Questions about this Bell and Howell

[jajan547]

I have had this Bell and Howell Apple ii Plus for a bit now and it’s in almost immaculate condition. However I have some questions. To begin there is no raised power LED or backpack and the serial number is very, very low. Is this some rarer variant or what’s going on here because I was always under the impression these early ones came with backpacks and a raised power led. There’s also no side ports like you see on a few of these.

 

[bibilit]

Not an expert, but i had a few units, and not all of them had the backpack nor the side ports.

IIRC those two features went together, the backpack was an add-on and a security device.

The backpack was made available for music purposes, but at the same time access to the PSU was restricted and the cover was no longer easy to remove (no way for kids to get fingers inside the board or cards)

So in order to still have a joystick connected, side ports were made available.

Concerning the raised key, again, only the Apple II had this feature, the Plus no longer had one ( but i can be wrong)

 

[jajan547]

Not an expert, but i had a few units, and not all of them had the backpack nor the side ports.

IIRC those two features went together, the backpack was an add-on and a security device.

The backpack was made available for music purposes, but at the same time access to the PSU was restricted and the cover was no longer easy to remove (no way for kids to get fingers inside the board or cards)

So in order to still have a joystick connected, side ports were made available.

Concerning the raised key, again, only the Apple II had this feature, the Plus no longer had one ( but i can be wrong)

This was some of what I removed reading about the raised led that’s very strange.

Bell & Howell computer