Apple IIc prototype identification help

[Kristofer Holmquist]

Hey,

 

I recently acquired an exclusive apple IIc pre-production prototype from my dad who received it during his early days at apple. This was not made available to people publicly and there weren't that many of them made. I might eventually be selling it or giving it to a museum, but for now I want to gather more information about it. 

 

So hopefully you guys can help me identify this and perhaps have more insight than my father or I have. I have searched all over google with no trace of it at all, so I'll post a few pics of it and the original certificate given with it.

 

My father says the case it came in was overly big to test out new components.

 

thanks!

[Kristofer Holmquist]

also the back ports!

[Derek]

Wow, weird.  A //c motherboard in a // case... thanks for sharing. :-)

 

Mark Simonsen of Beagle Bros spoke about almost having his IIc prototype stolen from him at KansasFest last year... maybe you should get in touch with him.

[avidmaccollector]

Get in touch with Steven Weyhrich from http://apple2history.org/

[Steven Weyhrich]

I am not an expert on Apple's prototypes, but I can offer an opinion.

I found the posting of a BYTE article on the Apple IIc from May 1984 that includes a picture of the motherboard. It is, unfortunately, a B&W scan of what was probably a color picture in the original article. However, if you compare it to IMG_5999.JPG above, it appears to be almost the same as the motherboard-in-a-IIe-case that is in that photo. They've included an adapter to let the Apple IIe keyboard work with this IIc, but otherwise it is quite similar.

The photo "a2crearpanel.jpg" shows the IIc back panel from the IIc Technical Reference Manual. The plugs and ports are exactly the same as in IMG_6005.JPG: Mouse/joystick port, serial port 2, video expansion connector, video output connector, external drive connector, serial port 1, external power connector, and the power switch.

I would guess that a prototype like this was used for testing out the computer while they were working on finalization of the case. A very interesting find!

[Kristofer Holmquist]

Cool! thanks for looking through for info. It seems they really mashed together several things, and all the back ports staying the exact same is interesting.

 

It seems my father won this prototype after entering a raffle once the IIc came out. The rest of the prototypes might be with former employees or dumped after the raffle...

[Dave Ross]

If you want to see the Byte article in color (some cool early //C pics), you can download the issue at http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/167235-byte-magazine/page__st_...

[Steven Weyhrich]

Thanks for the link - here's a better picture of the motherboard - more easy to see the similarity with the IIc prototype motherboard.

[Mark Frischknecht]

I'd love to see a clearer shot of the pcb that plugs into the power connector.

[Kristofer Holmquist]

I think I have an idea of what you're talking about, but could you elaborate? ^^

[Mark Frischknecht]

The board that the power supply plugs into which then plugs into the motherboard

[Kristofer Holmquist]

Here's a closer picture of the pcb you wanted, and just in case I included a picture of the other card, which I am not sure if it's original or not. I see that it says "LOLLY-AIIE KBD ADAPTER"

[Wholly Mindless]

On this page, I was able to confirm that "lolly/" is reported to have been a //c codename. Although it is spelled differently, I would put that down to a verbal report.

http://applemuseum.bott.org/sections/codenames.html