Levy_S-Hackers-Heroes-Computer-Revolution

Atari's Home Computer Division when one day, out of the blue, some randomperson sent Atari a copy of a program that had been circulating around the users'groups that summer of 1981. It was a brilliant version of Pac-Man which ranbeautifully on the Atari 800.It was the result of a classic John Harris Real World goof-up. When John had beenworking on the "Jawbreaker" revision, some people at a computer store in Fresnoheard rumors of a brilliant Pac-Man hacked by the skinny, nervous kid who wouldoften drop by and check out peripherals and software. They asked John Harris toshow them the game. Without a thought to such non-hacker restrictions ascorporate secrecy, John Harris drove down and proudly watched them play theversion in progress, and saw nothing unusual about their request to borrow a copyof the disk. He left a copy there, went back to the Hexagon House, and continuedwriting his revision.Copies of the game began circulating through users' groups across America. Whenit reached Atari, people there called all the software companies they could think ofto find its author. Eventually, they spoke to Ken Williams, who later recalled anAtari executive telling him that he was in possession of a Pac-Man game ofobviously superior quality and was looking for its creator."Tell me about the game," said Ken, and the Atari man described it as havinghappy faces. "That's John Harris!" said Ken. The Atari man said he wanted to buythe program from John Harris. Ken had John Harris return the call to Atari's headof acquisitions, Fred Thorlin from Ken's office. According to Ken, Thorlin waswild about John Harris' game. He promised Harris a large royalty, mentioned acontest Atari was running for best software program, with a twenty-five-thousanddollarprize, and said none of the entries so far had come close to Harris' game.But John Harris remembered how mean Atari had been when he had been trying tolearn assembly language. He knew that it had been Atari's letter to On-Line thatwas forcing him to do all this revision in the first place. Atari had acted, John latersaid, like "a bunch of babies," holding on to information like a selfish kidprotecting a toy from his playmates. John Harris told Ken that he would notconsider having his name on anything published by Atari (not that Atari hadmentioned putting his name on the program), and that he would finish Jawbreakerfor Ken.Jawbreaker was an instant bestseller. Almost everyone who saw it considered it alandmark for the Atari Home Computer. Except Atari. The men who ran Atarithought John's program infringed on their right, as owners of Pac-Man, to make asmuch money as they could from the game, by marketing it in any way they saw fit.