Peripherals

The original Apple-1 was just a mainboard – nothing else. Just one exception: Steve Wozniak created afterwards the Apple-1 cassette interface. It was sold for US$ 75. Everything else was up to the owner. For this reason, there is no original Apple case, keyboard etc. And don’t even think about a mouse.


Power supply

Triad There was no power supply. Apple-1 owners had to find a solution by themselves. Usually two transformers are used. Most Apple-1 owners used Stancor (P-8380 and P 8667) or Triad (F-31X and F-40X) transformers as recommended in the Apple-1 manual. All wiring was up to the owner. Ready-to-use solution were offered by some shops and Apple dealer. Triad new




Keyboard

Datanetics No keyboard was ever offered from Apple for the Apple-1! Many Apple-1 owners in 1976/77 used Datanetics keyboards. The Apple-1 needs an ASCII keyboard. Later on and even today, many Apple-1 owners used Apple II keyboards.




Cases

No case at all! Apple never offered a case for the Apple-1.
PrototypeOnly one prototype case exist. For years it was on Steve Jobs desk at Apple. Now it on display at the Living Computer Museum, Seattle USA.




The public information about the wooden cases are wrong and the Apple-1 Registry is working to uncover the truth. Hopefully it will be published in 2022! Achim Baqué already has some information but some pieces of the puzzle missing.

Byte Shop caseThe Byte Shop offered wooden cases handmade by Randy Wigginton's brother Ralph Wigginton from California. Randy Wigginton was Apple employee #6. A list of all known Apple-1 with original wooden Byte Shop cases is here. The case was made of Koa wood.

Most owners just used the computer without a case or had chosen custom made cases. Owners were pretty creative when it came to the case: wooden cases, plastic cases, metal cases, 19 inch rack, briefcase or even just a wooden board.
One Apple prototype case exists and belongs to #70 in the Apple-1 Registry. Until 1985 this prototype case was in Steve Jobs' office.




Byte Shop caseAll other cases are designed or bought somewhere by Apple-1 users. The routed wooden case was made by Randy Wigginton's brother at Homestead School, Cupertino, CA, USA in 1976. He made the famous koa cases as well.




Box

Box

The Apple-1 was delivered in a simple white cardboard box.
A few still exist.
On 1976 photos a stack of boxes in the room of Steve Jobs sister is visible.
Some boxes got some writing or labels on top.



Monitor

Sanyo Apple did not offer any monitor for the Apple-1. Some owners used monitors, some TVs. Some owners used an RF modulator to get the signal through the antenna connector. A wide selection of different monitors/TVs were used. Some famous auction pictures show a square monitor, the Sanyo VM-4509 or Sanyo VM-4209.

For this reason many people believe that this would be THE monitor for the Apple-1. But it is not. It is just one possibility. The Sanyo monitor was shown at many auctions and maybe for this reason so many people believe it is the 'correct' monitor.
Sanyo
Many pictures of 1976 or 1977 showing TV screens used with the Apple-1. Even pictures at Jobs' house and at First West Coast Computer Faire showing ordinary TVs.
Steve Jobs wrote about the Sony TV 115 in a letter to Electric City Radio Supply.





Apple Cassette interface (ACI)

ACI Optionally there was an interface for tape recorders available for US$ 75. It was plugged into the free slot. There were BASIC and games on cassettes available. This cassette interface was developed by Wozniak. In 1976 the speed of 1200 baud was considered fast.

Anyway, loading programs from a tape recorder could be quite tedious. The data transfer was not particularly reliable. Later it was discovered that the replacement of a 10nF capacitor with a 100nF capacitor make it considerably more reliable.

Two different versions of the ACI exist. ACI SCC ACI NTI The Apple Cassette Interface exist like the Apple-1 itself in two versions. 1st batch and 2nd batch (which are marked “NTI”). Sometimes NTI Apple Cassette Interfaces are used for 1st batch Apple-1. Simply because the owner bought it later. And in the beginning, no Apple Cassette Interface was available.



Cassette Recorder

Panasonic Panasonic Again, many people believe the Panasonic RQ-2102 would be THE cassette recorder for the Apple-1 just because many auction pictures showing this recorder. But this type was manufactured years later. It is just a better solution than the one Apple-1 owner had to use back in 1976. Back in 1976 Panasonic RQ-309DS was available and recommended by Apple.




Memory

DRAM DRAM Memory was limited to 4 or 8 KB but it was possible to upgrade it by yourself. This was not an easy task and only a few owners added more memory. For some Apple-1 this additional memory was later removed to make it look more original for auctions. It is up to you to judge if this is good or bad.




Printer

PR-40 Just a few owner tried to use a printer with the Apple-1. Steve Jobs wrote an article about the SwTPC PR-40 printer and how to use it with an Apple-1. The PR-40 have 40 columns. The paper width is 4 inch. PR-40 head




Others

KIMSI Some owners created additional hardware for the Apple-1. Some were added directly to the mainboard and others were added by using the expansion connector. KIMSI was an additional board made for KIM-1 computer and was compatible with the Apple-1. The KIMSI allowed to add S-100 cards. S-100 was some kind of standard in the 70’s and for example used in Altair and IMSAI computers. Some users even added a Teletype to the Apple-1. Another nice addition was the GT-6144 Graphics Board. This board made it possible to use monochrome graphics. Well, graphic resolution was only 96x64 pixels.

You can link to the Apple-1 Registry. Any form of reprint or reproduction (including excerpts) only with written permission of the Apple-1 Registry. Here you find press releases and images free to use under CC BY-SA 4.0.
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