Welcome to bigD's little space dedicated to the craziness that is RetroChallenge. To learn more about the RetroChallenge you'll have to head on over to the 68K Macintosh Liberation Army website. Although the Retrochallenge is the impetus behind the following madness, I've always had an interest in older Macintosh computers, and the challenge was more of a catalyst behind doing something that I've wanted to do for years - to find creative ways to use an old computer for day to day needs. I've attempted to make this site as modest as I can to allow viewing from the widest range of computers possible.

The Retrochallenge is not very specific as to what computer should be used for this, and that's perfectly fine by me. I'm sure my version of 'retro' is likely very different from the next guy's. After a bit of not-so-careful thought into the matter, I've decided to use the Macintosh IIcx as my luddite computer of choice.

If you're curious as to why I chose the IIcx, or want to learn a little more about my IIcx in general, go here.

I intend to keep a running blog of my experiences with the IIcx as I upgrade it and use it as part of the Retrochallenge. Pictures will be provided as needed in the blog entries, however I've created a separate picture section if you'd like to access the images directly.

12/11/06 - a IIcx? Are you f*@#&%^ kidding me?
12/28/06 - getting this bad boy connected to the internet.
12/29/06 - benchmarking! Exactly how slow *is* this thing?
12/30/06 - luddite's Warm-Up Challenge!
01/02/07 - installing some apps.
01/05/07 - aaack! My IIcx dies on me. A IIsi to the rescue!
01/14/07 - my PowerBook 170 arrives!

01/17/07 - Warm-Up Challenge: It begins!
01/20/07 - Warm-Up Challenge: Playing with the PowerBook.
01/21/07 - Warm-Up Challenge: A day of sucking at Bolo!
01/28/07 - Warm-Up Challenge: Running silently.
01/30/07 - Warm-Up Challenge: More silent computing!
02/01/07 - Warm-Up Challenge: Some closing thoughts.

07/06/07 - RetroChallenge! I'm back at it!

12/11/06

• The Mac IIcx as initially set up in late November 2006.
  
• The innards of the IIcx. The Toby graphics card is in the left Nubus slot.
  
• The innards with the power supply removed. Notice the socketed 68030 with the gold name plate on top.
  
• System 6.0.8 in action!

12/28/06

• The signatures on the bottom case.
  
• A closeup of the 68030 processor.
  
• A closeup of the 68882 co-processor.
  
• The Apple Ethernet Nubus Card.
  
• A closer look at the 10MHz 68000.
  
• The innards with the ethernet card installed.
  
• A Telnet session in action!

12/30/06

• Hypercard in action!
  

01/20/07

• The exterior of my IIsi.
  
• The IIsi with the case removed.
  
• The IIsi's motherboard.
  
• My PowerBook 170.
  

• Bolo on the IIsi.
  
• My workspace.