Re: eBay madness

[a2aviator@gmail.com]

There's been a 'Gumby' "prototype" IIgs on eBay that I've been
watching ..

A perfect example of bunk.

Since when is a prototype manufactured after the release date?	Never,
unless it's a revision for a further release... and I wouldn't qualify
that as a prototype.

Look at the production date on the motherboard in the picture. There's
two dates stamped on IIgs motherboards. One near where it says
"APPLE //GS" and another by the burn in connector (Lower left) Both
are usually within a week of each other. One is production the other
is final test.

The date on this one S8647, that would be 1986, 47th week. Considering
the IIgs was released in Sept. 1986 thats just a bit late and well
into the foray and excitement of full production. The 47th week is in
November. Something between November 16th to the 22nd, 1986, to be
more exact. Thats not even to say that a board that would have been
marked 8630 - (July) could be called a prototype as they manufacture
stuff before the "release" to have them ready on release day.  The
date would be something that someone who worked on the project would
remember possibly.

The bottom of the case, it has no sticker.  Okay, every prototype or
seed machine I've seen had some sort of sticker, it may have said
prototype, property of Apple, to be returned, not for sale or
whatever, not FCC approved .. it may have had the project name on it.
There is usually a unit # assigned to it. In the case of the Mark
Twain, it's got a phone number and a "serial #", and is marked
"evaluation unit", This one is pure blank with some spots at the very
edges of the sticker affixing area. I could suspect that the sticker
was peeled off the bottom and the FCC metal shielding removed, then it
was put it back together and put a prototype ROM in it.

But there is also the possibility that this case bottom is a "try out"
from the injection mold. Speaking of the case, the prototypes usually
are all smooth in appearance too. The textured surface means the
injection mold is done and the texturing is done to hide lines from
milling the metal. Remember the lines in the Mac cubes? The IIc Plus
prototypes that were around had the case bottom half textured and the
top half smooth. It's also another way of telling prototypes and seed
units to the trained eye.

So if the case is a "try out", it's now got a production motherboard
in it and a ROM daughter board, with a production spec power supply.

In one of my ancient, horrible by today's standards images:
http://apple2.org/images/Systems/index.html

4th row, 4th image. Look at the power supply. It's got a dimple in the
front. Where there was possibly some badge or such on the front of the
IIgs case perhaps.  If you have the hard cover Addison-Wesley IIgs
hardware reference you'll see the "same" system on the cover. If you
notice also, the motherboard has yellow silkscreening on it and says
SKA-023 instead of "APPLE IIGS", in that picture on the hardware
reference cover. That is a prototype IIgs in a try-out case bottom.
The one on eBay is not.

The sticker on the ADB micro controller. The first units to ship did
not have this, but beginning about two months later, I recall seeing
these stickers on the boards for a while. Two months is about
November, too.

Where are the //e connectors on that prototype? Only production boards
were without them. Service exchange modules and of course, //e upgrade
kit motherboards had the connector for the power supply, keypad and
keyboard. But production boards for IIgs systems did not have the
connectors installed.

The prototype power supplies also had no stickers on them.

What is prototype about this unit?

For sure, the daughter card for the ROMs. Without a doubt. The case
bottom? Maybe. Can't tell for sure. Perhaps looking at the date stamp
left from the manufacturing process. If this falls within 3 months of
release, I wouldn't call this a prototype. Thats called production for
release.  The power supply certainly is not.

Now, on the daughter card. I'm particularly interested in the
screenshot. I've never seen that much text on any of the prototype
IIgs's I have. I'm really interested in having a copy of those
ROMs :)

The ROMs that are used on the IIgs are 28 pin as opposed to 32 pin,
copying those darn things has always been challenging. In an
engineering environment, having it broken down into the four EPROMs
there was a much simpler alternative. Thats why that exists like that.
Though by the time the ROM 3 was ready for seeding, they were sticking
with 32 pin EPROMs. The ROM 3 motherboard is silkscreened for both,
and you know you have an early production ROM 3 if you have EPROMs in
both sockets and the board is deep green, where as the later ones were
more vibrant green and had two 28 pin ROMs installed.