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Apple Lisa 1 Replica

Apple Lisa 1 Replica

  • Absolutely!

    Votes: 9 31.0%

  • Kind of.

    Votes: 5 17.2%

  • Not really.

    Votes: 8 27.6%

  • No.

    Votes: 7 24.1%
  • Total voters
    29
My problem with this is that you're basically going to duplicate the case. I assume that what will be inside will be some sort of Micro-ATX/Mini ITX board, complete with power supply and LCD monitor. Interfaces, keyboard, etc won't be the same, even the image won't look the same--and it won't take the correct floppies.

So the only thing that will look like the Lisa in some authentic way is the case, right? You might as well carve one out of styrofoam and paint it and go do your real Lisa emulation on a PC.

Don't get me wrong--it's an ambitious and worthy project. But if you want to have any accuracy at all, it's going to be very expensive--for an emulator.
 
I really think everyone was taking this the wrong way. I was just going to make the case, keyboard, and mouse. I said I might be able to fit an emulator in it but I doubt it. As far as the keyboard goes I was going to pick one up at the state surplus, get the keys I need, give them a good repaint, and put them on a replica keyboard case. I was expecting this to be under 100 to 150 but it is starting to look like a big no.
 
Se87 said:
I really think everyone was taking this the wrong way. I was just going to make the case, keyboard, and mouse. I said I might be able to fit an emulator in it but I doubt it. As far as the keyboard goes I was going to pick one up at the state surplus, get the keys I need, give them a good repaint, and put them on a replica keyboard case. I was expecting this to be under 100 to 150 but it is starting to look like a big no.
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Building a one-off case is probably quite doable (lay up fiberglass cloth on a form) on a budget. Manufacturing them requires forms tooling and that gets expensive. I suppose you could also do a case with stereolith/3d printing as well.

Many production cases of the time were made using high-density polyurethane foam. It's strong, but heavy, and has a natural light brown-yellow color (sort of like a root beer float), so it's always painted. It's very forgiving--I once saw a guy staple an inventory tag to one such case with no ill effects (other than the small staple holes).
 
Chuck(G) said:
Building a one-off case is probably quite doable (lay up fiberglass cloth on a form) on a budget. Manufacturing them requires forms tooling and that gets expensive. I suppose you could also do a case with stereolith/3d printing as well.

Many production cases of the time were made using high-density polyurethane foam. It's strong, but heavy, and has a natural light brown-yellow color (sort of like a root beer float), so it's always painted. It's very forgiving--I once saw a guy staple an inventory tag to one such case with no ill effects (other than the small staple holes).
Click to expand...

That sounds like just what I need... Any ideas on where to get it and the cost (to make the entire body)?
 
The idea of making a Lisa Replica makes absolutely no sense.
I admire your ambition for this project, but this is not going to work out the way you see it in your head unless you have at least a grand floating around and at that point, you are better off just buying a real Lisa.
 
NeXT said:
The idea of making a Lisa Replica makes absolutely no sense.
I admire your ambition for this project, but this is not going to work out the way you see it in your head unless you have at least a grand floating around and at that point, you are better off just buying a real Lisa.
Click to expand...

The point of this was just be to be a replica case, everyone has got this wrong. I think this project will be on hold for a while, I think I have to rescue about eight or so vintage Apple compact macs. Would 250 be a good deal? I think almost all of them work.
 
It depends on the compact macs. 250 for eight Mac classics is a poor buy but 250 for a mix of Mac Plus, SE, SE/30, or Classic II systems would be better.
 
Se87 said:
The point of this was just be to be a replica case, everyone has got this wrong.
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"Everyone" did not get it wrong. Your subject line and first message gave us the impression that you wanted to build a full replica.

If you just want to make a replica case, then that is fairly simple. Find someone who does have a Lisa 1, have them take precision photos and measurements, and then hire a fabrication company to make the outer shells. Put modern computer parts inside. Done. It would probably cost you a few hundred dollars for the case fabrication.
 
Hi
I've been following this thread and am just not seeing the point. What good is a replica Lisa 1 case without the electronics to go with it? It seems to me if you wanted to build a replica Lisa 1 you'd start with the main board first and then consider the case issues. A Lisa 1 case with a mini-ATX inside is just a funny looking PC clone or am I missing something?

Thanks!

Andrew Lynch
 
EvanK said:
"Everyone" did not get it wrong. Your subject line and first message gave us the impression that you wanted to build a full replica.

If you just want to make a replica case, then that is fairly simple. Find someone who does have a Lisa 1, have them take precision photos and measurements, and then hire a fabrication company to make the outer shells. Put modern computer parts inside. Done. It would probably cost you a few hundred dollars for the case fabrication.
Click to expand...

If everyone didn't have it all wrong you wouldn't have typed that message. I however did not imply in any way whatsoever that it would have the insides. And if you would have read the post instead of being utterly rude and accusing me of not saying all of the information you would have saw this: "I really think everyone was taking this the wrong way. I was just going to make the case, keyboard, and mouse."

Ahem. That sums it up quite nicely, thank you.
 
No. As previously mentioned I was just going to make a case. I said I might be able to fit some junk parts in it to run a simple emulator but no, this was going to be primarially for display. There was a museum in my area that had a Lisa 2 and they don't use any of their machines for demonstation purposes. I figured a replica Lisa 1 would be better than a Lisa 2.
 
Se87 said:
The internet is a SCARY place....
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Dude. How do you expect us to tell you where to find vintage computers, if you won't say where "here" is? Maybe we happen to know of several other collectors in your state. But we can't TELL you that without knowing which state is yours. See?

Trust me, nobody here is interested in stalking you. We were trying to help.
 
Yep, the internet is scary. You've scared us with that insane Lisa idea.

Are you going to put a screen in the Lisa and run an emulator off that?
 
DOS lives on!! said:
Yep, the internet is scary. You've scared us with that insane Lisa idea.
Click to expand...

I don't think his idea is all that bad. An ordinary PC case that looks like a Lisa 1? Could be fun. One of the Twiggy slots could be a front-loader DVD; the other, a pop-out cup holder. :)

There's already a PC case in Altair (or was it IMSAI? I forget which) form factor, and there are plenty of case-modders out there who made all sorts of unusual products into PCs. So why not a Lisa 1 design?
 
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