Gene Roddenberry's Mac Plus Is Coming Up For Auction 162
Harry writes "In 1986, Apple unveiled one of the most popular Macintoshes ever, the Mac Plus. The company gave the first one (serial number #F4200NUM0001) to Star Trek's creator, Gene Roddenberry. And now this very Mac Plus will go up for auction at a Hollywood collectibles event on October 8th and 9th, complete with a letter of authenticity from Roddenberry's son. The estimated value is only $800-$1200, which seems reasonable enough, given its double historical significance." Any bets on how high the bidding will go?
Good Piece of History (Score:2)
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Maybe for the same reason why they auctioned-off the Star Trek props - they have no place to store all this crap, so they are selling it.
Now suppose I bought this Mac. What would I use it for? My ancient Commodore 64 and Amiga make great 8- and 32-bit game machines which I still play even today. What good is an ancient Mac?
Re:Good Piece of History (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Good Piece of History (Score:5, Informative)
It does indeed. Did you know that the 128k Macintosh was the very first Macintosh model ever produced? The very first, I tell you!
Plugging the serial number into the Early Macintosh Serial decoder [macfaq.org] yields:
Your Macintosh 128 (M0001), with serial number F4200NUM0001, was the 776th manufactured during the 20th week of 1984 in Fremont, CA.
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Known Bugs
* Does not work to magically reveal working serial numbers for software you've pirated. Don't expect this "bug" to be fixed. Ever. Those of you attempting to use this decoder to pirate software are having your IP addresses logged, and they will be reported to your ISP. Don't believe me? Have a gander at these. I WILL report you, and you WON'T like the results. Do I make myself clear?
---
What a dick. Can anyone point me at pirated Mac software? It would be fun to dick
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Mac fans show their people skills once again.
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*points to Google*
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/me sets off to pirate Google
Man, the kids are gonna be PISSED!! They've often accused me of downloading all of Google, and hogging the bandwidth. Now I'm doing it for REAL!!!
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http://tinyurl.com/nm6jx9 [tinyurl.com]
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If you try any other similar serial numbers (ie F4200NUM0482) it says exactly the same thing as for 0001.
Me thinks the decoder is broken.
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Might have been the first one ISSUED by Apple. I'm sure they ran a few hundred through the manufacturing process in testing of the line and systems, not to mention internal units distributed for various reasons and software testing.
Also, they likey made a few hundred, and had them all packed to ship out to retailers, and on a day a few days before they gave away the first one, but it was not necessarily the first one off the line...
Then again, we have a family friend with the very first car from Dodge of s
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Doubtful.
The twentieth week of 1984 was in mid May. The introduction was in January.
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Apparently the seller clarified later today. Some form of hardware modification was made or something. Anyway, he WAS given this first one, this isn't it...
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2 things:
1. Roddenberry's is not a Mac Plus. "M0001" is the Mac 128 model number.
2. All 128's are "M0001". The serial part is just "F4200NU"
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I don't know that Woz would care about a Mac, his baby was the Apple and Apple II. The Mac was a Jobs thing and he doesn't strike me as a collector for nostalgia sake. I'd be willing to bet that he still likes to forget his past, if for nothing other than the fact that he has always liked to look to the future.
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Re:Good Piece of History (Score:4, Insightful)
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It'd have been $100k if they gave him the appropriate machine (serial number #F4200NUM1701)
I think it would have been worth making that the first model, and skipping that number in normal production...
Bets on how high? (Score:5, Funny)
400 quatloos!!
Re:Bets on how high? (Score:4, Funny)
Damned Canadians and their odd money!
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They're taking Canadian Tire money then?
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half a gram of Anjoran bio-mimetic gel
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I hear they only deal in gold pressed latinum. Damned Ferengis.
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We have... evolved... beyond primitive concepts like... money...
I'll give you a hundred credits for it.
I'll bid on it... (Score:3, Funny)
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Re:I'll bid on it... (Score:5, Insightful)
Doesn't everyone technically live at home, with home being defined as "where you live"?
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I'm homeless you insensitive clod !
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Where do you hang your hat?
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Where do you hang your hat?
When I'm relaxing,
and put off my hat...
you may find it perplexing,
it's worn by my cat.
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My employer won't let me leave, you insensitive clod!
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Heh, I had way more disposable income when I was "living at home" than when I moved out and started paying rent or mortgage.
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You forgot the obligatory link [boingboing.net].
It depends (Score:5, Funny)
At a Hollywood collectibles event, it will probably go for $200k.
If they had listed it on eBay, and slashdotted the listing, they would probably get bids in amounts over $10 million+.
But I guess after eBay fees, they're better off selling it at the Hollywood collectibles event :)
Re:It depends (Score:5, Funny)
In fact, they seem to be even greedier than the Ferengi.
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Is there some sort of hidden fee I wasn't aware of?
I mean, it sounds like a lot, but looking at this calculator [slashdot.org], with all the optional extras turned on (except Buy It Now, because they'd have to be stupid to do that), it adds up to less than 5% with a final bid of 10 million.
Ferengi tend to be disappointed if they only get half.
Re:It depends (Score:4, Funny)
eBay must be run by the Ferengi.
In fact, they seem to be even greedier than the Ferengi.
Nah, don't be silly. eBay is nothing like the Ferengi.
The Ferengi follow a very strict code which governs how they may profit from commerce...
Apple Care (Score:1, Funny)
Does it come with a year of Apple Care?
Re:Apple Care (Score:5, Funny)
Imagine (Score:4, Funny)
...what you'd find on the main hard disc with a sector editor. THEN bid.
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Re:Imagine (Score:5, Informative)
What are you guys talking about? Mac Pluses don't have hard disks.
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Yeah maybe so but some of his stories like the The God Thing [well.com] and other stories he couldn't finish or sell would be found. You will find that many authors get writer's block and if they have less than 50,000 words written on a book, they usually scrap it and start on a new different book. Writer's block is quite common, which I guess is why Roddenberry couldn't finish the God Thing story, but I guess he had enough of it written to keep it and try to pass it on to other writers to finish for him. So any delet
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"Overrated" is a good substitute, if someone has been modded up +1 Informative and is clearly, and I mean clearly, wrong.
And that happens frequently here.
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So you modders actually believe the Mac 128 upgraded to a Mac Plus has an internal hard drive?
Wikipedia Mac Plus entry [wikipedia.org]
"The Plus still did not include provision for an internal hard drive and it would be over 9 months before Apple would offer a SCSI drive replacement for the slow Hard Disk 20."
Thanks for the overrated mods, you all were wrong. I am Orion Blastar so I get used to being modded down for the wrong reasons or because someone with more mod points than brains thinks I am wrong.
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take a look at the updated info:
http://www.tuaw.com/2009/09/17/heres-your-chance-to-own-the-first-mac-plus-off-the-production/ [tuaw.com]
Re:Imagine (Score:5, Informative)
Nope. The Mac Plus had no internal hard drive.
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The data might still be there
Nope. The Mac Plus had no internal hard drive.
Oh, really? Then explain to me where they stored the formula for the transparent aluminum. On the invisible drive? Yeah, right, I'm not stupid.
Wait a minute! You're forgetting something! (Score:5, Funny)
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This the the Mac Plus with the formula for Transparent Aluminum on it!
I wonder if you can give it instructions by talking into the mouse?
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http://science.howstuffworks.com/transparent-aluminum-armor.htm [howstuffworks.com]
Not as originally advertised (Score:5, Informative)
determined to be not as advertised
We've gotten several inquires about this by the fantastically loyal and knowledgeable Mac community. After further investigating the item, here's the information:
Firstly, this Macintosh was, indeed, presented to Gene Roddenberry by Apple. There is no doubt about this.
The conflict between the photo and the serial number is as follows. This computer, given by Apple to Mr. Roddenberry, is an early production Macintosh 128 (#776), which was then upgraded by Apple for Gene to a Macintosh Plus-thus the model number / serial number / panel that "belongs to" a Macintosh Plus. The 0001 led us to mistakenly believe that it was the first one off the line.
Again, the provenance of the item is perfect and it did belong to Mr. Roddenberry. I apologize for any confusion.
Re:Not as originally advertised (Score:5, Insightful)
The upgrade from 128K to Mac Plus spec is actually pretty significant, since the 128K was only supported until MacOS 4 while the Plus was supported until 7.5.5 (which was a pretty decent OS). I suspect this is going to go more to someone who wants it because of the provenance, though, and rarely if ever get used. I hope whoever buys it sets it up to play a slideshow of Trek photos or something.
Added bonus (Score:4, Funny)
Language Packs (Score:2, Funny)
Double what? (Score:2)
But when you boink twin-sisters on the same day, in the same bed, with the same erection....now you're talking.
McGiver In Federation Space? (Score:2, Funny)
Floppies? (Score:2)
Will it come with a collection of the floppy disks Gene Roddenberry used with it?
I can just see it, though: "Those? Our research showed they were only $.39 each new, so the value would only start at just under $400 for the thousand we threw away..."
3 bars of gold pressed latinum (Score:3, Informative)
3 bars of gold pressed latinum.
Seriously, I don't see it as much other than a museum piece. Odds are if it still works, it won't for very much longer, leaving it a glorified vase, with toxic metals in it.
Glorified vase? Think Different! (Score:2)
MacQuarium! [applefritter.com]
Put a little Time Travel Arch in there. Magic!
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Odds are if it still works, it won't for very much longer, leaving it a glorified vase, with toxic metals in it.
What do you mean it won't work much longer? Chances are it'll last years longer, just like most other Apple hardware from the time. I've got Apple II systems that still function perfectly, CRT and all.
This is nothing. (Score:3, Funny)
Apple may have given Roddenberry a Mac, but in a decade or so they'll be celebrating Asimov's 100th birthday with their new media-streaming, music playing domestic assistant, the iRobot.
I Didn't Know Roddenberry was a graphic designer?! (Score:2)
Must have been the Mac he used in school.
Get it? Only graphic designers and schools use Apple computers?
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Graphic designers, schools, and people who were given one by Apple for free.
But... (Score:3, Funny)
In the spirit of star trek. . . (Score:2)
In Gene's ideal world, all notion of money is gone. It's a communist utopia. It's time to evolve, people. Just give it to me. See, wasn't that simple?
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In Gene's world, you wouldn't want to own it. You'd simply don your metallic jammies and go visit the thing in a museum, where it belongs.
I love those lines in Indy films, "It belongs in a museum!" The dude was willing to die for that ideal. Does that make Indy a communist?
-FL
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First, I was mostly just going for laughs.
But, if you want to be serious, "To each according to his needs, from each according to his ability" would pretty well describe the Earth and UFP of the Star Trek Universe. I don't remember the exact phrasing used, but I remember one (probably several, but it's a little fuzzy now) descriptions of the UFP "economy" in Star Trek which pretty much boiled down to that. Don't get me wrong - as an ideal, I don't see anything wrong with it, to inspire people to less greed.
Just the spinoffs (Score:2)
Money was alive and well in Star Trek, as was trade and commerce. I think the price of the ship was even referred to at one point.
The spinoffs are another story--in them, it indeed appears that scarcity has been solved. This doesn't lead to *communist* economics, but the complete *lack* of economics. With scarcity solved, economics becomes merely a historical discipline.
hawk, sometime economics professor
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I disagree that scarcity was solved in The Next Generation and later series (I assume that's what you mean by "spinoffs"?) - here's why: replicators may have made *material* scarcity a 'solved' problem, but it seems like, from the series, not all things could be replicated - ships, for example, where manufactured in a semi-traditional manner, (that is, for example, I remember at least one episode of Deep Space 9 where we see a ship yard, and ships that are partly constructed - they didn't just 'replicate' e
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Uh, yeah, those were the spinofffs, as opposed to Star Trek.
The only things they couldn't replicate were those that were needed for the plot in the handful of episodes that did happen (not wiped out by gratuitous and inconsistent time travel) or solved by by techno-gobbly-gook that the watcher was supposed to care about.
The people on the planet are cold and starving? No problem, replicate food and blankets.
Poker? It's all about plastic chips.
bah
hawk
Throw me the idol, I throw you the whip! (Score:2)
I mean, Indiana Jones was dealing with 'found' antiquities. I can see the argument that such antiquities really have no "proper" owner, and ownership shouldn't just go to the first person to touch it (i.e. the person that found it), so I have no problem with the notion that such antiquities should go to a public museum for all to see. But for people's belongings, if you think after their death, they revert to the public/state, then your philosophy is very close to some sort of communism or socialism, at least.
Maybe Jones wasn't oblivious to the fact that he was basically stealing these treasures, and the "in a museum" thing was necessary for him to continue his tomb-raiding ways without being crippled by guilt?
Maybe part of his pervasive love of achaeology was in being able to present it to others?
Maybe it just served as a nice bit of dialogue for the character to convey to the audience what actually happened to the artifact at the end of the movie? :)
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First, I was mostly just going for laughs.
Me too.
Thanks for offering your thought process, though. It seems well-formed. I just find myself struggling against the evils of greed in a world where self-service is required for survival. I think fighting through this infernal crucible is how we turn from lumbering proto-humans into more fully-formed souls.
-FL
StarTrek 4 (Score:3, Informative)
I wonder if this is the same Mac that was used in the famous transparent aluminum scene in Star Trek 4 that Scotty was speaking with. I'm pretty sure that was a Mac Plus as well.
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Re:By Neruos (Score:4, Informative)
Re:By Neruos (Score:5, Informative)
The serial number and the pictures are of an original mac, not a plus. However, see what the auction house said:
We've gotten several inquires about this by the fantastically loyal and knowledgeable Mac community. After further investigating the item, here's the information:
Firstly, this Macintosh was, indeed, presented to Gene Roddenberry by Apple. There is no doubt about this.
The conflict between the photo and the serial number is as follows. This computer, given by Apple to Mr. Roddenberry, is an early production Macintosh 128 (#776), which was then upgraded by Apple for Gene to a Macintosh Plus-thus the model number / serial number / panel that "belongs to" a Macintosh Plus. The 0001 led us to mistakenly believe that it was the first one off the line.
Again, the provenance of the item is perfect and it did belong to Mr. Roddenberry. I apologize for any confusion.
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"Never pay more for an acquisition than you have to"
I'd go for 2 bars of gold-pressed latinum at most
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And that's just the gold. Imagine what it would be worth with the latinum intact!
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Makes you wonder why they chose to encase latinum with worthless gold...
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Inert. Gold doesn't like reacting with stuff. Maybe latinum is reactive with... stuff.
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10 whats?
Is that slips, strips, bars, or bricks?
Re:$1701 (Score:5, Funny)
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> The really problem is that every fan will bid $1701. Therefore, only a non-fan can possibly win the auction.
what about $1701b, $1701c and $1701d? So the maximum bid would be up to $94237
You fail as a fan. There's an Enterprise-E, so it could go to $94238.
And I do believe the Enterprise-J showed up during an Enterprise time-travel episode. So you might need to move to another base.
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Re:apple needs to restart Star Trek proposal and h (Score:4, Insightful)
apple needs to restart Star Trek proposal and have mac os x for all x86 hardware back then dell the others did not want it (part of the M$ lock in that the killed beos, os/2 and others) now dell and others want it vista is a big bust and linux is ganging ground.
Wow, and here I thought F. Scott Fitzgerald was dead...
Re:apple needs to restart Star Trek proposal and h (Score:3, Insightful)
I thought people only posted while drunk on Fark.
Re:Yellow (Score:5, Informative)
There's a few ways to restore or prevent the yellowing. I can't find the original page I saw before, but this [hackaday.com] has more information.
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Hmmm I wonder what my original, in the box it was purchased in, IBM PC 8088 w/64K of ram, two 360k floppies, IBM green screen monitor ( also in the box it came in ) with all packing materials and documentation would be worth?
And it still boots ROM Basic! ( I took it out put it on the bench and fired it up :: Motivated by a /. article :: and the machine actualy booted!
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the first personal computer for /so/ many people, hence have value.
You've got that backwards - good supply would mean lower price.
Old Macs have a high price precisely because there were fewer of them made, compared with PCs where there were so many of them, you can't give them away.
Same thing applies to the Amiga and other non-PC computers - smaller numbers of machines were made, so the ones that survived are more likely to fetch a higher price.
If you mean you're making a distinction between home and busine