Although I had been already been using computers for years at that point, I never had one at home. We were a “low income” family. Isn’t that a nice euphemism for describing poor people? We simply couldn’t afford a home computer before 1993.
I used the computer lab at the university when I needed access to a computer. That lab had a bunch of relatively new Apple Macintosh Classic II computers. Since that what I was accustomed to using, when I did eventually buy my own computer, it was a Mac.
That first computer was an Apple Macintosh Performa 475. I purchased it from Sears in 1993. It was one of the “pizza box” Macs that were common in the early 1990s. It did, in fact, look a lot like a pizza box.
Internal Storage and Memory
The Performa 475 shipped with a 160 megabyte hard drive and four megabytes of RAM. FOUR MEGABYTES! A month later, I upgraded with an additional four megabytes. I ordered two 72-pin SIMMs from MacMall for $150 USD.
Removable Storage and Peripherals
CD-ROM drives were not yet common in home computers. The Performa only had a 3.5-inch floppy drive for removable storage. I purchased a bundle that included an Apple printer. It was a rebranded Canon bubble jet printer. It worked well enough. The print quality was good, and it had the advantage of using the Apple Desktop Bus instead of a parallel port. The monitor was an Apple branded monitor, an analog CRT. I think it was a fourteen inch monitor. I don’t remember the resolution it was capable of displaying but it was better than 640X480.
System and Application Software
It came with MacOS System 7 and I seem to recall that it included ClarisWorks for basic productivity. My friend had a PC about the same time and that machine included Microsoft Works. I can tell you ClarisWorks was a lot nicer.
Of course, there was no Internet as we know it today. The World Wide Web had yet to be invented. What we did have was a 9.6k external modem and dial-up access to America Online.
I had some video games for that Mac too, like early pre Halo games from Bungie. I got Pathways into Darkness with that computer and the following year they released Marathon. That computer also included a bundle of various third party applications. The only ones I remember are: Where in the World is Carmen SanDiego, The Print Shop Deluxe and Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing.
The good old days right?
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I loved the Mac Performas. We used them in high school at Graphic Design class.
I really enjoyed that computer. We had several Macs after that one. We had one that looked like an overgrown classic. I don’t remember its model number. Maybe it was the Performa 578? After that, a Performa 630CD. THAT was a delightful computer. I went through a phase of PC gaming later in the 1990s that led me to MS-DOS/Windows machines. I’m back to all Macs now.
Maybe you’re thinking of the Quad?
The one I was thinking of, that looked like a giant color classic, is the Performa 577:
https://everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_performa/specs/mac_performa_577.html
We had that at the same time as the 475. When got it when my (then) fiancé moved in.