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Thread: Steve Wozniak's most memorable gaming moment

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    classicus carnivorous
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    Default Steve Wozniak's most memorable gaming moment

    As you might imagine, we're at full steam with networking Classic Gaming Expo, confirming "alumni" attendance, and working harder than ever to make this the greatest event any gamer could ever attend.

    I have to unveil a bit of a secret project though, simply because I'm sure the gang at these forums will appreciate it, whether you're going to the Expo or not. As you know, Digital Press published it's 50th issue recently and one of the items we had intended to get into that issue were "alumni" greatest moments in video gaming, 50 of which would be compiled into a single column.

    It got delayed though it WILL appear in a future issue (subscribe now, you WON'T want to miss this one, chock full of inside stories that I've never seen or read anywhere before). In the meantime I thought I'd tide you over with one of them. Perhaps you've heard of Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple Computer Inc. and the inventor of the Apple I and Apple II personal computers.

    When we asked for his most memorable moment, this was his response. Truly classic!

    I was mainly a hardware person all my life. The software I did was generally low-level, written in assembly language, and implemented in a form and with the same design style that I used for hardware.

    I had built my first arcade game after seeing Pong in a bowling alley. I just stared at it and realized that I knew enough digital design to combine with my knowledge of TV signals, to make one of my own. Eventually I designed Breakout for Atari. While hanging around the Atari labs for a few days developing Breakout, I heard that they were about to introduce their first game using a microprocessor. I never asked whether the microprocessor was just controlling things like coin acceptors, or was actually implementing the game. But in my head was the idea that a fast microprocessor, programmed in assembly language, could be programmed to play a game.

    In this same 4-day period I did not sleep. I was dreaming while standing, quite literally. Both Steve Jobs and myself got mononucleosis during this short stint. The game had to be done quickly because Steve Jobs needed the money or needed to get back to something else in Oregon.

    While there I saw a game that was going to be in color, or had colored mylar overlays. It was their first 8-player car racing game, I believe. I started wondering what it would take to make a color game. I knew the structure of color TV, but wasn't really much of an analog designer. The idea of loading a shift register, say 4 bits, with a code and spinning it at a multiple of the color subcarrier occurred, as I was always looking for simple tricks. What would come out of this register would be signals that had properties 'similar' to color TV signals of different hue (phase difference) and luminosity. I could see that I'd have 16 different patterns generating 16 waveforms that would all look like NTSC color signals, but all different. There was no way to know if this would even work, but I don't mind playing with indeterminate things and maybe's. A couple of years later, with the Apple ][.

    So a couple of years later I was now building the Apple ][. The color idea worked and brought a new sparkle and attraction to low-cost computers. The toughest part of my Apple I and Apple ][ designs was writing a BASIC, as I had never taken a class or studied such subjects. I had thought about this a lot in my early life however, and was able to code a good BASIC interpreter, despite never having even programmed in BASIC before.

    So I had a prototype with color, and I could type in a hexadecimal computer program to draw some colored lines on the screen. It was logical to add commands to my BASIC to let a BASIC programmer do the same thing, at the slower speed of the interpreter. With this I created many impressive demos.

    One week I got the urge to create my first game that was a program instead of hardware. I intended to write it in assembly language. BASIC would simple be too slow. But I like to achieve more than people think is possible, with very few resources or limited resources. I started wondering to myself whether an animated game could be written in BASIC, in effect by almost anyone. I didn't know. There was only one way to find out.

    I searched chip catalogs to find a way to add 4 paddles with a single chip, using the Apple ][ microprocessor to measure the paddle position. I added a transistor amplifier for a 1-bit audio output, otherwise known as a beeper or buzzer. Finally I had the hardware ready and I sat down to try a game in BASIC. I had chosen to implement Breakout since I was quite familiar with it, having designed the hardware version. I wrote a couple of BASIC loops, with my own BASIC commands for plotting lo-res squares and drawing lines of color, to create columns of bricks. I made small changes to these few BASIC statements to play with the size of the bricks, their position on the screen and their color. I could go through dozens of color variations in minutes. I implemented a paddle and ball and things like scores, and experimented with their characteristics. I had a good game actually working in half an hour.

    I phoned Steve Jobs and got him to come over and see it. I was actually quivering as I excitedly explained how I'd implemented Breakout so quickly, along with trying variations that would have taken me years to try in hardware. I was shaking as I told him that now that games would never be the same now that they were software. That moment was so emotional to me that I still shake when I remember it.

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    Ever approached Woz about doing the CGE boogie? I think with Breakout, he qualifies. That, and he's one of my heroes.

    Here I thought his story was going to be about his Breakout clone that said "OH SHIT" if you missed the ball.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Phosphor Dot Fossils
    Ever approached Woz about doing the CGE boogie? I think with Breakout, he qualifies. That, and he's one of my heroes.
    Take a guess!

    To be continued.

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    Quote Originally Posted by digitalpress

    Take a guess!

    To be continued.


    Kristine
    "I am way too lesbian for that shit."

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    Well, to begin with I WAS going to enter this thread anyway, as I already had something to add to the topic. BUT, WOWZA, Queenie, that's one sexy avatar you're showing! Hubba Hubba!

    OK, now that I'm out of the (cold) shower (brrr!)....

    I actually met and talked to Woz a few years ago. It was sometime in 1996 or 1997, I think, and was a special anniversary of Apple Computers. (maybe the 15 year anniversary?)

    Anyway, one of the CHARTER Apple stores was locateed in Metairie, LA. I think this store was one of the original Apple sellers, and had been selling Apples since there were Apples to sell. There was a celebration of sorts to mark the occasion, and Steve Wozniak gave a speech and presented a slideshow at the Doubletree overlooking Lake Pontchartrain.

    I left work a little early so I could head out and see it, and meet him. When I arrived I found that I was the only person there not a member of the local Mac Users Group. When it became known I owned and used a PC it was like I had admitted to being some bloodthirsty demon from the Buffy-verse or something.

    However, Steve told some terrific stories, and when things were over he took time to talk to anybody that wanted to say Hi, and autographed my flyer from the event. It was really cool; I wish I could be at the show to see him.

    Anyway, that's a neat article to read, and getting to talk to him and print up his stuff was a really cool accomplishment.

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    Great historical moment. Thanks

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    Quote Originally Posted by NoahsMyBro
    talked to Woz a few years ago. It was sometime in 1996 or 1997, I think, and was a special anniversary of Apple Computers. (maybe the 15 year anniversary?)
    That sounds like the 20th anniversary (ever hear of the TAM, Twentieth Anniversary Mac)? Seeing as how they formed in 1977, you know.

    And darn it, while WoZ is cool and Apple's got a neat OS, they just don't have the processor. I hope you made a good stand ;)

    No, add that of your list of things not to mention in polite conversation (politics...and consumer level computer architectures)

    Great story, though; wish I could see that guy.

    I remember reading that WoZ had some high score listed in Nintendo Power magazine a while back..?

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    That's pretty cool, and made even more cool because I happen to be coding a simple breakout clone in eMbedded Visual Basic as my first program for Pocket Pc right now. Making a game in hardware sounds so impressive right now, almost as much as when he found found out you could make one in software.

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    Great story -- I love to read historical anecdotes like these. Thanks DP!

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    classicus carnivorous
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    You are welcome. The issue (it will either be 52 or 53, that's up to Dave G) will be an instant classic, top 50 memorable moments from many industry legends. This one was to whet your appetite

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