Unboxing a Mint Apple //c 20 Years Later

12:08 am, February 5th, 2008, Pete Mortensen

Geek porn – taking painstaking photos of every step of the unboxing progress – has been around for just a short while on the Internet. It’s so recent in fact, that it didn’t exist when the Apple //c was brand new. Fortunately, there are still unopened Apple //c’s out there in the world, and Flicker user Dansays found one on eBay. And because he’s a contemporary geek, he documented every step of the process. Fascinating reminder of just how completely Apple went design in the mid-1980s. Frog Design’s Snow White language is still as sophisticated today as it was then. And the intricacies of the packaging! It’s like looking into the future – 20 years ago. Make sure to click through to see many, many more images.

Flickr via Boing Boing via Andre Torrez’s notes.

Posted by Pete Mortensen in Hardware, Rail | Comment on this article

About the author

Pete Mortensen is the communications lead for growth strategy firm Jump Associates and the co-author of Wired to Care: How Companies Prosper When They Create Widespread Empathy, a book and blog that are significantly more interesting than you might initially think. Pete's particular Apple avocations are both around design--interface and industrial. Follow him on Twitter!

Email the author | Read more posts by Pete Mortensen.

11 comments

My first computer was a \\c. Gods, the memories. If I could get that, a dot matrix printer and Print Shop I could recreate my childhood…

amokk, on February 5th, 2008 at 1:13 am

I looked at the pics and suddenly my eyes stared at this one:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dansays…7603835099525/

Do you know what I am talking about?

If the Apple (fruit) is named after the Apple (computer), then the Apple Computer must have existed before the fruit.
If you know something about the creation account in the bible, then you also know, that it was Adams task to give names to everything.

So it’s obvious that he must have had an Apple Computer to lend its name for the fruit!

That’s big news!!!

Peer, on February 5th, 2008 at 5:00 am

I had many adventures with this machine back in the day.
Just a few years ago my mother was going to donate it to a co-worker at Sam’s Club.
She left it in the break room. The manager threw it **THREW IT** into the dumpster.
Sadly it was destroyed. He claimed it looked like trash.
Today, seeing these pics, I wept for that computer. Thank you for sharing!!

wjm, on February 5th, 2008 at 1:30 pm

Thanks for the passing reference to frog design and Snow White — in years of Mac nerdery I’d never heard of them!

stinglessbee, on February 5th, 2008 at 7:41 pm

I saved a long time to buy the //C.
Apple promised to bring out a flat screen for it. They never did !
I never forgave them …. until about 5 years ago ….. now I’m back with Apple .. happily … but I’ll never trust them completely on promises.
MJL

MJL, on February 6th, 2008 at 5:23 am

Keep that pastic bag on it! I may just….urrrrrgh.

Matt Woolner, on February 8th, 2008 at 7:33 am

[...] Geek Porn and the Apple IIC “Geek porn – taking painstaking photos of every step of the unboxing progress – has been around for just a short while on the Internet” via Peter Mortensen. (tags: apple mac geekporn flickr) [...]

links for 2008-02-19 | stuart henshall, on February 19th, 2008 at 12:30 am

That is so sweet. I remember learning basic in Jr High on one of those – circa 1982-83 I think. Then it turned 1984 and my dad, who decided to break down and buy the family a computer, got something called a Mac – so much for all of the cool games my friends had on 5.25″ floppies >:-(

Chis, on February 19th, 2008 at 11:33 am

Man, I saved for ages to buy a //c, which turned out to be my first computer. Got it, the tiny green CRT monitor and stand, the extra floppy drive, and a joystick. It was glorious.

After buying a ton of Infocom games (and their highlighter revealed hint books), Beagle Brothers software, Captain Goodnight, Rescue Raiders, Bankstreet Writer, plus a ton of software (cracked by the Pirate’s Cove, of course) I thought I’d have no time to learn how to program. I did anyway, quickly outgrowing AppleBasic and graduating to assembly. Call -181, if I remember correctly. Plus, how can anyone forget the mysteries of Peek and Poke?

I still have that //c and its peripherals in their original boxes, the boxed Infocom games with all their assorted chotchkas, plus all the Apple programming manuals. Must fight urge to set up old computer…

bdwilcox, on April 18th, 2008 at 12:12 pm

Here I am surfing with my brand-new 24-inch iMac 3.06GB Core-2 Duo beast, this perfect shining example of modern computing technology… and getting nostalgic for the very first computer I ever owned, an Apple //c back in about 1987.

I loved that machine and used it for many years, creating documents to use in my early teaching career. The pics of this never-opened jewel were very nostalgic. I most fondly remember the metalic casing and seemingly indestructible keyboard. Man, could I type fast on that thing! I actually still use AppleWorks (modern version) for most of my word processing and spreadsheet needs, so the big 5.25-inch floppy version of that software was also a pleasant flashback.

Thanks for sharing those pictures!

Tkusterb, on June 16th, 2008 at 7:18 am

[...] Unboxing a mint Apple //c – twenty years after it was originally sold. Awesome! [via] [...]

Mint Apple //c Unboxing | Urban Mainframe, on August 24th, 2008 at 12:15 pm