VIDEO: 1984 Macintosh 128K Unboxing (I Think?) (Patreon)

Hey guys! So this one took some weird turns… and it's gonna lead up to a fun Krazy Ken's Tech Misadventures episode!

Click here to watch the unboxing! 

If you want to watch the upcoming Tech Misadventures episode spoiler-free, then do not read the rest of this post. You can still watch the video, though!

Anyway, here's what happened…

I found a Macintosh 128K in a Mac buy-sell-trade Facebook group, and the price was low. It caught my attention, but I also thought it was too good to be true. I contacted the owner, and they said it was fully operational. But… the difference is "it was upgraded internally to a Plus by an earlier owner."

I thought that was fine! If it looks like a Mac 128K, but has more memory and a SCSI port, whatever! That's kinda cool! I was thinking the computer would be like the upgraded 128K that Steve (Mac84) has. See below…

Note the extra board with more RAM, and the SCSI port (which is fed through the rear battery compartment).

Again, I thought this was cool, so I was excited!

However, when I unboxed the computer, the back said "Mac Plus". Additionally there were serial ports and a SCSI port along the bottom, which 100% confirms that an upgraded 128K board is NOT inside this thing. So my conclusion was that this was a Mac Plus with a 128K faceplate. Eh? It still has the original front though, so that's kinda cool, right?!

WRONG! It wasn't even that! I checked the serial number…

F4402C9M001… W

That fricking W…

That means this is a Mac 512K face, not a 128K. 

The seller had good intentions, but they had no clue what they were talking about. Lesson learned, always get the serial number of the computer BEFORE you make an offer, and get many photos of the product (which I totally should have asked for). If the seller doesn't want to give you photos, that's a red flag. Oh well, at least this will make for a good story, right?