The Newton lives, kinda: Boffin turns Apple eMate 300 into Raspberry Pi laptop Faced with dwindling sales to education customers in the late 1990s, Apple introduced the eMate 300. This low-cost computer shipped with Newton OS (the same operating system used in the ill-fated Newton PDA), a 6.8-inch (480 x 320) grayscale display, and a power-sipping 25MHz ARM processor. In recent years, these have become …
http://www.dremeljunkie.com/2011/02/summary-of-imac-g4-mods.html
This guy has taken several approaches to using a G4 iMac case to house an Intel NUC, across multiple builds. He outlines the pros and cons of using the original panel Vs upgrading it, and whether to run cable through the gooseneck.
I have 2 eMates, one works, so the other could be reborn with one of my spare older Pies.
It will have to come after I’ve finished a Minitel terminal rebuild that I have underway. It got dropped by a courier and so all that survives is the 8x8 membrane chicklet keyboard and the plastic CRT frame 8-/
Oh and reusing a 1981 TRS-80 model II keyboard (has a builtin cpu that does keyscan to serial conversion) could act as a retro Pi-400 workalike case for another Pi.
But the article describes vandalism. How hard is it to add a custom case & keyboard to a Pi + Display?
I was doing that nearly 15 years ago with Tact switches, pcb from a USB keyboard and dremmel on stock plastic case. Li-Polys sold as iPod classic battery replacements/
Thirty years ago I made prototype cases out of balsa wood and after sanding they could be finished with base coat and car spray paint to look like plastic or metal.
If I could invent a replicator which replicates any 30-40 year-old computer case I'd be set up for life. The FGPA or Pi inside is easy to do, but you need the real case for the nostalgia, probably only the C64 Maxi is sold in enough numbers worldwide to make it viable.
For the OP's project, maybe it would be best to buy one which is sold as non-working but the case is intact and gut that.
Any decent scratch model maker can replicate any case. No need for Calvin's box or a 3D printer.
If you have access to an original case it's not hard to make a mould.
Though the market is really small unless:
1) Very iconic model
2) The new insides do all the current stuff and run emulator for original.
3) The cost is OK
4) Quality is OK
Loads of retro styled computers have failed. People's memories are fading too so the shops are full of so called retro styled kettles, toasters, mixers, radios, record players etc that look nothing like anything ever did, but some graphic designer once saw a Ladybird book illustration 20 or 30 years ago when 3 and half remembered it. Also means they can't get sued as copyright and registered design protection might apply. Which is why some global marketing companies have bought up defunct names famous 20 to 30 years ago. Most of the labels in shops now are brands and the product has zero connection to original company or designer and sometimes function.
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