List of all original Apple-1.
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Note: This is the 50th entry in the list and not the 50th Apple-1 produced. The Apple-1 does not have a regular serial number. Only some Apple-1 got a handwritten serial number.
Built by Robert Roth, Riverside California, USA. Engraving by John Roth, his father.
no auction
(see History for more information)
White ceramic CPU
Wooden case with keyboard.
I'll let Bob tell the story of this unit:
My name is Bob Roth. I bought an Apple 1 computer at a computer store in Orange County, California in the late 1970's. I paid $40.00 for the circuit board which included the audio interface board. They had 2 Apple 1's there, but the other one didn't have the audio board with it. And besides, who needed more than one computer anyway?
I constructed the case that is shown in the photos. I mounted the mother board on a piece of 1/4 inch aluminum and then built the rest of the case out of mahogany. My Dad owned a plastic engraving company at the time so I had him engrave the front panels for me.The ASCII keyboard was a Radio Shack kit that you had to solder the keys onto a circuit board. I added more RAM memory for a total of 20K. I did this by stacking the 4K RAM chips on top of each other, bent out the chip select line from the chip, and then constructed a address decoder in the breadboard of the mother board. I also printed out the BASIC program code using a PR-40 printer that I had and then blew the code into PROMS. I constructed a circuit board with the PROMS on it that attached to the second connector at the rear of the main board. From then on I could start BASIC by just typing the E000R command. The display was a black and white TV that my Mother had. I had planned to do more mods to the computer like a data and address display along with single step capabilities, but never finished it.
By this time, (1981) Apple 2's were everywhere. There was a new Apple store opening up in Riverside, California where I lived. They knew I had built my Apple 1 and asked me to display it for the grand opening of the store. Steve Jobs was to be the featured guest for the opening of the new store. Jobs saw my computer and was asking me some questions about it. He then asked me if I would like to trade it for a new Apple 2 computer, with a disk drive and the Pascal language system. About $2000.00 worth of computer at the time. He said Woz would love to have it back. I was in college at the time and had no money. And I really wanted a new Apple 2. So I made the deal. He gave me his business card and told me to call his secretary and have her set up the trade. I took my Apple 1 to Apple in Cupertino. They escorted me into the building and into a conference room. They had a release form already printed up and ready for me to sign. So I left my Apple 1 there. I still have the Apple 2. Obviously not the smartest move I ever made.
I saw a picture of it on the Dot Eaters German web site but that's about it. There was also a picture of it in the old A+ magazine years ago.
May 16, 2019
May 16, 2019: History added
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