Fully-functional replica of original Macintosh created using Raspberry Pi

Here's a slice of history for you: RetroMacCast's John Leake has used a Raspberry Pi to create a miniature, fully-functional replica of the original Macintosh..

Shunal Doke|Aug 29, 2013, 14:49:15 IST

Here's a slice of history for you: RetroMacCast's John Leake has used a Raspberry Pi to create a miniature, fully-functional replica of the original Macintosh, which was released in 1984. According to Engadget, the replica is called the Mini Mac and runs on System 6 through the open source Mini vMac emulator. Check it out in action in the video below:

The computer has a 3.5-inch display with a resolution of 320 x 200 pixels, but since the Raspberry Pi pushes out 512 x 384 pixels, the icons and text look larger. According to Leake, it is also the ideal resolution for Mini vMac. The computer is crafted from a PVC board and runs off a Raspberry Pi. To get that fit, however, the cables had to be soldered, and the SD card and part of the USB cable had to be cut off.

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Despite being a replica of an old-school computer, the Mini Mac has some modern connectivity options. It supports keyboards and mice over Bluetooth, has two USB ports, an HDMI slot and an Ethernet port.

The Mini Mac is around 1/3 the size of the original Macintosh

Element 14, the company behind the Raspberry Pi, recently launched the Raspberry Pi Projects hub, which stacks up community projects according to skill level. There are three levels in the new hub—Beginner, Intermediate and Expert—and users can pick the category of their preference to get started. Thus, newcomers can get tutorials for the most basic projects, while veterans can sink their teeth into things like building home monitoring systems.

By Shunal Doke

Ever heard of one of those people who just never seem to shut up about something? Shunal is like the nerd equivalent of that guy. Believe us when we say that he can go on talking about games and smartphones for hours on end. We do manage to find some insight in his insane ramblings though, and through his moronic facade, he does seem to know more than he lets on. Sadly enough, it always ends up being about gaming with him. Or stupid, stupid puns.