It continues! The quest to clean and test every single item in my computer collection, and see if there are new homes for it all. The latest dig in the trove? A Mac Classic II – no big deal right? It is, actually, because the case is smooth, the logic board is pre-production, and the ROM’s are Beta! Yes folks, another prototype that has been hiding away…..
No Apple logo on the front and likely some sort of “Not for Sale” sticker that has decided to make it way into oblivion… So, for a good measure, there is a nice honking red one on the back to remind us that this unit is to be kept under wraps…
So, when we turn it around….
… and crack it open
So, then with excitement, let’s have a look at the logic board. It is prototype to the core. It’s not even a rev A board. Rather it is an 820-0401-03 with the part number setup but not yet defined as 620- – . The ROM chips are something called “Apollo ROM” with version 1.0B3 and the “Apple Confidential” markings.
There is not much info online about boards prior to the 820-0401-A release, to much disappointment. Maybe there are more of these out there, but nobody is talking about it.
So, what about this “Apollo ROM”? Well, the Internet is not coughing up anything on that either! Certainly, however, this is a May 1991 version of the computer, 5 months prior to the production release of the Classic II.
Neat part is though that here is an example of a prototype of a computer that was the last of lasts – the last black-and-white compact Mac, and the last desktop Mac to still have the external floppy port.
This one has the 40MB hard drive installed too… pretty clean unit inside and out.
How does it run? Well… it powers on, the hard drive spins, but all it gets is this funky pattern on the screen.
So, some work here to be done for sure… Maybe best in the hands of a collector who knows how to get the demons out of here and bring this thing back to life? Yes, this is for sale! I think…..
