| Quick Facts | Mac 128k |
|---|---|
| Introduced | January 24, 1984 |
| Discontinued | October 1, 1985 |
| Processor | Motorola 68000, 8 MHz |
| ROM Size | 64 KB |
| RAM Size | 128 KB |
| Original Price | $2,495 USD |
Macintosh 128k
This is the Mac that started it all. The Macintosh 128k wasn’t the first computer to use a mouse-driven graphical user interface but was the first affordable personal computer to do so. Affordable is a relative term but this level of graphical sophistication at this price point was previously unavailable.
Two days prior to its official introduction, this little beige “appliance” made history in the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII at its debut in the now famous 1984 Orwellian TV commercial.
To the command-line world of 1984, the bundled MacWrite and MacPaint software were amazing on the 512×342 pixel display in all of its 9-inch, monochrome glory. Storage was accomplished with the built-in single-sided, 400k floppy drive.
The original Macintosh Division was so proud of their revolutionary product that they “signed” their names by molding their signatures into the inside of the case.
However much loved, users did struggle with the limitations and third-party upgrades sprang up to increase memory and even upgrade the processor. Clearly Apple needed to offer a more powerful system if they were going to gain a larger following, as many perceived the original Mac as little more than a toy.
Thank goodness that Steve Jobs hadn’t perfected his reality distortion field yet and Jef Raskin’s choice of name prevailed. It seems Steve preferred the name “Bicycle” to Macintosh. I shudder to think I could be calling my current Mac an iBicycle.
The earliest models were known simply as “Macintosh” but with the arrival of the Macintosh 512k, subsequent systems were rebranded as “Macintosh 128k.” The Macintosh 512k became known as the “Fat Mac,” so the Mac 128k came to be known as the “Thin Mac.”
system software
Mac System Software v0.0.97, System v1.0, Finder v1.0
etymology
[1] The name Macintosh was coined by Jef Raskin, Apple employee #31, who named the project Macintosh “for my favorite kind of eatin’ apple, the succulent McIntosh.”
[2] The nickname “Thin Mac” referred to the small amount of RAM, as opposed to its successor.
design
Photo credit: Apple
