Re: Apple II DIY systems?

[Sean Fahey <a2fan@hotmail.com>]

On Apr 4, 7:52 pm, "N.N. Thayer" <nntha...@hotmail.com> wrote:

> This ad, which Vectronic's Apple World dates as 1978, indicates that
> the Apple II motherboard was once offered as a standalone product:
>
> http://www.vectronicsappleworld.com/ads/ads/appleii/introappleii2.jpg
>
> However, I've yet to find even a single case of a hobbyist making one
> into a complete system with third-party and/or self-produced
> components.  Can anyone testify to this?

Yes, you could buy the motherboard by itself for awhile. It had it's
own part number in the dealer sheet.

Early in Apple's history, they recognized the Apple II appealed mostly
to hobbyists and were happy to sell components to individuals and
small computer stores. However, by the VisiCalc era, Apple had dealer
channels to contend with, and they were actively discouraging those
dealers from selling any parts separately (except as add-ons). Instead
they were focused on complete home/educational/business solutions,
i.e. bundling peripherals, extended service plans (the precursor to
AppleCare), etc. because it was more profitable, and also because the
DIY hobbyist had become a small niche of total sales. Still, if you
knew the right dealer, you could swing a mainboard if you really
wanted one but Apple's 1 to 1 service swap policy made it difficult.

But before all that, I personally saw a few early Apple II owners
mounting motherboards on plywood backboards, in homemade wooden cases
-- even plexiglass. They wanted to customize everything and adding
their own mish-mash of case, PSU and display was cheaper (and more
fun) than buying the complete factory built system.

There was also a board swap program where you could turn in your old
board for the newer revision (with some fix or added feature like more
colors). Some of those old boards didn't go back to Apple but were
just resold by the dealer (they made more money).