How much would the first printing schemes be valid today? What would you pay to own the original designs for your phone? For some people, Steve Wozniak’s simple sketches for Apple II have a kind of historical significance similar to those hypothetical artifacts of technology history. And now we know that someone was willing to pay $ 630,272 to be the sole owner of Woz’s doodles since the dawn of the digital age.
Wozniak first laid paper for these models in 1975 and provided a letter of authenticity to RR Auction which had just completed the sale of a a few dozen lots related to Apple. “These documents, around 1975, are my original Apple II prototype schematics and programming instructions,” Wozniak wrote. “They are precious.”
Of all its products over the decades, Apple II has undoubtedly played the largest role in establishing Apple as one of the main competitors in the home computer market. At the time of its launch in 1977, technical experts said it could be the first product to qualify as a “computer for devices”. Autonomous simplicity, unique approach to memory and the ability to display color graphics have made it a success in the business world for years.
The package of notes and outline consists of 23 pages in total and sold to a private bidder, RR auction said. Notes included charts for “Bus Sources”, “System Timer”, “Display”, “Timing Timing” and Adr. Genre ”, and“ Timing ”, as well as 12 pages of handwritten programming instructions.
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In his letter of authenticity, Wozniak wrote:
On these work diagrams in progress, you can even see my breadboarding technique, where I would go over the connections drawn in red as I glued the threads. At the time, I preferred to use a purple pen for writing, so it’s interesting to see these decades-long notes about the prototype being hand-wired, while I was still an engineer at Hewlett-Packard’s Advanced Products Division, where I was involved in the design of laptops.
His personal notes are not the only thing Woz has authenticated. He wrote that he had a pair of Apple-shaped rainbow glasses, made to order by an optometrist in 1979, which “was a project, just for fun.” spectacles seems to be in shockingly good condition for their age and sold for $ 18,972.50.
There was other interesting little information in the auction, including one the first computer mice ever built that went for $ 34,478.75 and a short job offer letter from Steve Jobs to Del Yocam which includes signature line “I accept this extraordinarily great offer !!!” sold for $ 32,893.75. But the biggest element was a complete Apple 1 in a clean, all-inclusive condition, from the vintage power supply to the Apple box interface. The lot was sold for USD 736,862.50.
You can view several pieces from Apple’s history that were recently auctioned in the gallery below.