Different Macintosh in Original User Guide?

[North Hedge Ned]

Hi All,

I am very puzzled here.  Everyone take a look at the picture here of the guy in the class room that shows the rear of an Original Macintosh from the User Manual:

http://osxdaily.com/2011/08/24/the-original-macintosh-user-manual/

Notice anything strange?  There is no large product product label on the back.  Now, all of the other photos in the book that show the rear, have the label on the back.  There is also something more strange.  The badge is different in the top left!  The Apple logo is to the right of something (more on that in a sec).  The web shows that the badge on the rear first was the Apple Logo and the word Macintosh to the right of it (later models got the 128k added to that.  So what gives with this model that the guy is using?  A prototype?

The only mention that I have seen on the web about a rear case whose badge has the apple to the right of something, the word apple, is the Twiggy Mac - the prototype Macintosh with a Twiggy Drive.  That was until I looked at my two oddly serialized original Macintoshes.

Mine have the Sony 3.5 drive, but the badge on the rear case is "apple" and the logo to the right of it!  The serial number is had written and there is no product label on the back either - just like the one in the picture of the user guide!!!

I have attached photos.  I have to get them running as I have to find a boot drive.  I was thinking to take them apart to see anything more inside that can help identify them.

Can anyone here shed any light on these units and the one in the User Guide?  Perhaps I am sitting on a gold mine here?

Thanks in advance!

 

[PB145B]

You have a VERY rare prototype Macintosh there! Not as rare as a twiggy Mac probably, but still rare nonetheless. It’s actually possible it started its life out as a twiggy Mac, and was upgraded by Apple engineers once they decided to use the Sony 3.5” drive.

What’s it worth? That’s hard to say. I’d put in on eBay as an auction and let the collectors decide that (if you want to sell it). You could very well have a gold mine there. Apple protos can bring crazy amounts of money, especially something as historically significant as this machine.

 

[North Hedge Ned]

Thanks for the insight PB145B.  I am likely going to keep one (although with age maybe the electronics go bad who knows), and sell one - yes.  Trying to figure out starting bid.  I have had these for over 20 years, and never gave them a second thought until now.  I am going through my collection as it is time for the big purge.

Thanks again for the insight.  I wonder what I will find inside.... now to source a really long T15 screwdriver for cheap.  I do have the Take apart tool - perhaps another rarity...

Any further insight would be helpful - identifiers inside, etc.

 

[PB145B]

No problem.

Oh, so you have two? Very cool! Definitely don’t blame you for wanting to keep one. I’d do the same.

Definitely take photos when you crack it open!

As far as the starting bid, I have no idea, You could start it a $0.99 and put a reserve on it, but I have no clue what the reserve should be.

Good luck!

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Definitely started out life as an early Twiggy Mac or was at least built with whatever was on hand in a redundant Twiggy bucket variant?

View attachment 28066

Yours looks to predate the painted Twiggy case and the working Twiggy Mac that surfaced a while back, IIRC Yours post dates the one with no Icons used for SonyMicroDrive adaptation.

More pics in ClearTwiggyProtoHoaxMacHacks™

Early advertising/promo material for the Mac fairly commonly had Twiggy Drive Bezels in evidence.

edit: at least yours have cooling vents!

It'll be interesting to see if yours has those three tabs when you open it up.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

https://www.applefritter.com/content/macintosh-128k-prototype-twiggy-drive

 

[PB145B]

These Macs get pretty toasty (my two Pluses certainly do at least). I can’t even imagine one without the top vents (which are probably the most critical ones).

But, it looks cool!  

 

[MOS8_030]

Very nice early Macs!

I'd like to see the guts as well.

 

[unity]

Very nice. The rear bucket is certainly a steep between some of the early and final models with the vents on top. Certainly a prototype. The motherboard may be very telling too, you may want to look at it. With any luck it has a Mr. Macintosh logo.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Your macs have the same logo panel as the painted development prototype (in pic above) and were retrofitted with production cooling vents?

Looks to me like the engineers were testing ventilation of the bucket and someone wouldn't let them drill all the holes they'd planned. Can't tell from the pics, are your buckets textured? We've got an interesting timeline of bucket prototyping documented here.

 

[unity]

That painted one, pretty sure its literally just a regular painted bucket.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

 

[Gorgonops]

You have a VERY rare prototype Macintosh there! Not as rare as a twiggy Mac probably, but still rare nonetheless.

Sadly there may well have been dozens, if not hundreds of them back in the day, because it seems like it was *pretty common* for case parts made during tooling prototyping to end up on computers Apple used internally. (Which makes perfect sense.) It is a good question what the innards look like. It may likewise incorporate some prototype parts or it could be a completely stock (albeit early) production chassis that was pulled off the line for internal use just to use up the leftover prototype buckets.

In any case, yeah, it's no doubt worth something to somebody.

 

[unity]

Okay, thanks Trash. Wonder why it was painted like that? Although I have an Q700 from an Apple engineer that is also painted for no reason that I can tell.

 

[North Hedge Ned]

Thanks everyone for your input.  So here are some questions answered then:

Trash80toHP_Mini:  The buckets on mine are textured, but the vent ports are all smooth and shiny.  I still have to get that really long Torx 15.  Once I do, I will post take apart photos here in this topic.

I have to open one anyhow as the video is all squashed up when I over it on - hopefully not the Flyback Transformer or anything like that, and a simple adjustment.

Stay tuned.....

 

[dochilli]

Remember that the 128k has 5 screws! The fifth screw is in the battery compartment. You have tho remove it, if you want to open the 128k! Some cases of 128ks were ruined because the people tried to open the case and forgot the fifth screw.

 

[unity]

I won't give advise one way or the other on this given its a prototype shell, but I never use case splitters because they often scratch/nick the interface between the two haves. I wont even buy a Mac if its chewed up like that. I always lay face down and do the slap on the side as I lift technique and let the weight of the CRT/internals anchor the faceplate down as the bucket pops off. The only machines this does not work well on is the Classics, those are some tight cases!

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

The buckets on mine are textured, but the vent ports are all smooth and shiny.

Seems curious that the tooling for what's probably the earliest bucket design (based on Apple logo vs. Macintosh designation) would have been textured. WAG is that it was done to the soft tooling for test purposes before ramping up hard tooling/final high production variant. It will be interesting to see any marking for production date/prototype level/run numbering on the back.

 

[unity]

I would guess that the design was indeed thought to be finished.  I wonder if the top vent idea was hotly debated (no pun intended) but, like the floppy drive, vents were maybe a "last minute" change when things came to a head during the final days. Remember, the early 128ks had a "heat diffuser" along the top of the sweep board. There was a soft-recall where it was removed when a Mac went in for service because it was causing failures of the sweep boards by trapping heat. I am pretty sure that diffuser is also a relic of the deign with no vents on top and the diffuser was in place to prevent damage to the plastic above the rather hot sweep board. The second revision 128k (no, not the boded 128k) did not even have it installed, just the holes on the board remained. So I can just imagine what having no vents was causing to the boards! It would also explain why the rearward vents never had a proper finish. Look at any 128k, even the ones in this thread, and you can see the vents changed in size and the mold has casting marks that were never properly polished up from that change. They were narrowed to match the top vent inserts because the top ones could not be as wide due to the case design. So rear vents narrowed to match better with the new top vents. Being a rouge unit, I dont think the original Mac really went though as much testing like machines of today do. And with Jobs so set on his ways I can see his distain for vents as it would detract from the look.