Thread
Macintosh 128 Proto (as far as i can tell)
So I figured even tho I have had it for months that I would put it here. It just never dawned on me it may be special. From what I can tell both my 128's (that are actually 512's) have last revision C motherboards.
According to http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Macintosh_Prototypes.txt
I will link all the photos I have taken of it here.
Couple of questions tho,
1) Are all the 128's and 512's have a hole big enought to put the twiggy in? I ask because I have not seen inside close enough of others than the ones I have.
2) Think the shielding was not addd to see the heat build up on plastic? I compared the 2 and they have residue in th same places but you cannot see it, only feel it on the shielded version.
3) The inside is as yellow as the outside, should I retrobrite or leave it alone?
4) The front off the other Mac analog board says 1986 so I am sure it was a 512 to begin with but its asset tag is M0001 serial F4423MSM001, so maybe just pieced together to keep it working?
I am pretty stoked now. Guess I got my Grail wether its real or not I will hit my "I believe" button anyway.
I hope you all enjoy me sharing it. If your ever up the Portland way let me know and we can get together. I love trading stories and parts.
According to http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Macintosh_Prototypes.txt
I will link all the photos I have taken of it here.
Couple of questions tho,
1) Are all the 128's and 512's have a hole big enought to put the twiggy in? I ask because I have not seen inside close enough of others than the ones I have.
2) Think the shielding was not addd to see the heat build up on plastic? I compared the 2 and they have residue in th same places but you cannot see it, only feel it on the shielded version.
3) The inside is as yellow as the outside, should I retrobrite or leave it alone?
4) The front off the other Mac analog board says 1986 so I am sure it was a 512 to begin with but its asset tag is M0001 serial F4423MSM001, so maybe just pieced together to keep it working?
I am pretty stoked now. Guess I got my Grail wether its real or not I will hit my "I believe" button anyway.
I hope you all enjoy me sharing it. If your ever up the Portland way let me know and we can get together. I love trading stories and parts.
Wow, what is that? Never seen a Mac with the Apple logo like that. Looks like you have some sort of obscure undocumented prototype. How these things show up decades after the fact is a mystery.
Ya I menitioned it months ago here but just put it in its apple bag and forgot to photo it. When I mentioned I might give up 1 for someone to have a 128 they said hey that doesnt look quite right. Then all the internet news starts pouring in. I got the Mac from a lady whos husband past away, same woman who gave (I gave her 200 for a truckload of stuff and I do mean truckload) me 3 color classics and the mac portable. I wish I had more documentation, but as prototypes go I guess there wouldnt be much, thats where final product would come in.
:O The FDD "doesn't look quite right" either, you may have a prototype in that as well. 
Very interesting differences in the boards as well. What's the legend say on the IC that was added between the two large ICs next to the IWM?
That score is the stuff MacDreams are made of! :approve:
Very interesting differences in the boards as well. What's the legend say on the IC that was added between the two large ICs next to the IWM?
That score is the stuff MacDreams are made of! :approve:
The Eproms were supposedly removable to facilitate changes. On both boards they look like they slide right up, but I am not even gonna try. Both Boards work, caps and all. Just gonna try and test the first OS on it as the real 512's cannot run it, I may be mistaken but I think I read that somewhere.
TRW
8428
810-1-222G
writing on the board between the two IC's, connected to 4 pins on the IC closest to the edge of the board.
8428
810-1-222G
writing on the board between the two IC's, connected to 4 pins on the IC closest to the edge of the board.
Apparently the 3.5 sony drive was a last minute D Day addition to the non twiggy Macs. After reading that it makes alot of sense why the hole is wide enough in the case for a twiggy but the drive mount has an apple part number with a crazy looking Sony drive in there.
I like the back story on the Mac. Pretty interesting reading.
I like the back story on the Mac. Pretty interesting reading.
That is very interesting one. It really must have been an early 128k development unit that have been later upgraded for 512k development, with just board swapped. Can't be that many around anymore, atleast there's no information around about those at all, except the famous twiggy-unit.
I had done some reading on folklore.org and it said somewhere that the "apple feet" were changed at the last minute. So it does look like you have a late model prototype!
the FEET gave her up! 
The Fokelore web site says the late model prototype has 512, that its not a different board.
Wow, very cool.
Yep! CheapFeets, weak@$$ flyback and RAMreaming substitutions were all bean-counter inspired degradation desecrations of the original design spec.
Higher price point or lower margins might have killed the Mac outright, however.
Fabulous score! :approve:
Higher price point or lower margins might have killed the Mac outright, however.
Fabulous score! :approve:
The 3.5" drive in the twiggy slot is cracking me up! It's looks funny! :lol:Floppy Drive Bracket different aluminum from frame.
Very cool. :O
I wonder if the Macintosh branded system is actually a release sample? Maybe a sample of the final product but not a production run. The CPU looks different than the production run of boards I've seen.
I wonder if the Macintosh branded system is actually a release sample? Maybe a sample of the final product but not a production run. The CPU looks different than the production run of boards I've seen.
Anyone else have a 128 or 512 they have opened up can tell me if the wide hole in the frame that can fit twiggy but has a 3.5 is in all of them? Its also interesting as they updated the mac they removed names no longer in the project.
Check out this site, they have several pics of a 128k teardown:
http://www.tcocd.de/Pictures/Micro/Apple/mac128.shtml
http://www.tcocd.de/Pictures/Micro/Apple/mac128.shtml
Ok floppy cage and metal inards look pretty standard then looking at those pictures. One motherboard is close but the changeable eprom makes it defferent to final. They had to change the floppy holder but the frame for logic board stayed regardless of the twiggy. Good thinking.
So the original Release mac had
- Cheaper feets
- Weaker Flyback - Worse quality?
- 128K Ram instead of 512K ram
Differences from the Release Candidates, Such as the one macdrone has?
http://folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Wet_dreams_and_little_rubber_feet.1.txt&topic=Industrial%20Design&sortOrder=Sort%20by%20Date&detail=high&showcomments=1
I saw this in regards to the feets folklore-
I cannot believe they spent $8000(in 1983 money) on tooling for those rubber feet to have an apple logo...that would never fly where I work! :lol:
Also Steve jobs wanted to bypass sony for the drives since twiggys just were turnng out to be junk (why the eprom is replacable on my boards),so he went to someone else to build a similar drive. That fell through and his team kept the Sony deal for the 3.5 drive alive which saved the Mac.
i guess the question is? Your feets, how is the adhesive? do any of the feets seem like they are half peeling off?
The feets on the proto are solid in place and not peeling at all. All 4 intact apple and all. They are a little harder in comparison to the plus.
Okay, here's what I think it is:
A late prototype Macintosh. This was probably used by a Mac Team member who kept using it for a few years after the release of the Mac. As it was a daily use machine, it was upgraded as they went.
What's original? The case, frame, floppy drive bracket, floppy drive, logic board, ROM chips (342-0220 and 342-0221, right?)
What's new? The DRAM chips, the mini-mux board (the little "extra" board on the logic board at E3).
The mini-mux and 256kbit DRAM chips were a popular upgrade back in the day. If you wanted it to be "original", you would remove the mux board, repair the cut trace on the bottom of the logic board under the mux board area, and replace the 16 DRAM chips with 64kbit chips.
I'm a little surprised that the ROM chips are still the original 128k/512k versions. Many people upgraded these to the Mac Plus ROMs which added 800k drive support giving you a Mac 512ke.
A late prototype Macintosh. This was probably used by a Mac Team member who kept using it for a few years after the release of the Mac. As it was a daily use machine, it was upgraded as they went.
What's original? The case, frame, floppy drive bracket, floppy drive, logic board, ROM chips (342-0220 and 342-0221, right?)
What's new? The DRAM chips, the mini-mux board (the little "extra" board on the logic board at E3).
The mini-mux and 256kbit DRAM chips were a popular upgrade back in the day. If you wanted it to be "original", you would remove the mux board, repair the cut trace on the bottom of the logic board under the mux board area, and replace the 16 DRAM chips with 64kbit chips.
I'm a little surprised that the ROM chips are still the original 128k/512k versions. Many people upgraded these to the Mac Plus ROMs which added 800k drive support giving you a Mac 512ke.
According to the folklore site the proto late model was 512 not 128 so it's not upgraded.
Every Mac 128, 512, 512ke, Plus, SE, SE/30, Classic, and Classic II had the front brace-gap wide enough for the Twiggy drive. That's how people could easily hack slot load CD drives in them so frequently.
In your picture there is a metal cover on the back of the FDD with one screw that the ribbon sneaks up under. That is not regular production. I think you need to tear down further and see if you have a weird early Sony drive in there too.
In your picture there is a metal cover on the back of the FDD with one screw that the ribbon sneaks up under. That is not regular production. I think you need to tear down further and see if you have a weird early Sony drive in there too.
I don't have and have never seen a Classic II, but every Compact from 128k-Classic has provision for a full height 5.25" Drive built into the chassis.
If you think the 3.5" drive looks funny in the 5.25" TwiggyHole in the chassis from the back, get a load of it from the front!
I need to pop my upgraded 128k open to see if has that fancy FDD bracket or the slab-sided simplification installed in later compacts.
ClearTwiggyProtoHoaxMacHacks™
If you think the 3.5" drive looks funny in the 5.25" TwiggyHole in the chassis from the back, get a load of it from the front!
I need to pop my upgraded 128k open to see if has that fancy FDD bracket or the slab-sided simplification installed in later compacts.
ClearTwiggyProtoHoaxMacHacks™
:lol: You beat me to the post, Al!
I thought that as well but someone linked a 128 tear down and all the units shown had that, as do both that I have. But I have them apart so I can deal with four screws to take some more photos.
That's horrible, it looks like Frankenstein didn't make it lol. It doesn't look like the Sony drive, maybe that was the other trial drive?