I just picked up a pre-release Color Classic. Notice that it is missing the word "Macintosh" beneath the Apple logo, the words "Color Classic" on the bottom plastic insert, and the QuickTime sticker on the lower right. The plastic has not yellowed.
Looking closer, there are no signs that the text was removed.
On the back, some large stickers were removed. Could have been "Property of Apple" and "Not FCC certified".
Underneath, the model information is not molded into the plastic.
It was manufactured in November 1992, which isn't incredibly early compared to the February 1993 release date. I assume Apple manufactured production units in volume months before making the product available.
The motherboard is revision 820-0367-02.
The EPROMs have handwritten labels with "slice" (the codename for the Color Classic). Connector J11 is installed for ROM programming, as are transistors Q3 (2N2907) and Q2. However, J12 (ROM SIMM slot) is not installed.
Here are the markings on Q2
The CUDEA is labeled v2.35 09/25/92 0607F9. CUDA reset S1 is installed.
There has been significant leakage on the CUDA as well as the first several pins on the video memory slot (lower left). I cleaned all of this up during recapping.
There is an 'oops' component on the back of the PDS slot.
I recapped the motherboard and hand cleaned it. I didn't want to lose labels in the ultrasonic cleaner. The motherboard works. Unfortunately, the analog board does not work -- despite looking very clean and low mileage.
A dump of the ROMs shows they match the production release. The hard drive was repurposed by an ordinary user in 1993/1994 for Ham Radio and Spanish language practice. Despite running an unerase on the hard disk, no signs of source code or development enablers exists.
In any case, a nice little piece of Macintosh history.
- David
Looking closer, there are no signs that the text was removed.
On the back, some large stickers were removed. Could have been "Property of Apple" and "Not FCC certified".
Underneath, the model information is not molded into the plastic.
It was manufactured in November 1992, which isn't incredibly early compared to the February 1993 release date. I assume Apple manufactured production units in volume months before making the product available.
The motherboard is revision 820-0367-02.
The EPROMs have handwritten labels with "slice" (the codename for the Color Classic). Connector J11 is installed for ROM programming, as are transistors Q3 (2N2907) and Q2. However, J12 (ROM SIMM slot) is not installed.
Here are the markings on Q2
The CUDEA is labeled v2.35 09/25/92 0607F9. CUDA reset S1 is installed.
There has been significant leakage on the CUDA as well as the first several pins on the video memory slot (lower left). I cleaned all of this up during recapping.
There is an 'oops' component on the back of the PDS slot.
I recapped the motherboard and hand cleaned it. I didn't want to lose labels in the ultrasonic cleaner. The motherboard works. Unfortunately, the analog board does not work -- despite looking very clean and low mileage.
A dump of the ROMs shows they match the production release. The hard drive was repurposed by an ordinary user in 1993/1994 for Ham Radio and Spanish language practice. Despite running an unerase on the hard disk, no signs of source code or development enablers exists.
In any case, a nice little piece of Macintosh history.
- David
