A user had the idea of opening one of those devices that are left in a closet, buried among other old boxes, and what he found was like a time tunnel. Go ahead and throw it away if it occurs to you.. Obsolescence, what? Apple knows how to combat it: if the storage conditions are right, a Mac seems to withstand the elements without fear.
The computer in question is a Mac 512k. And the Macintosh 512K was a real beast. Not for nothing It went on sale for $2,795, the equivalent of about 8,000 euros today.. And that’s because those 512K mean twice as much RAM as the original model, which is why this computer was called the Fat Mac. A computer with a Motorola 68000 processor with a peak clock speed of 7.8338 MHz, normally operating at 6 MHz. Put on sale in 1984 and discontinued less than two years later, in 2014 its owner was able to confirm that it was still working.
There are users who keep authentic relics at home. Like that 600 euro iPhone that the house paid for its owner or that iPod forgotten in a cupboard that ended up sold for the value of a new car. Relics that end up auctioned and sold for real fortunes. And let’s not even talk about the evening dress that used by Steve Jobs during the presentation of the Macintosh itself in 1984.
We don’t know if Ariel Fink’s life has suffered the same fate. What is clear is that one day he arrived at his parents’ house and this recent graduate came across a computer that his mother was keeping. As we said, that computer was a complete Macintosh 512K, accompanied by an Imagewriter printer and an Apple Hard Disk 20. The 20, by the way, refers to the 20 megabytes of hard disk space. This is the same size as a couple of songs compressed in MP3 format.
Because the most amazing thing is that throughout a series of photographs was able to demonstrate that the equipment was working correctly. It started on the first try, without the slightest fault. In fact, Ariel didn’t even bother to set up a desk and install the monitor on a table.: He plugged everything in from the floor, with the curiosity of a child, and checked how he could load the menu, open folders and navigate with the mouse included in the pack.
It is easy to find one of these devices but not working. However, this model is not only in perfect condition, it also came with a clean box, with all the perfect packaging, with the manuals, stickers and cables, with the Imagewriter printer operational and the keyboard and mouse in their separate boxes and with no visible signs of wear. A technological gem that can even be used today to process word, edit books and play old video games.
An older version of this article was originally published on 11/08/2023.