DIYbanter - View Single Post - (OT) Need keyboard & mouse for old Apple G3 computer

Terry Coombs[_2_]

wrote:
While going to rummage sales, I ran across a Macintosh G3 tower. The
seller said it works, and told me to just take it for free. I have
always wanted to play around with an Apple computer, so I took it. I
plugged in the monitor from my PC, turned it on, and it boots up to
the GUI desktop.

The problem is that there is no mouse or keyboard. I quickly found
that the small round connector, which is called DIN on a PC, is
similar on the Apple, but is called a ADB connector. The weird part,
is that there's only one of them, so I'm not sure how you can connect
both a keyboard and mouse to it. These have less pins than a PC
connector, so I cant just use any keyboard or mouse.

I googled some of this, and found that they often used a USB keyboard
and mouse. The tower only has 2 USB ports, so a keyboard & mouse would
use up both (that sucks).

I dont have any USB keyboards or mice, so I will have to buy
something. But I'm not going to spend a lot, since this computer is
old (1999). But I'd still like to play around with it.

It seems that the original ABD keyboards sell for big money, so I wont
even consider buying one of them. I could be wrong, but I'm guessing
that I could use ANY mouse with a USB plug (is that true?)
But can I use a USB keyboard which is made for a PC? (Knowing that the
specific "windows" keys will be worthless).

Hopefully someone on here uses Apple computers and can tell me what I
can use, and buy for little money.

By the way, it has OS9 for the operating system, so it was apparently
upgraded since they sold with OS8.x (according to what I read on the
web).

The keyboard plugs into the comp , the mouse plugs into the keyboard ... and
I have one .

--
Snag