That time MicroMac Technology took the CAT MAC (Macintosh from a catalog) mainstream!

It's been my dream to build a CAT MAC (Macintosh from a catalog - this "CAT MAC") since I first read about the idea in Bob Brant's "Build Your Own Macintosh and Save a Bundle" way back in 1991. I never saw this back in the day, but MicroMac (creators of so many great addons and upgrades for vintage Macintosh computers) made their own CAT MAC and took the whole thing mainstream with an easy to use solution for Macintosh Plus and SE users! After learning about the product, I started looking for one to add to my collection - but simply could not find one. Enter vintage computing enthusiast and VCF Midwest regular Steve Hatle. Steve not only had the SE version of the MicroMac CAT MAC case, but was willing to loan it to me for the purposes of making a video about these neat devices. So the process began to collect up the books and materials I had when I was a youth so that I could get my video started... but then things stalled for a bit due to another amazing set of circumstances. Right around the time Steve's MicroMac SE arrived, I started discussing the project with a great of folks that shared my vision to modernize the CAT MAC using contemporary video scalers and 3D printing technology. ‪@GutBombIndustries‬ got busy creating a modern 3D printable case to house your own CAT MAC, and⁨ ‪@JoesComputerMuseum‬ helped me build a test a modern video scaler leveraging guruthree's mac-se-video-converter product. Then end product is the SE-MINI (now called CatMac Mini). BUT WE'RE HERE TODAY to talk about the time MicroMac Technology took the CAT MAC mainstream... so maybe let's focus on that? ;) LINKS: https://vintageapple.org/macbooks/ -- "Build your own" books https://archive.org/details/mac_The_M... -- info about MicroMac https://github.com/guruthree/mac-se-v... https://jcm-1.com/product/se-topper/ https://jcm-1.com/product/se-combo-ma... https://jcm-1.com/product/se-mini-des... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ LINKS: http://ronscompvids.com    / @ronscompvids   https://bsky.app/profile/ronscompvids... https://bitbang.social/@RonsCompVids MERCH: https://ronscompvids.threadless.com https://jcm-1.com/product-category/ha... And as always, many thanks to my wonderful Patrons! Did you know you can support me for as little as $1 per month?   / ronscompvids   BLUE MUSE CORINE John Petty Eric Helgeson Tom Barber Mighty Jabba's Collection Brandon Stricker Garth Beagle Mac84 Action Retro ARadioGurl Joe's Computer Museum Britt Dodd Chris Torrence Eric's Edge Justin D. Morgan Phillip Matrisotto Retro Viator Ian Scott Eric Busalacchi SSHREK Daves Vintage Apple Tech Sascha Neumann Ken Gagne Jamie Copeland Alan Grassia Konstantin Kaltsas Todd Swan Dan Huen Jaime Hitchcock Technici Greg Esposito Scotch P Dave Rhoads Tony Brzoskowski Jason Schneiderman Jeremy Mehrle Ben Gennaria krhainos Eric Floehr Jack Beckman Nicole Wallmow CDI Dan Malec Mark Benson