Language⇒Japanese

My appleII Notes-4

My appleII Notes-4

99/6/12　BH Apple II Plus (Darth Vader Model)

I went to Kashiwazaki city in Niigata prefecture for an offline meeting with Nifty’s FAPPLE forum + α on May 29 to 30. Eleven members, including those who met onsite, gathered.  It started in 1995, with subsequent meetings in 96, 97, with this occasion being our fourth meeting.

We brought a variety of machines to the inn, which sits adjacent to one of Japan's premier beach areas called Kujiranami bathing beach, watched a demonstration and exchanged information, took a relaxing hot spring bath, ate delicious foods and drank alcohol until late at night.

This time, the number of participants was at its greatest, and for some people it was their first meeting. We were not only able to learn about a variety of topics related to the Apple II and the Compact Mac, but it was also interesting that there were a wide variety of talks on environmental issues, vintage guitars and so on.

On the way back, it is customary to visit the Mr. Izumi’s (Sckop’s) house in Shirane city, to see the many items of his Apple II collection. Mr.

Mr. Izumi is a famous collector who has been featured in a special issue of Brutus magazine and is also known as a collector on the Apple II World website. Every time I visit Mr. Sckop’s home,

I take my hat off to his insight and the sheer vast collection of Apple II paraphernalia that he has. He has been an Apple II user since its genesis, and has walked every step of the Apple journey. Together with his warm personality and precious machines that he has collected it is as if time has almost stopped around him.

I stayed with him for a short while this time, but I thoroughly enjoyed the unusual printed materials and hardware that he as, and have added some pictures here.

BACK PANEL Both the top photo and the one to the left are of the Bell & Howell Apple II Plus, Model No. A2S1048B, Serial No. A2S3-001727. The Bell & Howell brand Apple II is said to have been sold mainly to the east coast education market, almost simultaneously along with the release of the Apple II Plus (fall 1979). The nickname of this model "Darth Vader" and it seems to have been named after the movie STAR WARS. This a one of the machines at Mr. Izumi 's house and from the serial number we can see that it was from the first lot. The main board is a Rev. 7 and was used in the earlier Apple II Plus. Having returned back to my home, I noticed something in the photo that I had taken. Under the nameplate of the back panel, a sticker of "Ontario Hydro electrical approval" was affixed. Ontario Hydro is a Canadian electric utility company, so it seems that this machine was sold in Canada. Bell & Howell at the time seemed to have had quite a wide sales channel in eastern US and Canada. ( See Bell & Howell AppleII Plus section )

KEYBOARD Especially noteworthy is the keyboard. The Bell & Howell brand machine has a black key top that is the same color as the case. Early keyboards have one board (type A) and one where the encoder base is separated (type B). The difference in appearance is in the lower left Power ON lamp. The A type is mountain shaped, the upper half is white plastic, and the lower half is the same color as the key top. The B type is rectangular white plastic. I thought that all the keyboards of the machines after Apple II Plus were B type. However, the keyboard of Mr. Sckop's machine was a type A and the lower part of the Power ON lamp was clearly made of black plastic which is the same color as the key top. The photo on the left is a comparison of the keyboards of the three types of machines. Above: Original Standard Apple II. The key tops are brown. Type A keyboard. Medium: Bell & Howell Apple II Plus (owned by Izumi) The key top is black. Type A keyboard. Below: Bell & Howell Apple II Plus (owned by me) The key tops are black. Type B keyboard. We can really sense Apple technical team’s attention to detail which made the special machine and special keyboard without compromising on detail. Indeed, on the front logo panel it says "MADE EXCLUSIVELY FOR BELL & HOWELL BY apple computer Inc." As is well known by everyone, this black machine later became the base of the NeXT Computer's design, and in this machine we can also see that Steve Jobs' preferences are reflected. At Mr. Izumi’s (Sckop) house, I also took a photo of some unusual manuals from Apple. I want to introduce them when I have a chance.

Equipment and materials brought to Kashiwazaki's inn this time. From the upper left, Platinum Apple IIe with superdrive, PowerBook 100, Apple IIe, Apple IIGS with transwrap accelerator, NextStation Color, NextCube, Mac512 with Gemini, Apple IIJ plus, Apple IIc plus, Laser 128, First issue of ASCII magazine.