Apple 1 Sells At Auction For $905,000 81
Dave Knott writes One of the few remaining examples of Apple Inc's first pre-assembled computer, the Apple 1, sold for $905,000 at an auction in New York on Wednesday. The final price outstrips expectations, as auction house Bonhams had said it expected to sell the machine, which was working as of September, for between $300,000 and $500,000. The buyer was The Henry Ford organization, which plans to display the computer in its museum in Dearborn, Michigan. Only 63 surviving authentic Apple 1's were listed in an Apple 1 Registry as of January out of the 200 that were built. The auctioned computer is thought to be one of the first batch of 50 Apple-1 machines assembled by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak in Steve Job's family garage in Los Altos, California in the summer of 1976. It is also believed to be one of only 15 that still have functioning motherboards. That's a bit more beastly than the original price.
Retro computers as DIY kits? (Score:5, Interesting)
There's probably a business in making retro computers as DIY kits. Sure, some company would have to re-manufacture the parts that couldn't be made at home and with small runs the parts wouldn't be cheap, but there is a hobbyist market out there.
Re:Retro computers as DIY kits? (Score:5, Informative)
Thankfully, a lot of the early computers used commodity parts that are still manufactured, such as the 7400 series [wikipedia.org] of discrete logic gates (e.g. 7400 = quad NAND gate, 7404 = hex inverter, etc.). The Apple I's 8-bit microprocessor, the MOS 6502, is still commercially available [6502.org], too.
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Still, the 6502 is simple enough that we'll probably be able to 3D print them soon :).
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Doubt it.
Reverse Engineering the MOS 6502 CPU [youtube.com]
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Err... Western Design Center sells them. Mouser claims to have a few hundred 65c02's in stock in a variety of form factors (PLC-44, QFP-44, and DIP-40) as well as 65816's. The 65816 is compatible enough that if you clocked it at 1MHz, you'd almost certainly end up with a 100% compatible design (though if I remember back to my Apple IIgs days correctly, there are a few minor incompatibilities, even when running the 65816 in 8 bit mode).
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I just tried to order some PDIP-40 packages from mouser, they do seem to have some in stock. They do have a two week lead on bulk quantities, so someone's still making them.
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The Western Digital 65C816 processor can run in 6502 mode (though slower on the clock, it is a 16-bit chip). Oh, and these guys have a pile of 6502's in: http://uk.mouser.com/_/?Keywor... [mouser.com]
Re:Retro computers as DIY kits? (Score:5, Informative)
There's probably a business in making retro computers as DIY kits. Sure, some company would have to re-manufacture the parts that couldn't be made at home and with small runs the parts wouldn't be cheap, but there is a hobbyist market out there.
Yup. [brielcomputers.com]
There are often limits on authenticity, either due to parts availability (e.g. TTL ICs), or for convenience (modern monitors, keyboards).
...laura
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At 905K$USD per unit I'm pretty sure the market is non-existant. ;-)
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I was speaking in general terms. Yes, machines with proprietary, out-of-production components will be difficult or impossible to re-create without cooperation with the company who owns the IP rights.
Re:Retro computers as DIY kits? (Score:4, Insightful)
There are kits, and it would be nice if the museum picked up a few to create an interactive exhibit. Just imagine being able to walk into an exhibit hall where the original is maintained in working order, but also being able to use one of the kits to get a taste of computing back in the day.
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You mean typing in everyone's favourite for the demo machines:
Ahh, happy memories!
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At the risk of being modded Troll, I'll say that most people interested in these ancient relics, other than museums, want the software that ran on them, and there are several emulators for that.
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No surprise (Score:5, Funny)
Re:No surprise (Score:5, Insightful)
Apple hardware is always over-priced, right?
If you can keep it hidden away for 38 years and then sell it for 150,000 percent profit, then obviously it is _not_ overpriced.
Re:No surprise (Score:5, Insightful)
Apple hardware is over-priced, but then again you get the OS and the office suite for free with the system and free upgrades later, so it's kind of cheaper in the long run.
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Please stop posting factual and logical comments, it takes away from the usual anti-Apple circlejerk.
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Unless you ever want to upgrade or repair it. But of course hardware never fails and 8GB RAM should be fine for years.
Epoxied batteries, soldered RAM, nonstandard SSDs... it's insane anti-consumer BS.
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8GB RAM? I wish. The "new" 2014 entry-level Mac mini only has 4GB in the standard configuration, like all four models of MacBook Air.
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my G3 and my G4 had none of those. Batteries, RAM and storage was all removable and replaceable with commodity parts in the case of the RAM and storage, batteries were another matter (they wanted the machines' serial numbers!), so I gave Apple the fuckoff biscuit and got third party replacements.
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Apple hardware is over-priced, but then again you get the OS and the office suite for free with the system and free upgrades later, so it's kind of cheaper in the long run.
Amount paid for MS/Linux software: $0
Amount paid for Apple software: $700
PC hardware survival average: 6+ years
Apple hardware survival average: 14 months
Average price paid per PC: ~$1,200
Average price paid per Apple: ~$2,100
Between a $2,200 monitor getting a hot pixel epidemic in the first 7 months and a $2,000 Macbook Pro melting down to the point of complete failure in 21 months it was by far the worst investments of my life. Meanwhile, I still have an ancient $150 IBM 486 that works beautifully for my c
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Apple hardware is over-priced, but then again you get the OS and the office suite for free with the system and free upgrades later, so it's kind of cheaper in the long run.
Ah well, the buyer of this Apple is going to be mightily disappointed when he tries to download the latest OS and office suite onto his Apple, isn't he?
Steve who? (Score:3)
Who is Steve Job?
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He was the guy who worked with Steve Wozniak.
Re:Steve who? (Score:5, Funny)
You mean Steve Woznia.
Re:Steve who? (Score:4, Funny)
Steve Job was friends with Steve Wozniac, they're two normal guys who get a lot of strange mail. They live next to Mike Roe, the founder of Mikeroesoft.
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Steve Job is actually a super clever biblical play on words. You see Job is the well known schmuck who God toyed with to demonstrate his power. Whereas Steve(n) was the first christian martyr.
So, Steve Job.. ahh I lost my train of thought, and as such I give up. :(
Wrong Price! (Score:5, Funny)
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If there was 137 more working Apple 1, they wouldn't be worth that much.
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If there was 137 more working Apple 1, they wouldn't be worth that much.
No, but there's 137 people who can each legitimately say "If I hadn't put my machine in the trash, I'd be $900k-ish richer". And I'm not sure how quick the value drops off but I doubt going from 63 to 200 machines (about 3x) would be worse than inverse square so (1/3)^2 * $900k = $100k/machine, that's also a nice chunk of cash.
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Or upgraded them to Apple IIs.
The Personal Computer (Score:2)
for the rest of us...one percenters!!!!!
Pretty good return on investment (Score:2)
At least compared to these Apple products [kyleconroy.com]. (Here's a nytimes link [nytimes.com] if you don't want to go to a random site)
But seriously I'm glad it's going to be displayed in a museum.
rrp (Score:2)
Authentic or fake? (Score:2)
Are you sure this is an original Apple computer? It doesn't have any rounded corners.
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It's an Apple 1. There is no corners at all.
Apple ][+ (Score:2)
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Probably not that much. A new-in-box //c sold for around $2600 a few years back.
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An Apple ][ must be worth twice as much... you lost a cool 1.8 million simoleons, pal!
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Ripped off (Score:3, Funny)
He coulda got a brand new iMac for no more than half that.
Zapple (Score:2)
> $666.66
Keep in mind a loaded station wagon, of Family Truckster fame, was around $3500.
Still, it's a 90-fold increase over the original price.
Proper Plural (Score:2)
Everybody should know the proper plural of Apple 1 is Apples 1 and not Apple 1's.
* Monitor sold separately (Score:2)
Next item up for bid.
They got ripped off (Score:1)
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i think that was a apple ][gs
On display at Computer History Museum (Score:1)
Computer History Museum [computerhistory.org]
Maintenance (Score:2)
Authenticity is great and all but with so few still working I hope they will at least re-cap the thing, if that hasn't already been done. I'd hate to see them let that original smoke out!
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No, it'll probably get put in a picture frame and mounted on the wall or in a glass box never to see power again.
That's what happens when people with more money than brains buy a "piece of history".
Personally, I think "vintage" computers should be played with, experienced, and used. I let my kids play with my Atari 800 all the time. The Apple I wasn't real special either, the Altair was far more capable when well-equipped and had more historical significance. The only thing Apple brought to the table was
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I'd just go for cool factor and hunt around for a working Cray X-MP.
My prototypes... (Score:3)
I'm a prototype developer too, and I can't help thinking that - that very computer setup...is just a setup to make some money, because it would look plausible to the laymen that knows nothing of hardware development. Take a computer from the 80s, split it apart, nail it to a wooden brick, and voila...you have your first "sony".
Ya wanna know how real prototyping happens? I know...because I grew up with those guys:
1) it's never a finished printboard like that.
2) It's usually a bunch of vero-boards (breadboards) with tons of logic circuits like the TTL74xxx series.
3) And it would be several prints, for the different sections, a) memory, b) memory management, c) character roms and system memory, d) video memory and video signal generation, e) sound generation board, f) I/O management, for input/output keyboard, disk, cassette, PTT etc.
and I could go on and on....but I am betting you guys have NO clue (so mod me troll, you 14 year olds), I don't care.
ASCII art -- easter egg? (Score:2)
At the beginning and end of the linked video showing the demo of the Apple-1, there is some lovely ASCII art shown on the Apple-1 monitor.
Are these artworks hidden in the rom somewhere? Anyone got a link?
another 6502 classic (Score:2)
I wonder how much I'd get for my (still working) BBC Model A?