It fired up once, so I figured why not one more time and try and break into it. I had some limited success. I will be posting a video of it, but I need to edit it before I can upload it. During the process I found some great resources for the NeXT geeks out there. The best resource I have found is over at http://www.nextcomputers.org.
Command + ~ dumped me into the ROM monitor. From here I was expecting to be dropped into single-user mode and reset the password for it. I was able to get into the monitor, but as you can see from the shot, it never went beyond that. I tried more than a couple of times and different methods, but always came up with a crash.
A sidenote, the keyboard is a joy to use. I am not sure what it is about some of the old school keyboards, but they have a feel to them that one just doesn’t find very often. The mouse is built to last and does have some heft to it. Which is fine by me as I get frustrated with those mice that feel so light that they might blow away.
I kind of expected it in a way. The hardware is old and the system hasn’t been fired up in over 15 years. I won’t give up yet. It is just time to re-evaluate the project. In my research travels I have found a couple of place that seem to sell hardware. The hard disk replacement will be on my research list next. While this one is spinning up, it is a bit of a noise maker.
I still do have a copy of 3.3 on disc, but didn’t have the boot floppies around. I had sold them a ways back, they were part of my Mac OS collection I had. Anyhow, I was able to find them and download images of them. I figured if I couldn’t get the hardware up a going then get it going on a VM; Parallels by choice. I have started the process of trying to get it going. I have found a couple of guides that have some good information. Once I have it going I will post it here and hopefully over at nextcomputer.org too.
I enjoy keeping around an older OS. Pretty much just to keep it around, but also there are a couple of games I still like to play on the older OSes like the original Dark Castle. And HyperCard is fun to mess around with every now and again. I need to search for my link where I got this one from and share it when I do.
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