Homebrew Computer Club

{{short description|Computer hobbyist users' group in California}}

File:Gordon French (2013).jpg, co-founder of the Homebrew Computer Club, photographed at the Living Computer Museum in 2013. He hosted the first meeting of the club in his garage, in March 1975.]]

The Homebrew Computer Club was an early computer hobbyist group in Menlo Park, California, which met from March 1975 to December 1986. The club had an influential role in the development of the microcomputer revolution and the rise of that aspect of the Silicon Valley information technology industrial complex.

Several high-profile hackers and computer entrepreneurs emerged from its ranks, including Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, the founders of Apple Computer. With its newsletter and monthly meetings promoting an open exchange of ideas, the club has been described as "the crucible for an entire industry" as it pertains to personal computing.{{cite magazine|last=McCracken|first=Harry|title=For One Night Only, Silicon Valley's Homebrew Computer Club Reconvenes|url=https://techland.time.com/2013/11/12/for-one-night-only-silicon-valleys-homebrew-computer-club-reconvenes/|magazine=Time |access-date=November 12, 2013|date=November 12, 2013|quote=…the open exchange of ideas that went on at its biweekly meetings did as much as anything to jumpstart the entire personal-computing revolution. It was the crucible for an entire industry.}}

History

File:Invitation to First Homebrew Computer Club meeting.jpg

File:Gordon French, Lee Felsenstein, Harry Garland (2017).jpg, and Harry Garland would frequent the Oasis following the formal meetings of the club.]]

File:241 El Camino Real.jpg in 2019]]

The Homebrew Computer Club was an informal group of electronic enthusiasts and technically minded hobbyists who gathered to trade parts, circuits, and information pertaining to DIY construction of personal computing devices.{{cite web|url=http://www.atariarchives.org/deli/homebrew_and_how_the_apple.php|title=Homebrew And How The Apple Came To Be|work=atariarchives.org}}{{self-published source|date=March 2022}} It was started by Gordon French and Fred Moore who met at the Community Computer Center in Menlo Park. They both were interested in maintaining a regular, open forum for people to get together to work on making computers more accessible to everyone.John Markoff, What the Dormouse Said ({{ISBN|0-670-03382-0}}){{page number|date=March 2022}}

The first meeting of the club was held on March 5, 1975, in French's garage in Menlo Park, San Mateo County, California, on the occasion of the arrival in the area of the first Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS) Altair 8800 microcomputer, a unit sent for review by People's Computer Company.{{Cite magazine |url=https://www.wired.com/2009/03/march-5-1975-a-whiff-of-homebrew-excites-the-valley/ |title=March 5, 1975: A Whiff of Homebrew Excites the Valley |last=Ganapati |first=Priya |date=March 5, 2009 |magazine=Wired |access-date=February 25, 2019 |issn=1059-1028 }} Steve Wozniak credits that first meeting as the inspiration to design the Apple I.{{cite book |last=Wozniak |first=Steve |title=iWoz |url=https://archive.org/details/iwozcomputergeek00wozn |url-access=registration |year=2006 |publisher=W.W. Norton & Company |isbn=978-0-393-33043-4 |page=[https://archive.org/details/iwozcomputergeek00wozn/page/150 150]

|quote=After my first meeting, I started designing the computer that would later be known as the Apple I. It was that inspiring.}} The second meeting was held [https://arkive.net/gallery/homebrew-computer-club at Peninsula School] in Menlo Park, California. Subsequent meetings were held at an auditorium at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC), until 1978, when meetings moved to the Stanford Medical School.{{cite book

|title=Fire in the Valley: The Making of the Personal Computer

|url=https://archive.org/details/fireinvalleymaki00frei_0

|url-access=registration

|first1=Paul

|last1=Freiberger

|author-link1=Paul Freiberger

|first2=Michael

|last2=Swaine

|year=1999

|publisher=McGraw-Hill

|isbn=9780071358927

|author-link2=Michael Swaine (technical author)}}{{page number|date=March 2022}}{{page number|date=March 2022}}

An anecdote from member Thomas "Todd" Fischer relates that after the more-or-less "formal" meetings the participants often reconvened for an informal, late night "swap meet" in the parking lot of the Safeway store down the road, as SLAC campus rules prohibited such activity on campus property. Others, at the suggestion of Roger Melen, convened at The Oasis,{{cite web|last1=Farivar|first1=Cyrus|title=Silicon Valley pub that helped birth PC industry to close because of high rent|url=https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/02/silicon-valley-pub-that-helped-birth-pc-industry-to-close-because-of-high-rent/|website=Ars Technica|publisher=Conde Nast|access-date=February 25, 2018|date=February 24, 2018 }} a bar and grill they considered a pub located on El Camino Real in nearby Menlo Park, recalled years later by a member as "Homebrew's other staging area".[http://www.bambi.net/bob/homebrew_reunion_article.txt Balin, Fred. "Homebrew's 26th Birthday Commemoration." Email dated March 20, 2001]{{self-published source|date=March 2022}} As Steven Levy wrote about the Oasis gatherings:

{{quote|Piling into wooden booths with tables deeply etched with the initials of generations of Stanford students, Garland and Melen and Marsh and Felsenstein and Dompier and French and whoever else felt like showing up would get emboldened by the meeting's energy and pitchers of beer.{{cite book|last1=Levy|first1=Steven|title=Hackers|url=https://archive.org/details/hackersheroesofc00levy|url-access=limited|date=1984|publisher=Anchor press/Doubleday|isbn=0-385-19195-2|page=[https://archive.org/details/hackersheroesofc00levy/page/213 213]|edition=First|quote=Piling into wooden booths with tables deeply etched with the initials of generations of Stanford students, Garland and Melen and Marsh and Felsenstein and Dompier and French and whoever else felt like showing up would get emboldened by the meeting's energy and pitchers of beer.}}|sign=|source=}}

The Oasis closed on March 7, 2018, due to unaffordable rent. Its Menlo Park building is a historical landmark; in 2019 the building became home to a venture capital firm, Pear VC.{{cite news |last1=Goldfisher |first1=Alastair |title=Pear Ventures eyes historic digs in historic Menlo Park building |url=https://www.venturecapitaljournal.com/pear-ventures-eyes-new-digs-in-historic-menlo-park-building/ |access-date=5 September 2022 |work=Venture Capital Journal |date=29 August 2019}}

The 1999 made-for-television movie Pirates of Silicon Valley (and the book on which it is based, Fire in the Valley: The Making of the Personal Computer) describes the role the Homebrew Computer Club played in creating the first personal computers, although the movie took the liberty of placing the meeting in Berkeley and misrepresented the meeting process.{{citation needed|date=March 2019}}

Many of the original members of the Homebrew Computer Club continue to meet ({{as of|2009|lc=on}}), having formed the 6800 Club, named after the Motorola (now Freescale) 6800 microprocessor. Occasionally and variously renamed after the release of the 6800, 6809, and other microprocessors, the group continues to meet monthly in Cupertino, California.{{citation needed|date=March 2019}}

Members

File:John Draper, Lee Felsenstein, Roger Melen (2013).jpg ("Captain Crunch"), Lee Felsenstein, and Roger Melen ]]

Most of the members were hobbyists but had an electronic engineering or computer programming background.{{cite book|author1=Lawrence Gitman|author2=Carl McDaniel|title=The Future of Business: The Essentials|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vH5as4jR4skC&pg=PA139|date=23 March 2007|publisher=Cengage Learning|isbn=978-0-324-54279-0|pages=139–}} They came to the meetings to talk about the Altair 8800, to review other technical topics, and to exchange schematics and programming tips.{{cite book|author=Robert M. Collins|title=Transforming America: Politics and Culture During the Reagan Years|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PqqrAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA104|date=22 August 2009|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-12401-0|pages=104–}}

From the ranks of this club came the founders of many microcomputer companies, including Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs (Apple Computer), Harry Garland and Roger Melen (Cromemco), Thomas "Todd" Fischer (IMSAI Division, Fischer-Freitas Company), George Morrow (Morrow Designs), Paul Terrell (Byte Shop), Adam Osborne (Osborne Computer), and Bob Marsh (Processor Technology). John Draper was a member of the club, as was Jerry Lawson (creator of the first cartridge-based video game system, Fairchild Channel F).[http://www.vintagecomputing.com/index.php/archives/545 "Interview: Jerry Lawson, Black Video Game Pioneer"]. Vintage Computing and Gaming, February 24, 2009.

Li-Chen Wang, developer of Palo Alto Tiny Basic and graphics software for the Cromemco Dazzler, was a club member, and Lee Felsenstein was moderator of the club meetings.{{cite web |url=http://www.bambi.net/bob/homebrew.html |title=Memoir of a Homebrew Computer Club Member |last1=Lash |first1=Bob|access-date=May 6, 2013}}{{self-published source|date=March 2022}} Steve Inness was a primary designer of one of the early cell phone touch screens as well as a business partner with John Draper.{{cite news|last1=Rhoads|first1=Chris|title=The Twilight Years of Cap'n Crunch|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB116863379291775523|work=Wall Street Journal|date=January 13, 2007|archive-date=May 27, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150527215733/http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB116863379291775523}} [http://article.gmane.org/gmane.culture.people.interesting-people/14191 Alt URL]{{cite web|title=Steve Inness – Davis|url=https://localwiki.org/davis/Steve_Inness|website=Local Wiki|access-date=March 28, 2016}}{{unreliable source inline|date=March 2022}} Liza Loop was an early member and the first woman to join.{{Cite book |last=O'Mara |first=Margaret Pugh |author-link=Margaret O'Mara |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1057306457 |title=The Code : Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America |date=2019 |isbn=978-0-399-56218-1 |location=New York |oclc=1057306457 |page=139}}

Others went on to other pursuits, such as Dan Werthimer, who is a researcher in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.{{cite book |last= Benjamin|first= Marina |date= 2003 |title= Rocket Dreams: How the Space Age Shaped Our Vision of a World Beyond|publisher= Simon and Schuster|page= 156|isbn= 0743254171}}

File:Homebrew Computer Club Sep1976.png

The Homebrew Computer Club's newsletter was one of the most influential forces in the formation of the culture of Silicon Valley. Created and edited by its members, it initiated the idea of the personal computer, and helped its members build the original kit computers, like the Altair. One such influential event was the publication of Bill Gates's "Open Letter to Hobbyists", which lambasted the early hackers of the time for violating the copyrights of commercial software programs.[http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/2012/10/102702231-05-01-acc.pdf Oral History of Lee Felsenstein] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141227091722/http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/2012/10/102702231-05-01-acc.pdf |date=December 27, 2014 }}. Interviewed by Kip Crosby. Computer History Museum 2008, CHM Reference number: X4653.2008

Paul Terrell, partner in Repco who was the exclusive sales rep company for MITS in Northern California, was a member of the club and would provide information at the meetings about the progress of the Altair 8800 in the factory and provide copies of the MITS Newsletter to members.{{citation needed|date=February 2019}} He later started Byte Shop, an affordable computer store in Mountain View, California, and bought the first 50 Apple I Computers from Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak after they did a demonstration of the Apple I at a meeting at SLAC.{{cite web |url=http://blogs.pcworld.com/techlog/archives/005240.html |title=The Man Who Jump-Started Apple |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511184229/http://blogs.pcworld.com/techlog/archives/005240.html |archive-date=May 11, 2011 |first=Harry |last=McCracken |date=August 23, 2007 |work=PC World |url-status=dead |access-date=February 25, 2019 }}

The first issue of the newsletter was published on March 15, 1975, and continued through several designs, ending after 21 issues in December 1977. The newsletter was published from a variety of addresses in the early days, but later submissions went to a P.O. box address in Mountain View, California.{{Cite web |url=http://www.digibarn.com/collections/newsletters/homebrew/newsletters.html |title=Homebrew Computer Club Newsletters, 1975–1977 |website=DigiBarn Computer Museum |access-date=February 25, 2019}}

The second volume began on January 31, 1976, and included sections for A LETTER FROM MITS, CASSETTE UPDATE, TINY BASIC, MEETING FACILITIES, SOFTWARE, PROBLEMS, MEETING-1, and ALTAIR 680.

In popular culture

The club is depicted in the films Pirates of Silicon Valley (1999) and Jobs (2013), as well as in the PBS documentary series Triumph of the Nerds (1996). However, the depiction of how the club worked was not entirely accurate.{{Examples|date=February 2020}}

References

External links

[https://web.archive.org/web/20170919232628/http://www.woz.org/ Steve Wozniak's home page]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20110602100251/http://www.hcc.nl/ The Netherlands Home Computer Club website] (in Dutch)
[https://www.digibarn.com/collections/newsletters/homebrew/ Homebrew Computer Club Newsletters]
[https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102740021 Homebrew Computer Club Newsletters as searchable PDFs]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20060427185724/http://www.afsc.org/pwork/0508/050814.htm Life Outside the Mainframe: Remembering Fred Moore]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20110510081157/http://jolitz.telemuse.net/c/homebrew-computer-club/homwbrew-computer-club/slac/stanford-linear-accelerator/william-jolitz/-67902881 Homebrew Computer Club on Jolitz Heritage site]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20061212232704/http://www.opencollector.org/history/homebrew/index.html Lee Felsenstein and the Homebrew Computer Club], A History of Free Hardware Design
[https://vimeo.com/14948067 The Beginning of the Apple Corps of Dallas (January 1978) Thru the Eyes of a Founding Member]
[https://computerhistory.org/blog/the-homebrew-computer-club-2013-reunion/ The Homebrew Computer Club 2013 Reunion]

Category:1975 establishments in California

Category:1986 disestablishments in California

Category:Computer clubs

Category:Hacker culture

Category:Organizations established in 1975

Category:Organizations disestablished in 1986