Comment by armadsen
4 years ago
Yes, there’s a small but well-developed community of replica builders, and all the parts needed are still available. You can also buy very good replica PCBs from more than one vendor. There is at least one guy who is an expert at bring up and repair of original machines. It’s likely he worked on the one in this auction before it went up for sale.
Given the content of this answer:
How hard would it be to create a forgery of an original Apple I?
Asking for a friend...
I'm not said expert, but authentication is definitely one of the things he does. I actually think it would be fairly hard to create a forgery. With enough work, you can source period-correct (ie. actual old) components, and indeed dedicated replica builders try to do so. I don't think that's a big obstacle.
The main two difficulties are:
- Getting the PCB layout exactly right. AFAIK, the original was laid out by hand with tape on mylar sheet. Bends in the traces were made by stretching the tape. Recreating all that exactly in modern PCB software is somewhere between difficult and impossible. I also seem to recall that the best existing replica PCB designs intentionally have small discrepancies from the original to make them detectable as replicas.
- Getting a PCB made with period correct materials. The specific materials used to make those PCBs in 1976 aren't in use anymore. I know at least one replica builder has tried to get as close as possible by having a PCB manufacturer go back to older methods, but even then, I don't think they were able to get it 100% accurate.
Additionally, there are few enough Apple 1s in the world that most if not all of them are known, named, numbered, and accounted for, so you'd have to have a great backstory explaining where your forgery came from and why it has been unknown for so long. See here: https://www.apple1registry.com.
Nice answer, thanks!