Our friend John Woodall at VintageMicros has found something of great Lisa historical interest! As seen on the serial number plate pictured below, the manufacture date of this Apple Lisa is the 20th day of 1982, far older than records indicate any Lisa was manufactured! This very well may be the oldest Lisa known to exist.
When John acquired this Lisa 1, the faceplate and drives were missing but there some unusual differences between it and later production models. The screws that attach the case top are normally secured to the frame. Those were not there. And as you can see from the pictures we have posted, the rear panel had no way to attach the auxillary slot covers and the normal brightness and focus symbols for the power supply adjustments were "B" and "F" instead.
If any of our Lisa experts have any additional information on this interesting find, please let us know!
Our friend Alfred has done it again! In his own words, "I was fortunate to procure a mint, new, in the box 20th Anniversary Macintosh, also known as the TAM. In this video, with Adam B working the camera, we unbox this piece of Apple history, and show its first boot, after ten years sealed in the box." It's great that Alfred has documented this event for posterity, and to share it with the Apple community! You can also listen to Alfred interviewed by James and John this week on The RetroMacCast.
An interesting and in-depth 2002 article from the Stanford Magazine, written by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang detailing the evolution of the Apple mouse.
"In 1980, Apple Computer asked a group of guys fresh from Stanford's product design program to take a $400 device and make it mass-producible, reliable and cheap.
Their work transformed personal computing."
