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Newest conquest: Apple IIc

re4mat

Well-known member
Although, just now thinking, shouldn't the verb be "liberation"? And shouldn't that be the name of the "Conquests" forum?

Aaaaaaaanyway, a couple days ago I spotted a Craigslist find that I wasn't able to resist, even though I'd initially had no plans to ever get one: an Apple IIc + monitor for $30! I ended up paying him $40, since he saved me a bit of money by reminding me of the price difference between walking onto the ferry and driving onto it. This guy seemed pretty savvy: he's even donated vintage computers to the Living Computer Museum here in Seattle. The IIc had been given to him by (I think he said) his grandma, and he was just not getting around to working on it, so he thought he'd make sure it got somewhere that it would be worked on. The only bummer is that he said that just a couple weeks before his grandma (might have been his mom, but I think it was grandma—doesn't really matter) gave him the machine, she'd thrown out the box and manuals and floppies that came with it. D'oh!

I just brought it home yesterday. He said that he never turned it on while he had it, so the working condition is unknown. I'm going to open it up first and do some tests before powering it on, just to make sure nothing catastrophic has happened inside. I'll probably be posting over in the Apple II forum as I try to get this thing restored—it's been almost 30 years since I used an Apple II regularly, so I don't remember a whole lot. Plus I know almost nothing about it electrically. I did find the Apple IIc Technical Reference Manual from Apple on archive.org, though, and that has the schematics in it.

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Cosmetically, it's in fairly decent condition. Needs a good cleaning and definitely some retrobrite. There's a little bit of corrosion on the composite plug on the IIc end. Hopefully just a little bit of Deoxit will take care of that. If not, I have plenty of RCA jacks.

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Gorgonops

Moderator
Staff member
Congratulations, IIcs are neat little computers and $40 is a pretty good price. (I paid about twice that and it's about as yellow as yours.) It's one of my favorites because it gives you an authentic Apple II experience (clicky keyboard, clacking floppy drive, etc) but it's small enough to leave set up all the time.

 

NJRoadfan

Well-known member
Remember to check the ROM revision. type PRINT PEEK(64447) from a BASIC prompt. If its anything but "255" you can use a FloppyEmu in Smartport mode for storage. Revisions 3 and 4 have the memory expansion slot and the model number on the bottom of the case will be A2S4100 vs. A2S4000.

 

Gorgonops

Moderator
Staff member
If it is a "255" you can burn an EPROM to upgrade it to a later firmware that will add Smartport support. It's on my to-do list.

 

twocargar

Well-known member
We have one at work that our boss was going to surplus!  I asked him if I could keep it at my desk (I work in the IT department) and he said only if I make it so it has a message that says “Welcome to the IT Department” or something.  So I made a video of Apple // and classic Mac video clips and put them on my iPhone 3G and connected it to the //c monitor.  It’s a big hit when people come in the office!

Some day it will be mine to take home I hope!

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Solvalou

Well-known member
Got mine a couple of years back for atleast twice that in 'untested' condition. I got lucky as it worked fine but I don't have that trademark monitor stand like yours has. IDK what happened but finding them things on their own are fetching silly money on eBay all of a sudden.

 

LaPorta

Well-known member
I have my IIc+ at home, with monitor. They really do make nice little machines. The part I love is I can hook it up to my 60” LCD TV without fuss and have fun :).

 
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