The incredible transparent Macintosh prototypes - PHOTO

The amazing images show the unique transparent prototypes used by Apple's engineers as they worked out how to create the firm's best known machines - and some of its flops.It comes as Apple's Macintosh celebrates its 30th birthday.The amazing prototypes were tracked down by Software engineer Jonathan Zufi, who spent four years on the project, taking 150,000 photos in total, buying 500 products and persuading collectors to give him access to 50-60 prototypes.'The project started in 2009, when I was reminiscing about an old game, Robot War,' he told MailOnline.'I went onto eBay to buy it, and then looked for an Apple II to play it on - and thought it would be cool to see them all in the way Apple show them today in their promo photographs.'Zufi then worked with photographers to learn how to take photographs in an 'Apple' style, before beginning his quest to try and photograph every Apple machine.He said collectors were keen to show off their devices.'The underlying theme is that these collectors love their treasures and were more than happy to have them documented for the world to see.'And of course, they contributed to my own personal quest to photograph every product that Apple has ever produced and brought my dream just that little closer to reality'All the prototypes were really interesting, the whole transparent design was fascinating,' he said.The products include everything from Apple's first Macintosh machines to the Newton' it's first attempt at a handheld tablet-like device.The device was a failure, but laid the groundwork for Apple to pursue the area, eventually culminating in the iPhone and iPads we know today.Zufi said the prototypes were needed because of the way Steve Jobs worked.'Apple worked in a different way to most firms, Steve Jobs would say I want it to look like this, so they would built these transparent machines and shove the guts into the design - in most other firms it was the other way round.''A very large number of those machines used these prototypes, and they were so engineers could see where every component was.'People took them home, many many years ago, and I managed to track them down. They do still leak out, but less and less.This week sees the 30th anniversary of the Macintosh, Apple's most famous computer - and the name which is still in use today in the iMac and MacBook lines.'The Mac was the machine that brought Apple to the fore, Mac was so compact, such a different experience,' said Zufi.'The Mac brand has stayed all the way through, and it all stems from the Macintosh.'(dailymail.co.uk)ANN.Az