[game_preservation] 1974 Atari memo by Jobs

[Devin Monnens]

Thanks for the link, Benj. Well, the article said he was making changes to
the game. "Improve the functionality and fun" which I assume means
gameplay. I guess the notebook sheet shows he edited the design of the
paddles, although it's a little hard for me to tell what he's doing with
the other jumpers. (Not an engineer by any means.)

It's a bit odd though that these papers would be so white after 40 years. I
guess they don't make paper as acid-free as they used to... Oh well, at
least we didn't have to pay $27k to read these!!

Reading the Steve Jobs biography and Marty's new book at the same time.

The Breakout payment is interesting. That wasn't covered in either book.
Actually, we know Jobs received an extra $5000. But what did he actually
use the money for? I've heard conflicting stories. It was for an 'upcoming
trip' - which he'd already gone to India, so that wasn't it. And it was
used to help fund Apple - which according to the Jobs biography it wasn't -
Jobs had to sell his van to help pay for it, and then he had to pay for
repairs to the van since it broke down. The numbers Isaacson gives don't
add up to $5000. Basically, Jobs got a ton of money, went back to the apple
farm, and it just sort of disappears after that. I guess Woz tells himself
that Jobs must have needed the money, but it's another thing that doesn't
make much sense about the whole Breakout thing.


On Wed, Feb 13, 2013 at 11:37 AM, Martin Goldberg <wgungfu at gmail.com> wrote:


> What design abilities? He wasn't an engineer, his job at Atari was simply

> to work as a support tech to the regular engineers (think of a gofer on a

> movie set - "go solder this" or "go implement this change"). Or did you

> mean his later penchant for industrial design?

>

>

> On Wed, Feb 13, 2013 at 10:28 AM, Devin Monnens <dmonnens at gmail.com>wrote:

>

>> Thanks for the info, guys! Will have to check out Frank's article (it's

>> on the to-read list, which keeps growing ever-longer...).

>>

>> So I'm guessing this doesn't tell us anything new or interesting about

>> World Cup Soccer? (Not that it was a particularly influential title...) Or

>> Jobs's design abilities at the time?

>>

>>

>> On Wed, Feb 13, 2013 at 10:53 AM, Martin Goldberg <wgungfu at gmail.com>wrote:

>>

>>> Devin, nothing significant other than it's a pre-Apple Steve Jobs

>>> document. Just shows the type of low level tech work he was doing for Atari

>>> on the nightshift. I know the person who was auctioning that off (they wish

>>> to remain anonymous) and they more than got their money's worth between

>>> that and the Apple I.

>>>

>>>

>>> On Wed, Feb 13, 2013 at 4:50 AM, Devin Monnens <dmonnens at gmail.com>wrote:

>>>

>>>>

>>>> http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57442500-37/steve-jobs-1974-memo-to-atari-to-be-auctioned/

>>>>

>>>> This is old news, but I thought some folks here would have been aware

>>>> of it. The memo sold for $27k - quite a lot for five sheets of paper.

>>>>

>>>>

>>>> http://news.cnet.com/8301-10797_3-57454271-235/steve-jobs-atari-memo-sells-for-$27500/

>>>>

>>>> Marty - have you seen this document? Is there any significant

>>>> information on it?

>>>>

>>>> --

>>>> Devin Monnens

>>>> www.deserthat.com

>>>>

>>>> The sleep of Reason produces monsters.

>>>>

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>>>>

>>>>

>>>

>>>

>>> --

>>> Marty

>>>

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>>>

>>>

>>

>>

>> --

>> Devin Monnens

>> www.deserthat.com

>>

>> The sleep of Reason produces monsters.

>>

>> _______________________________________________

>> game_preservation mailing list

>> game_preservation at igda.org

>> http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_preservation

>>

>>

>

>

> --

> Marty

>

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>

>



-- 
Devin Monnens
www.deserthat.com

The sleep of Reason produces monsters.
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