1984 Macintosh 128K, reinvented by Swedish artist in one-of-a-kind replica.

Love Hulten, an artist and artisan based in Gothenburg, Sweden, has made a name for himself, crafting fully-functioning wooden versions of popular consumer tech, including game consoles, walkie-talkies, home theater sound systems, and most recently, a beautiful rendition of a  1984 Macintosh 128K, dubbed “Golden Apple”.

The case of this hand-crafted replica to the first Apple Macintosh, originally released in 1984, is made of American Walnut, and created to fit the exact dimensions of the original Macintosh 128K.

It goes without saying that, no original Macintosh were harmed in the creation of this tribute, which means that the internal hardware is most definitely not from an original 1984 Macintosh computer, but rather from a much more modern Apple Mac Mini, running Apple Mac OS X El Capitan.

We can only assume that the name Golden Apple was given as a subtle hint to the gold plated, Blue Cherry MX tactile switches, made from zinc, used to create the mechanical keyboard.

Aside from the cleverly disguised  Mac Mini, the floppy disc drive has been replaced with a DVD reader, although the shape of the slot remains unchanged. The original wired mouse has also been recreated as a wooden, wireless version.

The device looks rather impressive for an art project, featuring nice touches like the iconic top-side handle, found in the original Macintosh, making it easy to carry the unit with one hand. One interesting aspect of this device, which can be gathered from the video, is how the display on the Golden Apple appears to have been purposely built to add a little retro degradation of image quality, most likely for effect, and a certain level of added nostalgia.

One thing to remember is that the Golden Apple is most definitely an art project, which comes with mostly physical and practical limitations, making this beautiful tribute, a little difficult to operate, even in consideration of its Apple Mac Mini core.