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Apr 12, 2001
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Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and Atari founder Nolan Bushnell held an hour-long talk at the C2SV Technology Conference which MacRumors attended today in San Jose, CA, with the two speaking about a variety of topics including reminiscing about Steve Jobs and the early days of Apple.

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The duo started out remembering how they first met, which was due to the influence of Jobs. Wozniak started out by remembering Jobs wanting to apply to Atari:
I'd known Steve Jobs for a long time. And I had seen Pong in a bowling alley and I had to have one. And pop in my head: I know how televisions work and I know how to design anything so I built my own Pong. And Steve came back from Oregon at the time, where he had been going to school, and I gave him my board. He wanted to run down and apply for a job at Atari.
Wozniak then mentioned how he was "so thankful" Atari hired Jobs even though Jobs wasn't an engineer, noting that he must have impressed Bushnell and Pong designer Al Alcorn with his high energy and enthusiasm. Bushnell agreed and related a story about how Jobs came in after just a couple of days on the job to tell Bushnell how no one at Atari knew how to solder.
He said: 'This stuff won't work for more than a few weeks without having failure. You've got to up your game a little bit.' And I say: well, do you know how to solder? And he says 'absolutely, this is ****'.
Prompted by that anecdote, Wozniak reminisced about how when he and Jobs were working on Breakout for Atari, Jobs avoided soldering and instead used wire wrapping.

Later in the conversation, when talking about the lack of venture capital in the early days of the Silicon Valley, the two had a lighthearted back-and-forth about Apple's early Apple I pitches to Atari and Commodore. Wozniak mentioned how Apple had to take on an investor at a certain point, prompting Bushnell to jokingly reply he wished that he had been that investor. Wozniak then countered, reminding Bushnell that he had rejected Apple's proposals:
We offered to Commodore directly making proposals and to Al Alcorn at his house making proposals, but you guys had the first Pong handle coming out and that was millions of dollars for you so your mind was so focused. You said 'we don't have time to make a computer also' and that came about later.
The two then debated what the original deal was, with Bushnell claiming the deal was $50,000 for a third of Apple while Wozniak said the deal was a few hundred thousand dollars, a position at Atari, Atari company stock, and to be in charge of the project. Eventually, Wozniak conceded, noting that he may not have known about Bushnell's claimed deal and quickly remembered how he wanted to keep quiet as he was amazed that Jobs was trying to get $300,000 from Commodore during that proposal.

Some time later, Bushnell praised Wozniak for creating the Apple II and noted that the computer's eight expansion slots turned out to be a "prescient" idea. Wozniak then admitted Apple didn't plan that and lucked into adding eight expansion slots because he insisted on them from his "geek" perspective.

The two wrapped up talking about Jobs by discussing the intensity of the young Jobs and how that is the one quality any future books or movies should hone in on. Wozniak noted that Jobs' intensity caused him to fail with some projects, like the Lisa and the early Macintosh effort, and only once Jobs learned patience to complement his intensity is when things really took off.

Article Link: Steve Wozniak and Atari Founder Nolan Bushnell Recall Steve Jobs and Early Apple Memories Together
 
What a refreshing and excellent article on MacRumors. Fascinating to read about the early days of personal computing.
 
These testimonys are hard to ignore. I tend to believe what they're saying about Steve.
 
Really interesting read and you kind of have to take Woz mostly at his word on things but personally he always seems to praise himself for things over Jobs's efforts.

Its a shame as I try to like Woz as the work he has done on his own merits brought us personal computing that we recognise today and we know Jobs was more creator than engineer but iunno when ever Woz talk about him there seems to be something there.
 
Really interesting read and you kind of have to take Woz mostly at his word on things but personally he always seems to praise himself for things over Jobs's efforts.

Its a shame as I try to like Woz as the work he has done on his own merits brought us personal computing that we recognise today and we know Jobs was more creator than engineer but iunno when ever Woz talk about him there seems to be something there.

I couldn't finish Woz's book. I just got bored reading it. He is a genius, and whoever helped him write the book didn't do good by his life IMO.

The beginning of the industry was a heady time... So many ideas, so many innovations, so many people crashed and burned. And now the industry is so much more about keeping what you have than innovation. The certificate mills have drained a lot of the money from people too.

Thinking on it now, my ideas for the 'Next Great Thing' from Apple was a smaller version of the Mac Pro. A couple of slots, but basically a box... Not that I'll ever probably get one, but the bazooka Mac Pro is brave... In a world still ruled by an operating system with ties to the past, and Dell and HP making 'boxes', I have to hand it to someone at Apple for at least having the balls to say 'screw it', and come out with a tube standing on end...

In a couple of years, after Dell ships a pathetic bazooka too, we can all look back and laugh... I nearly died laughing at the first non-Apple all-in-one I saw. Aping Apple and somehow missing the point...

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A few years ago, I read about a planned movie called "Atari", starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Nolan Bushnell. What happened to this?

Today's kids would pass on that movie faster than a doughnut... At least the Jobs movie had some tie in to their lives. Atari is something their parents played with in a world without color TV's, the internet, cable, and cell phones. Back in the time when dinosaurs roamed the planet, and you played music on things that looked like black manhole covers. :eek:

They missed their chance. I would like to see a documentary on how Bill Gates lied his way into a contract with IBM, and also stole his version of BASIC. About how CP/M lost out on being 'the thing'... But the mass market couldn't really give less of a poop about that. It's ancient history... The only way to do a movie on Atari is if they had the early video game characters have an orgy... Twerking in 8-bit... :eek: Nothing to see here. Move along. Move along...
 
Today's kids would pass on that movie faster than a doughnut... At least the Jobs movie had some tie in to their lives. Atari is something their parents played with in a world without color TV's, the internet, cable, and cell phones. Back in the time when dinosaurs roamed the planet, and you played music on things that looked like black manhole covers. :eek:

They missed their chance. I would like to see a documentary on how Bill Gates lied his way into a contract with IBM, and also stole his version of BASIC. About how CP/M lost out on being 'the thing'... But the mass market couldn't really give less of a poop about that. It's ancient history... The only way to do a movie on Atari is if they had the early video game characters have an orgy... Twerking in 8-bit... :eek: Nothing to see here. Move along. Move along...

You couldn't have said it any better. Jobs (the movie) was dumbed down to the level of irrelevance. The movie industry has to cater to the demographic that buys most of the tickets: tweeners and teenagers. It's a shame.

One of the best documentaries I've seen was BBS: The Documentary. It's about the period immediately preceding the internet. Fascinating.
 
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Really interesting read and you kind of have to take Woz mostly at his word on things but personally he always seems to praise himself for things over Jobs's efforts.

Its a shame as I try to like Woz as the work he has done on his own merits brought us personal computing that we recognise today and we know Jobs was more creator than engineer but iunno when ever Woz talk about him there seems to be something there.

not really.
 
Woz is trying to exist (survive) in the media thanks to recalling Steve Jobs all the time... :rolleyes:

he doesn't need to. btw, you don't need to be over protective of a dead billionaire you've never met.

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Woz uses and likes Android devices so it's difficult to take him seriously anymore.

he also uses and likes ios devices. he's agnostic and that's perfectly fine.
 
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