Posted Thu Nov 11, 2021 10:21 am
A quick update. I just acquired a 2nd NTSC “chicken lips” with a Hi-tek keyboard that I think will become my daily driver - I just prefer the keyboard so much more. Anyway, this one is almost identical to the first, with the same green revision 5 motherboard though maybe a slightly different iteration of it as it seems like some of the little bodge fixes are gone or different on this one. I also immediately noticed that the mask and printing on the board is a lot more faded, resembling a lot of revision 3s I’ve seen, though whether that relates to aging differently or if it was produced differently, I have no idea. There’s also no serial number sticker on this board, though it's easy to imagine it might have just fallen off over the years. This one has a Commodore branded Kickstart 1.3 ROM although I suspect that was aftermarket. The floppy drive in this one is a Chinon F-354E. Unfortunately none of its iconic cylindrical feet are intact but have been replaced with some aftermarket ones. It came with a genuine A501 in the trapdoor (battery previously removed with almost zero damage) along with the original mouse, power supply, and the matching box. Serial number on this one is even lower than my other one, 3912.
Condition wise, it’s largely in great condition although there are some oddities about it - first, the top of the case is pretty yellowed. I may do something about that one of these days. There’s also a small round hold cut in the back behind the floppy drive where a drive selector switch was once installed. I noticed the leg that holds the floppy drive’s right side looks like it might have been super glued back in place at some point, although it’s hard to see. There’s a bit of tape on the part of the top RF shield to keep it from contacting the top of the trapdoor expansion header. Likewise, the A501 itself has some of the same tape in place to keep the bottom of its case from contacting the edge of the board. I’m not sure if there were actual issues, someone was just overly paranoid about shorts, or if it might have even came like that - I've seen that style of tape on other A501s before, though never on the shield.
Hope this information is helpful (or at least interesting) to someone!