Extremely rare Apple Macintosh 128K with 'Twiggy Drive' listed for $100K on eBay

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Comments

  • Reply 21 of 62
    nagrommenagromme Posts: 2,834member
    Did all (pre-cursor-keys) Macs have that slide-out drawer?



    I used some pretty ancient “yellow Macs" in school but I never thought to yank on the side of the keyboard to see what might happen.
  • Reply 22 of 62
    That screen looks blue to me. Weren't the original Macs monochrome?
  • Reply 23 of 62
    looking at this it is amazing to think how technology has progressed in the last 20-30 years
  • Reply 24 of 62
    alexmitalexmit Posts: 112member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by rickwil61 View Post


    That screen looks blue to me. Weren't the original Macs monochrome?



    mono = 1

    chrome = color



    1 color. Blue is 1 color, even if it is only blue-ish. So yes... it is monochrome.
  • Reply 25 of 62
    realisticrealistic Posts: 1,154member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by brlawyer View Post


    Beautiful piece of kit, indeed...but it should go to a museum instead of being auctioned off to private collectors.



    Then buy it and donate it to a museum.
  • Reply 26 of 62
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by rickwil61 View Post


    That screen looks blue to me. Weren't the original Macs monochrome?





    Mixed light auto white balance from the camera I think. The other link to vintage computers has another image with more accurate color. The BW CRT display did have a slight blue cast though.
  • Reply 27 of 62
    bill42bill42 Posts: 131member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by rickwil61 View Post


    That screen looks blue to me. Weren't the original Macs monochrome?



    Yes, the real color is closer to pure white than this. The camera has white balanced to the incandescent lighting in the room and the white screen is much cooler than the lightbulbs.

    I agree that it still should not look this blue anyway. It seems like the camera must have really exaggerated the cooler white point of the screen for some reason.



    I still have my Mac 128! It is a standard 3.5 inch floppy one though. I am waiting for it to be worth 100 grand too...
  • Reply 28 of 62
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mstone View Post


    What is that guy in a trench coat logo next to the keyboard? It is also drawn on the memory PCB.



    Found this by Googling the PCB serial #



    http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcfo...p/t-29001.html



    Yep compared the hand written Eprom codes and it is the same machine



    great detective work! Horatio and Grissom would be proud



    I wouldn't buy it if I could afford it, but that's a great piece of history.
  • Reply 29 of 62
    paxmanpaxman Posts: 4,729member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by CGJ View Post


    As I said clearly, 'if other blog sites are to be believed.' I had my own doubts whether it was Wozniak or not, but I didn't particularly care.



    I recon 'the real Woz' would be the buyer, not the seller. Some collector or curator will pay big for this piece. It looks like it is in exceptional condition.
  • Reply 30 of 62
    I've held on to much of my "old Mac" collection from years past. A couple of Mac 512Ks, external 400K floppy drive, external 10MB serial port-connected hard drive, the original "phonebook" Mac programming guide, a box set of BeOS, and a bunch of Apple-branded nicknacks from old trade shows and Apple reps. I wish I'd have kept my original 128K Mac, complete with the engraved names inside the back case, but I upgraded it to a Mac Plus and subsequently gave it to my niece.
  • Reply 31 of 62
    shompashompa Posts: 343member
    If the real Woz is selling this, he needs money for more Android phones.



    (I respect Woz and see him as a genius. I don't understand why he believes that Android will kill Iphone.)
  • Reply 32 of 62
    tinktink Posts: 395member
    Ha,



    My dad had one. It might be laying around somewhere still....
  • Reply 33 of 62
    msimpsonmsimpson Posts: 452member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Magic_Al View Post


    I wonder if the original Macintosh external floppy drive would work with this. Booting from the external with the right early version of Mac OS might make it possible to format Twiggy discs in the internal drive.



    It might be possible to boot it from an external 3.5" floppy, except for one thing. Those are not the final production ROM's. They may not have the code in the boot sequence to read from 3.5" floppies. The original ROM's contained QuickDraw and other system code that left very little room for extra's. There are stories about Burrell, Andy, and Atkinson sweating long hours to squeeze every last bit of space out of the ROMs.



    It might be possible to replace those EPROM's with copies of the original production ROMS and it would boot from an external 3.5" floppy, but then there would be no code for handling the Twiggy drive.
  • Reply 34 of 62
    msimpsonmsimpson Posts: 452member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by coffeetime View Post


    I've held on to much of my "old Mac" collection from years past. A couple of Mac 512Ks, external 400K floppy drive, external 10MB serial port-connected hard drive, the original "phonebook" Mac programming guide, a box set of BeOS, and a bunch of Apple-branded nicknacks from old trade shows and Apple reps. I wish I'd have kept my original 128K Mac, complete with the engraved names inside the back case, but I upgraded it to a Mac Plus and subsequently gave it to my niece.



    Still have my Apple II and original Mac. My own personal computer museum. All the other pre-OSX Macs I have owned (LC's, SE's, PowerMac's, Quadra's, etc) are gone.



    The dude needs to go on the Antique Roadshow...



    "This is a final example of Macintosh hardware from the early 1980's pre-Sculley period, with a unique rare configuration. It is not in the original packaging, but it is in good condition and has not been refinished or altered. I would say that, conservatively, at auction, this Macintosh would go for..."



  • Reply 35 of 62
    jragostajragosta Posts: 10,473member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by sessamoid View Post


    That's ridiculous. Woz doesn't need the money, and he's never shown great interest in collecting large amounts of it. If he had it, he would have donated it to a museum.



    Just curious how you know that Wozniak doesn't need the money. I don't recall him making his personal financial statements public.
  • Reply 36 of 62
    jd_in_sbjd_in_sb Posts: 1,600member
    Anyone who asks $100,000 for something, then demands $1500 for shipping, is clueless as a salesperson.
  • Reply 37 of 62
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jd_in_sb View Post


    Anyone who asks $100,000 for something, then demands $1500 for shipping, is clueless as a salesperson.





    Probably will be insured for $100K as well. Considering that it needs to have special packaging constructed and it is most likely international shipping since it is coming from Canada, $1,500 does not sound unreasonable and I am sure it is negotiable. If you have an extra $100k laying around to spend on this you would want to have it shipped properly I would think. Plus you also will have to pay duty unless you live in Canada, so add that on to the expense as well.
  • Reply 38 of 62
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Apple ][ View Post


    Macs are good for museums and PC's are good for landfills.



    Considering how many old Macs I'm aware of, that people have tucked away, I'd say that is surprisingly true. I still have my first one, a Mac Plus (circa 1986?). And the last time I checked, it was still fully functional.



    I've had probably dozens of PC's over the years and the only one I've kept is an IBM ThinkPad... that stopped working about a year and a half into its life. I found that it's not worth fixing, but I can't get myself to throw it away. But now, the Mac Plus, I will NEVER get rid of it! I once considered that little fellow to be my secret weapon.



    So I agree with your post. Somehow, people with Macs seem more likely to believe they have something special. And they're less likely to chuck it in the trash once it breaks or becomes obsolete. PC's, on the other hand... they're like cheap lighters: when they're done, just throw them away.
  • Reply 39 of 62
    jd_in_sbjd_in_sb Posts: 1,600member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mstone View Post


    Probably will be insured for $100K as well. Considering that it needs to have special packaging constructed and it is most likely international shipping since it is coming from Canada, $1,500 does not sound unreasonable and I am sure it is negotiable. If you have an extra $100k laying around to spend on this you would want to have it shipped properly I would think. Plus you also will have to pay duty unless you live in Canada, so add that on to the expense as well.



    $100,000 is just a number he made up and is pure profit. Any reasonable salesperson would have said $100,000 + free shipping so his net income is $98,500. Putting up a potential barrier to that much profit by demanding shipping is just plain stupid.
  • Reply 40 of 62
    cash907cash907 Posts: 893member
    There was one of these sitting in the corner of my old highschool library, but it was hooked up to a dual bay external floppy drive. Haven't seen it since 98... wonder if it's still there?
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