re: Small LispMachines
It depends what you want to do. A Mac-II is a neat idea. you can also get
MacScheme and run that on a small mac. You could get a mac SE and put 4meg
of memory on that. Do you care WHAT lisp you use (ie do you want to run
other people's code already written in (say) common lisp or do you want to
write your own.
(A free plug for MacScheme (and I have no connection with semantic
microsystems): The new release (1.5) with compiler is due out very soon
(like january next year?) and will be VERY fast)