Rare 128k Macintosh prototype with 5.25″ floppy drive surfaces

Fans of Apple or vintage computers might be interested to know that a very rare 128k Macintosh prototype has surfaced onto the internet, albeit not for sale but in the form of photos. What you are looking at above is supposedly a rare Macintosh prototype that utilized a 5.25” “Twiggy” floppy disk mechanism that Apple used on the first generation Lisa workstation.

The motherboard of the prototype workstation also featured a riser card with four custom EPROMs which were early testing systems with the Mac firmware yet to be finalized. Interestingly on the logic boards there appeared to be silkscreened icons of a certain “Mr. Macintosh”, a supposedly early logo and marketing symbol for that Mac that obviously never made it to its launch. According to mactwiggy, the person who bought the prototype workstation:

“I bought it through an online ad. The elderly gentleman I purchased it off of is a retired engraver. The company he worked for was hired to make some award medallions for a ceremony at Apple. It would have been some point in 1983 I personally think, but he really couldn’t recall. They sent over this Mac to use as a model for him to work off of. When the job was done, they tried to make arrangements to send it back. Apparently after several attempts, Apple just told them to keep it.

He knew what he had, and knew the price he was asking was low, but didn’t want to deal with trying to market it. He was really just happy it was going to someone who knew what it was and would appreciate it.”

For more photos, head on over to applefritter.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Apple, Computers