Private website of Achim Baqué

This private website was set up to introduce myself to like-minded people and hopefully create more interesting contacts. This website has no ads, does not use cookies, will not track you and is hosted in the European Union.



Apple-1 Registry

Visit the Apple-1 Registry.



My original Apple-1 computers

My website The Apple-1 is dedicated to my original and working Apple-1 computers including information, pictures and videos. The iconic Apple-1 is the very first computer offered by Apple in 1976, the year it was founded.
In 2018 three more original Apple-1 were added to my collection. Early 2019 another Apple-1 was added to my collection. And I couldn't stop. Latest addition is from 2023.
I own now many original Apple-1. Anyone willing to sell an Apple-1 or Apple-1 related items can contact me anytime. Just send me a message with pictures and we can talk about it. All messages and pictures are treated confidentially.

Visit my website about my Apple-1 computers. A list of my Apple-1 at exhibitions you can find here.

After years of research, I commissioned two forensic analysis of the handwritten serial number on original Apple-1 computers in December 2021. The sensational result was clear in January 2022. The serial number was written by Steve Jobs personally on the Apple-1 computers.



Revealing who wrote the serial number on some of the first Apple-1 computers

On February 10, 2022 I had the honor to publish the result of two forensic examinations of the handwritten number on some original Apple-1 of the 1st batch. It is really Steve Jobs' handwriting. Another legacy of Steve Jobs. The story is here.

PSA provided a certificate of authenticity. It is even possible to validate the authentication online.

Classic Computer Museum

Over 1,000 vintage computers are in my collection. And many other vintage items like hard disks, software, manuals etc. My main focus are the years before 1984. The collection is dedicated to the preservation of historically valuable computers and objects.

Some are very rare. Like my Apple-1, some Apple II Rev. 0 (including two ventless), the one and only prototype Kenbak-1 (first ever commercially available personal computer), some Apple Lisa 1, Commodore C65, some Datapoint 2200, two Q1 Computer, a Micral S, a Straight-8, many Altair and IMSAI, various PDP's (including a Straight-8 PDP) and so many more.
In 2021 a new favorite object came into my computer collection. Apple Disk Drive S/N 2. The case AND the Shugart disk drive both have the serial number 2. Both are directly bought from famous Wendell Sander. Thanks Wendell!
And I've got countless hard disks from 0.8 inch up to 31 inch. Since 2023 the mighty 39 inch Bryant hard disk platter is in my collection. It is the largeest disk platter ever made and just a few survived.
So far there was no time to bring a website about my vintage computer collection online.

But a website for the Apple-1s and prototype Kenbak-1 are available.

The story about Apple Disk Drive S/N 2 is very interesting. In early 1978 Wendell Sander was doing a lot of the engineering on the early Apple II boards so he was looking at how to test the Disk card and since the state machine PROM was not readable by the processor he became very familiar with the state machine operation to come up with a test sequence. In doing that he found that Steve Wozniak aka 'Woz' was 1 count off on measuring one of the paths. Sander reviewed it with Woz and he agreed so he made up some corrected PROMs. At the same time Apple was starting Disk II production and had a lot of Drives ready to go but they had a problem that the drives did not meet the 1 in 109 error rate the industry expected at the time and production was held up. When they tried my corrected PROMs the drives passed and they could start shipping. For that Apple presented him the Drive II S/N 2 with Shugart floppy drive 390 S/N 2 inside. Cliff Huston got Drive II S/N 1 and Woz got Shugart 390 S/N 1. I saw this drive first time in 2018 while visiting Wendell Sander and in December 2021 I acquired this disk drive from him.


Sharing my passion for vintage computers

One of my original Apple-1 is lent for free to the Deutsches Museum in Munich / Germany. The handover took place on 14 November 2017 with the Zuse 4 in the background. This is exactly where Steve Jobs personally handed over a Macintosh to the museum in 1985. It is on permanent display in the Microelectronics Department for the public.
I gave another Apple-1 for free to an art exhibition at the ZKM, Karlsruhe in Germany from July 2018 till February 2019.
In 2019 I flew to the Bay Area in California with two of my original Apple-1. Both were on display at the Computer History Museum in California, USA.

More information about exhibitions of my Apple-1 are found here. It would be nice to share more and I am open to inquiries.


Wanted: vintage computer from the 70's and early 80's

If you have vintage computer for sale or to donate, please contact me. All messages and pictures are treated confidentially. My mission is to preserve vintage computer including documents and sometimes, even rare items are lent to museums. I do buy complete collections as well. Most wanted are Apple-1 and Apple-1 related items. Here is my wish list.
I have a residential shipping address in the USA, U.K. and in Germany (European Union). A commercial shipping address in the USA, France and Germany. I know people from other countries if you prefer domestic shipping.



John Blankenbaker's former website kenbak-1.net

John Blankenbaker was 92 years old when he stopped maintaing his website. The website was down. I had contact to him for years, visited him twice and finally he gave me permission to resue the website and keep his legacy alive. John wrote to me March 4, 2022 "Yes you may have the content. I used a .net designation. Perhaps you might want to convert to a .com or a .info designation."

John Blankenbaker's original kenbak-1.net website.

Note: His website is very old and static, not suitable for mobile devices. Changes were made very carefully to preserve the original state as good as possible.



Kenbak-1 Registry

After taking care of John Blankenbakers former webpage to preserve his legacy and the history of the Kenbak-1 I decided to make a registry of the Kenbak-1. Someone should preserve it and follow the path of the few original Kanbak-1. I also maintain the Apple-1 Registry already. It is more effort and work than you can imagine. But the result is worth it.

Visit the Kenbak-1 Registry.

The direct contact and many conversations make me feel very connected to John. It was the twist of fate that he was ahead of his time. He even planned a successor with CPU. But since the computer was only advertised in American Scientific, the commercial success was low. Who knows, maybe otherwise we would have been working with a 'Kenbak-X'?


Space and Astronomy

From the age of seven years I was fascinated by astronomy and space flight. As a teenager I worked at the Max Planck institute for radio astronomy in the 'mm' laboratories. Only through contact with computers the focus shifted. Nevertheless, I am still very interested in both topics.
Many collection objects are in my possession. Among them some artifacts of the terrific Apollo and Space Shuttle missions.



Photo / Video

After the first 10 years about 100k pictures and footage were sold and my collection grew to several thousand time-lapse videos and millions of pictures in 100+ TB.
In early years of stock photography so-called macrostock was a big market. Later it changed and a tiny fraction of my portfolio is listed at some microstock agencies.
Many of my time-lapse videos are shown on tv, in motion pictures, video productions, commercials and on websites. Pictures are used for any purpose like websites, books, magazines, advertisements etc.

Some examples of my work

Footage: pond5shutterstock
Stock photography: shutterstockadobe stock / fotolia



Time-lapse

Time-lapse are fascinating. Endless creativity and possibilities for the photographer.

It started as a hobby. Many years ago there were not many tools to produce time-lapse videos. Today many cameras support time-lapse photography and endless tools are available. Nowadays is easy to find all information on the Internet, and many mobile phones have a time-lapse function.

When I started time-lapse photography I had to research everything myself. Experimenting was necessary.






Traveling - the spirit of life

To travel is the best way to broaden your horizon, to see and understand different lifestyles, how to to look at life etc.
It changes your life. You meet people who grew up in different societies and under different circumstances. It teaches you some kind of tolerance, increase widely your knowledge and understanding of the people, countries and the world.
My girlfriend and I want to see as much of the world as possible, but not at any price. Many countries are not a destination for us because of wars, unrest or security problems.





About me

Achim BaquéMy name is Achim Harald Baqué.
I was born in 1968 in former Western Germany where I live and work most of the time.






Early years

Astronomy and particle physics were a passion of mine during my young years, and I was 100% sure this would be my work as an adult. My focus was on elementary particle physics. I bought my first book about Astronomy at the age of 7. Later I spent a lot of time with an soldering iron. Electronics was fascinating. At school, my favorite school subjects were physics, chemistry and mathematics. Later in high school, computer science.



Fields of interest

Traveling, photography, time-lapse videography, diving, drones, vintage computers, programming, electronics, space, stock market, fast cars and convertibles. In my early years chemistry, physics, elementary particle physics, mathematics, astronomy, space.
I'm absolutely not nostalgic, just someone who loves history. Growing up in the present time or in the future would be fantastic. I would not want to live in the past. The possibilities today are unimaginably greater than in the last century. In all aspects. Technology, food, travel, access to information, etc.



A few pictures

Some pictures here.




Contact

E-Mail