create your own original Macintosh

• Matt Evans used an RP2040 microcontroller and some other components.

• You now have hardware that can partially emulate the capabilities of the original Macintosh.

He Original Macintosh He has an interesting story. Not only is it a predecessor to the Macs we use today, but it’s also a faithful embodiment of Apple’s 1980s philosophy. Although the apple company has been on the market since 1977, it was in 1984 that it decided to take on the industry leader with this product, featured in an epic ad during Super Bowl XVIII.

It’s been four decades since Apple tried to “liberate” users from IBM’s dominance with a computer with a small 9-inch monochrome screen, a Motorola 68000 processor, 128 KB of RAM and a 3½-inch floppy drive. Now, in mid-2024, someone has decided to create their own low-cost Macintosh, we are talking about a MicroMac based on Raspberry Pi.

A microcontroller that is also a Macintosh.

It’s no secret that the Raspberry Pi is a delight for technology enthusiasts. These boards can be used to create everything from retro game consoles to mobile phones. A manufacturer named Matt Evans built his own Macintosh 128 K. The project was based on Microcontroller RP2040 with a dual-core Arm Cortex-M0+ processor with 264 KB of RAM and support for various peripherals.

The first step towards realizing this curious initiative was to combine a number of modern components to emulate the experience of an old Apple machine with the greatest possible realism. So in addition to the RP2040, Evans had to purchase a VGA monitor with the appropriate cable, a USB keyboard and mouse, a Micro-B to Micro-A USB OTG adapter, a 5V DC “power supply” and a couple of resistors.

At the hardware level, as we can see in the images and detailed on GitHub, Evans has adapted the RP2040 so that it can handle peripherals and output video. As for the software, in addition to the modules necessary for the emulation to work, the young man received an image System 3.2 (latest version compatible with Macintosh 128K) from WinWord, which included several programs of the time.

After a few days of running, the Raspberry Pi RP2040 in 2024 became a “Macintosh 128K”. In the published images we can see Evans using some programs such as MacWrite word processor or MacDraw vector graphics solution. As they say, all the details of the project were shared by its creator so that everyone could create their own version of the team.

Images | Matt Evans

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