Power Mac G4 Cube - Power Supply replacement

The Power Mac G4 Cube is a very unique Apple computer, with its special and compact desktop (for the time at least) "cube" form factor. It features  easy access to its internal components for (some) upgrades, but mostly, this accessibility is used to show off to your friends and family. Unfortunately, it ended up being a commercial failure due to lack of specific market focus and higher price compared to other Apple products of its time with similar or higher specs. Thus, it had a very short life span, being produced only between July 2000 and July 2001 what today lead to a somewhat rare and collectible Mac.

The Cube, like most Apple products, is a solid machine and if you are lucky enough to find a reasonably priced one, most units tend to be working to this day. Among the non-working ones available, chances are that it's because of its power supply (PSU) being dead. Sadly, the Cube PSU is custom made for the Cube, using a proprietary connector cable - making it very rare / expensive to find a plug and play replacement. 

Thankfully, you are lucky enough to come across this article! :)

Rebuilding an iBook G3 Clamshell battery

As the Clamshell and retro laptops in general get older, it gets harder and harder to find batteries for them. That's understandable as the demand is also negligible and most older laptops end up on a landfill or at a electronics recycling facility unfortunately. Luckily for us, retro computer enthusiasts and collectors alike, it is possible to rebuild some older laptop batteries with standard new cell you can still buy today.

The iBook G3 Clamshell is a classic Apple laptop from the late 90s and early 2000s (it was sold from 1999 to 2001 to exact). It has the now "iconic" colour shell that matched the iMac G3 CRTs of that era. For their unique design and relatively low duration run (it had less than a 2 years run), it is also getting harder to find and thus its price has increased. 

More details about the iBook G3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBook

An indigo iBook G3 clamshell and it's unique holder 

Adding voice to the original DOS versions of Monkey Island 1 and 2

Hello everyone! 

Being a big fan of the LucasFilm (then LucasArts) point and click games from the late 80s / early 90s, I wanted to try playing these games in one of my vintage computers.

I recently installed the latest PowerPC version (v2.1.2) of ScummVM on my PowerBook G4 12" and it ran great! It was fun to re-visit a few LucasArts games of my childhood running well on the vintage, small form factor, and sturdy aluminum Apple laptop from 2004. I feel the trackpad in this PowerBook is very responsive and a perfect fit for a point-and-click adventure game.

I've played a bit of Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade (The Graphic Adventure), of course I wanted to try the the Special Editions released in 2009 and 2010 of Monkey Island 1 and 2. I needed to try the original DOS versions of The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: Le Chuck's Revenge to see them running on the PowerPC / MacOS.