Steve Jobs' Atari memo, Apple I to go under the hammer
Bids for musings of 19-year-old pre-titan start at $10k
Before Steve Jobs came up with the iPhone or even the Apple II, he designed paddles for ball-flipping games at Atari where the scruffy 19-year-old was employed to improve game design.
Sotheby's New York will auction off a document dating from Jobs's time there: a 1974 report that Jobs wrote for his boss suggesting ways to improve arcade game World Cup.
According to Jobs' biography, his Atari days are most notable for his clashes with colleagues, who he considered to be "dumb shits". He was made to work night shifts there partly because he was in a phase of refusing to wash and so he apparently smelt bad, causing complaints from his co-workers.
But Jobs obviously did some work at Atari too, with the document laying out his ideas for improving player experience. The typed four-page document includes three circuit designs in pencil and additional designs for the paddles and alignment ofﾠplayers defending a soccer goal.
The catalogue entry for the Atari memo reads:
The present report, written for his supervisor Stephen Bristow, was meant to improve the functionality and fun of World Cup, a coin arcade-game with four simple buttons and an evolution from Atari's Pong game. Job's report is stamped "All-One Farm Design," a name appropriated from the commune he frequented at the time, and the address of the Jobs family in Los Altos. At the bottom of the stamp is the Buddhist mantra, gate gate paragate parasangate bodhi svahdl.
Sotheby's estimates that the memo will go for $10,000 to $15,000.
Also on sale in an associated lot is a working Apple I motherboard complete with a cassette – the machine is believed to be one of only 50 existing Apple Is and one of only six that are known to work.
The manual and packaging feature the Apple logo as it was pre-redesign. The Apple I is estimated to go for $120,00 to $180,000. The auction will be held at Sotheby's New York on 15 June. ®
COMMENTS
"... who he considered to be "dumb shits"."
Even is death, I find that Jobs continues to prove himself an arrogant egotist.
I will now sit here quietly whilst I'm flamed to oblivion.
Re: Who plays games on a Mac
There's a new multi-platform game you could try playing - its quite popular these days - its available on all flavours of desktop OS, all smart phones, heck even SMS text messaging to a degree!
Its called "Trolling"!! It's rather fun and it's social without actually needing to have any friends! Try it out its a right jolly jape!
Re: "... who he considered to be "dumb shits"."
Maybe it was the same turtleneck all the time. It was fused to his skin by a material so malignant, so caustic, that removing it would have required the sort of kit usually reserved for stripping out asbestos.
We need a biohazard icon.
I can't believe...
... that you have never read the register forums before.
Smelly Jobs
*I think it's funny they made him work nights because he stank! Hahaha! No wonder he took to wearing turtlenecks in later life, they help keep the BO sealed in!*
I remember that theory. The idea was to stop washing and wait for your body to go back to it's natural state. If you were noticeably dirty you could rub the dirt off with earth or dust. (Like animals do, dust bath anyone?) It was suposed to take a couple of weeks or so before you stopped being 'smelly' and became a healthy human without a noticeable odour.
At that time the ordinary American women were covered in smells from various preparations, had their hair heavily treated, washed their fannies at least every day, flossed regularly, wore a bra and so on, totally - covered in stuff rather like todays women :-(
The hippies (freaks) rejected all that crap. It helped of course that the weather in the south of the US was MUCH better. And there was plenty of good grass about.
I didn't do the non washing bit because I had a live-in GF, and she did not ascribe to the hippy philosophy and made me wash regularly...Got me rocks off though!
P.
peace V man...
