The Macintosh 128K, Now in Fun Size

Sometimes it is the finishing touches that really make a personal project shine. They can turn a mess of wires into something that looks like a commercial product. For many of us that are handy with a soldering iron, these details are also the most difficult (and most frequently neglected) part of a project. But that is not the case for Nick Gillard.

Just recently, Gillard created a teeny-tiny Macintosh 128K replica called the pico-mac-nano. A good deal of the work had already been done — he made use of the Pico Micro Mac project by Matt Evans. The Pico Micro Mac is a complete Macintosh 128K emulator that runs on Raspberry Pi Pico development boards, with support for VGA video and a USB keyboard and mouse.

But a bare development board and bundle of wires does not a retro Macintosh make. So Gillard designed a case that looks just like the original to house it, but with a twist. Since the hardware platform is so small, he miniaturized the case to match it.

The hardware for the build consists of a Waveshare RP2040-Zero development board, a 2.0-inch 480 x 640-pixel SPI TFT LCD display, and a custom PCB to glue everything together. There is also a battery module if you do not want to use a USB cable for power. These components were fitted into the cutest little 3D-printed Macintosh 128K case you have ever seen.

Just a few tweaks to the Pico Micro Mac emulator were needed to get it working perfectly for this project. First, an SPI interface and frame buffer had to be added to support the selected display. Next, Gillard programmed the GPIO pins to produce an appropriate 600 Hz square wave to simulate the original computer’s startup sound. Finally, the development board’s RGB LED was programmed to serve as the power-on indicator light.

Source code, 3D printable files, and PCB gerbers are freely available on GitHub for personal use. You may have to strain your eyes to use the pico-mac-nano, but it sure would look nice sitting on your desk, wouldn’t it?