CompactO: Idle Game Mac OS
Compact Macs are those all-in-one Macs with built-in 9″ and 10″ screens, starting with the original Macintosh 128K, which was introduced in January 1984. Models are listed by MacBench score, which approximates real world performance.
model | MacBench (v. SE) | Speedometer 3 | MIPS |
Mac 128K | 0.8 | 0.7 | |
Mac 512K | 0.8 | 0.7 | |
Mac 512Ke | 0.8 | 0.7 | |
Mac Plus | 0.8 | 0.9 | 0.7 |
Mac SE | 1.0 | 1.0 | 0.7 |
Mac Classic | 1.0 | 1.0 | 0.7 |
Mac Color Classic | 1.7 | 3.9 | |
Performa 250 | 1.7 | 3.9 | |
Mac Classic II | 1.8 | 4.0 | 3.9 |
Performa 200 | 1.8 | 4.0 | 3.9 |
Mac SE/30 | 3.2 | 4.0 | 3.9 |
Mac Colour Classic II | 4.6 | ||
Performa 275 | 4.6 |
The Mac Plus had a minor role in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.
Articles About Compact Macs
Wireless Keyboard and Mouse Combo, TopMate 2.4G Ultra Slim Compact Full Size Quiet Scissor Switch Keyboard and Mice Set for Windows, Mac OS, Laptop, PC - (Gray-Black) 4.3 out of 5 stars 2,246 $32.77. Mac OS demo (64-bit) v0.13.20 Oct 19 2016 Demo Compatible with macOS Sierra, OS X El Capitan, Yosemite, Mavericks, Mountain Lion, Lion. This is a free publicly accessible demo. It contains only a.
- The Compact Macs, Matthew Glidden, Profiles in Networking, ATPM, 2002.06. LocalTalk and ethernet networking for compact Macs.
- The Original Macintosh, Dan Knight, Online Tech Journal, 2001.05.29. An in-depth look at the original Macintosh and how it shaped future Macs.
- Macintosh SE Support Pages, Chris Adams. Good info for SE, SE/30 owners.
- Macs That Kill: The Final Part of a Mac Family Saga, Stefano Scalia, The Mac Mind, 2000.11.07. The joy of Macs – until one hits you in the side, breaking your ribs in a car accident.
- Dove Enhanced Mac 512, b.b., MacArchaeologist. First upgraded from 128K, the Dove Mac Snap SCSI upgrade added SCSI and brought memory to a full megabyte.
- Mac System 1.0 Headquarters, Dan Vanderkam. See how far we’ve come.
- Get Your Compact Mac on the Web, Jag’s House. Seminal article on getting a Mac Plus, SE, Classic, Portable, or PowerBook 100 on the Internet.
- Classic Printing for Classic Macs, Manuel Mejia Jr, Mac Daniel, 6/15. Why the best printer for a classic Mac may be the venerable ImageWriter II.
- Games for ‘030s, Brian Rumsey, Low End Mac Gaming, 5/26. A look at games that run nicely on the old 68030-based Macs.
- What Can You Squeeze into a Compact Mac?, Adam Robert Guha, Apple Archive, 5/18. There’s still life in those little Macs.
- New Life for Old Compact Macs, Charles W Moore, Applelinks, 5/18. “If you have an old compact Mac that you would like to revive, say for a child or for a casual computer user who just wants a machine for email and word processing….”
- Web Access for System 6 Macs, Jag’s House. Any Mac the supports System 6.0.8 can access the Web.
- How To: Power Colour Classic, Stuart Bell. How to upgrade a Colour Classic to Power PC.
- Making a Video Adjustment Tool, Chris Lawson, 2000.03.24. Would you believe you can craft one from an old toothbrush?
- A Rescued Fat Mac, Jonathan Wise, My First Mac, 3/6. “I found my first Mac in the garbage….”
- Hands on: Sonnet Presto Plus, Mark Looper, Low End Mac, 3/2. It’s finally shipping, but how much does it improve performance (in this case, of a Color Classic)?
- System 6 for the Macintosh, Ruud Dingemans. If you have an older, slower, memory-limited Mac, System 6 is fast, stable, and still very usable.
- Cruising the web in black & white, John C. Foster, MacWeek, 10/20/1999
- Applied Engineering AE HD+ FAQ, Adam Takessian. The ins and outs of Applied Engineering’s 1.4 MB floppy for the 512Ke, Plus, and 800 KB SE.
- Venerable Old Macs (68000-based models)
- Email lists: Vintage Macs, Classic Macs Digest
- Classic Macs, Mike & His Mac
- Pseud040 lets 68030-based Macs run 68040 programs – I’ve even heard of Mac OS 8.1 Running on a Mac IIsi!
Benchmarks
- Mac Classic II. Was the SE/30’s replacement really as slow as many claim?
- Mac SE/30. We upgraded our SE/30 over the weekend and ran it through its paces. It holds up nicely for an eleven year old machine.
- Mac Plus. We upgraded our Mac Plus from 1 MB to 4 MB, allowing us to run System 7.5.5 and benchmark it. Also, Mac Plus with 16 MHz Brainstorm Upgrade.
RAM Charger from Jump Development ($40) lets you get the most out of your RAM – especially helpful on Macs with 10 MB or less. By launching applications using the minimum amount of memory they need, RAM Charger lets you run more programs. It also works well with RAM Doubler. You can even download a demo.
I have compiled a replicable, dependable, almost understandable set of steps to install Pygame for Python 3 that has worked across four generations of Mac OS X. Pieces of these steps appear in two or three other how-to’s on the web, but this full process has been carefully tested across Mac OS X 10.6-10.9, and I’m posting the steps here to solicit feedback from Pygame-curious Mac users out there.
I had run into a tough situation – I wrote a book this past year using Python as the language, and in the last three chapters, I showed readers how to build playable, interactive games using Pygame. The problem is that Pygame is challenging to get working on Python 3 on a Mac – and a lot of my readers are Mac users.
Mac users have essentially the following three options if they want to use Pygame:
- You can install an older version of Python, like Python 2.7, along with Pygame 1.9.2 for Mac OS X in a new location on your Mac for Pygame programming.
- If you have access to a Windows PC, you may find it easier to install the Windows version of Python and Pygame…
- Or, you can follow the steps listed below to install Pygame for Python 3.4 on your Mac – if you’re doing this at school or at work, you will probably need IT support.

How to install Pygame for Python 3 on Mac OS X successfully, every time:
- Install Xcode: In Finder, open Applications, App Store. Search for Xcode and click Get to install the Xcode developer tools. You’ll need these developer tools to run some of the command-line instructions in a Terminal window below.
- Install XQuartz: Go to http://xquartz.macosforge.org and download the current version of XQuartz (2.7.7 as of this writing). Open your Downloads folder, double-click on the XQuartz-2.7.7.dmg file, then double-click on the XQuartz.pkg package file and follow the instructions to complete the installation.
- Open a Terminal (command-line) window: Go to Applications, Utilities, and double-click Terminal. Your command-line Terminal window will open. All the following commands must be typed exactly as they appear in the Terminal window, one line at a time.
- Install Homebrew: At the Terminal command line prompt, type the following as a single full line (you may want to expand your Terminal window wider to allow it to fit, but it’s okay if it wraps around):
ruby -e “$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)”
then, hit return. Homebrew is a free program that helps you install Python, Pygame, and other programs on a Mac. - Prepare Homebrew for use: At the Terminal prompt, type each of the following three commands exactly as shown – the second two may take a few moments to run and will show several screens of information, but keep following the steps one line at a time.
echo export PATH=’/usr/local/bin:$PATH’ >> ~/.bash_profile
brew update
brew doctor - Install Python 3 for Pygame: At the Terminal prompt, type:
brew install python3
This will install a separate Python 3 specifically for Pygame use – this is required for all the following steps to work. - Install Mercurial: Still at the Terminal prompt, type:
brew install mercurial
Mercurial is a free source control management system that this installation of Pygame requires on a Mac. - Install Pygame dependencies: Pygame requires several other helper programs, called dependencies, so that it can show animations, play sounds, and create game graphics. Type the following three lines at the Terminal command prompt, hitting return after each line
brew install sdl sdl_image sdl_mixer sdl_ttf portmidi
brew tap homebrew/headonly
brew install smpeg
(NOTE 18JUL2015: Updated to reflect changes to the smpeg library; if you have any trouble here, try brew install –HEAD smpeg instead, with two dashes/hyphens before the HEAD option).
Each command will take a few moments to run and display screens full of information; keep going, you’re almost done… - Install Pygame: Type the following line at the Terminal prompt and hit return:
sudo pip3 install hg+http://bitbucket.org/pygame/pygame
You may have to enter an administrator password (your password, or ask an IT administrator for help at school, work, or the library), and the installation may take a few minutes.
Compacto: Idle Game Mac Os Download
As mentioned in step 6 above, this process creates a second full Python environment (under /usr/local/Cellar) on your Mac. You’ll want easy access to your Pygame-enabled Python…
Create a desktop shortcut to your new Pygame IDLE editor:
The new Pygame and Python 3 that you just installed creates a separate IDLE editor app that you’ll use especially for Pygame-enabled apps. (Note: You can use this new IDLE for all your Python development, if you wish.)
Compacto: Idle Game Mac Os X
- Go to Finder > Go > Go to Folder…
- In the Go to the folder: window prompt, type /usr/local/Cellar/python3 and click Go.
- Double-click to open the folder inside – it will be named with a version number (3.4.2_1 as of this writing), but the version is unimportant, just open the folder.
- Inside this folder, you will find the IDLE 3 app. Hold down the control key and click on the IDLE 3 icon. Pressing control+clicking on the icon will open a popup menu; select the Make Alias option from that menu.
- A new alias, or shortcut icon, will appear, with a name like IDLE 3 alias. Click on the file name to edit it, and rename the alias pygame IDLE or something similar, to help you remember that this IDLE has Pygame installed.
- Drag the pygame IDLE icon to your Desktop. This will allow you to access the correct IDLE for Pygame programming right from your Desktop.
- Double-click the pygame IDLE icon. The Pygame-enabled IDLE editor window will open. Type import pygame and hit return. IDLE should respond with a >>> prompt and no errors.
You’re ready to program Pygame apps on your Mac!
Compacto: Idle Game Mac Os Catalina
If you’re tough enough to make it through all these steps, and you’re enjoying Pygame on your Mac, please leave a comment and let me know (also leave any corrections/issues) – I hope these instructions will help others have as much Pygame fun as my sons and I have enjoyed these past few years. Cheers!