There is still quite a bit of “goo” present on the board, and I will need to clean out the pin holes for C44 and C45 before I can replace those caps.  Should be a simple procedure.

And while I’m at it, those expansion connector slots don’t look too healthy either.  Not sure of the corrosion I’m seeing in there is related to the leak, but it never hurts to be sure.

You can see the damage to the bottom of the PCB here.  I’m not sure what the white substance is there.

I’ll continue to keep you updated here, and you can see higher-resolution images in this Flickr set.

Unfortunately, the intervening years weren’t kind to this particular Apple, or more specifically, to the 3.6V battery that lives on every Apple IIGS motherboard.  As old batteries do, this one began to leak and spill its contents across the PCB.  The resulting “goo” (you can read all about the specific chemistry of battery leakage in this Google Knowledge article, if you’re interested) took out a couple of capacitors and left a nasty coating on the MC1377 RGB to composite signal converter IC.  Additionally, the leak spread to the bottom of the motherboard and pooled on the case RFI shielding.

Several of my fellow Apple hobbyists are optimistic that this repair shouldn’t be too difficult, and I tend to agree with them.  The first steps will be to remove the remaining corrosion and assess the MC1377 IC, and to replace the ruined capacitors.  I’ll probably get started this weekend – it would be a shame if an important piece of Apple II history like this couldn’t be repaired, but all things considered, it could be much worse.  I’ll keep you appraised of my progress here.  

In the meantime, you can take a look at this Flickr set for more close ups of the damage.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/shockwaverider/sets/72157629522252602/

(Jobs and Woz at the First West Coast Computer Faire in 1977, where the Apple II was introduced 35 years ago, this week.)

In honor of the 35th anniversary of the introduction of the the Apple II computer, here’s a copy of, “The First West Coast Computer Faire” program in PDF format.  I think this was originally posted to the classiccmp list, but I can’t find the specific thread so I apologize for omitting the name of the poster.  Enjoy!

(PDF, 44 pages, 4.3 MB)

Note: I only skimmed this, but I only found one mention of Apple Computer, Inc: their booth assignments (326 and 427) which match the “front-door” booths on the convention map on page 42, off of the Grove Street entrance just behind the Registration and Ticket booths.

Before I could make an offer to save it from the trash, he asked if perhaps I wanted it.  “Seems a shame to just toss it.  It’s yours, if you want it.” I w0nder if he noticed my effort to hide my enthusiasm… Anyway, it’s mine now, and conveniently replaces this one:

(Bonus points if you know who that is.)  The IIc was filthy, but it passed the system diagnostic and a PEEK (64447) identified it as a ROM version 3.  Not as nifty as the version 4 it replaced, but still very nice!

With my wife out of town for a week or so, I have time to take care of a few retro-computing To-Do’s I wouldn’t normally, and this seemed like a nice project so here are some before and after shots of the clean up.  Enjoy!

As received.

Close up of the grime on the case.

Keyboard.

I don’t think I want to type on those keys…

Floppy drive door latch.

And the handle/stand.

Disassembled for cleaning.

Here are some comparison shots I took of the keyboard during cleaning.

I removed each of the keycaps and cleaned them individually.  I put a few back on for these pictures, to get a comparison of the before/after.  Quite a difference!

And here’s the result.  The entire process took about four hours.  This included disassembling the IIc, removing and cleaning the keycaps and the keyboard assembly, 5.25” disk drive assembly, motherboard, handle/stand, and case top and bottom.

Some cosmetic damage on the rainbow Apple logo.  Cleaned up nicely, though.

Close up of the Apple IIc logo.

Floppy drive.

Volume control and headphones jack.  This area required further cleaning.  For some reason, a lot of grime accumulated here over the years.

The handle/stand.

“The Apple IIc”

Upper half of the case.

Reassembling after cleaning.

Drive re-inserted.

Almost there…

Cleaned and reassembled.  All done!

I’d like to thank my podcasting co-conspirator Ken Gagne for cleaning up the audio in Audacity as much as he could. This was recorded on my Motorola Droid X and as such, was unlistenable. It isn’t great now – the volume is all over the place (I’m not kidding – careful with your volume control!) and there’s a lot of background noise, but it’s a heck of a lot better than it was. Thanks, Ken!

Enjoy!

Intro

So here’s what’s going to happen.  In the interest of completing the project as I had originally envisioned it, I will go ahead and play through the Zork titles as I said I would and simply note that I’ve completed them and am moving on to more interesting titles.  And I do get a break between Zork II, where I’m about half way through what is a really great game, and the third Zork title as Infocom released Deadline before Zork III.  I know that’s not much fun for the three of you that come here, but it’s the only way I can convince myself to keep at this.

There’s nothing I can write about Zork that hasn’t already been, and by more talented and verbose scribes than myself.  There’s no map I can make, no original opinion I can give.  I’m not simply hiking a path forged by others who came before me.  By now, the trail has been cleared and paved over with asphalt, and safety handrails have been installed everywhere.  There’s a National Parks Service hut collecting an entry fee and what was once undiscovered county is now a well-traveled tourist trap.  Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to add money to the meter in the pay parking lot that’s been set up over to the west of the house.  I’ll stop and pick you up a souvenir t-shirt from the gift shop on my way back.

The flip-top box is sturdy white corrugated cardboard and it’s clear Apple didn’t skimp on materials prices for their first high-level language released for the ///.  The color product label is folded over two sides of the box and glued in place.  Printing, logo placement and general design and art layout are similar to the packaging of Apple /// COBOL, which was released in 1982.  Reflecting Steve Jobs’s taste in quality and design, the art used on the manual covers and throughout the packaging was licensed from collections at the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag in the Netherlands and from Vorpal Gallery in San Francisco.  Apple would do this again with artwork for the Apple /// COBOL packaging.

Also, note the subtle “professional” touches added here: the deep blue behind gray pinstripes, like an expensive executive suit.  This was business software for a business computer, after all!

Opening the box, we find the Packing List; the Apple User Input Report, which was intended to allow customers to provide feedback, make suggestions or report bugs; and the Software License Agreement, an early ancestor to today’s voluminous End User License Agreements.  The latter was a three-copy carbonless form you were supposed to sign (press firmly!).  You got to keep the white copy, while the yellow copy was to be given to your dealer, with the orange copy to be sent off to Cupertino.

Somehow, I doubt these were read any more carefully than today’s click-through EULAs…

Up next is a baggie containing the diskette folders.  As far as I can tell, this unique design was used exclusively with Apple III software.  I don’t recall ever seeing Apple II diskettes shipped like this, though I could be wrong.  The pinstripe pattern appears again here, reminding the user that she is using business software, not some silly game.

Beneath the four floppy diskettes, we come to the manuals.  A unique piece of art, no doubt hand-picked by Jobs himself, adorns every cover and each is individually wrapped and resting on top of their respective Errata pamphlets.  Perhaps as a testimony to the rushed nature of the development of Apple /// Pascal, every manual has one of these pamphlets, and they’re all extensive, the largest accompanying the Programmer’s Manuals, and Introduction, Filer and Editor Manual and each weighing in at a hefty eleven pages of corrections.

It’s clear that Pascal, like nearly every software package for the ///, was so late that Apple preferred to ship the Errata right in the box, rather than incur further costs and delays by editing and reprinting all the manuals.

The whole package is a bulky 9.75” x 6.5” x 3.25” and weighs 4.5 lbs.

Three of the four manuals – the two Programmer’s Manuals and the Introduction, Filer and Editor Manual have already been scanned and are available in all the usual places, but the Program Preparation manual and the Errata pamphlets are currently MIA.  I’m not one to knock other people’s work but I think it’s safe to say the existing scans, while serviceable, hardly qualify as archival so I’ve added these to the queue along with the ones that were skipped the first time around.  I hope to have everything up at Apple2scans.net within a month or so.

My aim is to finish this one this week, and I’ve set a goal for myself to cover a game a week going forward from here.  I find I do better when I set little goals like this for myself, so I expect to make a new post every Wednesday, with gameplay taking place mostly over the weekends.

Stay tuned…