I had last Monday off work and I was doing my usual looking on eBay and Criagslist for vintage Apple II gear. Late in the evening, I spotted a Craigslist ad for an Apple II. I wiped my eyes and looked again thinking it was someone with a II Plus that thought it was an Apple II (which is more often the case). Well, this was a real Apple II. I had my daughter take a look to see if she could see the “Plus” on there and she said no. By the way it was listed under “Antiques for sale by owner” instead of “Computers” which I thought was a little odd.
So I emailed the person and ask a few questions and said I was very interested. From the picture it was in nice shape. He promptly emailed me back the answers I wanted to hear and I asked for his phone number and if I could call him the next day. (It was 10pm at this point). He emailed and said yes.
I spoke with him and told him I was a collector and very interested in it and that I would like to drive out Saturday to pick it up. He said he would be around and that I could come and pick it up. The person was a really nice guy and was an RF engineer. He had a Laser 128 without a power adapter and a MITS Altair 680b for sale also. (Wife would kill me if I bought these so they are still there). So Saturday came and my wife and I took a trip across PA and picked it up.
I got up early this morning and documented it and figured I would share it with all of you. Comments and suggestions are welcome since I am very familiar with Apple II gear from the IIe on and not at all familiar with the Plus on back. Especially not the II since I thought I would never own one in my lifetime.
So here goes:
Here are the items that I purchased for $300.00
[*]Apple II computer with 48K (I think) of memory
- ROM Card in Slot 0
- SilentType Interface was in Slot 1
- Disk ][ Controller in slot 6 (With 16 sector upgrade)
[*]Microsoft Language Card was not installed
[*]Disk ][ drive with the rainbow cable
[*]Apple SilenType printer with fairly low serial number (Don’t know if that matters or not)
[*]Paddles and Joystick
[*]The Apple Tapes with Manual
[*]DOS 3.2.1 Standard and Plus original masters and ProDOS v1 master
[*]Manuals and Books
- DOS 3.2
- Apple Utilities
- Apple II Basic Programming
- Apple II reference Manual
- Applesoft Reference Manual
- The Apple Tapes
- The Applesoft Tutorial
- Silentype Manual
- A Visicalc and Applesoft Data File Programming Book
[*]Twenty 5.25” diskette jackets for three ring binder
[*]An Apple IIe brochure, an Apple Catalog, and a few other magazines.
[*]and finally…… --- The original bill of sale.
[*]
Yes, this guy was the original owner and bought this Apple II back in 1980 (I was a senior in high school) from MicroAge Computer Store in Phoenix AZ. He lived in Phoenix before moving to Pennsylvania. As a matter of fact, the magazines that were in the lot, have his mailing address in AZ on them.
I am the second owner of this Apple II.
I gave the Apple II a good "once-over" this morning and hooked it up to a known good disk ][ and it booted fine. Some of the keys are not working, but everything else seems to be working fine. I hooked up the Disk ][ that came with it and then the SilenType printer and everything worked perfectly.
The Apple II is a late model “8005” date code on the motherboard (see pictures). I have not pulled the CPU yet for see exactly what revision the MoBo is, but plan to do that. Serial number is 40209 on a black and white sticker. Date codes on all the chips seem in line for the period. The person I bought it from also made a few more trips to MicroAge for accessories over the next few months.
I uploaded a bunch of pictures and as I said above, I never thought I would own an original Apple II so if you guys spot anything from the pictures or have any suggestions on how to proceed to completely restore it, I am all ears!!
It is missing one of the plastic “Velcro” tabs from the lid.
More to come...
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Here are some more pics. I didn't know how to put them on a reply so I put them here.
Back of the ROM card. Well thanks to Mike, I am in a restore mode on this Apple II.
It booted, but was very erattic. Cleaned the pins of the ROM Chips - Very tarnished.
Now chasing down some RAM problems or maybe address buffer problems. So it's about 80% of the way there
I still think it was a good deal. (I think?)
I am scanning the SilenType manual now. Carefully removed the staples and it is going as I type.
More later.
Jay
Sounds like you got an excellent deal...
I have only been looking into Apple ]['s for the past couple of months since I located my buried Apple ][ in my Storage Unit. [Link 1] [Link 2].
The MB Serial Number of 8005 would indicate The year 1980, Week Number 05 for the date, the Case Serial Number of 40209 would appear to be the same time period. It would have been one of the later Apple ][, because the Apple ][+ have been available since JUN-1979 from the information I have read.
I would guess a Rev 03 MB.. The Rev 04 have a "Rev-04" Silkscreen-ed on the Board, between the CPU and Slot 4 and Slot 5, so you don't have to remove the CPU.
It has a custom ROM at D0 on the MB.. ProDOS won't run on this Board, as is.. Because it needs 64K and Applesoft in ROM.
Mark,
It is a Rev 4 board. I see the silkscreen on the board and I also pulled the CPU to confirm. Thanks for the info. Not sure what the custom ROM is, but it does have an Apple copyright on it.
It's alright that it doesn't run ProDOS. I have others that can do that. I actually found the plastic velcro tab too. It was wedged under the motherboard. Working on getting the keyboard cleaned now.
Also the foam ring around the speaker appeared to be in good shape until I touched it. It is now disintegrated. That's okay too, I will make a new one.
Thanks a bunch for the info.
J
Try the Apple's ASIC Page, to see if you can locate a Part Number match... My Apple ][ has a Rev 03 Board, and my Apple ][+ has a Rev 01?? board.. I figured the Apple ][+ was in for Service and was Swapped out...
The machine looks fairly clean, I would Clean the Keyboard, and then just try running a few program on it.. Some of the Chips might need to be reseated, to make good contact, but I wouldn't do that unless it locks up after running for a while.. My Apple ][ does that, so I need to go through it and Re-seat all the Chips..
Not a problem.. My first Apple was the ][e...
Hello jwg1962,
well this was for sure a good deal....
just 2 remarks besides thanking for the good pictures:
1 - it seems that the silentype interfacecard has suffered a bad repair....
in normal case the connector is black plastic-connector and fixed to the board....
i have one in correct condition and will ad a picture in next days....
the silentype printers have been sold in 2 different versions:
one with a plastic collar on the cable, to fit in the backopenings of the case for apple II and
the others without plastic collar on the cable, that have been determined for the Apple III.
in the picture that cable is not visible in large part so that difference can´t be seen....
2. among the manuals i spotted out the manual for the siletype-printer....
it would be a great deed if that manual would be scanned some day....
there is no such manual available in any of the mirrorsites within the apple-web-ring - so that would
really be a valuable contribution to the archives to get a scanned version from that manual.....
i´ll be back to this thread after i have taken a picture from the undamaged version of the interfacecard....
just another question: would you please add a picture or scan from the backside of the ROMcard ?
thanks for the contribution sincerely speedyG
speedyG,
Thanks for all the great info! I need to convince my wife this is a good deal.
Yes. The card did suffer a bad repair job. I had a few of the 9-pine right angle connectors from back in the day when I repaired Atari games, however, they are the wrong gender.
I will need to order one online and repair this. It works, it is just not pretty.
Yes. Definitely will scan the SilentType manual. Where should I put it once it is scanned.
Yes. Will snap a picture of the back of the ROM card tonight when I get home and post it here.
Again, thanks so much for all the info.
Jay
It looks like you have 48K in there.
That's when they were first available for sale, not necessarily when they were first manufactured.
Hello Dog Cow,
if you would have viewed the pictures all carefully, you would have recognized, that among those cards there is one from Microsoft - a 16kB Languagecard ( that one with the 3 LEDs on the topside ). So that system has all together, with the Languagecard inserted in Slot 1, 64 kB.
Hello jwg1962,
the first choice will be asimov.net for the manual.
there is in the root a instuctionfile, how to upload files.
if there is any problem, note it here and the instructions will be repeated.
sincerely speedyG
Thanks Will do.
Jay
Uh, Yes, And your point is???
My point was this Apple ][ was built and Sold after the Apple][+ was available, thus making it one of the very last Apple ]['s ever made..
Well now that makes sense.
Sorry for bothering you.
I put some more pics up in the original post. Didn't know how to put them as a reply.
36-73 are new. Back of ROM card.
Also I am scanning the SilentType manual as I am typing.
More later....