NeXT
Veteran Member
I saw that prototype 128 sell on ebay (actually, who did not) and wondered what it would of been like if the mac itself was booting straight off the twiggy itself. That sure would of been cool.
But then I got a phone call.
One of my past employers recently were contacted by a customer who had seen some of their previous work and mentioned that he had in his ownership a prototype Macintosh 128k with a twiggy floppy drive...
His intentions are exactly what I was wishing for: Make the 128 boot off the twiggy which for all reasons should work no problem if the prototype is working with a system and file structure identical to that seen on a regular floppy disk. The big problem however is how to get a disk image onto the twiggy. This was stumping not only the shop but their lead tech so we brainstormed all possible routes that could possibly be available to externally boot a 128k (and a prototype at that). We immediateally ruled out SCSI adapters because the only one accessible required you to replace the ROMs which on the prototype we know of, you can't do because that removes the Twiggy support. We also ruled out any hard drives such as the HD20 which is not 128k compatible and serial based drives which require a floppy to be kickstarted from. All we have left to work with is the external floppy port. Unless Apple had plans for an external Twiggy (could you imagine that....) the only thing we could think of that would work is one of the original 400k 3.5" floppy drives but if I recall, those require an IWM chip to do anything and we have no clue what is being done to make a twiggy behave with a Macintosh.
It's worth a shot but might anyone here know what exactly went into one of the twiggy prototypes?
Edit: We do also have exactly ONE untested twiggy floppy disk in its protective sleeve.
But then I got a phone call.
One of my past employers recently were contacted by a customer who had seen some of their previous work and mentioned that he had in his ownership a prototype Macintosh 128k with a twiggy floppy drive...
His intentions are exactly what I was wishing for: Make the 128 boot off the twiggy which for all reasons should work no problem if the prototype is working with a system and file structure identical to that seen on a regular floppy disk. The big problem however is how to get a disk image onto the twiggy. This was stumping not only the shop but their lead tech so we brainstormed all possible routes that could possibly be available to externally boot a 128k (and a prototype at that). We immediateally ruled out SCSI adapters because the only one accessible required you to replace the ROMs which on the prototype we know of, you can't do because that removes the Twiggy support. We also ruled out any hard drives such as the HD20 which is not 128k compatible and serial based drives which require a floppy to be kickstarted from. All we have left to work with is the external floppy port. Unless Apple had plans for an external Twiggy (could you imagine that....) the only thing we could think of that would work is one of the original 400k 3.5" floppy drives but if I recall, those require an IWM chip to do anything and we have no clue what is being done to make a twiggy behave with a Macintosh.
It's worth a shot but might anyone here know what exactly went into one of the twiggy prototypes?
Edit: We do also have exactly ONE untested twiggy floppy disk in its protective sleeve.
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