Gorgonops, I'm equally disappointed as well. If at least the memory upgrade had been still in place, it would have been an interesting modification to have. Sadly, it could be hard to restore it; it seems most of it is still in place, but a couple of wires have already been cut here and there, so it would be a matter of reverse engineering it, which is not something I'm expert on. Sure, if somebody here is able to understand what is missing and what should be connected to what, then it could be feasible after all. I wonder if it would still work with the full modification in place and only 128k of RAM or if it would require a chip swap?
I'm mostly worried about the cut traces, if there is any: I can live with one or two extra wires to make the thing work, but I don't doubt it could be a daunting job to find out everything that went wrong. I'm not that picky when it comes to RAM chips mounted on sockets, after all; they remove part of the originality, true, but I'm not extremely offended by this.
I've got a friend who should have an extra pair of right ROM chips, so that modification could be easily reverted; the floppy, though, would likely remain a 800k one, unless I'm able to find a 400k drive in working order. I'm wondering if a 800k would work with the original ROM set and just be "castrated" to read 400k floppy, or if would just stop working.
For the matter, the italian guy is just a liar, it was the original american seller that made this heck of a crime by cutting things here and there.
Personally, I'd still be more inclined to keep it, as I have this "romantic" side of me that tries to save whatever comes across my way... I'm not sure what could happen to this puppy if I gave it back to the seller, but most certainly it would end up having a sad (and probably short) life, which I find to be a pity, since this particular Mac was built on the 4th week of January, 1984 (judging by the serial number) and so it's still a quite nice thing to have.
Part of my inclination to keep it also derives from the relatively cheap price I paid for it (150 bucks shipping included, but the seller has agreed to refund me 50 euros and I'm allowed to keep it) and from the fact that the 128k in Italy is practically unobtainable, since it was never sold here. Sure thing, a pristine 128k from the US would still be a nice addition to my collection one day, but I may consider it down the road when I'll have more money to spend and live with this for the time being.
I'm mostly worried about the cut traces, if there is any: I can live with one or two extra wires to make the thing work, but I don't doubt it could be a daunting job to find out everything that went wrong. I'm not that picky when it comes to RAM chips mounted on sockets, after all; they remove part of the originality, true, but I'm not extremely offended by this.
I've got a friend who should have an extra pair of right ROM chips, so that modification could be easily reverted; the floppy, though, would likely remain a 800k one, unless I'm able to find a 400k drive in working order. I'm wondering if a 800k would work with the original ROM set and just be "castrated" to read 400k floppy, or if would just stop working.
For the matter, the italian guy is just a liar, it was the original american seller that made this heck of a crime by cutting things here and there.
Personally, I'd still be more inclined to keep it, as I have this "romantic" side of me that tries to save whatever comes across my way... I'm not sure what could happen to this puppy if I gave it back to the seller, but most certainly it would end up having a sad (and probably short) life, which I find to be a pity, since this particular Mac was built on the 4th week of January, 1984 (judging by the serial number) and so it's still a quite nice thing to have.
Part of my inclination to keep it also derives from the relatively cheap price I paid for it (150 bucks shipping included, but the seller has agreed to refund me 50 euros and I'm allowed to keep it) and from the fact that the 128k in Italy is practically unobtainable, since it was never sold here. Sure thing, a pristine 128k from the US would still be a nice addition to my collection one day, but I may consider it down the road when I'll have more money to spend and live with this for the time being.