Apple II Prototype photos (was: Early Apple II photos)

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Apple II Prototype photos (was: Early Apple II photos)

I was going through an old cell phone memory card today and stumbled across these photos. I took close to 150 - many in close up detail - of this machine but to save bandwidth, I'll limit the number posted here.

The pictures were taken at KansasFest 2013. I believe the machine belongs to Tony Diaz.

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Re: Early Apple II photos

That one would be a challenge to restore.
I hope no one applied power to it in it's present condition.
Pretty cool though.

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Re: Early Apple II photos

Sad to see the back of the case was broken out... Sad

Very, very cool though.....

MarkO

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Re: Early Apple II photos

Hey Mike, thanks for sharing those awesome photos. Do any of your photos show the serial number of the motherboard? Please post if you have a shot of that!

Howie

EDIT: Now that I look at it closer, it seems this board is a true prototype - the vias are not filled in and I don't see any silkscreening of component locations, not to mention the absence of solder mask. But I still wonder if there were any photos showing a number any place on it?

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Re: Early Apple II photos

There's no date code or serial number on the board and no serial number sticker on the pan. Safe to say this is a prototype, I think. I'll post a few more if anyone's interested.

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Re: Early Apple II photos

Only one I've seen that still exists without a solder mask. The one in the Introducing the Apple II flyer didn't have one either, but that is just a picture.

regards,
Mike Willegal

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Re: Early Apple II photos

A more-complete set of photos:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/shockwaverider/albums/72157657812421954

-m

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Re: Apple II Prototype photos (was: Early Apple II photos)

Wow! What a shame about the rear of the case...

Where in the world is this computer? It belongs in a museum somewhere...

Jennifer

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Re: Apple II Prototype photos (was: Early Apple II photos)

Let me start by saying I don't know much about this stuff.
It could be a prototype as one suggested.
Or could it be a clone?

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Re: Apple II Prototype photos (was: Early Apple II photos)

Let me start by saying I don't know much about this stuff.
It could be a prototype as one suggested.
Or could it be a clone?

With a "Woz" signature in the Rev-0 Prototype Area??

All the Clone Boards I have seen pictures of don't quite look like an Apple ][, they have variations in component layout...

This looks like an Apple ][ Prototype, ( no Solder Mask or Silk Screen ), and variations in the Case Design..

I would bet it would sell for more that any Rev-0 board out there, even with the Damaged Case....

MarkO

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Re: Apple II Prototype photos (was: Early Apple II photos)

It seems the board was upgraded with 16k memory blocks and a replacement rom chip. It also has some minor mods and residue from having a modulator attached to the case. My guess is this Apple II was a prototype and then saw use as a regular machine for a time. Then it was put away and the case got damaged. Too bad. This would have been the holy grail of Apple II if it was in great condition. Right now it's still awesome and I'd say worth $$$$$.

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Re: Apple II Prototype photos (was: Early Apple II photos)

Mike,

It's a damned nice unit.

Steven Smile

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Re: Apple II Prototype photos (was: Early Apple II photos)

If Tony Diaz is the owner, he needs to send it to me to be restored.

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Re: Apple II Prototype photos (was: Early Apple II photos)

The board is an Apple II prototype. When I ported my Apple 1 Startrek to the Apple II in early 1977 Apple ended up providing me with one of the prototype systems to use since they weren't in production yet. The system was not highly reliable due to noise on the DRAM address lines (the 1K resistors on those lines solved the problem on the final product). I got frustrated with the reliability so after joining Apple that fall and working on Rev 1 I got a bare Rev 1 board and built it out myself using the old parts and minimum sockets and scrapped the proto board. When we got some nice cases the old foam case with no vents went too and when the new keyboards with the daughter board came that got upgraded too. I still have the compete original Ceramic ROM set, a Ceramic Synertek 6502 and a handbuilt Rev 1 board with sockets only for the ROMs, RAMs, Processor and MOS parts. The ROM basic on the proto chips is missing the SCRN operation. I asked Woz about that and he insists there were no errors so I think he added that command in the final ROM set.

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Re: Apple II Prototype photos (was: Early Apple II photos)

Wendell,

I figured you be the one to recognize and confirm what this system is. I do love your story about your Rev1, which is very unique because of the lack of sockets. I know Woz was crazy about socketing things and it does make it easier to repair, but less reliable to operate.

Cheers,
Corey

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Re: Apple II Prototype photos (was: Early Apple II photos)

There's a screenshot in an early Apple II article by Woz that shows a firmware disassembly and it doesn't match the disassembly that you get on a production Apple II with Old Monitor and Integer BASIC ROMs.

http://macgui.com/usenet/?group=1&id=275588#msg

This is from a year ago.

1.) Turn on your Integer Apple II and hit Reset
2.) Press Escape, Shift-P
3.) Type F700L and hit Return
4.) Compare your screen with Photo 4a on page 41 of Apple II System
Description*

http://twimgs.com/informationweek/byte/archive/Apple-II-Description/The-Apple-II-by-Stephen-Wozniak.pdf

Now page F7 would be in the top end of Integer BASIC, because we know the Monitor starts at F8.

IMAGE(http://macgui.com/upload/gallery/f_0/user_2/regular/upload_4043.png)

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Re: Apple II Prototype photos (was: Early Apple II photos)

The listing in the article matches the prototype ROM code.

W Sander

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Rev 01 Apple find

I found this Apple ][+ after buying a Apple][e off ebay and sold to me direct. The two drives worked and the joy stick, Microsoft 16K Lanuage card and some floppy's.

The top only has Rev 01 hand written 8023 in the upper right hand corner looks like 48K + one more RAM (parity?) I haven't seen before in an Apple ][+. There is a chip added in area Column 1 between J & K 74LS022 got added with jumpers on the bottom I'll show in next picture. The bottom also had Made in USA etched on the board also no Apple ][ Logo's anywhere on the board and a red painted bottom with no serial number or fell off..

Picture of the bottom, the Made in USA is in the upper right hand corner.
it does boot up but since taking off the top of the case there were two more chips mi that shows a firmware disassemblyssing I'll have to dig through my parts and retest. It also has a channel 3/4 converter stuck on the inside of the case.
I'll have to take a couple better pictures than these! I'll do that bootup where that shows a firmware disassembly.
After taking these pictures I have no video, screen goes black and I get the Beep after power up and loads the from the Floppy drive.now I have to troubleshoot the video.
Anyone know about these first boards?
 
 
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You know - at first glance

You know - at first glance that motherboard looks like a clone.

Even at second and third glance.  So many differences to the standard layout.  Plus that weird extra RAM chip location (empty socket) in the lower 16K.

If it really is a prototype Apple product it's clearly been worked on over the years - there are a variety of date codes from '77 to '81 all over the motherboard chips.

 

 

CVT
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Have you tried removing the

My guess is that the extra RAM socket is there, so you wouldn’t have to move a RAM chip to a 16K Language card or a 128K RAM card like the Legend Soft Disk. However a much longer ribbon cable would be needed.

 

Have you tried removing the CPU from its socket to see if there is something written under it?

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I will look when I start to
I will look when I start to troubleshoot the no video and post what I found.
 
CVT wrote:

My guess is that the extra RAM socket is there, so you wouldn’t have to move a RAM chip to a 16K Language card or a 128K RAM card like the Legend Soft Disk. However a much longer ribb

 

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An ITT 2020 licensed Apple

An official clone of sorts.... An ITT 2020 licensed Apple clone manufactured by  ITT under license from Apple for distribution in the BENELUX countries (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg) perhaps? This would explain why it was recovered in Europe.However this one does not have a black case like the B&H (Darth vader) model.

 

 

There are significant differences with the video timing and memory addressing. The extra ram chip socket (aka 9th bit) is described in the wikipedia article:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITT_2020

 

Also some mention of this board part no. here:

https://www.macinpomme.fr/index.php/clones-dark-vador

 

David (devorn).

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