Levy_S-Hackers-Heroes-Computer-Revolution

current policy as a prime example. The secrecy and the stifling bureaucracy therewere such that he was not sure if he would ever return to the company built on hisbrainchild, the Apple II.All in all, the party was a success, crackling with the sweet feeling that everybodywas riding on the crest of a tidal wave. Were things like this in the early days ofHollywood? In the record industry in the sixties? The future stood at their feet, ablend of hackerism and untold wealth, and the aggregate impression was thathistory was being made right there.The On-Line hackers left impressed. Some would sign with Electronic Arts in thefollowing months. And one of the hackers left with a particularly satisfied grin hehad scored the high totals on Pac-Man, Robotron, and Donkey Kong. For abestselling author, a night to remember.Ken Williams arrived at Applefest in a bad mood. The pinball manufacturers'convention in Chicago had been frustrating; giant companies, particularly Atari,had thrown truckloads of money at the coin-op manufacturers to nail down firstrights of refusal for the home computer version of any game that was even vaguelyplayable. A repeat ofFrogger, which Ken had procured for a mere 10 percentroyalty fee, was out of the question.Ken, traveling with Roberta, went straight to his company's Applefest display. On-Line had taken a huge booth, situated right at the entrance, by the escalators whichwould carry the masses down into the underground Brooks Hall complex. Thebooth featured a giant photo mural of a Sierra waterfall, emphasizing the namechange from On-Line Systems. The booth also had plenty of computer-joystickmonitorcombinations embedded within panels so that the hordes of computerfreakyoungsters could play the latest Sierra On-Line games. The monitors wereset into the panels well above eye level, so spectators could easily appreciate howdeftly crafted the games were. And to draw customers to the booth, a hugeprojection-screen color television was hooked up to a computer whichcontinuously played the best-selling On-Line game, Progger. Since the Appleversion did not have the continuous music and arcade-level graphics of JohnHarris' Atari version, On-Line employees discreetly hid an Atari 800 computerunderneath a drape, and was running that version at the Applefest: the equivalentof displaying a Japanese car at a General Motors exhibition. With all those crowds,all that hoopla, who would notice?Two people who noticed were Al and Margot Tommervik, publishers of Softalk.