Macintosh creators rekindle the 'Twiggy Mac' (pictures)

Some of the original Mac team gathered Wednesday at the Computer History Museum to witness prototype Macintoshes brought back to life after 30 years.

Dan Farber

Sept. 12, 2013 9:26 a.m. PT

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Twiggy Mac

Until six months before its launch in January 1984, Apple's Mac had a 5.25-inch floppy-disk drive, but because of high error rates, that device had to be replaced by a Sony 3.5-inch drive.

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The 128K Macintosh

When the Mac was introduced, it came with no hard disk, just a 3.5-inch floppy drive manufactured by Sony. Thus began the manual art of disk swapping.

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Mr. Macintosh

Mr. Macintosh, seen here at the left side of the circuit board, was a mysterious little guy who was supposed to live inside each Macintosh, as represented in a drawing by the Belgian artist Jean-Michel Folon, commissioned by Steve Jobs.

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Motherboard and daughter boards

The original concept for the Macintosh, conceived by Jef Raskin, was more horizontal and portable. When Jobs took over the project, he reoriented it vertically so it would more easily fit on a desk.

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How the Macintosh was put together

A diagram that shows how the different parts of the Macintosh fit together.

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Back of the Mac

For Steve Jobs, the look and finish of the back of the Macintosh was just as important as that of the front.

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Mac team reunion

Steve Wozniak surrounded by (starting from left) Larry Kenyon, Patti Kenyon, Randy Wiggington, Terry Oyama, Andy Hertzfeld, Ron Nicholson, Jerry Manock, Dan Kottke, Rod Holt, Gabreal Franklin (host of the event and former president of Mac software company Encore Systems) and Rich Whicker.

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Inside the Twiggy Mac

Original Mac team industrial designer Terry Oyama checks out the insides of the Twiggy Mac.

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Steve Wozniak and Andy Hertzfeld

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak reminisces with Andy Hertzfeld, who wrote much of the Macintosh's system software, including the User Interface Toolbox.

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Dan Kottke, Apple employee No. 12

Dan Kottke helped assemble and test the first Apple I with Steve Wozniak in Steve Jobs' family garage in 1976. He also worked on the Mac hardware.

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Chris Espinosa: Apple employee No. 8

Chris Espinosa started working at Apple when he was 14, and continues to work at the company to this day.

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The Mac motherboard

Kottke, Wozniak, Janet Hill (Woz's wife) and Nicholson check out the Mac motherboard.

Jerry Manock and Terry Oyama: Mac case designers

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Jerry Manock and Terry Oyama: Mac case designers

Jerry Manock (left) designed the cases for the Mac, as well as the Apple II. He brought in Terry Oyama (right) to help create the Mac case design.

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Guy Kawasaki and Andy Hertzfeld

While Andy Hertzfeld (right) was working on operating system software and other elements to get the Macintosh to market , Guy Kawasaki was serving as the chief evangelist for the new machine that would shake up the world.

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Apple Computer drawing paper

Lead industrial designer Jerry Manock was excited by the fact that his boss Steve Jobs allowed him to design his own drawing paper.

The Macintosh hardware trio: Holt, Nicholson, Kottke

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The Macintosh hardware trio: Holt, Nicholson, Kottke

Rod Holt was vice president of engineering during the early years of Apple, and worked on the Macintosh power supply; Ron Nicholson worked on the Mac's disk controller and CMOS clock chip; and Dan Kottke joined the Mac team in 1981, building prototype circuit boards for programmers.

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MacWrite team

Macwrite team members Randy Wigginton (seated), flanked by Ed Ruder (left) and Don Breuner.

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Larry and Patti Kenyon

The Kenyons were a core part of the original Mac team. Patti left the company until shortly after the Macintosh shipped and Larry stayed at Apple until 1996.

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Mac team members

Woz surrounded by (starting from left) Larry Kenyon, Randy Wigginton, Ed Ruder, Terry Oyama, Andy Hertzfeld, Ron Nicholson, Jerry Manock, Dan Kottke and Gabreal Franklin, host of the event and former president of Mac software company Encore Systems.

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Rod Holt: Apple hardware guru

Rod Holt worked at Atari, where Steve Jobs also briefly worked. When Jobs was having trouble with Apple II hardware, he managed to get the very experienced Holt to help out. He joined Apple in 1976 and left in 1984.

Wendell Sander: Designer of the Integrated Woz Machine

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Wendell Sander: Designer of the Integrated Woz Machine

Wendell Sander was the designer of the Apple III, and created a single chip that included all the functionality Woz's disk controller. It was called the "IWM" chip, which stood for the "Integrated Woz Machine."

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Woz and Rod Holt

Woz tells former Apple vice president of engineering Rod Holt how he would hold the wiring solder in his mouth as his hands were connecting the wires to pins on the circuit board.