Whatever You Do...

Do not do a Google image search on "atari breakout"... unless you have a lot of free time.

When you're done with that, it's time for a history lesson:

They had an idea to turn Pong into a single player game, where the player would use a ball to deplete a wall of bricks without missing the ball on its rebound. Bushnell was certain the game would be popular, and the two partnered to produce a concept. Al Alcorn was assigned as the project manager, and began development with Cyan Engineering in 1975. The same year, Alcorn assigned Steve Jobs to design a prototype. Jobs was offered US$750, with an extra $100 for every chip fewer than 50. Jobs promised to complete a prototype within four days.*

Jobs noticed his friend Steve Wozniak—employee of Hewlett-Packard—was capable of producing designs with a small number of chips, and invited him to work on the hardware design with the prospect of splitting the $750 wage. Wozniak had no sketches and instead interpreted the game from its description. To save parts, he had "tricky little designs" difficult to understand for most engineers. Near the end of development, Wozniak considered moving the high score to the screen's top, but Jobs claimed Bushnell wanted it at the bottom; Wozniak was unaware of any truth to his claims. The original deadline was met after Wozniak did not sleep for four days straight. This equated to a bonus, which Jobs kept secret from Wozniak, instead only paying him $375

Always the hustler.

2 thoughts on “Whatever You Do...

  1. Cris

    Amazing. Woz is the class of computer geek that is practically a different phylum from today’s “computer geek.” I simply cannot conceive of constructing a game by assembling chips.

    1. cleek

      totally.

      that’s completely beyond me. i’m actually proud of myself for having replaced the light bulb socket thingy in a lamp, without burning the house down.

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