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[byteshop]

Hey all. Someone posted this to one of the facebook groups tonight: "Good evening group! Does anyone know what kind of Apple computer this is? I bought a home in Albuquerque, NM from a man who was an original apple employee in Cupertino (I found his ID) and I found this under a false floor panel in a closet. Very "Sherlock 😂" I know, but it's a true story. Anyway, just wondering.."

Seems to be two Twiggy based Lisa 2 proto front panels and a complete Lisa 2. Has anyone seen one of these before?

 

[ried]

Truly remarkable find. Under the floorboard in a closet, no less! I don't think this front bezel has ever been seen publicly before. The design seems a little hasty and awkward, with the upper drive number and space for its eject button remaining in place next to the vent. That should have been removed

Was this bezel for a prototype Lisa 2/10 with an internal ProFile (Pepsi) or Widget drive paired with a single Twiggy drive? Interesting configuration.

[andrew]

This really is incredible. New discoveries like this are rare.

The panel couldn't have been made after the decision to give the Lisa 2 series Sony drives like the Macintosh, which places it before Late 1983. Given this could have been for either an internal Profile or Widget drive, that leaves some wiggle room for when this could have been produced. Maybe this was a Lisa "1/10" panel?


Obviously, the engineers realized they needed much more ventilation for the hard drive than what this panel has.

[compu_85]

I bet that was used with the internal mount ProFiles...

-J

[stepleton]

That's my guess too --- I'd expect that Widgets weren't exactly ready for production when this bezel was made.

The Lisa 2 designers may have found a need for more vents, but the Lisa 2 vent style may also a better match for the design language of contemporary Apple products, I think. This prototype bezel is like a glimpse of what the Lisa 2 might have been if Snow White had never happened. See also Wikipedia, for what that's worth.

[compu_85]

Not widget - Profile. There exist photos of an internal mount ST-506 drive - I think AlexTheCat even has one.

-J

[AlexTheCat123]

Not widget - Profile. There exist photos of an internal mount ST-506 drive - I think AlexTheCat even has one.

Yep, I sure do! It's so cool to see the type of bezel that probably once covered my drive! I wonder how many of these prototype front panels were made?

[stepleton]

Not widget - Profile. There exist photos of an internal mount ST-506 drive

Yes, that was my point --- I was aiming to support your hypothesis with an additional hypothesis that Widgets likely wouldn't have been ready yet.

[ried]

Not widget - Profile. There exist photos of an internal mount ST-506 drive - I think AlexTheCat even has one.

Yep, I sure do! It's so cool to see the type of bezel that probably once covered my drive! I wonder how many of these prototype front panels were made?

Since these are marked "SAMPLE" there were probably only a handful produced for testing purposes. Sure would be something if you could recreate the test configuration with this bezel, your internal ProFile drive and a Twiggy - with the appropriate mounting hardware. Might even be able to get a working system out of it 

[compu_85]

I wonder if that's what the unused power plug, and passthrough from the drive cage to the expansion slots was intended for...

[sigma7]

I wonder if that's what the unused power plug, and passthrough from the drive cage to the expansion slots was intended for...

Both are still quite a mystery to me; IIRC, only the 2/10 chassis has the mystery passthrough, and only the 1/5 cabling has the mystery power plug; but maybe there is some overlap.

The passthrough appears to be sized/positioned for a chassis mounted 60 contact card edge socket, which a card in expansion slot 3 would plug into. Perhaps the Widget controller was potentially expected to be an expansion card, such that the combination allowed fitting the mechanism above a Twiggy.

[ried]

Adding the other photos of these prototype bezels here for posterity. Interesting that one of the samples is dated 1/3/1983, so we know Apple was working on the internal ProFile configuration before the Lisa 1 was even introduced on 1/19/1983.

[fri0701]

I've been talking to the woman who found these bezels alongside what seems to be a stock 2/10. She's interested in having someone experienced examine the Lisa itself and attempt to dump the contents of its Widget drive to see if it holds any interesting information. She'd prefer someone in the Dallas or Austin, TX area, presumably to avoid shipping anything so old and fragile.
Is anyone here located around that area and able to help? If so, feel free to send me a message with an email address and I can forward it along.

[jamesdenton]

I'm in San Antonio but PM'd ya anyway if you don't have any closer options.

[warmech]

I'm up in DFW; I'll send you a PM.