The Apple-1 computer

I bought my first Apple-1 on eBay in 2015. At the time, I couldn't believe that I had finally acquired this highly coveted and rare computer. The owner was Bob Luther, the author of the book The First Apple. I arranged with him to pick up the computer myself in Alexandria near Washington, DC. I remember the visit very well. We talked for a long time, and later I was invited to the Luthers' home for Halloween, where I experienced for the first time this American tradition of visiting neighbors.
Bob later told me about a collector, David G. Larsen, who runs a museum and owns some of the rarest computers, including three original Apple-1s. I phoned him, and he invited me to Floyd in Virginia. What a great coincidence, because I had rented a Mustang Convertible and wanted to go to the Blue Mountains anyway.
I spent the night at David's, and in the evening he offered me his entire collection. Unfortunately, I was too slow, and so Lonnie Mimms from Georgia bought everything except for two Apple-1s. I later bought one of these Apple-1s from David, and we stayed in contact for many years afterwards.
My first Apple-1 has been on loan to the Deutsches Museum in Munich since 2018.
I bought my second Apple-1 at auction before David Larsen's Apple-1. At an auction in Germany in 2017, an Apple-1 was offered by an American. I went to this auction out of curiosity and to buy a rocket engine, so I had a bidding card. When the Apple-1 was offered, there was only a low starting bid, and no further bids seemed to come in. When it said first, second, I raised my bidding card. The auction went on for what felt like an eternity, and apparently no one got through on the phone or online, so I won the bid. I was immediately surrounded by reporters. That was the end of my “secret” collection. I then decided to talk more or less publicly about my collection and publish information, which ultimately led to many, many contacts and unique offers. At this auction, I met another collector from Germany and another from Austria, and we are still in contact today.

Over time, more Apple-1s were added, and many of them have great memories associated with them.

I got my Apple-1 in the original Byte Shop case from a guy in the Bay Area through a woman from Italy who looked after an Italian's collection of vintage computers. A few years passed before I met the owner in the Bay Area through this mediation, and we came to an agreement.

Another special occasion was the purchase of an Apple-1, which Steve Jobs personally gave to his former best childhood friend, together with another Apple-1. The two boys travelled through the Bay Area in a white and green VW bus, and I had the pleasure of being picked up from Los Angeles airport by this childhood friend. Later, I also bought his second Apple-1. He became very ill, I visited him, and fortunately, he was able to fight the illness successfully.

The acquisition of the Burr Apple-1 in 2019 was a particularly fond memory. Initially, contact was exclusively by email and telephone. The owner was the owner of Computerland, and he was also looking for someone who would appreciate the history and the computer. The computer was sent to me, and it wasn't until two years later that I was able to meet the couple in person. And again, a very nice contact.

The most moving story of an Apple-1 purchase, however, was undoubtedly the so-called Scardino Apple-1. I was asked to add an Apple-1 to the Apple-1 Registry. It was an heirloom from the father to his children, and an appraisal was needed. The family was very nice and sympathetic, and during a Zoom call I offered to do the appraisal for free. A few months passed, and then the family asked me if I would be interested in the Apple-1. And how! This Apple-1 has a fabulous history and is the only manually soldered Apple-1 known to date. All the others were produced by machine using the so-called wave-soldering process. An Apple-1 like this is not for collectors who want a shiny computer that looks like it came off the factory production line, but only for enthusiasts who appreciate the great history. It was the ninth Apple-1 in my collection.

Lucky circumstances

Fortunately, in 2018 I was able to take over the Apple-1 Registry, a directory of all known Apple-1s, from Mike Willegal and expand it considerably.

The passion for collecting and the extremely time-consuming and labor-intensive maintenance of the Apple-1 led to great new contacts and lots of interesting encounters and conversations over the years.
I met Steve Wozniak, Daniel Kottke, Chris Espinosa, Dr. Wendell Sander, professors from Stanford, visited Apple Park in Cupertino, spoke to Paul Terrell, Ron Wayne, and so many other contemporary witnesses. Funny and interesting was the encounter with John Drape aka Cap'n Crunch, whom I met while visiting Daniel Kottke.
Not to forget Jamis MacNiven, the owner of the famous Buck's of Woodside restaurant. This place is considered the birthplace of many Silicon Valley tech companies.
And many others...

The Apple-1 (alternative spelling Apple I) is the very first computer offered by Apple in 1976, the year Apple was founded. The spelling has varied since 1976: Apple quoted Apple-1 in the price list, while The Byte Shop wrote Apple I. Every conceivable mix has existed since then. The Apple-1 was neither the first computer nor the first microcomputer, but it was unique in many respects and marked the beginning of a new era. Steve Jobs would probably have said that this device made a dent in the universe.

Who would have thought at that time that a young engineer with his homemade computer would lay the foundation for a company empire?

Steve Wozniak, the inventor of the Apple-1 computer, was one of the many young developers of the 1970s. Before the Apple-1, he had already constructed a computer with discrete circuitry, which, however, failed spectacularly at its first demonstration due to a journalist stumbling over the power line to the computer.

In the ’70s, everything needed to build a personal computer was available, and the world was just waiting for a resourceful spirit to put it all together into an affordable computer.

Many happy coincidences and special circumstances made Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs so successful. Apple had unprecedented success with the Apple II among end customers. Later turbulence and a potential downfall were averted by products such as the iPhone, and today Apple is the most valuable IT company.

The book Accidentally Empire contains some exciting stories.

Wozniak came into contact with microprocessors as a guest at the Homebrew Computer Club. The Intel 8080 was too expensive for him, so he initially focused on the Motorola 6800. Later, the club showed a fabulously cheap processor, the 6502. The low price was the deciding factor in the continuing history of Apple computers.

The history of computers would have taken a completely different course if the choice had been the Intel 8080 processor, which was preferred by many developers.

The low-cost processor was a decisive step toward success and high yield.

Wozniak was able to take many components from his employer HP, and he received the new DRAM memory as a free sample from Intel. Steve Jobs had gotten those samples through a phone call. Wozniak had previously relied on the usual SRAM.

It is also astonishing that Steve Wozniak offered the Apple-1 to his then employer HP, but it was rejected. The young developer in the Homebrew Computer Club also showed the Apple-1 to all members, including the exact structure and the source code of his PROMs, which made it possible to control the computer easily. He even gave members the schematics of the Apple-1.

The members of the Homebrew Computer Club became the who’s who of the young computer industry, the nucleus of Silicon Valley. The initial 30 members quickly grew to over 500.

Steve Jobs worked for Atari at the time. The two Steves became friends. Wozniak developed the game Breakout and recognized the future of computer games early on. Until then, games had been hard-wired circuits. However, microprocessors could load any software.

Even before the Apple-1, there were many homemade and commercial computers to which a keyboard and monitor could be connected directly or which already had these components installed. There were not only computers like the Altair 8800, but most of them were expensive.

When Processor Technology’s SOL-20 came onto the market in 1976, the story seemed to be sealed. This computer, based on Intel’s 8080, was a hit with its performance, expandability, keyboard, monitor connection, and very stylish case.

But things turned out differently. Shortly after the release and sale of the Apple-1, Wozniak was already working on the Apple II, which later became the best-selling computer. But that’s another story...

The Apple-1 was first presented in the Computer Club on March 1st, 1976. Wozniak was 25 and Jobs was 21 years old.

The Apple-1 had many peculiarities that made it interesting. The real achievement, however, is that this first commercial work laid the foundation for the Apple II, which Steve Wozniak developed shortly afterward.

The beginning of Apple sounds like a fairytale. It’s hard to believe that the two Steves had to sell a pocket calculator and a VW bus just to cover the initial costs.

Many urban myths surround the Apple-1 and the beginnings of Apple. An infinite amount of false information exists and is spread throughout the Internet — and many of them are considered true.

Just to give you another example of urban myths: the Macintosh. Many people believe that this computer is Steve Jobs’ work. Steve Jobs managed the Macintosh team for a time and showed the Macintosh to the public for the first time, but this computer was developed by a team that worked at Apple. The basic idea of the Macintosh comes from Jef Raskin, and he deserves the fame, which unfortunately was withheld from him all his life. However, he is only one of the fathers, as the Macintosh changed fundamentally over time. And the name Macintosh? The name also goes back to the developer Jef Raskin, whose favorite apple variety was the Macintosh.

Anyone interested in Apple, Steve Jobs, or computer history will find sufficient literature available.

One could say that without Steve Wozniak, Apple would not have existed, and without Steve Jobs, Apple might have sunk into insignificance or perhaps gone bankrupt.

Nowadays, there are many early computers that are much rarer than an Apple-1, but only a few are comparable in value.

Apple-1 owners are often museums or private collectors. Some collect them out of enthusiasm and to preserve the devices; others see them as an investment or exhibition objects.

The collectors and preservers of the last Apple-1 decide how much they want to pay for them. The question of whether a price is justified or not should be as nonsensical as it is in other collection areas. For rare cars and works of art, some prices are paid that are incomprehensible to many outsiders. The market, however, determines the value. Most people would pay sums for any item that are incomprehensible to third parties.

Unfortunately, many historically valuable computers have been lost over time. Often, the computers serve as a source of raw materials and were “melted down” to extract gold and other valuable materials. Imagine thousands of old cars from the early days of automobiles being melted down just to get a few tons of metal.

The Apple-1, released in 1976, had only a very short period on the market and was outdated as soon as the Apple II came out. According to Steve Wozniak, 200 boards were produced, and 25 were not assembled. Many owners of the Apple-1 used an offer from Apple to exchange the computer for an Apple II. Some of these Apple-1s were given away as souvenirs to employees or scrapped.

A lot of Apple-1s were probably thrown away, which was not unusual at the time. Many early PCs were discarded because they were obsolete. No particular historical or monetary value was seen. Other computers from this era are available for prices below 500€. Only a few became valuable in terms of physical value.

Few have any idea how modest the beginnings of the personal computer were, and they can hardly believe that the loose circuit board was actually the first Apple computer. Even though today's computers often appear just as modest when freed from the case, today's technology is, of course, light years ahead.

The Apple-1 was produced in two batches, the second by another mainboard manufacturer. The oldest computers, the group to which the Copson Apple-1 belongs, were built around April 1976. The second batch has a rhombic logo with the letters NTI inside.

The mainboard design was done by a professional, again through the contacts he had.

There are different statements as to whether the first 50 mainboards were already equipped. Steve Wozniak writes in his autobiography iWoz, however, that the mainboards were delivered already soldered with all components except the chips. The soldering work on the Apple-1 also clearly shows industrial production.

The mainboards were equipped with the chips by Daniel Kottke (a friend of Steve Jobs) and Steve Jobs's sister Patty. For each motherboard, they received US$1.00.

A famous picture shows the boxes of Apple-1s in Patty's room.

The boards were tested in the garage, and Steve Wozniak took care of all the non-working computers. When a few copies were ready, Steve Jobs immediately drove them to The Byte Shop and got cash in hand. Later, both Steves drove through California and sold individual copies to a few computer shops.

Apple-1 has some remarkable features: DRAM was used instead of the usual static RAM. DRAM was newer and more complicated to use, but much cheaper.

In the so-called PROMs, Wozniak managed to integrate a small program with only 256 bytes, which enabled keyboard operation. The memory was 8 KB, which offered enough space for BASIC and programs. An expansion slot was used for the cassette interface. The 6502 CPU ran at 1 MHz.

The individual components, such as the chips, are not necessarily the same on all Apple-1s, and over time, many of them have been replaced with individual components. The Apple-1 was definitely a device for inventors and home users. Steve Wozniak had his own area on the motherboard that could be used for extensions and modifications. Many owners took advantage of this and soldered additions to their Apple-1, making it no less original, as the owners followed the obvious purpose of a rather experimental computer. Some Apple-1s were rebuilt by later owners to make them more original. Ultimately, it depends on the owner to determine what is original. For me, a modification by the first owner does not mean falsification but only makes the device even more unique. The degree to which the replacement of components is no longer "original" should be an academic point of contention.

The Apple-1 was delivered as a pure computer board without housing and peripherals. A device for inventors and purely for the home.

Optionally, there was an interface for tape recorders for 75 US$, which was plugged into the free slot. There were basic programs and games on cassettes. Those who wanted to use other applications had to program them themselves. It wasn't a computer for the mass market.

This cassette interface was also developed by Wozniak.

Loading programs from a tape recorder could be quite tedious. The data transfer was not particularly reliable. It was only later discovered that replacing a 10nF capacitor with a 100nF capacitor resulted in considerably better connection properties.

A standard television set was sufficient as a monitor.

50 Apple-1s were sold by the Byte Shop, a computer shop opened in December 1975 in the Bay Area by Paul Terrell. Paul Terrell met the two Steves at the Homebrew Computer Club, and Steve Jobs offered him the Apple-1. Paul Terrell was visionary and wanted to offer a fully assembled computer for little money. Only later did Paul Terrell realize that a complete computer in Steve Jobs' eyes meant the assembled board. Keyboard, cassette interface, and tape recorder had to be bought separately.

This kind of complete computer came a little later with the Apple II, which caused a sensation after the SOL-20 from Processor Technology.

Because of many inquiries about the value of the Apple-1 computer, here is a short evaluation.

Deutsches Museum Munich
Deutsches Museum Munich - Handover Copson Apple-1 Video (German)

The Apple-1 Registry

Bob Luther (Previous owner of the Copson Apple and author of The First Apple)

Steve Wozniak talks about the Apple-1

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