Homebrew Computer Club
This article needs additional citations for verification. (March 2022) |
The Homebrew Computer Club was an early computer hobbyist group in
Several high-profile
History
The Homebrew Computer Club was an informal group of
The first meeting of the club was held on March 5, 1975, in French's garage in Menlo Park,
An anecdote from member Thomas "Todd" Fischer relates that after the more-or-less "formal" meetings the participants often reconvened for an informal, late night "swap meet" in the parking lot of the Safeway store down the road, as SLAC campus rules prohibited such activity on campus property. Others, at the suggestion of Roger Melen, convened at The Oasis,[8] a bar and grill they considered a pub located on El Camino Real in nearby Menlo Park, recalled years later by a member as "Homebrew's other staging area".[9][self-published source] As Steven Levy wrote about the Oasis gatherings:
Piling into wooden booths with tables deeply etched with the initials of generations of Stanford students, Garland and Melen and Marsh and Felsenstein and Dompier and French and whoever else felt like showing up would get emboldened by the meeting's energy and pitchers of beer.[2]
The Oasis closed on March 7, 2018, due to unaffordable rent.[8] Its Menlo Park building is a historical landmark; in 2019 the building became home to a venture capital firm, Pear Ventures.[10]
The 1999 made-for-television movie Pirates of Silicon Valley (and the book on which it is based, Fire in the Valley: The Making of the Personal Computer) describes the role the Homebrew Computer Club played in creating the first personal computers, although the movie took the liberty of placing the meeting in Berkeley and misrepresented the meeting process.[citation needed]
Many of the original members of the Homebrew Computer Club continue to meet (as of 2009[update]), having formed the 6800 Club, named after the Motorola (now
Members
Most of the members were hobbyists but had an electronic engineering or computer programming background.[11] They came to the meetings to talk about the Altair 8800, to review other technical topics, and to exchange schematics and programming tips.[12]
From the ranks of this club came the founders of many
Li-Chen Wang, developer of Palo Alto Tiny Basic and graphics software for the Cromemco Dazzler, was a club member, and Lee Felsenstein was moderator of the club meetings.[14][self-published source] Steve Inness was a primary designer of one of the early cell phone touch screens as well as a business partner with John Draper.[15][16][unreliable source?] Liza Loop was an early member and the first woman to join.[17]
Others went on to other pursuits, such as Dan Werthimer, who is a researcher in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.[18]
Newsletter
The Homebrew Computer Club's newsletter was one of the most influential forces in the formation of the culture of
Paul Terrell, partner in Repco who was the exclusive sales rep company for MITS in Northern California, was a member of the club and would provide information at the meetings about the progress of the Altair 8800 in the factory and provide copies of the MITS Newsletter to members.[citation needed] He later started Byte Shop, an affordable computer store in Mountain View, California, and bought the first 50 Apple I Computers from Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak after they did a demonstration of the Apple I at a meeting at SLAC.[20]
The first issue of the newsletter was published on March 15, 1975, and continued through several designs, ending after 21 issues in December 1977. The newsletter was published from a variety of addresses in the early days, but later submissions went to a P.O. box address in Mountain View, California.[21]
The second volume began on January 31, 1976, and included sections for A LETTER FROM MITS, CASSETTE UPDATE, TINY BASIC, MEETING FACILITIES, SOFTWARE, PROBLEMS, MEETING-1, and ALTAIR 680.
In popular culture
The club is depicted in the films
See also
- Adam Osborne
- Berkeley Macintosh User Group
- Boston Computer Society
- Chaos Computer Club, a large and influential German club
- Computer History Museum
- Dr. Dobb's Journal
- Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution
- Hobby Computer Club
- Kilobaud Microcomputing
- West Coast Computer Faire
References
- ^ McCracken, Harry (November 12, 2013). "For One Night Only, Silicon Valley's Homebrew Computer Club Reconvenes". Time. Retrieved November 12, 2013.
…the open exchange of ideas that went on at its biweekly meetings did as much as anything to jumpstart the entire personal-computing revolution. It was the crucible for an entire industry.
- ^ ISBN 0-385-19195-2.
Piling into wooden booths with tables deeply etched with the initials of generations of Stanford students, Garland and Melen and Marsh and Felsenstein and Dompier and French and whoever else felt like showing up would get emboldened by the meeting's energy and pitchers of beer.
- ^ "Homebrew And How The Apple Came To Be". atariarchives.org.
- ISBN 0-670-03382-0)
- ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved February 25, 2019.
- ISBN 978-0-393-33043-4.
After my first meeting, I started designing the computer that would later be known as the Apple I. It was that inspiring.
- ISBN 9780071358927.[page needed]
- ^ a b Farivar, Cyrus (February 24, 2018). "Silicon Valley pub that helped birth PC industry to close because of high rent". Ars Technica. Conde Nast. Retrieved February 25, 2018.
- ^ Balin, Fred. "Homebrew's 26th Birthday Commemoration." Email dated March 20, 2001
- ^ Goldfisher, Alastair (August 29, 2019). "Pear Ventures eyes historic digs in historic Menlo Park building". Venture Capital Journal. Retrieved September 5, 2022.
- ISBN 978-0-324-54279-0.
- ISBN 978-0-231-12401-0.
- ^ "Interview: Jerry Lawson, Black Video Game Pioneer". Vintage Computing and Gaming, February 24, 2009.
- ^ Lash, Bob. "Memoir of a Homebrew Computer Club Member". Retrieved May 6, 2013.
- ^ Rhoads, Chris (January 13, 2007). "The Twilight Years of Cap'n Crunch". Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on May 27, 2015. Alt URL
- ^ "Steve Inness – Davis". Local Wiki. Retrieved March 28, 2016.
- OCLC 1057306457.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - ISBN 0743254171.
- ^ Oral History of Lee Felsenstein Archived December 27, 2014, at the Wayback Machine. Interviewed by Kip Crosby. Computer History Museum 2008, CHM Reference number: X4653.2008
- ^ McCracken, Harry (August 23, 2007). "The Man Who Jump-Started Apple". PC World. Archived from the original on May 11, 2011. Retrieved February 25, 2019.
- ^ "Homebrew Computer Club Newsletters, 1975–1977". DigiBarn Computer Museum. Retrieved February 25, 2019.
External links
- Steve Wozniak's home page
- The Netherlands Home Computer Club website (in Dutch)
- Homebrew Computer Club Newsletters
- Homebrew Computer Club Newsletters as searchable PDFs
- Life Outside the Mainframe: Remembering Fred Moore
- Homebrew Computer Club on Jolitz Heritage site
- Lee Felsenstein and the Homebrew Computer Club, A History of Free Hardware Design
- The Beginning of the Apple Corps of Dallas (January 1978) Thru the Eyes of a Founding Member
- The Homebrew Computer Club 2013 Reunion