The Macintosh Classic was released as the lowest priced Macintosh yet with the budget model selling for $999. Like the Macintosh Plus it replaced, the Classic ran the tried-and-true 8 MHz Motorola 68000 processor, had a maximum of 4 MB RAM and it’s only expandability was through the external SCSI port. The rock-bottom price was its main feature.

For everything that was the same however, both the internal component design and the external case design were completely new. Inside there was a new, compact main logic board and a smaller analog/power supply board. The external case was a movement towards modern lines also seen in the Macintosh IIsi and Macintosh LC released at the same time.

The Macintosh Classic did have one unique trick up its sleeve - System 6.0.3 built into the hardware. Holding down the Option, Command, X and O keys at boot would start the machine from the internal ROM’s operating system. Selecting “Get Info” for the “Boot Disk” revealed a hidden easter egg. No other Macintosh before or after ever had an operating system built into ROM.

This machine features a 4 MB RAM expansion card and an internal 40 MB Conner SCSI hard disk drive. This photo set features the internal System 6.0.3 boot ROM.