When I went away to college in the mid-2000s, the iMac G5 was the computer I wanted. I imagined myself using it in the dorm, looking cool and sophisticated as I typed away while listening to The Shins or something. This was the college reinvention I needed, a massive change from the cobbled together gaming PCs and ska CDs of my past.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t afford an iMac so it was my old beige Compaq with a GeForce 2 that came with me to college, solidifying my lameness from the get go.
20+ years later I’m still lame, but I was able to finally pick up a boxed, working, iMac G5 for a cool hundred bucks. After spending a bit of time with it, I gotta say it’s better late than never- this is a wonderful computer.
The packaging is quintessentially mid-2000s Apple: classy and functional. It’s no wonder this set the aesthetic for electronics manufacturers like Nintendo in this era.
The excellent packaging design extends to what you pull out of the box. The iMac G5 is one of the best-looking computers of all time, from every angle.
After plugging in the keyboard, mouse, and speakers (and funneling them through the hole in the stand), I was ready to start some standard issue computing.
I plugged in an Ethernet cable and to my delight I was able to connect to Apple’s servers and download updates.
I did a few rounds of updates and it got me curious about what other online services I could still connect to. Safari was a no-go, but I put a CD in and sure enough iTunes pulled the artist information.
I then imported some other era-appropriate CDs I had lying around (like AFI’s Sing the Sorrow). But when I put in a CD from 2026 (the new Joyce Manor album), I got an error message.
I experienced more issues when I tried installing games. I don’t have a ton of Mac software, but I own physical copies of most Blizzard games, which often included both PC and Mac versions.
The first games I tried were Diablo I & II, both of which gave me this error message:
I did a little research and this is fixable by downloading and burning an OS 9 install CD, but I’m not totally sure if it would be worth the effort. Although playing the original 1.0 version of Diablo on this computer is weirdly compelling…
I had better luck with the Battlechest version of Warcraft III, which felt made for the iMac.
Warcraft III installed flawlessly and from a brief test, seemed to look and run great. Might be a fun excuse for a replay.
The final test for the iMac was the DVD player. I have a ton of DVDs, but obviously they don’t look great on modern screens. Turns out the smaller, lower resolution, widescreen display of the iMac is perfect for DVD viewing.
All in all, this iMac has been one of my favorite retro tech purchases in recent memory. I’m definitely going to keep it hooked up as a DVD player and continue to mess around with it, all the while thinking about how cool it would have been to be using one back in 2004. Maybe I’ll even pick up a Decemberists CD and import it to iTunes.
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