Hackers, Heroes of the Computer Revolution. Chapters 1 and 2

Altair 8800 The pioneering microcomputer that galvanized hardware hackers. Building this kit made you learn hacking. Then you tried to figure out what to DO with it.

Apple II ][ Steve Wozniak's friendly, flaky, good-looking computer, wildly successful and the spark and soul of a thriving industry.

Atari 800 This home computer gave great graphics to game hackers like John Harris, though the company that made it was loath to tell you how it worked.

Bob and Carolyn Box World-record-holding gold prospectors turned software stars, working for Sierra On-Line.

Doug Carlston Corporate lawyer who chucked it all to form the Broderbund software company.

Bob Davis Left job in liquor store to become best-selling author of Sierra On-Line computer game "Ulysses and the Golden Fleece." Success was his downfall.

Peter Deutsch Bad in sports, brilliant at math, Peter was still in short pants when he stubled on the TX-0 at MIT--and hacked it along with the masters.

Steve Dompier Homebrew member who first made the Altair sing, and later wrote the "Targe" game on the Sol which entranced Tom Snyder.

John Draper The notorious "Captain Crunch" who fearlessly explored the phone systems, got jailed, hacked microprocessors. Cigarettes made his violent.

Mark Duchaineau The young Dungeonmaster who copy-protected On-Lines disks at his whim.

Chris Esponosa Fourteen-year-old follower of Steve Wozniak and early Apple employee.

Lee Felsenstein Former "military editor" of Berkeley Barb, and hero of an imaginary science-fiction novel, he designed computers with "junkyard" approach and was central figure in Bay Area hardware hacking in the seventies.

Ed Fredkin Gentle founder of Information International, thought himself world's greates programmer until he met Stew Nelson. Father figure to hackers.

Gordon French Silver-haired hardware hacker whose garage held not cars but his homebrewed Chicken Hawk comptuer, then held the first Homebrew Computer Club meeting.

Richard Garriott Astronaut's son who, as Lord British, created Ultima world on computer disks.

Bill Gates Cocky wizard, Harvard dropout who wrote Altair BASIC, and complained when hackers copied it.

Bill Gosper Horwitz of computer keyboards, master math and LIFE hacker at MIT AI lab, guru of the Hacker Ethic and student of Chinese restaurant menus.

Richard Greenblatt Single-minded, unkempt, prolific, and canonical MIT hacker who went into night phase so often that he zorched his academic career. The hacker's hacker.

John Harris The young Atari 800 game hacker who became Sierra On-Line's star programmer, but yearned for female companionship.

IBM-PC IBM's entry into the personal computer market which amazingly included a bit of the Hacker Ethic, and took over. [H.E. as open architecture.]

IBM 704 IBM was The Enemy, and this was its machine, the Hulking Giant computer in MIT's Building 26. Later modified into the IBM 709, then the IBM 7090. Batch-processed and intolerable.

Jerry Jewell Vietnam vet turned programmer who founded Sirius Software.

Steven Jobs Visionary, beaded, non-hacking youngster who took Wozniak's Apple II ][, made a lot of deals, and formed a company that would make a billion dollars.

Tom Knight At sixteen, an MIT hacker who would name the Incompatible Time-sharing System. Later a Greenblatt nemesis over the LISP machine schism.