I'm a cable guy and a few months ago I went to a customers home and they had tons of stuff in the garage. Apparently it was all leftovers from a big family estate sale due to deaths in the family......I digress! They said I could take whatever I wanted, and after glancing thought everything I saw a Commodore 64 box! It could have been anything inside but I didn't look because I didn't want to be rude. Once I got home I opened the box and to my amazement it was a BRAND NEW Commodore still in sealed plastics!
Mohs scale of hardness, you will always scratch the plastic a little with your screwdriver, I suggest using a hard plastic guitar pick, they don't last as long, but work just as well, with no fear of scratching
I was going to comment something along these lines. If possible always try to use something "less dense" than what you're scraping. Don't they make plastic screw drivers for use with working with conductive things?
@@lunsj I think you might be thinking of Insulated screwdrivers, which actually are metal, oddly enough. they just have a non-conductive coating on them.
Same thought here. They make plastic razor blades that can fit in standard razor blade holders. Or automotive interior plastic pry tools would probably work too.
LGR uses a specialty tool. A plastic scraper used by car detailers that can remove stripes and decals. I use one for my stuff and it works on 90% of everything I've tried it on.
Don't know if anyone else has suggested it but some places that sell paint for the autobody repair industry can mix custom colours and put them in a regular spray can. They can even add flattening agents to get the right amount of sheen. You could try taking in the unpainted plastic parts and see if you can get a match. I'd try it on a spare piece of scrap plastic first to make sure the solvents don't melt the plastic. I actually don't mind the two tone that you ended up with but if you wanted the original colour, it's an option.
I've had pretty good luck with SEM paints. They make paints for auto interior plastics, and since so many vehicles have grey or charcoal interiors, there might even be an off the shelf paint color that's closer to the case color.
I like the two-tone look - think it looks better then the original plain gray - wonder what doing the recessed area around the keyboard in the same black would look like.
You can get it mixed at Lowe's too in a quart. It's a single stage enamel. They can shoot that with the gun to get the color. You can buy a plastic additive to make it adhere ...
@ Ray Peterson, I came here to say this, a good auto body paint shop will get you very very close and it's well worth the time to seek one out. I'm very lucky that I have a good local independent I can go to.
My dad thought the shot at 2:56 was pretty funny, since he works with some sort of video filming and editing, so he immediately thought about setting up the camera just to film yourself dropping some stuff in the garbage
That Applied Engineering card was a pretty good add-on back in the heydey of the Apple II. Applied Engineering had some of the best third-party expansion cards and accessories for the Apple market.
@@johnfrancisdoe1563 if you're using a rubber band on a PC that'll grow old & sticky after a few years, I don't think you're thinking that far in-depth about your issues XD Vibration mitogation is more likely.
This was amazing to see. I am not at all a tech person, but I am a fan of those who appreciate the golden era of personal computing. The amount of time and meticulous attention to all the details of restoration make 8-Bit Guy a hero of mine. Subscribed! Awesome work!
I love your restoration videos. In fact they made me dig out my old 64C from the attic to restore it. I spent hours cleaning it and the accessories. The machine itself was still perfectly running, duly reporting that it has 38911 bytes free :) The disk drive had issues first but it only needed some cleaning and greasing. Had a blast playing some old games I still had!
I love your videos because you restore "unwanted" and "unloved" older technology back to working order while giving it a loving and caring home that will cherish it. Every time I watch your videos, I feel happier knowing there's someone out in the World taking care of things that others have discarded or abandoned. For some reason I feel sad when I see a broken down computer or gaming system. Thank you for devoting your time to restoring them and thank you for giving each one a wonderful home. Your videos truly make me smile when I'm having a bad day. :)
I was the unfortunate owner of the Apple//C (stylized kinda like that on the case, I thought it was an "Apple slash slash C". I pronounced it as such.). I decided to take it apart at age 13 for cleaning before school. It was quickly thrown away by my mother who thought I had broken it. I had only removed the 5 1/4 floppy drive.
Well, it was 17 years ago. She was 50something, super antiquated in the field of electronics, and she had absolutely no idea what I was doing at the time because I didn't explain what I needed to do to get.. I think it was numbers crunchers?? running.. so all is forgiven.
oh well that's a bit different. an Apple][c probably didn't cost a ridiculous amount of money in 2001. I assumed this was back in the 80s, and I was like jesus christ, that cost like 1300 dollars back then, which is like 2700 today. you would CHECK before throwing it out, unless you were rich or profoundly clueless.
@@rvd107 It could be possible that one of the owners replaced a bad chip, and bought the replacement from a seller that wasn't legally allowed to sell them with the name Microsoft on it.
12:10 did anyone else just jump hard at the creaking noise in pain also you know it just got real when he busted out a physical photograph of the keyboard layout instead of just busting out a phone
That was an amazing repair. I am a model maker, so I thought about the resin as soon as I saw the hole, you did an outstanding work. You should paint the inside of the cover also. Congrats!!
+1 for Bender! Everything can be solved by bending! In fact, I'm gonna make my own Apple II+ with blackjack and hookers! Ah.. screw the Apple II+ and blackjack! ^_^
This. Yeah, any half decent paint shop (and even some hardware stores like Ace Hardware) will have a scanner thing that will scan the object's color and tell the technician what amounts of what color to mix, and it'll be perfect. It's not even expensive, really.
It's not terribly expensive, either. I had a spray can custom filled with automotive paint to match my car for $12 about ten years ago. (I just wanted to match an accessory to the body color- metallic paints are really hard to blend in, but that's not what I was doing.) Admittedly they had a database for my car's paint code, but a decent paint store has people who know paint. They'll know what base to use, and have the tools to scan the color and mix pigments.
Hey 8-Bit Guy your restoration videos are an art form. Not only are the retro history and improvisational process fascinating, your presentation, close-up work and musical hits are very effective.
I'm 13 and I love your videos, I already know a lot about these retro things, but you always teach me new things I never knew about this stuff, and you're the reason I now want to pick up A Commodore and Macintosh. Thank you for being such a lover of all things retro, and Hope you never stop!
I actually really dig this machine, I like the period correct mods done to it. I like seeing that on these old machines, they tell you that someone once spent a lot of money improving it once. Better off without the fan, but a neat bit of backstory on it no doubt.
That epoxi solution you used was fantastic! I thought it was an irrecoverable case. Also liked how you extended the darker colour to the sides, avoiding the feeling that the cover is not for that case. Very smart as allways. Thanks.
B&H reselling the Apple II was a great idea on the part of B&H, since it was sold by B&H the machines could be placed on a standard A/V purchase order and thus ordered by the schools without the special approvals normally needed for getting "Computers" at the time. HP employed a similar strategy with the 9800 and other series of computers which were marketed as "Calculators with computing capabilities" because it was much easier to get approval for ordering a "calculator" then a "Computer" even though the 9830A "calculator" has a full QWERTY keyboard and BASIC. The B&H Apple II's normally had a "Jack Pack" attached to the back of the case, it included switched power outlets and 1/4" jacks for connecting a Bell and Howell cassette recorder to use either for program storage and retrieval or for just general listening as there where several headphone outputs. Also since the "Jack Pack" attached to the back of the case and had a bar connecting the two sections, it did make a nice carrying handle for the machine. The machine also would have had screws in place to keep the top cover from being removed easily.
I worked on a base back in the early days, to get around the computer requirement the local Altair would take the fully assembled computer , and remove 1 ic (usually the 8080 cpu)from a socket, then sell it as a kit. when they delivered it the tech would insert the chip and then the "kit" was finished.
@@andymerrett Wow, you try to give a little back story to why "Bell" was there in the first place and you get labeled as "daft". My local elementary school had these black apple II computers. It's not a new joke.
Love these restoration videos so much. This one in particular was awesome seeing how you fixed the hole in the case. Really fun. I want an Apple II so bad.
In all honesty it probably a necessity to keep the thing usable during the summer months of the year. If that was used for Schools did not have any ACs, in some time ambient was upwards of 80 degrees in our computer lab. All of the computers had something similar. the fan was just on the side though.
Yup, honestly I would have modified the hole to fit in a better, smaller fan that can be fit into one of the circuits in the system (probably via an expansion slot). Much easier than trying to match colors
I just stuck a box fan to my Macintosh plus with zip ties then soldered it onto the board. I used "Macintosh Repair and Upgrade Secrets" to help with the mod. These mods may look ugly but it keeps parts from failing very badly
I love watching what you use to dust and clean with because I have historically been very anxious in what I choose to clean with. When you hit the board with that chip brush I was like oh wow, like you can...just brush them to dust! It's really nice watching someone work with such confidence.
I was looking for restoration videos. How fitting that you'd upload when I'm craving such a niche type of video, especially considering these are my favorite kind of restoration videos Love these videos, keep em up!
What a fascinating labour of love! I love watching these restoration videos! Beautifully presented and produced! Top marks to the 8-bit guy! (from Warsaw, Poland)
My ears perked when you said it is rare. I've got a Bell and Howell, not sure when/where I acquired it but I've got a room full of relic computers, accumulated over the decades. This one caught my eye just because I'd never heard of one branded Bell and Howell. Most of my computers are Commodore.
Worth keeping in mind that the Apple ][ cost $1298 with 4K RAM and $2638 with 48K RAM in 1977 (without a drive, screen or any other accessory). That's $5417 and $11008 in today's money. At those prices, I'd expect the device to be serviceable as well. That said, Apple did not have the reputation of making high quality products at the time. In the '70s, they were an underdog and in the '80s, they made expensive and sometimes advanced machines of dubious reliability and build quality. The Apple III for example had extremely poor ventilation, which could cause overheating that resulted in chips dislodging out of their sockets. Apple's *official* solution and instruction to service technicians? To drop the machine, hoping that the impact would get the chips back into place...
@@no1DdC I was born in 1977, so I wasn't around to see Apple's beginning. But I do remember using Apple II computers at school when I was a little kid in the 80's and I loved it. Recently, I've become interested in vintage computers and I bought an Apple II Plus. (Now I have two of them and a IIe). My impression of Apple's early computers is based on how they seem to be physically very well built and easy to work on. The entire computer can be taken apart with a phillips screwdriver, and pretty much all the chips are socketed. It just looks like it was made to be tinkered with and customized. It's a computer made for intelligent electronics hobbyists. And of course there's the fact that a 35 year old computer still works flawlessly. I haven't had any problems with any of my Apple II's. Now compare that to Apple computers NOW...they're proprietary, dumbed-down locked black boxes that are made to spoon feed "apps" to users who have no interest in customizing or tinkering at all with the computer. In fact, Macs pretty much discourage it. Apple went from building computers for tech savvy hobbyists...to making overpriced toys for people who need everything spoon fed to them.
Aerosynthis A former coworker of mine gave me three old Apple II machines that he found on the side of a road in someone’s trash. They then sat in my basement for about 10 years. A few years ago I cleaned them up and tested them, and despite a few missing keys, all three powered on and were functional. I love my Macbook, but it never would have survived that same journey.
This brings back memories. I worked for a Bell & Howell sales and service outfit (the oldest such outfit in the world at the time) and had many pass through the service shop when they were new for various modifications and a few repairs. Years later I was working for a major university and ran into them again. The university had transitioned to PCs at the time but wanted to get some use from the surviving B&H units. We refurbished them and sat them around campus with obsolete monitors to act as eye-catchers running perspective lines and various texts appropriate for the location. They were in service without issues for a year or more.
thank you for making these type of videos.. i recently got into collecting old computers and consoles and your videos really inspire me to keep doing so :D
I always spray the inside of a case before committing to a color. Also, you can mix colors out of a spray can by just spraying them into jars and then putting them in an airbrush. But that’s a lot of work and your results came out great! Good job!
Hi! I found your channel by something that caught my eye: It was something like "How old school graphics work. Part 1" I subscribed after I saw the "How old school sounds and music work" You have quite an interesting channel. ;)
I have about 5 or so of them B&H Apple ][ machines in my stash in Austin. I had around 10 at one time back in the 90's. I sold a couple on ebay, and donated one to a computer museum that since closed. I had 1 machine with the old style keyboard with the 2 piece power light. Very low serial number, wish I hadn't sold that one, but back in the late 90's Japan buyers were paying a premium for Apple related stuff. Several of the machines have an A/V extension with handle attached to the back side of the machine. I'll see if I can find some pics, or take new ones of the A/V extension. Same black color too. May have some drives too, which has the B&H label on the front too.
Could I message/email/call you to inquire about the computers if you are interested in selling them? I'm a highschool student interested in retro tech and I've just recently got into antique computers. Best wishes, Al
That was Microsoft's original business -- Basic and OS roms for 8-bit computers. Many 8-bit computers have some variant of Microsoft Basic as their start prompt.
Didn't produce the ROM's, but Apple licensed Microsoft BASIC and put it in ROM. Before that it was Integer BASIC. Integer ROMs started with 341-0001 and Microsoft BASIC started with 341-0011
Another great video, sir ... thank you (as usual). Man, I am SO jealous ... those Bell and Howell gray-bodied Apple II PCs are really rare ... I would love to find one in the shape yours is in. The Apple II was my first PC, and I bought it in 1979, IIRC it was right before the Apple II+ was released (my typical luck) ... but I loved it and I learned a lot from it. I'll always be thankful to Wozniak and Jobs for what they developed. Sure wish I still had mine!! I even had a plug-in card, developed by a San Diego ham to operate amateur radio teletype on my system. Never saw another such card ever since.
David, the method of individually cleaning every key on a towel is sooo tedious and ineffective. Here's a lifehack to help with that task: - Put all the keys into a small cloth bag. - Put a bit of detergent powder inside. - Tie a tight knot around the bag - Toss bag in the washing machine with your next batch of laundry - Enjoy
ineffective? I disagree. Looks like it worked just fine. As he's mentioned in previous videos "This is my stuff and quite frankly, I'll do whatever I want with them".
@@mrcrono6663 It works fine the way he's doing it. It works fine the way I suggested. Both ways work. However, I just realized I screwed up in my choice of words. I said 'ineffective'. That would mean his method can't achieve results. The word i should have used is 'inefficient'. It can achieve results, but at a higher cost in time and effort. My apologies, I'll assume responsibility for the poor wording.
@@craniusdominus8234 Such a proper response! It's nice to have good dialogue with fellow people watching these videos. Both ways absolutely work - and I agree that "inefficient" is a much more appropriate word. No need to apologize! I appreciate the response. Have a good one!
Nice restoration. Restoration videos are so satisfying, it's like a thief screwed up a computer, and you are reverting that. Make an oddly satisfying video about old computers (include Commodore 64).
Yeah... the extra ventilation provided by that fan will probably prove to have been rather necessary, but whoever installed it chose about the worse possible location and did it in the most cack-handed way possible. That hole looks almost like they used tinsnips to hack it out, and the screws have just been dug straight into the plastic..
Amazing job getting this looking great again. Don't worry about the color for the top... really not a big deal. What's more important is that you got the machine restored!
Just got a Apple IIe, a few weeks ago, love it. Can't believe the tech is from the late 70s (The IIe is 1983) and still works great - although the PSU has had a complete recap. What I love is, using a laptop and the Apple Disk Server website, a 3.5mm audio cable from my Laptop to the Apple's cassette IN port. Click on a disk of choice on the laptop, Boot the Apple to a command prompt, type load + enter, pop a 5.25" disk in the Disk II drive, sit back and watch the Apple format the disk, unpack blocks sent to it from the laptop, and it writes a perfectly bootable disk. Over 1500 disks from the entire Apple II catalogue. Amazing to see this in action, especially since this is using a 2019 Laptop, and a 1983 Apple IIe. Great machine, but would much prefer this black style case, since these old beige Apples do yellow quite badly.
I'm a cable guy and a few months ago I went to a customers home and they had tons of stuff in the garage. Apparently it was all leftovers from a big family estate sale due to deaths in the family......I digress! They said I could take whatever I wanted, and after glancing thought everything I saw a Commodore 64 box! It could have been anything inside but I didn't look because I didn't want to be rude. Once I got home I opened the box and to my amazement it was a BRAND NEW Commodore still in sealed plastics!
Wow, that's rather amazing.
maaaan that was lucky
i hope you kept it in the plastic
thats like the best find you could have
Nice! But an unboxing video would be awesome!!
one man's trash is another man's treasure...
"A little dusty but I've seen worse"
*Vic 20 flashbacks*
*Casio CT 380 Flashbacks*
You stole that from someone else's comment
I literally just watched that video
@@ikipling4730 thats what gachas do
I remember a video of a C64 that sat out in a field for a decade , that was restored to working condition , it even had an ant colony inside of it.
Maybe it's just me but I actually think the black painted lid looks really cool.
Ikr
yeah it looked perfect.
12:19 Jeez, that scared me half out of my skin! I thought something had gone horribly wrong!
Same here..
Also I was convinced that was David saying DANG! instead of Bender saying THERE!
Almost died laughing
@@charlesdoesmore5488 that's the point
Yeah, it was a bit too loud.
And the rubber band was probably used for dampening the vibration of the fan
That was my immediate thought. I bet it eliminated any potential buzzing noises.
But why didn't they put it on the other side?
zUltra why would they
@@scottschwerdtfeger9078 Oh sorry, I wanted to say "Why didn't they put another one on the other side?"
came here for this comment
man that resin casting is genius. I would have just stuck a piece of acrylic on it.
I would have 3d printed a cover or something
I'd use duct tape and a sharpie.
put an Apple sticker over it an it's done
I’d have filled it with body filler sanded it then spray painted it and covered it with a monitor at all times lmao
I would have cut the entire currently painted portion and put acrylic on it
Mohs scale of hardness, you will always scratch the plastic a little with your screwdriver, I suggest using a hard plastic guitar pick, they don't last as long, but work just as well, with no fear of scratching
I was going to comment something along these lines. If possible always try to use something "less dense" than what you're scraping. Don't they make plastic screw drivers for use with working with conductive things?
@@lunsj I think you might be thinking of Insulated screwdrivers, which actually are metal, oddly enough. they just have a non-conductive coating on them.
Same thought here. They make plastic razor blades that can fit in standard razor blade holders. Or automotive interior plastic pry tools would probably work too.
LGR uses a specialty tool. A plastic scraper used by car detailers that can remove stripes and decals. I use one for my stuff and it works on 90% of everything I've tried it on.
Yeah, definitely cringing at those keys but other than that he did a good job.
In the garbage? what a waste. That was a good quality vintage rubber band. lol
Hahahahaha
He even threw away the fan, he should've given it to someone else.
Noice 👌
@@AlexPerrine OMG! Barbarians!
8-bit guy starter kit: C64, WD40, cleaning alcohol, screw driver, vinegar, peroxide, baking soda and a floppy disc
and baking soda
@@PP-bs3od, fixed that, 👍
And vinegar, and peroxide for the retrobrite
@@mickmickymick6927, done
Don't forget soldering
Don't know if anyone else has suggested it but some places that sell paint for the autobody repair industry can mix custom colours and put them in a regular spray can. They can even add flattening agents to get the right amount of sheen. You could try taking in the unpainted plastic parts and see if you can get a match. I'd try it on a spare piece of scrap plastic first to make sure the solvents don't melt the plastic. I actually don't mind the two tone that you ended up with but if you wanted the original colour, it's an option.
I've had pretty good luck with SEM paints. They make paints for auto interior plastics, and since so many vehicles have grey or charcoal interiors, there might even be an off the shelf paint color that's closer to the case color.
I like the two-tone look - think it looks better then the original plain gray - wonder what doing the recessed area around the keyboard in the same black would look like.
once dust settles into the texture itll match up a lot better.
You can get it mixed at Lowe's too in a quart. It's a single stage enamel. They can shoot that with the gun to get the color. You can buy a plastic additive to make it adhere ...
@ Ray Peterson, I came here to say this, a good auto body paint shop will get you very very close and it's well worth the time to seek one out. I'm very lucky that I have a good local independent I can go to.
My dad thought the shot at 2:56 was pretty funny, since he works with some sort of video filming and editing, so he immediately thought about setting up the camera just to film yourself dropping some stuff in the garbage
Lol
next up, taking footage of every dump he takes on the toilet while editing the vids
That Applied Engineering card was a pretty good add-on back in the heydey of the Apple II. Applied Engineering had some of the best third-party expansion cards and accessories for the Apple market.
The 8-Bit Guy not only restores computers. He restores my faith in humanity.
Well-educated, mild-mannered people like him are becoming more rare.
@@eg1885 sadly true
David is just an all-round awesome guy in my opinion.
@@eg1885 I have the same impression, but how could this happen? It can not only be the social media...
Until you find out he used to march around town with an assault rifle and actively supports bringing guns to school. See his other channel.
Sorry.
Were they using the rubber band for vibration dampening? Only thing I can think of.
Yeah -- that's what I thought also.
Bob Woggle Maybe an air sealing gasket, so the pressure/vacuum from the fan doesn't leak out/in under the fan.
@@johnfrancisdoe1563 if you're using a rubber band on a PC that'll grow old & sticky after a few years, I don't think you're thinking that far in-depth about your issues XD Vibration mitogation is more likely.
@Bob Woggle
That was my first thought too, but what John Francis Doe said also makes a lot of sense.
@swytchblayd
You're quite right, but there's an often cited principle in engineering: "Temporary solutions tend to become permanent over time".
14:41 -> That looks actually beautiful. Nice work with the painting
This was amazing to see. I am not at all a tech person, but I am a fan of those who appreciate the golden era of personal computing. The amount of time and meticulous attention to all the details of restoration make 8-Bit Guy a hero of mine. Subscribed! Awesome work!
I love your restoration videos. In fact they made me dig out my old 64C from the attic to restore it. I spent hours cleaning it and the accessories. The machine itself was still perfectly running, duly reporting that it has 38911 bytes free :) The disk drive had issues first but it only needed some cleaning and greasing. Had a blast playing some old games I still had!
I think you meant "duly"
@@ericwood3709 call of duly
I love your videos because you restore "unwanted" and "unloved" older technology back to working order while giving it a loving and caring home that will cherish it. Every time I watch your videos, I feel happier knowing there's someone out in the World taking care of things that others have discarded or abandoned. For some reason I feel sad when I see a broken down computer or gaming system. Thank you for devoting your time to restoring them and thank you for giving each one a wonderful home. Your videos truly make me smile when I'm having a bad day. :)
Bruh
main trouble is I grew up on that old stuff ,now I am "unwanted" and "unloved"
12:19 this scared the crap out of me lol
The hole could've been used as a cup holder
Edit : lol
But the monitor sits in that place :v
El_Nicovw321 buy a smaller monitor then or just sit it on the side lmao
those were the most cursed words i have ever seen
@@richiie8024 like a 15 cm monitor?
Another thing, well its two, the dust and if the cup falls, you know.
I was the unfortunate owner of the Apple//C (stylized kinda like that on the case, I thought it was an "Apple slash slash C". I pronounced it as such.). I decided to take it apart at age 13 for cleaning before school. It was quickly thrown away by my mother who thought I had broken it. I had only removed the 5 1/4 floppy drive.
jesus christ. I hope she was rich.
Oh man that sucks!
Well, it was 17 years ago. She was 50something, super antiquated in the field of electronics, and she had absolutely no idea what I was doing at the time because I didn't explain what I needed to do to get.. I think it was numbers crunchers?? running.. so all is forgiven.
But I am minus one computer so can anyone hook me up with a free GTX 1080 system? 😁
please
oh well that's a bit different. an Apple][c probably didn't cost a ridiculous amount of money in 2001. I assumed this was back in the 80s, and I was like jesus christ, that cost like 1300 dollars back then, which is like 2700 today. you would CHECK before throwing it out, unless you were rich or profoundly clueless.
10:08 they wanted to hide the microsoft name
Except that every chip has MS on it too.
@@rvd107 WOOOSH!!!
and also to the 6 people that liked his comment WOOOSH!!!!
Saw that... :-)...
@@rvd107 It could be possible that one of the owners replaced a bad chip, and bought the replacement from a seller that wasn't legally allowed to sell them with the name Microsoft on it.
12:10 did anyone else just jump hard at the creaking noise in pain
also you know it just got real when he busted out a physical photograph of the keyboard layout instead of just busting out a phone
That was an amazing repair. I am a model maker, so I thought about the resin as soon as I saw the hole, you did an outstanding work. You should paint the inside of the cover also. Congrats!!
+1 for Bender! Everything can be solved by bending! In fact, I'm gonna make my own Apple II+ with blackjack and hookers! Ah.. screw the Apple II+ and blackjack! ^_^
Anders Enger Jensen Hey Anders!
How can you not scream, “Where will you put the monitor?????” when this vid starts?
13:50 nice song man!
Ahhh Futurama nice vibes
BENDER PART IS AWSOME
an automotive paint shop would be able to match the colour and probably be able to put the paint into a spray can for you too ;)
Yeah, but that's not cheap.
@@brainfulify No more expensive than from a DIY shop, at most $2 to $3 more :/
This. Yeah, any half decent paint shop (and even some hardware stores like Ace Hardware) will have a scanner thing that will scan the object's color and tell the technician what amounts of what color to mix, and it'll be perfect. It's not even expensive, really.
It's not terribly expensive, either. I had a spray can custom filled with automotive paint to match my car for $12 about ten years ago. (I just wanted to match an accessory to the body color- metallic paints are really hard to blend in, but that's not what I was doing.) Admittedly they had a database for my car's paint code, but a decent paint store has people who know paint. They'll know what base to use, and have the tools to scan the color and mix pigments.
Hey 8-Bit Guy your restoration videos are an art form. Not only are the retro history and improvisational process fascinating, your presentation, close-up work and musical hits are very effective.
“DEH, LIKE MOST OF LIFE’S PROBLEMS, THIS CAN BE SOLVED WITH BENDING” got me dying 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Another great restoration! That silicone thing to copy the texture was quite interesting!
It's too bad the 8-Bit Guy can't use fast-drying resin to fill the hole in my heart.
Try vodka.
I bet Stefan could do it.
@@jimmyxtc69 I was going to say Bourbon.
is this suicide talk? you good bro?
@@ElectronicsForFun Nope. Just my best efforts to make a unique 8-bit guy related comment. ;)
Music at 14:54 is 'Anders Enger Jensen - FM Love ' Your welcome :)
Anders really knows what he's doing.
Karateka and Lode Runner were the first games I played on Christmas day when I got my Apple IIC oohh sooo long ago. Right in the feels man.
Anybody else get jump scared by bender.
No, i heard he is great.
Brandon Adams That scared the crap out of me. I thought he broke the board for a brief second
He's married ! But yeah i thought he was too at first
Benderi Sgreat
Me xD
Oh thank god! My shitty Monday has become infinitely better!
Was indeed crappy yesterday.
Stupid MonDays.
I'm 13 and I love your videos, I already know a lot about these retro things, but you always teach me new things I never knew about this stuff, and you're the reason I now want to pick up A Commodore and Macintosh. Thank you for being such a lover of all things retro, and Hope you never stop!
These restorations are amazing. This channel is great.
"Finally something the 8 bit guy cannot restore, there's a huge hol...oh well didn't expect that"
Neat job on the spraypaint :D
Was happy to hear him say he went with neither paint
Fellow fur #Furpride
13:05 it's probably nail polish from a typist from the 80's :-)
I haven't played "Conan" since the late 80s, but instantly knew what that was when the splash screen popped up. It's weird what your brain holds onto!
14:53 that music is awesome...
soundcloud.com/eox-studios/fm-love Someone else has found it in the comments
@@crymp2057 or you know, the end credits
Ha same thought! And the rhythm made me instantly think of the Airwolf Theme.
FYI he's also on Spotify
open.spotify.com/artist/3ROCRQUMSLK2IvLVMSRqHa?si=27ZfU17ZTzStZsT2C7nxwQ
The first part of the music (before the timestamp in your comment) reminded me of the music from the DOS game, _Tubes._
The Bender clip took me by surprise. I haven't laughed that hard in a while.
Why is it so relaxing and gripping to watch him clean the case?
I never would have guessed I'd watch something like this. Soo relaxing...
Nicely done! I didn’t think there would be a way to save the case from that fan hole, but it came out looking really slick.
Rubber band on the fan is there to remove vibration sound from the fan. and the fan was probably added because of overheating problems.
Like those days, apple laptops need about 10 of those fans to dont throttle
How about some aluminium heat sinks on the heating ICs?
I actually really dig this machine, I like the period correct mods done to it. I like seeing that on these old machines, they tell you that someone once spent a lot of money improving it once. Better off without the fan, but a neat bit of backstory on it no doubt.
Likely was hooked to some type of instrument such as a scanner, meter or something like that. Probably owned by a school or company.
That epoxi solution you used was fantastic! I thought it was an irrecoverable case. Also liked how you extended the darker colour to the sides, avoiding the feeling that the cover is not for that case. Very smart as allways. Thanks.
1:40
K A R B A G E
B&H reselling the Apple II was a great idea on the part of B&H, since it was sold by B&H the machines could be placed on a standard A/V purchase order and thus ordered by the schools without the special approvals normally needed for getting "Computers" at the time.
HP employed a similar strategy with the 9800 and other series of computers which were marketed as "Calculators with computing capabilities" because it was much easier to get approval for ordering a "calculator" then a "Computer" even though the 9830A "calculator" has a full QWERTY keyboard and BASIC.
The B&H Apple II's normally had a "Jack Pack" attached to the back of the case, it included switched power outlets and 1/4" jacks for connecting a Bell and Howell cassette recorder to use either for program storage and retrieval or for just general listening as there where several headphone outputs. Also since the "Jack Pack" attached to the back of the case and had a bar connecting the two sections, it did make a nice carrying handle for the machine.
The machine also would have had screws in place to keep the top cover from being removed easily.
Nice detail, thanks.
I have several of those machines. But some of the ones I got didn't have them. Not sure if they were removed, or never had them.
I worked on a base back in the early days, to get around the computer requirement the local Altair would take the fully assembled computer , and remove 1 ic (usually the 8080 cpu)from a socket, then sell it as a kit. when they delivered it the tech would insert the chip and then the "kit" was finished.
So basically cheating?
There’s a Bell key... but where’s the Howell key?
A bet was lost
Control-G is the ASCII for making the computer beep. It's commonly listed in ASCII charts as Bell or BEL.
....WHOOSH! Right over his head.
Press Howell to Continue.
@@andymerrett Wow, you try to give a little back story to why "Bell" was there in the first place and you get labeled as "daft". My local elementary school had these black apple II computers. It's not a new joke.
Love these restoration videos so much. This one in particular was awesome seeing how you fixed the hole in the case. Really fun. I want an Apple II so bad.
My uncle was really big into playing on these old machines i love watching your channel because it brings back great memories of hanginh out with him
yes it's a ugly hack, but I like that people are brave and creative enough to hack their box, just something cool about that.
Yeah, plus the fact that the original user didn't know that it would be collectible in 30 years time. None of us did.
In all honesty it probably a necessity to keep the thing usable during the summer months of the year. If that was used for Schools did not have any ACs, in some time ambient was upwards of 80 degrees in our computer lab. All of the computers had something similar. the fan was just on the side though.
Yup, honestly I would have modified the hole to fit in a better, smaller fan that can be fit into one of the circuits in the system (probably via an expansion slot). Much easier than trying to match colors
I just stuck a box fan to my Macintosh plus with zip ties then soldered it onto the board. I used "Macintosh Repair and Upgrade Secrets" to help with the mod. These mods may look ugly but it keeps parts from failing very badly
Nice work! I really enjoy these restoration videos
0:48
Computer enthusiasts: *facepalm*
Apple enthusiasts: *facepalm*
Everyone in the comments: *facepalm*
Everyone on earth: *facepalm*
Steve Job: *facepalm*
That transends facepalm-ness, that's facedesk worthy
I love the fact that you enjoy Futurama so much and use sound clips and video clips from it, always makes me laugh, this was a great restoration!
Educational markets? And you don't test The Oregon Trail? tsk tsk... ;)
Or Number Munchers.
Or Odell Lake
Damn it...why was it always dysentery?
Tosco?
North and South?
Bender totally got me and I almost dropped my iPad while laughing my shiny a** off ,) - Really enjoyed the video!
ass
*Spheron 1 explodes*
@@irgendwer3610 yes, people who use an iPad or "i-anything" certainly are.
You're such a Jedi Master when it comes to making these old electronics look like new and making broken ones work again.
I love watching what you use to dust and clean with because I have historically been very anxious in what I choose to clean with. When you hit the board with that chip brush I was like oh wow, like you can...just brush them to dust! It's really nice watching someone work with such confidence.
This theme song makes me smile every time I hear it
A samsung screen on an apple device, who knew? :D
Samsung was a chip supplier to Apple for a long while; after a hiatus, Apple has recently gone back to using Samsung chips in their iphones.
@@waltherstolzing9719 I think the pun is that Samsung is /still/ making screens for the iPhone :D
@@zaprodk hmmm.... so it's probably a WHOOOSH moment for me...
@Something Cool. All those I've taken apart had Clinton-CRT's
Haha! Good one! :)
That mold was amazing. MIND BLOWN!
wow watching you fix these old computers up is so oddly satisfying...you are so thorough, it is a beautiful thing
Another 8bit Guy video, day is saved :)
well presented! always love a little action and suspense with the music and the assembly.
Love this era of 8BG. I always come back to this. What great find and a great restoration
The song playing from 13:48 is beyond incredible.
Christian Hannappel I want to know the name!
@@ww21943 Me too, mate, me too!
Anders Jensen probably made it, he sells his music too.
I was looking for restoration videos. How fitting that you'd upload when I'm craving such a niche type of video, especially considering these are my favorite kind of restoration videos
Love these videos, keep em up!
The music in this video was top notch :)
Very impressive how you fixed this old unit up so nicely! Classic old-school computer games bring back memories...
13:07 When you scratched the J key it severely hurt my brain
Yeah, always use something as soft as possible to remove crap. Fingernails, maybe a plectrum.
@@mjouwbuis Guitar pick maybe?
“There like most life problems this one can be solved by bending”
Love your videos! Loved the music you put in this one and the Bender sound clip!
What a fascinating labour of love! I love watching these restoration videos! Beautifully presented and produced! Top marks to the 8-bit guy! (from Warsaw, Poland)
My ears perked when you said it is rare. I've got a Bell and Howell, not sure when/where I acquired it but I've got a room full of relic computers, accumulated over the decades. This one caught my eye just because I'd never heard of one branded Bell and Howell. Most of my computers are Commodore.
I love the "toss this crap into the trash can scene"
Remember when apple allowed user serviceability? Now we have soldered ram and ssd and the t2 chip
Apple only made decent computers in the early 1980's. Now they just make proprietary, overpriced toys for Millennial hipsters.
Good point!
Worth keeping in mind that the Apple ][ cost $1298 with 4K RAM and $2638 with 48K RAM in 1977 (without a drive, screen or any other accessory). That's $5417 and $11008 in today's money. At those prices, I'd expect the device to be serviceable as well.
That said, Apple did not have the reputation of making high quality products at the time. In the '70s, they were an underdog and in the '80s, they made expensive and sometimes advanced machines of dubious reliability and build quality. The Apple III for example had extremely poor ventilation, which could cause overheating that resulted in chips dislodging out of their sockets. Apple's *official* solution and instruction to service technicians? To drop the machine, hoping that the impact would get the chips back into place...
@@no1DdC I was born in 1977, so I wasn't around to see Apple's beginning. But I do remember using Apple II computers at school when I was a little kid in the 80's and I loved it. Recently, I've become interested in vintage computers and I bought an Apple II Plus. (Now I have two of them and a IIe). My impression of Apple's early computers is based on how they seem to be physically very well built and easy to work on. The entire computer can be taken apart with a phillips screwdriver, and pretty much all the chips are socketed. It just looks like it was made to be tinkered with and customized. It's a computer made for intelligent electronics hobbyists. And of course there's the fact that a 35 year old computer still works flawlessly. I haven't had any problems with any of my Apple II's. Now compare that to Apple computers NOW...they're proprietary, dumbed-down locked black boxes that are made to spoon feed "apps" to users who have no interest in customizing or tinkering at all with the computer. In fact, Macs pretty much discourage it. Apple went from building computers for tech savvy hobbyists...to making overpriced toys for people who need everything spoon fed to them.
Aerosynthis A former coworker of mine gave me three old Apple II machines that he found on the side of a road in someone’s trash. They then sat in my basement for about 10 years. A few years ago I cleaned them up and tested them, and despite a few missing keys, all three powered on and were functional. I love my Macbook, but it never would have survived that same journey.
This brings back memories. I worked for a Bell & Howell sales and service outfit (the oldest such outfit in the world at the time) and had many pass through the service shop when they were new for various modifications and a few repairs. Years later I was working for a major university and ran into them again. The university had transitioned to PCs at the time but wanted to get some use from the surviving B&H units. We refurbished them and sat them around campus with obsolete monitors to act as eye-catchers running perspective lines and various texts appropriate for the location. They were in service without issues for a year or more.
Your channel is addictive. I love these old computers and so appreciate your passion with them!
thank you for making these type of videos.. i recently got into collecting old computers and consoles and your videos really inspire me to keep doing so :D
I've had great success with "Goo Gone" to remove sticky gooey stuff. Plus, it smells nicer than WD-40.
Goof Off is good too.
I'm 12 and I love this channel!!! 12 and loving of 1970s-1980s!
This channel is gold, I didn't have any of those computers growing up (I was born in 1993) but you present it in a way thats always interesting to see
Like the music during the karate game!
And the credits one too...
@ :D They're both available here at the moment: soundcloud.com/eox-studios (newest album out now)
Takk Anders!
Agreed, top notch music, even higher than usual
2:33 my guess would be that the fan likely rattled on the case and the rubber band was put there to dampen the rattling.
onedeadsaint Or as a homemade gasket because they thought it needed a better seal.
gmirwin Needs better suction!
I always spray the inside of a case before committing to a color. Also, you can mix colors out of a spray can by just spraying them into jars and then putting them in an airbrush. But that’s a lot of work and your results came out great! Good job!
@The 8-bit Guy your videos are really well produced, i enjoy them very much also the resin repair was amazing great job.
Hi! I found your channel by something that caught my eye: It was something like "How old school graphics work. Part 1" I subscribed after I saw the "How old school sounds and music work" You have quite an interesting channel. ;)
I found it that way too! I agree, he has a really good and edutaining(?).
I'm getting overly addicted to these types of channels.
That paint job was so smart. It looks great. Ties right in with the keys and the branding badge.
I really like the Channel because of the care you put into restoring old electronic stuff
I have about 5 or so of them B&H Apple ][ machines in my stash in Austin. I had around 10 at one time back in the 90's. I sold a couple on ebay, and donated one to a computer museum that since closed. I had 1 machine with the old style keyboard with the 2 piece power light. Very low serial number, wish I hadn't sold that one, but back in the late 90's Japan buyers were paying a premium for Apple related stuff.
Several of the machines have an A/V extension with handle attached to the back side of the machine. I'll see if I can find some pics, or take new ones of the A/V extension. Same black color too. May have some drives too, which has the B&H label on the front too.
Could I message/email/call you to inquire about the computers if you are interested in selling them? I'm a highschool student interested in retro tech and I've just recently got into antique computers. Best wishes, Al
10:02 Can't believe that *Microsoft* was producing at this time ROM-s for *Apple*
That was Microsoft's original business -- Basic and OS roms for 8-bit computers. Many 8-bit computers have some variant of Microsoft Basic as their start prompt.
Didn't produce the ROM's, but Apple licensed Microsoft BASIC and put it in ROM.
Before that it was Integer BASIC. Integer ROMs started with 341-0001 and Microsoft BASIC started with 341-0011
Basic Rom, you did see the name on the chips i guess
Bill and Steve were actually very good friends, also as J R said.
Almost all those old micros had Microsoft basic roms. It's how bill got his start. The Altair was the first, in fact
That looks sharp - Great job on the clean up and resto!
Another great video, sir ... thank you (as usual). Man, I am SO jealous ... those Bell and Howell gray-bodied Apple II PCs are really rare ... I would love to find one in the shape yours is in. The Apple II was my first PC, and I bought it in 1979, IIRC it was right before the Apple II+ was released (my typical luck) ... but I loved it and I learned a lot from it. I'll always be thankful to Wozniak and Jobs for what they developed. Sure wish I still had mine!! I even had a plug-in card, developed by a San Diego ham to operate amateur radio teletype on my system. Never saw another such card ever since.
David, the method of individually cleaning every key on a towel is sooo tedious and ineffective.
Here's a lifehack to help with that task:
- Put all the keys into a small cloth bag.
- Put a bit of detergent powder inside.
- Tie a tight knot around the bag
- Toss bag in the washing machine with your next batch of laundry
- Enjoy
He likes it.
ineffective? I disagree. Looks like it worked just fine. As he's mentioned in previous videos "This is my stuff and quite frankly, I'll do whatever I want with them".
@@mrcrono6663 It works fine the way he's doing it. It works fine the way I suggested. Both ways work.
However, I just realized I screwed up in my choice of words. I said 'ineffective'. That would mean his method can't achieve results. The word i should have used is 'inefficient'. It can achieve results, but at a higher cost in time and effort.
My apologies, I'll assume responsibility for the poor wording.
@@craniusdominus8234 Such a proper response! It's nice to have good dialogue with fellow people watching these videos. Both ways absolutely work - and I agree that "inefficient" is a much more appropriate word. No need to apologize! I appreciate the response. Have a good one!
My ears ahhhahhhhhhh
Nice restoration. Restoration videos are so satisfying, it's like a thief screwed up a computer, and you are reverting that. Make an oddly satisfying video about old computers (include Commodore 64).
John
Yeah... the extra ventilation provided by that fan will probably prove to have been rather necessary, but whoever installed it chose about the worse possible location and did it in the most cack-handed way possible. That hole looks almost like they used tinsnips to hack it out, and the screws have just been dug straight into the plastic..
23
Amazing job getting this looking great again. Don't worry about the color for the top... really not a big deal. What's more important is that you got the machine restored!
Just got a Apple IIe, a few weeks ago, love it. Can't believe the tech is from the late 70s (The IIe is 1983) and still works great - although the PSU has had a complete recap.
What I love is, using a laptop and the Apple Disk Server website, a 3.5mm audio cable from my Laptop to the Apple's cassette IN port. Click on a disk of choice on the laptop, Boot the Apple to a command prompt, type load + enter, pop a 5.25" disk in the Disk II drive, sit back and watch the Apple format the disk, unpack blocks sent to it from the laptop, and it writes a perfectly bootable disk.
Over 1500 disks from the entire Apple II catalogue. Amazing to see this in action, especially since this is using a 2019 Laptop, and a 1983 Apple IIe.
Great machine, but would much prefer this black style case, since these old beige Apples do yellow quite badly.