Levy_S-Hackers-Heroes-Computer-Revolution

very first Apple program he gave them, a brilliant rip-off of the arcade game"Galax-ian" they named it, unapologetically, "Apple Galaxian" became a top hit,selling tens of thousands of disks. And though Br0derbund began to recruitprogrammers in the United States to write games, for months the Japanese productaccounted for most of its business.On-Line, Br0derbund, and Sinus were the fastest risers of dozens of companiesspringing up to cater to new computer users, particularly those in what came to beknown as the Apple World. The formerly dominant Programma had overextendeditself and eventually was folded into a bigger company, which was not as much ofa market force. But newer firms with names like Continental and Stoneware andSouthwestern Data were out of the gate like wild quarter horses, too. Thedistinguishing characteristic of these companies was that, like the hardware firmsforming out of the Homebrew Computer Club, the impetus seemed to be as muchto get software out there as it was to cash in on a budding trend. Hitting themarketplace seemed to be the best way to show off one's hacks.Significantly, a new magazine which became closely identified with the brash newwave of Apple World software companies, was started by people who were notterribly experienced in publishing, but were fanatic proselytizers of the Applecomputer.Margot Tommervik, a Los Angeles free-lance textbook editor with brown hairworn long and straight in true sixties-refugee style, had loved games long beforeshe touched her first computer. In early 1980, she appeared on the television gameshow "Password," and despite being paired with a couple of soap operapersonalities who, she later recalled, "had no idea that Virginia was south and NewHampshire was north," she came out of a deftly played "lightning round" withfifteen thousand dollars. She and her husband Al, a copy editor at Variety, made alist of things to do with the money, and it turned out they needed twice as much asthat to make a dent in the list. So they said to hell with it and went out to buy acomputer.The best-known home computer those days was the TRS-80. But while Margotand Al were waiting for a salesman in the local Radio Shack, a store employee akid who was standing near Al said, "What's that smell?" Al was a stumpy,redheaded, long-bearded man who resembled a toll-taker at a bridge in MiddleEarth, and it was unimaginable to picture him without his briar pipe. The kid,perhaps with an MIT-style smoke aversion in his hacker blood, said to AlTommervik, "Mister, you shouldn't smoke that pipe, it's making me sick." TheTommerviks walked out of Radio Shack, and a week later bought an Apple.