
LINKS:
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🍎 Fixing the iMac's Display: • This iMac G3 Has a Ter...
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#iMac #PowerPC #Sonnet

Пікірлер: 250

  • @charlesswansonii9319
    @charlesswansonii9319 Жыл бұрын

    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

    Жыл бұрын

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

  • @iiiiiifggffggffgfgfg

    @iiiiiifggffggffgfgfg

    Жыл бұрын

    And all the other OS9 gaming.

  • @jlj945

    @jlj945

    Жыл бұрын

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

  • @commentarysheep

    @commentarysheep

    Жыл бұрын

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

  • @nickwallette6201

    @nickwallette6201

    Жыл бұрын

    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 Жыл бұрын

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

  • @akatsukilevi
    @akatsukilevi Жыл бұрын

    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

    10 ай бұрын

    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

    10 ай бұрын

    @@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 Жыл бұрын

    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

    Жыл бұрын

    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

    Жыл бұрын

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

  • @organiccold

    @organiccold

    Жыл бұрын

    Be strong 💪

  • @kazeko0

    @kazeko0

    Жыл бұрын

    Hope things get better for you bro

  • @kryskarr23

    @kryskarr23

    Жыл бұрын

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

  • @krishnapriyaka3261
    @krishnapriyaka326110 ай бұрын

    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 Жыл бұрын

    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!

  • @halfsourlizard9319
    @halfsourlizard9319 Жыл бұрын

    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 Жыл бұрын

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

  • @JustFixIt99
    @JustFixIt99 Жыл бұрын

    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

    Жыл бұрын

    problem is the firmware might not work and brick it

  • @eDoc2020

    @eDoc2020

    Жыл бұрын

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

  • @eDoc2020

    @eDoc2020

    10 ай бұрын

    @@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.

  • @slowednation999
    @slowednation999 Жыл бұрын

    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

    7 ай бұрын

    I love how our childhood dreams can come true!

  • @Kyle-xv5kv
    @Kyle-xv5kv Жыл бұрын

    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

    Жыл бұрын

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

  • @AmstradExin

    @AmstradExin

    Жыл бұрын

    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.

  • @AlexKiraly
    @AlexKiraly Жыл бұрын

    I just love the enthusiasm on this channel.

  • @StarFireG3
    @StarFireG3 Жыл бұрын

    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.

  • @nucflashevent
    @nucflashevent27 күн бұрын

    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.

  • @CralexKokiri
    @CralexKokiri Жыл бұрын

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

  • @NightimeDemon
    @NightimeDemon Жыл бұрын

    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!

  • @alwinter
    @alwinter Жыл бұрын

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

  • @notation254
    @notation254 Жыл бұрын

    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.

  • @DavidStahlOLDHAPPyMACs
    @DavidStahlOLDHAPPyMACs Жыл бұрын

    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

  • @theharbingerofconflation
    @theharbingerofconflation Жыл бұрын

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

  • @MikeFromDownUnder
    @MikeFromDownUnder Жыл бұрын

    Thanks for sharing this.

  • @JohnSmith-xq1pz
    @JohnSmith-xq1pz Жыл бұрын

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

  • @halfsourlizard9319

    @halfsourlizard9319

    Жыл бұрын

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

  • @MSmith-Photography
    @MSmith-Photography Жыл бұрын

    The upgrade shenanigans are a success!

  • @stevemcknelly5036
    @stevemcknelly5036 Жыл бұрын

    One of your better videos. I truly enjoyed it!

  • @wagnerpanther
    @wagnerpanther Жыл бұрын

    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.

  • @anumeon
    @anumeon Жыл бұрын

    Well it sure is a Solid A55 State storage media.

  • @performa9523
    @performa9523 Жыл бұрын

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

  • @CasioMaker
    @CasioMaker Жыл бұрын

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

  • @ManleyEvangelista

    @ManleyEvangelista

    Жыл бұрын

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

  • @paulwalker427
    @paulwalker427 Жыл бұрын

    Splendid episode

  • @MoominBoomin
    @MoominBoomin Жыл бұрын

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

  • @8ullfrog
    @8ullfrog Жыл бұрын

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

  • @halfsourlizard9319

    @halfsourlizard9319

    Жыл бұрын

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

  • @nickwallette6201

    @nickwallette6201

    Жыл бұрын

    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.

  • @jdmcs
    @jdmcs Жыл бұрын

    Nice upgrade!

  • @MrGencyExit64
    @MrGencyExit64 Жыл бұрын

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

  • @larrydanna
    @larrydanna Жыл бұрын

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

  • @JayJay-88
    @JayJay-88 Жыл бұрын

    Yay, new Action Retro video 🥰

  • @gaeljehnno
    @gaeljehnno Жыл бұрын

    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.

  • @BladeOlson
    @BladeOlson Жыл бұрын

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

  • @RiggityWRECKED
    @RiggityWRECKED19 күн бұрын

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

  • @The-i-Shakk
    @The-i-Shakk Жыл бұрын

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

  • @waydegutman7339
    @waydegutman7339 Жыл бұрын

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

  • @chrism869

    @chrism869

    Жыл бұрын

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

  • @wifinesesi
    @wifinesesi10 ай бұрын

    Enjoy it

  • @95Comics
    @95Comics Жыл бұрын

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

  • @Neumaticgrunt
    @Neumaticgrunt17 күн бұрын

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

  • @liaminwales
    @liaminwales Жыл бұрын

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

  • @GraemeWoller
    @GraemeWoller Жыл бұрын

    Rocking that NIN T-shirt, bro!!

  • @benotsilent6703
    @benotsilent6703 Жыл бұрын

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

  • @nitrax8629
    @nitrax8629 Жыл бұрын

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

  • @organiccold
    @organiccold Жыл бұрын

    Now, that was actually really cool :)

  • @kbhasi
    @kbhasi Жыл бұрын

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

  • @dropes
    @dropes Жыл бұрын

    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.

  • @KennedoMaker
    @KennedoMaker Жыл бұрын

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

  • @drewbeattie6346
    @drewbeattie6346 Жыл бұрын

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

  • @DatBlueHusky

    @DatBlueHusky

    Жыл бұрын

    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

  • @felixg3
    @felixg3 Жыл бұрын

    Hope to see you mod an eMac G4 sometime!

  • @sjgrall
    @sjgrall Жыл бұрын

    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.

  • @suddenlyvlogs
    @suddenlyvlogs Жыл бұрын

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

  • @ericwood3709
    @ericwood3709 Жыл бұрын

    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.

  • @wilsondavenport6939
    @wilsondavenport6939 Жыл бұрын

    ok i would love to see this mac running minecraft!

  • @Philfluffer
    @Philfluffer10 ай бұрын

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

  • @ellenorbjornsdottir1166
    @ellenorbjornsdottir1166 Жыл бұрын

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

  • @georgesenda1952
    @georgesenda1952 Жыл бұрын

    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

    Жыл бұрын

    I never had a problem with a slot loader myself.

  • @keancv
    @keancv Жыл бұрын

    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?

  • @asystole_
    @asystole_Ай бұрын

    Love the NIN t-shirt!

  • @stpworld
    @stpworld Жыл бұрын

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

  • @therobb5738
    @therobb5738 Жыл бұрын

    Love the Nine Inch Nails shirt

  • @emantv5268
    @emantv5268 Жыл бұрын

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

  • @AnthonyChopra
    @AnthonyChopra Жыл бұрын

    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*

  • @bluesjmoon
    @bluesjmoon5 ай бұрын

    what a great video

  • @alextirrellRI
    @alextirrellRI Жыл бұрын

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

  • @wojiaobill
    @wojiaobill Жыл бұрын

    what a sweet-A55 drive

  • @1eyedwilli3
    @1eyedwilli3 Жыл бұрын

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

  • @mel816
    @mel8168 ай бұрын

    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😛

  • @stevencarlson5422
    @stevencarlson5422 Жыл бұрын

    where in the world do you find this awesome stuff

  • @joepena5771
    @joepena5771 Жыл бұрын

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

  • @2dfx
    @2dfx Жыл бұрын

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

  • @tappdarden
    @tappdarden Жыл бұрын

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

  • @mdkoehn
    @mdkoehn Жыл бұрын

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

  • @bmichel5581
    @bmichel5581 Жыл бұрын

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

  • @MattJones210585
    @MattJones210585 Жыл бұрын

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

  • @MagnumForce51
    @MagnumForce51 Жыл бұрын

    How you got it to boot off USB early in the vid? I thought these Rev A to Ds couldn't do it and only the slot loaders that came after supported booting from Fireware only.... :P

  • @PhirePhlame
    @PhirePhlame Жыл бұрын

    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?

  • @SullySadface
    @SullySadface Жыл бұрын

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

  • @jessestrobel2
    @jessestrobel2 Жыл бұрын

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

  • @brucesyvertsen2147
    @brucesyvertsen2147 Жыл бұрын

    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

    Жыл бұрын

    Looks like a wow stick or similar.

  • @brucesyvertsen2147

    @brucesyvertsen2147

    Жыл бұрын

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

  • @weok-doing-things
    @weok-doing-things Жыл бұрын

    those beepings sounds like lifesupport lol

  • @zaxchannel2834
    @zaxchannel2834 Жыл бұрын

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

  • @HungryManticore
    @HungryManticore Жыл бұрын

    Sean, have you heard of Fienix OS? It's a Linux distro based on Debian, created specifically for PowerPC Macs. Might be a good alternative for Adelie.

  • @tenminutetokyo2643
    @tenminutetokyo2643 Жыл бұрын

    Be sure to jam in new power caps.

  • @bltvd
    @bltvd2 ай бұрын

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

  • @fenixlolnope361
    @fenixlolnope361 Жыл бұрын

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

  • @andyttm14
    @andyttm14 Жыл бұрын

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

  • @mickburek3202
    @mickburek32024 ай бұрын

    Did you "bless" the drive before trying to boot off of it? That's what always messes me up when doing stuff like this.

  • @mahdihassan523
    @mahdihassan523 Жыл бұрын

    Nice

  • @moeskido
    @moeskido5 ай бұрын

    Can you provide some information on that Firewire SSD? I could make some good use of one of those!

  • @chrism869
    @chrism869 Жыл бұрын

    Didnt know these existed, cool to see, i need to hunt down an old i mac g3 and do this one day. my inner ego approves

  • @DavideNastri
    @DavideNastri Жыл бұрын

    Damn where do you find those amazing cards?! I WANT ONEEEEEEE

  • @danwat1234
    @danwat12349 ай бұрын

    What about overclocking? May actually need active cooling!

  • @richardwernst
    @richardwernst7 ай бұрын

    So why did you go to OS 9 vs. the 10 you had installed (on spinning drive) to install the card, does it/the installer software have to run under 9? And what did you finally do to fix the nonworking CD drive?

  • @brentconley8902
    @brentconley89027 ай бұрын

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

  • @DonaldTubbs
    @DonaldTubbs Жыл бұрын

    If the Rev D boots far enough to flash it's ROM onto the card can you put it back in the Rev A and boot? Would the Rev A inherit any functions/upgrades from the Rev D?

  • @AngeloTelesforo
    @AngeloTelesforo Жыл бұрын

    I have a revision B and I’ve put a DVD rom in it, but the original processor can’t handle DVD decoding… I wonder if yours now does.

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