Steve Jobs' 1974 Atari memo to be auctioned

A memo Steve Jobs wrote in 1974 while working for Atari.

/ Sotheby's

(CNET) Before he co-founded Apple, Steve Jobs worked briefly at Atari, helping the game maker improve design.

Sotheby's is auctioning a handwritten memo penned in 1974 by then-19-year-old Jobs that describes changes Atari could make to its World Cup Soccer arcade game to add fun and functionality.

The present report, written for his supervisor Stephen Bristow, was meant to improve the functionality and fun of World Cup, a coin arcade-game with four simple buttons and an evolution from Atari's Pong game. Job's report is stamped "All-One Farm Design," a name appropriated from the commune he frequented at the time, and the address of the Jobs family in Los Altos. At the bottom of the stamp is the Buddhist mantra, gate gate paragate parasangate bodhi svahdl.

Sotheby's estimates the memo will fetch $10,000 to $15,000, reports CNET.

Jobs worked nights at Atari for a brief time in 1974, employing Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak to help whittle down the hardware required for a prototype of a single-player version of Pong, the game that would go on to become Breakout. Jobs would leave Atari that summer to travel through India, only to return to California to live in a commune.

Sotheby's is also auctioning a working Apple I motherboard, complete with cassette interface, operating manuals, and a BASIC Users Manual. Fewer than 50 Apple I computers are thought to have survived, with only six known to be in working condition, Sotheby's said. The lot is expected to fetch $120,000 to $150,000. The auction is scheduled for June 15.

[hypnotoad72]

$120k for an Apple I? That's ridiculous. The value is placed on it via sheer emotion, and with anything tangible.

Also, when it breaks, how much will it cost to fix it?

Or, even better, give them to the FAA - everyone whines their equipment is out of date and I bet the components in the Apple I are compatible... :rolleyes:

[hypnotoad72]

Given Jobs' record as being a bit of a pain to work with, despite his lax dress code policy, now those in the media are painting him out as an evil communist. He's been an evil capitalist. Or at least two-faced. "You're holding it wrong!" he told customers of a phone that he knew had a defect.

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/07/iphone-4-antenna/

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2365705,00.asp

(there's your proof of the iphone debacle - he insults users while knowing HE is the one in the wrong and people still treat him like some second rate god. That is NOT how you run an ethical business, to willingly release a product with a known defect and then blame the customer. That's a low thing to do.)

Any web search will reveal plenty of articles of how difficult (approaching antisocial) the man was in real life.

http://www.styleite.com/media/steve-jobs-photo-shoots/
(Steve, those people know their jobs and you were not in that field. Grow up already.)

http://www.allvoices.com/news/10541319-steve-jobs-difficult-bugger-to-work-with
(and "visionairies" are not marketers. Jobs was a marketer. Read into what he said and wrote. Read HOW he structured it. To make YOU feel good when you bought his product. THAT is what marketers do. He could sell water to a fish living in the ocean with his silver tongue (which helped shroud everything else, which was iron pyrite.)

The man may or may not have had some good ideas, but I'm not going to be a blind sycophant. He he personality issues, and was not easy to work for (no wonder he loved China; the workers get bullied around constantly... those actions do not embrace civilized mindsets, nor do they embrace true American values of decency.)

[Lifesablast]

They are also going to auction off a pair of his jockey shorts and
two rolls of toilet paper that hung in his bathroom.

[Transatlantique]

Wow! Another frustrated Microjunk user. Only a complete nerd would use the term "jockey shorts."

[hypnotoad72]

Transatlantique -

Let's stop assuming anyone who did not care for Steve Jobs is a Gates-supporter.

They're two of a kind, if you really looked up both of their mindsets, practices, predatory tactics, et cetera.

Like I said, I will not be a lackey or sycophant just because the media chooses to paint an incomplete picture of our purported role models.

[nojoy01]

Sotheby's estimates the memo will fetch $10,000 to $15,000...
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Why?

[Transatlantique]

Because it is a bit of history, or don't you appreciate and revere that? You must have your head up the butt of Billy Gates Gruff.

[hypnotoad72]

The original Mac is history as well - few people own one. Is it worth $10,000 too? If so, buy mine so I can go back in time and buy a Lisa on its first day on the market. It cost $10,000 as well (and was worth nothing near that amount...)