First Mac Plus Given To Gene Roddenberry Auctioned

[Mac128]

Serial number 0001, the first Macintosh Plus given to Gene Roddenberry? That crafty Apple, getting their product placed in Star Trek IV like that. But which came first, the chicken or the egg?

Curiously, the front of the case looks like a 512K, but the rear is clearly a Plus. And the auction house has the serial number wrong. It's actually made the 20th week of 1984, model number M0001, which means the front of the case is pretty much the 128K. I think this is actually a 128K given to Gene Roddenberry that he later upgraded to a Mac Plus (or Apple did for him). At an expected $800 - $1000, it's under-priced compared to some eBay BINs!

But one thing is for sure, the auction is completely misrepresented, as this is clearly not the first Mac Plus to roll of the assembly line at Apple's famous "Fresno" plant.

 

[JDW]

I was born and raised in Fresno. There was no Apple Computer assembly in my home town, let me tell you.

But then again...

Perhaps Fresno was the location of Apple's secret factory. You know, the one where transparent aluminum was used for critical parts in Macs used by NASA and the US Military. And so, perhaps this Gene R. Mac is a prize indeed. Heck, it's probably worth $400,000. Place those bids before it's eternally too late!

 

[porter]

David Gilmour has the Fender Stratocaster with serial 000001, but it wasn't the first one made.

 

[Gil]

You know, the one where transparent aluminum was used for critical parts in Macs used by NASA and the US Military.

Whaaaa?!?! I've never heard of this!!! 8-o

 

[slomacuser]

You know, the one where transparent aluminum was used for critical parts in Macs used by NASA and the US Military.

Whaaaa?!?! I've never heard of this!!! 8-o

didn't ha? see it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUbZ8CHVCSE&feature=channel_page

 

[Mac128]

see it here http:

Yes, and that is most definitely a Mac Plus, so Gene didn't donate his Mac!

I always thought that scene was funny, that he has such facility and dexterity on a 300 year old computer to quickly type up some complicated specs, particularly on a 1986 Mac Plus which we all know how slow they are (this one must have had some serious upgrades), especially when he's likely never used a keyboard. Would anyone even know how to type on a QWERTY keyboard in the 23rd century? I seriously hope not.

 

[Osgeld]

yea but, its Scotty!and he is da man

 

[JDW]

Would anyone even know how to type on a QWERTY keyboard in the 23rd century?

I thought it might be that Scotty, as an curious-to-know engineer, becomes a hobbyist vintage Mac lover who occasionally visits some form of archive.org in his day to see how things were once done on computers. Perhaps Scotty somehow finds one of my then-ancient posts about how insane Steve Jobs is for bastardizing keyboards in 2008-2008, emphasizing design beauty over functional practicality, making keyboards look like they've been run over with a MACK truck, and where individual keys go down all of 3 silly millimeters when pressed! (Indeed, I have little doubt Steve contributes to the complete eradication of mechanical keyboard keys, as is the case in the futuristic world of Star Trek where "tactile feedback" is truly a distant and long forgotten memory.)

Even so, Scotty would not have found 68kMLA discussions on archive.org. For whatever reason, our individual forums are not archived there. I can't help but think the domain should renamed, "oftennotarchived.org". Quite frightful really. I guess that means we simply need to pray that someone is now making backups of our discussions here, so all our hard work in typing in useful information here is not again obliterated by a hard disk crash. Or perhaps Scotty will return back in time to rescue our poor forums from digital destruction, extracting useful tidbits of info from our posts that ultimately works to save humanity once again.