Vintage computer research efforts
This page collect a few of my selected research efforts related to vintage computers, their provenance, technical history and historical context.
- Serial number (handwritten number on the back)
- The remarkable and not wave-soldered Scardino Apple-1
- The first 12 Apple-1s in Europe and a letter from Steve Jobs
- Paul Terrell, The Byte Shop, 'Apple Computer A
- About the wooden Byte Shop cases
- Finding Seymour Cray's house in Hallie / Chippewa Falls
- The search for all surviving Apple-1 computers
In the left center of all Apple-1 boards is the text “Apple Computer 1”. However, the prototype reads "Apple Computer A © 76". This might have been done to mark it as a prototype, or perhaps the plan was to name the final version that way? Woz doesn't remember why the name was changed.
Now that the mystery of the handwritten number is solved, I will continue searching for information about the prototypes. Over the past years, I have already tried to collect all available information, but not much is known. Steve Wozniak mentioned a fire in his garage, and perhaps the prototype(s) were lost in that fire. That would have been a terrible loss.This is an Apple-1 prototype with a different board layout than the later final production series. It was previously known that there were some differences. Thanks to the detailed pictures by Paul Terrell, it is now clear that there are many differences. Some traces are different. There is only a very small jumper section in the middle (above the IC 74154). The small capacitors are the same ones used for the 2nd batch. And so on. Unfortunately, only the front side is known/visible.
The Apple-1 prototype includes all the extra components for the 6800/6501 CPU instead of the 6502. Woz was sent a photo of the circuit board by the Apple-1 Registry in early 2012 and commented on the production prototype: “This Apple I below was probably about the first Apple I on an Apple PC board. I had left the 6800 space because it was needed for the $20 6501 instead of the $25 6502. The difference was strong clock driver transistors. Paul Terrell may well have gotten a sort-of prototype since his order is really the reason we built Apple I’s with parts installed. We built a couple with the 6501 but by real production time we could get the 6502 for the same cost.” According to this, the prototype was built with a 6501 CPU. For a 6501, you need the same additional components as for the 6800 CPU. The Woz monitor in the PROMs works without modification. The fact that Paul Terrell was shown a prototype aligns with the book *Little Kingdom* by Michael Moritz.
Serial number (handwritten number on the back)
Full story here!
There is no serial number on every Apple-1 computer!
Some (not all!) Apple-1 computers from the 1st batch have a handwritten number on the back, which is obviously a serial number. None of the 2nd batch units have a serial number.
List of all known serial numbers on the back of some 1st batch Apple-1.
There were many theories surrounding these numbers. Only Apple-1 computers sold by the Byte Shop seem to have this number. But nobody remembers where the number really came from. Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs, Daniel Kottke,
Paul Terrell, the board manufacturer, etc., all say they didn’t put the number on the mainboard.
For a factory, it would be very unusual to write a serial number with a permanent marker on a PCB. Usually, it would be printed on the board or a label would be used.
In January 2022, Achim Baqué found proof that Steve Jobs wrote the serial numbers! Read more here.
Here is a list of all known serial numbers on the back of some 1st batch Apple-1.
In addition to the serial number, some Apple-1 computers have a small round stamp with a number
in the middle. Others have small labels on the back. The origin of these marks is also unknown. Such labels
are usually used in factories.
The Byte Shop theory seems plausible. Only one question remains: why do numbers greater than 50 exist? Mike
Willegal found an explanation. Data Domain Computer had purchased Apple-1 computers directly from the Byte Shop.
Mike asked Thom Hogan (Data Domain Computer) about this. At that time, Data Domain Computers had found a practical
application. One was at the Kentucky Derby.
Ray Borrill, the owner of Data Domain, bought 15 Apple-1s. Probably more later. They sold 13 Apple-1s, 1 was donated to the US Olympic tennis team and destroyed in a plane crash. The last one was auctioned in 2001.
The sale of Apple-1 computers to Data Domain Computers by the Byte Shop explains the higher numbers quite well.
There are computers whose serial numbers are greater than 50.
This is not a contradiction. The Byte Shop received more than just the first 50 and sold some Apple-1 computers to Data Domain Computers.
The remarkable and not wave-soldered Scardino Apple-1
(Germany – February 10, 2022) Two forensic examinations of the handwritten serial number on the back of some Apple-1s were carried out in 2021/22 using two original Apple-1s.
Both times the result was clear: it is the handwriting of Steve Jobs. Another legacy of Steve Jobs.
The story was a small sensation, and hundreds of newspapers, blogs, etc. reported on this in 2022.
In 2022, a family contacted the Apple-1 Registry. The (grand)father of the three family members had passed away, and he had owned an Apple-1.
As it turned out, it was the most unusual and, from a historical point of view, the most interesting original Apple-1 (except for the prototypes, of course).
This Apple-1 was given as a bare board by Steve Jobs to Homebrew Computer Club member James J. Scardino. Woz gave James instructions for building the Apple-1.
The first 12 Apple-1s in Europe and a letter from Steve Jobs
In 2018, a German industrialist contacted Achim Baqué (Apple-1 Registry). His name is Peter Vizenetz. He claimed to have information and a story regarding Apple-1 computers. There were several phone conversations, and Mr. Vizenetz recorded a 24-minute interview (in German) for Achim Baqué.
The entire story of the first Apple-1 in Europe is included.
In 2021, another contact with an owner of an original Apple-1 computer helped put the pieces of the puzzle together. In 2022, it was time to publish the news.
Paul Terrell, The Byte Shop, 'Apple Computer A'
Prototype 'Apple Computer A'
Before the Apple-1, there was an 'Apple Computer A'. Press release of the Apple-1 Registry.
Paul Terrell (founder of the Byte Shop) recently gave Achim Baqué (curator of the Apple-1 Registry, a list of all Apple-1 computers) some information. Thanks to Paul’s support and his Polaroids of an early Apple-1, it was a great surprise to zoom into the pictures from 1976. The photos were taken when Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs first showed the Apple-1 to Paul at the Byte Shop. The Polaroids had already been published in low resolution, but some characteristics had not been noticed until now.
It was not easy to get even a tiny bit of information about the production prototype. Achim Baqué asked Woz, Wendell Sander, Bill Fernandez, Chris Espinosa, Daniel Kottke, and Paul Terrell about the production prototype and received answers from all of them. However, not all open questions could be clarified. Howard Cantin, the designer of the Apple-1 mainboard, might have some answers. Unfortunately, it was not possible to get in touch with him.
Confirming various assumptions took time and required a lot of research. No one remembers the prototype. We have only a few pictures.
Achim Baqué will continue to search for information about the prototypes. In recent years, he collected everything he could, but little is known. Steve Wozniak mentioned a fire in his garage, and perhaps the prototype(s) were in that garage. That would have been a terrible loss. There is a chance that the prototypes still exist. Achim Baqué has some clues about their whereabouts, but nothing certain.
In every story about the first Apple computer, Woz bought the 6502 and built the Apple-1 around it—not the 6501 CPU. But at least for the production prototype, it was the MOS 6501 CPU.
Update July 2022: Just weeks after publishing on the registry, blogs, and newspapers what is known about the 'Apple Computer A'', it showed up at auction.
Update August 2022: It was sold for US$ 677,196.
It is most likely due to erroneous reporting in blogs and newspapers that the prototype was not auctioned off for far more than a million US$. It started with a reporter who asked Woz about the prototype. Since this reporter clearly had little knowledge of Apple-1 computers and prototypes, he asked Woz about the hand-soldered prototype. However, that is a completely different prototype.
The prototype that was auctioned was the one that was industrially manufactured. Woz made corrections to this prototype by hand-soldering. Laypeople and that reporter confused the production prototype with the hand-soldered one. And so, doubts began to spread.
Many blogs picked up the supposed story in the eternal chase for clicks or, as usual, copied the text 1:1. And, unfortunately as usual, without verifying or researching anything. It was the victory of those who know nothing but like to have an opinion on everything. For those involved in the field, it was terrible to see such a historical object being misrepresented.
It is the first production prototype of the most valuable company in the world. That alone should be enough to recognize its historical significance.
About the wooden Byte Shop cases
For years it was unknown who built the Byte Shop cases made of Koa wood. Next came the theory that Randy Wigginton's father built them. Randy was Apple employee #6.
Because of my (Achim Baqué) conversation with Randy Wigginton, it became clear that Randy's brother, Ralph Wigginton, built the cases. In March 2022, Achim had contact with Ralph and Randy. There are some surprising facts about the cases. Unfortunately, false information about the cases was spread further and further because apparently nobody wanted to verify it. Too often a text is simply copied and accepted as true just because someone wrote it at some point. Fortunately, contemporary witnesses do exist, and with a little effort, you can get closer to the true events.
Here is a summary of information from various e-mail correspondences, personal and telephone conversations. Among others, the Wigginton brothers, Steve Wozniak, and Paul Terrell were interviewed, as well as many other people who unfortunately had no information about the cases.
Finding Seymour Cray's house in Hallie / Chippewa Falls
I searched for Seymour Cray’s house and eventually found it during my visit of Chippewa Falls in 2026. Read the story here.
The search for all surviving Apple-1 computers
For the Apple-1 Registry, I invested an enormous amount of time in trying to find as many surviving Apple-1 computers as possible. It was a process that took many years. In the end, the effort paid off. I followed up on rumors and was able to identify several Apple-1 owners.
The reputation of the improvd Apple-1 Registry website, together with my ongoing enthusiasm for the history of the Apple-1, was probably one reason why more and more Apple-1 owners began contacting me. Only very few owners do not want their Apple-1 to be listed. And more Apple-1 computers will probably be discovered in the coming years. But certainly not many.
Apple-1 Registry
Meetings and Historic Places
Researching the Apple-1 Registry has led to many remarkable meetings, visits, and conversations with people who were directly connected to the early history of Apple, the Apple-1, and the beginning of personal computing.
Steve Wozniak
I met Steve Wozniak for dinner in San Jose in 2023. I gave him copies of previously lost Apple-1 related documents, and he examined and signed the Scardino Apple-1. Woz was impressed by James Scardino's soldering work and later wrote that he could not have soldered it better himself.
Daniel Kottke
I visited Daniel Kottke several times in California. We talked for hours about the early days of Apple, the Apple-1, the Macintosh, Steve Jobs, and Steve Wozniak. Daniel also showed me Steve Jobs letters and a postcard from India, which helped with the research into the Apple-1 serial numbers.
In 2019, Daniel demonstrated my Duston-2 Apple-1 on stage at the Vintage Computer Festival West at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. In 2023, he powered up the Scardino Apple-1 in Palo Alto, and it worked instantly after more than 40 years.
Chris Espinosa and Apple Park
In 2023, I visited Apple Park in Cupertino. I spent several hours walking inside and outside the campus. A special highlight was meeting Arion Paylo and Chris Espinosa, Apple employee #8. We talked extensively about Apple history, and the visit was both fascinating and inspiring.
Stanford University
During the same Bay Area trip in 2023, I visited Stanford University, viewed the Apple collection, and spoke with a professor for about two hours about the early days of Apple.
Randy and Ralph Wigginton
My research into the wooden Apple-1 cases led to contact with Randy Wigginton, Apple employee #6, and his brother Ralph Wigginton. Their information was crucial in understanding the origin of the first wooden cases made for Steve Jobs and the later Koa wood cases associated with the Apple-1.
Paul Terrell
Paul Terrell, founder of the Byte Shop, provided important information and historic Polaroids connected to the early Apple-1 presentation at the Byte Shop. These images helped document the Apple Computer A production prototype and several details that had previously been overlooked.
Wendell Sander, Bill Fernandez and Jerry Manock
Conversations with Wendell Sander, Bill Fernandez, and Jerry Manock helped preserve important first-hand information about Apple, the Apple-1, and early Apple history. Wendell Sander showed me his Apple-1 and other unique artifacts. Jerry Manock shared memories about Apple and his work. Bill Fernandez helped clarify details connected to the Company Apple-1.
Buck's of Woodside and Jamis MacNiven
Buck's of Woodside is one of the legendary places of Silicon Valley. I visited Jamis MacNiven in 2019 for a long conversation, and two days later I visited him again together with Daniel Kottke. The Apple-1 displayed at Buck's became part of the Apple-1 Registry story, and it is one of the most memorable Apple-1 related places I have visited.
David Larsen
I visited David Larsen in Floyd, Virginia, in 2015 and stayed at his home for two days. He showed me his extraordinary collection, including several Apple-1 computers. In 2018, I visited the Larsens again for the handover of the Duston-2 Apple-1, with pictures and videos documenting the moment.
Chris Dreike
One of the most personal and memorable Apple-1 stories is connected with Chris Dreike, one of Steve Jobs' closest friends from his youth. Chris met Steve Jobs in 8th grade in 1968, and the two became close friends. They rode bicycles through the Sunnyvale and Los Altos area, spent time in the Jobs family garage, and later drove around together in Chris Dreike's green and white Volkswagen bus.
Years later, Steve Jobs sent Chris Dreike two Apple-1 computers, together with two Apple Cassette Interface cards and documentation. These two machines later became known as the Reinemer / Steve Jobs Gift #1 and the Dreike / Steve Jobs Gift #2 Apple-1 computers.
After acquiring the Reinemer Apple-1, I was invited to visit Chris Dreike in the Los Angeles area. The visit was unforgettable. Chris picked me up from LAX in the original Volkswagen bus in which he and Steve Jobs had driven around when they were young. At his home, he showed me the second Apple-1, accessories, a handwritten letter from Steve Jobs, and two historic Polaroids of an Apple-1 prototype. I was allowed to take pictures for the Apple-1 Registry, preserving important material that connects the Apple-1 directly with Steve Jobs' personal circle.
Several years later, during the Covid period, I picked up the Dreike Apple-1 directly from Chris Dreike himself. His family and my girlfriend were present, and the handover was an emotional moment. It was not just the acquisition of another rare computer, but the continuation of a deeply personal Apple-1 story that began with Steve Jobs giving two Apple-1 boards to one of his closest friends.
The two Dreike Apple-1 computers are among the most fascinating surviving Apple-1s because their provenance is exceptionally direct. They connect the technical history of the Apple-1 with the private world of Steve Jobs before Apple became a global company.
Liza Loop
Another very special contact was Liza Loop, one of the remarkable early computer educators connected to the Apple-1 story. She was the first owner of the first Apple-1 ever delivered, personally handed over to her by Steve Wozniak. I had several Zoom calls with her, some lasting more than two hours, and her memories helped preserve important details of this remarkable Apple-1 story.
Liza had already been using computers in education long before the Apple-1 appeared. She taught at Windsor Junior High School, used computers in her math class, and had experience with machines such as the MITS Altair, a teletype connected to a remote computer system, and even a PDP-8. In 1975, she founded the LO*OP Center, a non-profit computer learning center.
I had the privilege of speaking with Liza Loop for more than one and a half hours in 2019. Her memories helped update and preserve the history of her Apple-1 for the Apple-1 Registry. The story is fascinating because it shows the Apple-1 not only as a collector's item, but as a tool that early educators tried to bring into classrooms when personal computing was still almost unimaginable to most people.
Liza met Steve Wozniak at the Homebrew Computer Club. Woz later said that she was the first person he had met who used a computer in a classroom, which impressed him deeply. Because of this, he gave her an Apple-1 for free and delivered it himself.
The Apple-1 never worked reliably enough for classroom use, and Woz later tried to fix it. Eventually, he surprised Liza with one of the very first Apple II computers, serial number 10. This makes her story especially important because it connects the Apple-1, the Apple II, early computer education, Homebrew Computer Club culture, and Steve Wozniak's personal generosity.
Liza also encouraged me before the World Computer Day event in 2022, where I publicly announced that the handwritten serial numbers on some first-batch Apple-1 computers had been written by Steve Jobs. Her support and her own Apple-1 story are part of why the preservation of first-hand memories matters so much.
Lonnie Mimms and the Mimms Museum (Computer Museum of America)
In spring 2018, I visited Lonnie Mimms in Roswell, Georgia, before the Computer Museum of America opened to the public. It was a rare opportunity to see a major computer museum while it was still being prepared. Lonnie showed me parts of the future museum, and I saw historic machines being unpacked and arranged, including a Xerox Alto.
The visit was also connected with David Larsen and the Duston-2 Apple-1. David Larsen had previously offered me his remarkable vintage computer collection, including several extremely rare machines. I was completely unprepared for such an offer, and by the time I returned to the subject, Lonnie Mimms had already acquired most of the collection. Fortunately, David kept two Apple-1 computers, and one of them, the Duston-2 Apple-1, later became part of my collection.
During the 2018 visit in Roswell, I met David Larsen again and we talked extensively about his collection, the upcoming auction of his last Apple-1, and the history behind these computers. This visit became part of the path that eventually led to the private acquisition of the Duston-2 Apple-1 after the auction.
The meeting with Lonnie Mimms and the visit to the future Computer Museum of America were memorable because they showed another side of computer preservation: not only private collecting, but also the attempt to build a large public museum around the history of computing. Even though not every research question could be answered, the visit remains an important episode in the wider story of my Apple-1 research and collection.
Bob Luther and the Copson Apple-1
In 2015, Bob Luther, author of The First Apple, handed over the Copson Apple-1 to me in Virginia. I later lent this Apple-1 to the Deutsches Museum in Munich, where it became part of a major exhibition and was presented at a press conference in front of a historic Zuse computer.
Searching for Woz's Apartment
Some of the most interesting research trips are not about museums or well-known public places, but about finding the almost forgotten locations where important moments in computer history actually happened. One example was my search for the apartment of Steve Wozniak from the Apple-1 period.
The Apple-1 is often associated with Steve Jobs' parents' garage, but Woz's own places are just as important to the story. The Apple-1 was his design, his logic, his elegant solution to making a computer affordable, practical, and usable by hobbyists. Searching for places connected to Woz therefore felt like trying to get closer to the real origin of the machine.
These locations are not tourist attractions. They are ordinary private places, and that is part of what makes them fascinating. The history of the Apple-1 did not begin in a large corporate building. It began in apartments, garages, club meetings, and small rooms where a few extraordinary people worked on ideas that would later change the world.
Chippewa Falls, Cray Buildings and Seymour Cray's House
In 2026, I visited Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, to research the history of my Cray-1S serial number 53 and to better understand the world of Seymour Cray and Cray Research. Chippewa Falls is one of the most important places in supercomputer history, but many traces of that history are not obvious unless one actively searches for them.
I visited the Cray museum, searched through archival material, and tried to identify former Cray buildings and locations connected with the early development of Cray supercomputers. I was especially interested in understanding where the work on machines such as the Cray-1 took place, and how much of that world still survives in the city today.
One of the most memorable parts of the trip was finding Seymour Cray's former house. The owner was extremely kind and invited me to look around in every corner. This was a remarkable moment, because Seymour Cray is one of the great figures in the history of computing. He was not only a brilliant engineer, but someone whose machines defined what high-performance computing could be.
Searching for the old Cray locations in Chippewa Falls felt very different from visiting a normal museum. It was more like historical field research. Some places still exist, some have changed, and some are difficult to identify. But walking through the city, visiting the museum, studying the archives, and seeing Seymour Cray's former home made the history of Cray Research much more tangible.
For me, this trip connected directly with my own Cray-1S. A supercomputer is an impressive object by itself, but its history becomes much richer when one understands the people, buildings, and places behind it. Chippewa Falls made the Cray story feel real in a way that documents and photographs alone never could.
John Blankenbaker and the Kenbak-1 Prototype
I visited John Blankenbaker, creator of the Kenbak-1, to have my Kenbak-1 prototype signed. A memorable moment happened when he plugged the prototype into the wall, switched it on, and started programming it before I could suggest checking the components first. The machine worked instantly, and I captured the moment on video.
John Draper
I also met John Draper, better known as Captain Crunch, at the Computer History Museum and at Daniel Kottke's home. Encounters like this are special because they connect the Apple-1 story to the wider history of hacking, phone phreaking, and early personal computing culture.
Mike Willegal
Mike Willegal originally created the Apple-1 Registry and later entrusted it to me in 2018. Meeting him and seeing his early Apple-1 replica work was an important part of the history behind my role as curator of the registry.
Salt Lake City, Provo and Duane Call
In 2025, I traveled to Salt Lake City and Provo for research connected with early computing history, the Lilith computer, and other historically important machines. During this trip, I had the privilege of meeting several pioneers, including Duane B. Call, Robert Bennion, Richard Bennion, and others. These were not short formal meetings, but long and personal conversations with people who had witnessed and shaped important parts of computing history.
One of the most memorable afternoons was spent sitting for hours in a garden, listening to stories from the early days of computing. Duane Call is a historically important figure in his own right. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Utah, later taught at Brigham Young University, founded Computer Systems Architects, and designed the FPS-120 supercomputer, a machine focused on vector calculations.
During the conversation, I mentioned my long-standing interest in historic hard disks. We went down to the basement, and there it was: a gigantic 48-inch Librascope hard disk platter. Only a handful of these enormous platters are known to survive. One is at Stanford University, another at the Computer History Museum, one is owned by scientist Lester Earnest, and one is now in my collection.
The Librascope Disk File 48-inch platter is one of the most spectacular artifacts in my collection. It measures 47.5 inches across, weighs about 100 lbs, and represents one of the most extreme chapters in the history of data storage. For me, it is truly the Mother of all Hard Disks.
The Provo part of the trip was equally valuable. I met people connected to the early history of the Lilith computer and learned details that would be almost impossible to find in written sources alone. One of the most fascinating details concerned the walnut case of my first-generation Lilith. I was able to speak with the engineer who built the case and learned more about the wood, the finish, and the care that went into this remarkable machine.
Encounters like these are exactly why personal research matters so much. Objects are important, but the stories behind them often disappear unless someone takes the time to find the people who were there, listen carefully, ask questions, and preserve their memories.
And many others
Ich traf so viele interessante Menschen, die entweder selbst Geschichte schrieben, Teil der Geschichte waren oder Sammler sind. Unmöglich alle aufzulisten und viele wollen annonym bleiben. Durch meine Verbindung zu den Apple-1 traf ich sehr viele Apple-1 Eigentümer oder sprach über Zoom mit ihnen.
And more...
There are countless small stories that could be told. Over the years, I had many fascinating conversations and was fortunate to speak with numerous people who had first-hand knowledge of the computer industry in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. I am deeply grateful for these opportunities and for the remarkable stories that were shared with me.
It would be impossible to list everything that has accumulated over the years in this section. A few of these stories are included above.
Continuous research into computer history, and the questioning of commonly accepted but unchecked information, is important to me. With regard to the Apple-1, I have been able to gather a great deal of new information over the years and to get to the bottom of several questions, for example the origin of the handwritten serial numbers on the Apple-1 and the complete history of the so-called Byte Shop cases for the Apple-1.
It is astonishing how false information continues to spread on the internet, and how rarely people conduct real research. In May 2025, I met with experts on Q1 computers at the Danish Computer Museum DDF and then visited the Heinz Nixdorf Museum. Everywhere I read that Nixdorf took over the Q1 Corporation in 1974. The Heinz Nixdorf Museum searched its archives, which list every takeover and acquisition, and found no such takeover. However, other sources mention a transfer of know-how from Q1 to Nixdorf, for which Nixdorf allegedly paid 10 × US$40,000.
It could have been a deal with the U.S. branch of Nixdorf, but because of the nature of the reported know-how transfer, this seems very unlikely.
Confidential contact
If you own a historically important computer, documentation, software, photographs or provenance information, please contact me. All messages and photographs are treated confidentially.