Twiggy Lives! Resurrecting the Oldest Mac in the World

[caption align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="Working 128k with 5.25" Twiggy floppy disk drive"]

[/caption]

On January 24, 1984, Apple Computer introduced Macintosh. A revolutionary all-in-one computer with a 9" screen, an electronic rodent called a mouse, and a 3.5" floppy disk drive. This was the very first Macintosh, and many survive to this day.

But before this Mac was another, slightly different design. One that used the 5.25" Twiggy floppy disk drive, the same that was used in the Apple Lisa. These drives were notoriously unreliable and were soon replaced by the Sony 3.5" disk. Only a few Twiggy Mac prototypes were made, and until recently it was thought that none survived.

Then in 2012, a Twiggy Mac resurfaced. It was found, privately sold, made a few appearances on eBay, then again dropped out of the sight. Since then a second Twiggy Mac was located, and their owners embarked on an all out effort to resurrect these long lost pieces of Macintosh history.

Now in 2013, with the premiere of the film Jobs, two Twiggy Macs return to life in full working glory. They are - without a doubt - The Oldest Macs in the World. Here is the story of their resurrection.

The Twiggy Was Doomed, the Mac Was Not

The Apple Lisa began shipping to customers in June 1983, even though there were major reliability problems with its two 5.25" Twiggy disk drives. Many of the drives didn't work and manufacturing yields were low. These problems nearly derailed the Lisa program, and the Twiggy was only viable because the Lisa also shipped with an external hard drive.

The Mac was also supposed to use the Twiggy drive, but panic began to set in when everyone realized they just weren't going to be reliable enough. The Mac didn't have a hard drive to fall back on. After many tortuous rounds, even finally acknowledged reality and gave up on the Twiggy drive.

Apple had recently gotten a demo of a 3.5" disk drive from Sony. It worked at the same data rate as the Twiggy, and disks had a nice hard plastic shell. When Steve saw the drive he loved it and immediately wanted to adapt it for the Mac. Of course that too was a tortuous process - see the Folklore.org story Hide Under This Desk for the entertaining details - but in the end things worked out and the Mac shipped with the familiar 3.5" disk drive we all know and love.

In true Jobsian fashion, all Twiggy prototypes at Apple were ordered destroyed, and the Twiggy Mac was consigned to the dustbin of history. But as this unretouched lost photo from Steve Jobs' 1984 Rolling Stone interview shows, the Twiggy Mac did indeed exist!

[caption align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="Steve Jobs with prototype Twiggy Mac (upper right)"]

[/caption]

A Twiggy Mac Resurfaces The story ended there for nearly three decades. Then in January 2012 a Twiggy Mac resurfaced. Photos of the rare prototype were posted online at applefritter and quickly started generating buzz. How did this Mac survive? Was this the only one?

Here's how that owner (posting as "mactwiggy") said he acquired the system at the time:

MACTWIGGY: I bought it through an online ad. The elderly gentleman I purchased it off of is a retired engraver. The company he worked for was hired to make some award medallions for a ceremony at Apple. It would have been some point in 1983 I personally think, but he really couldn't recall. They sent over this Mac to use as a model for him to work off of. When the job was done, they tried to make arrangements to send it back. Apparently after several attempts, Apple just told them to keep it.

He knew what he had, and knew the price he was asking was low, but didn't want to deal with trying to market it. He was really just happy it was going to someone who knew what it was and would appreciate it.

What a find! Truly a Mac collector's dream. The interwebs were atwitter.

Enter Adam Goolevitch. Adam happens to be a vintage Mac collector and eBay seller based in British Columbia, Canada. We've previously interviewed him on Cult of Mac. He had had already worked with and restored many Twiggy-based Lisas, and this prototype Mac proved irrestible.

Adam and his colleague Gabreal Franklin sent their stories to Cult of Mac:

ADAM: In late February 2012, my friend Paul called me up to tell me that he had just seen a fabled 'Twiggy' prototype macintosh posted on applefritter's web site. We have known each other since grade 8 and are both avid Apple and Macintosh fans. Througout the past 15 years we have heard stories of and researched the fabled 'Twiggy Macintosh' computer. It was a thing of myth and legend... like a unicorn.

It was a thing of myth and legend... like a unicorn.

Recognizing how rare a find this was, Adam contacted the owner and after some negotiating he purchased the system. He cleaned things up cosmetically and the system powered on, but there was no Twiggy Mac software around to boot or run the computer. With Apple 1 systems selling for several hundred thousand dollars, he decided to try his luck on eBay and listed the system for $100k:

[caption align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="Prototype Twiggy Mac (left), final Mac 128k (right)"] [/caption]

ADAM: I listed the prototype Twiggy computer on eBay. To my surprise, there was an overwhelming amount of media attention. Cult of Mac picked up the listing initially, stating that 'it looks like Woz is cleaning out his closet'. Several media outlets then contacting me for interviews and stories for their sites, including Mashable, Engadget, Ubergizmo, BBC6, The Huffington Post, The Daily Mail, NBC Los Angeles & Bay Area, The Daily News, MacTrast, TheVerge, Mac4ever, and Electronista - just to name some!

To my dismay, the computer did not sell. I can understand though - with such a high price tag ($99,995 USD), and the fact that it did not boot up. After 2 or 3 re-lists I decided to simply focus on attempting to resurrect this computer and no longer offered the computer for sale. I was determined on finding some way to get it to boot.

News of the Twiggy Mac's existence percolated worldwide, and eventually reached a former Mac software developer named Gabreal Franklin. Gabreal was the former president of Encore Systems, the original developers of what became MacWrite. Unbeknownst to Adam, a second Twiggy Mac existed:

GABREAL: In April 2012, I was filming in Asia. When I checked my email after returning from some treks in the jungles, I had several emails from old friends from Apple. “Is this you?” was the most common thread, and each of them had sent a link to an item posted for sale on eBay. The item was a Macintosh prototype with a 5.25" Twiggy disk drive from 1983. I emailed a few of these people back to let them know that I was in fact on location in India and Asia, and would someone contact the seller and find out what his story is. As far as I knew, my old prototype Twiggy Mac was still somewhere in storage. This seemed to be another one, just like mine. [caption align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="Twiggy Mac and Apple Macintosh case patent"]

And how did Gabreal wind up as the owner of this rare Apple item?

GABREAL: As Encore was closing, we each took turns picking from a huge pile of hardware. My selection of the Twiggy and a "Qbert" Arcade game were not hot items of interest for any of us at this time. These were two of the items that I selected during the turns we took – although a Macintosh SE and a Macintosh II computer were much higher on the list. I forget who got the NeXT Cube...

Two Twiggy Mac prototypes were left in the hands of developers! Clearly the Apple of 1984 did not have the same fastidious level of paranoid secrecy as the Apple of today. Nevertheless the seed had been planted for a Twiggy reunion. Gabreal contacted Adam when he returned to the States, and the two quickly decided to collaborate on getting these old Macs working.

Resurrecting the Twiggy

ADAM: After a few messages back and forth, I was in contact with Gabreal Franklin, former president of Encore Systems. Encore was started up by Randy Wigginton (Apple Employee #6), they wrote what became the original MacWrite program for the Macintosh. Gabreal was willing to let me borrow his only 3 Twiggy Mac software disks - 2 of which were found to be bootable, and were to be archived and duplicated. The 2 working disks were labeled 'MacWrite Test Diskette' and' MacPaint 0.5 August 16, 1983'.

GABREAL: I decided that I would go through my storage and get the old Twiggy Mac out, locate my original 5.25” floppy disks, and any other related items that I could find. A few weeks went by. Locating the Twiggy Mac was easy. As a matter of fact, at Encore Systems, I had actually used this machine literally as a stop to keep my office door from swinging closed, for some years. I knew that I had also stored the Macintosh Twiggy disks somewhere.

Locating the Twiggy Mac was easy... I had actually used this machine literally as a stop to keep my office door from swinging closed. Gabreal eventually found the disks, but his system had a damaged motherboard and power supply so it would not boot. Working separately Adam could not get the disks from Gabreal's system to boot up his machine. They decided to get together and work on both systems simultaneously:

GABREAL: I invited him to come down and visit. As we both had some engineering experience, we decided to carefully dissemble both machines and meticulously put identifying labels on each [respective] machine's parts, so that we would not mix up any of the chips or parts. We then started the "trial and error" troubleshooting process of getting one of the prototype Twiggy Mac computers going.

[caption align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="Twiggy Mac motherboard with custom ROMs (left), Mac 128k motherboard (right)"]

[/caption]

ADAM: The ROMs in my machine were a different revision than his, as indicated by the numbering scheme written on the stickers. Gabreal had indicated that new ROM and software revisions were at times turned over every few days or so back in that time. From that, I concluded that perhaps his ROMs and his software disks were compatible [only] with each other. I then swapped over his Twiggy disk drive and his ROMs into my machine and my motherboard. When the first Twiggy disk was introduced, to our amazement and surprise, the Twiggy Mac booted right up! This somewhat shocked both of us.

When the first Twiggy disk was introduced, to our amazement and surprise, the Twiggy Mac booted right up!

It was now 2:30AM, and by this point both were exhausted. Adam took a few photos to prove what they had done, and work continued the next day. Swapping chips a few at a time they identified the problems with Gabreal's Mac, and cannibalized replacement parts from a sacrificial Mac 512k. Then using the now- shared compatible set of ROMs, they got the second Twiggy working the next day.

Two Twiggies Live

ADAM: As it would turn out, the Twiggy drive was faulty in my machine, and I needed to copy Gabreal's motherboard ROMs. Gabreal was so kind as to allow me to borrow his Twiggy disk drive and ROMs in order to archive and duplicate them. With the help of James MacPhail of Sigma Seven Systems, the EPROMs and Macintosh Twiggy 16L8 controller chip were successfully archived, along with the Twiggy Macintosh software disks. The archiving of Lisa ROMs, controller chips and Twiggy disks are very specialized tasks, perfected over the years by the folks in the vintage Lisa community. After all this time it's nice to see an old Lisa helping out a Mac!

ADAM: When I received the return package from James with the archived and duplicate chips, I then installed them into my Twiggy Macintosh, along with a replacement working Twiggy disk drive. To my delight, my Twiggy Macintosh prototype was now running on it's own steam - after almost 30 years!

[caption align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="Adam and Gabreal with their Macs; unused 'Mr. Macintosh' logo"]

[/caption]

A milestone had been reached. The Twiggy Mac had been reborn.

Adam and Gabreal wanted to reveal their prized possessions to the world during an appropriate vintage Apple moment. The release of the Apple retrospective film Jobs this month, August 2013, felt like that moment. And now it has arrived.

ADAM: As a vintage Apple and Macintosh collector and hobbyist, this is, in my opinion, the greatest vintage Apple / Macintosh experience I have ever had! This would never have been possible without the help and friendship of Gabreal Franklin and James MacPhail. We experienced an outcome far in beyond any reasonable expectation. This, for me, is an amazing example of teamwork and friendship!

This is, in my opinion, the greatest vintage Apple / Macintosh experience I have ever had!

So will we see one of these working Twiggy Macs at Christies one day? Our collectors won't say - right now they're just busy basking in retro Mac glory...

It's only fitting that the oldest Macs in the world also run the oldest Mac software in the world. Here are some screenshots of pre-release versions of MacWrite, MacPaint, and the Macintosh System Software. I love the "Steve sez" dialog boxes! [caption align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="Steve sez... Pre-Release Mac System Software dialog box"]

[/caption]

[caption align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="MacPaint version 0.5 by "] [/caption]

[caption align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="Randy Wigginton wrote MacAuthor, which became MacWrite"] [/caption]

[caption align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="Steve sez... the Great Leader Speaks"] [/caption]

Image: all images courtesy Adam Goolevitch