Bell & Howell Apple II

[GravityCrab]

So i just got my hands on a Bel & Howell Apple II. HOWEVER it does not have the game ports on the right side or the special back pack that's usual attached to the back of the computer.
Were there more than one Model of this thing or do i have a weird clone? Ill add a few pictures later. Sorry if this is a super dumb question but I've never actual owned anything other than a broken apple IIc!

Thanks,
David

 

[Chuck(G)]

My understanding is that the B&H ones are not clones, but really rebadgings of genuine Apple products.

 

[GravityCrab]

Oh yea I know they are real. I did a bit more research and it looks like early models don’t have the extra bits.
I couldn’t be happier with this thing!

 

[lyonadmiral]

The school I graduated from in 1999 had two dozen of these things and they all went to the dump-dump-dump, they were the ones that had the backpacks and matching Disk II drives.

 

[dorkbert]

Earlier B&H were not shipped with backpack. The game ports were relocated to the right because the addition of the backpack obstructed access to the internal game port socket. Flip the unit over and post pic of the serial number tag.

 

[KC9UDX]

I've never seen one that early! It's a real ][, not a ][+.

 

[olePigeon]

There's a CNN documentary on Netflix about the 1980s. I think it was the 1st or 2nd episode where they showed the inside of Apple's assembly plant. They had rows and rows of regular Apple IIs as well as Bell & Howells. So they literally came outta the same factory.

 

[vwestlife]

The backpack with all the extra sockets was added so that schools could bill it as "audiovisual equipment" instead of as a computer -- utilizing their existing sales/service contract with Bell & Howell that they were using for film projectors and the like.

 

[bibilit]

I have had two of those in my hands, none of them had the backpack, both were engraved with school names and both have matching black Disk II drives.

 

[vwestlife]

I believe Bell & Howell also sold it in a setup where the computer could electronically control slide projectors.

 

[snuci]

They do teeter on Apple IIs. Mine is a non-backpack early model with a serial number of A2S3-001604. It has a Rev 4 motherboard and transitional raised keyboard. I need to redo the pics but there were pics from the ad when I bought it.

Pics here: http://vintagecomputer.ca/early-bell-and-howell-apple-ii/

 

[GravityCrab]

Wow there a lot more posts here than I expected! I’ll add a picture with the serial when I get home.

 

[GravityCrab]

Earlier B&H were not shipped with backpack. The game ports were relocated to the right because the addition of the backpack obstructed access to the internal game port socket. Flip the unit over and post pic of the serial number tag.

Done And Done

Serial : a2s3-034578
Board : 4482