LIVERMORE, CA - September 5, 2000 [Vintage Computer Festival]
The Vintage Computer Festival announced today that an original
Apple-1 computer circa 1976 will be auctioned off on the first
day of the 4th annual Vintage Computer Festival, happening on
September 30th through October 1st at the San Jose Convention
Center in San Jose, California. "This is the machine that
launched Apple Computer and begat one of the most amazing Silicon
Valleysuccess stories in the history of the computer business,"
said Vintage Computer Festival (VCF) founder and organizer,
Sellam Ismail. "The story of Apple Computer is well known: two
guys working out of a garage create what turns into a multi-
billion dollar business. This computer represents the humble
beginnings of an industry that has seen an incredible explosion
of growth in such a relatively short span of time."
The Apple-1 was the brainchild of Steve Wozniak, who designed
and built it in his spare time in the mid 1970's while still an
employee at Hewlett-Packard. Management at HP saw no future in
the computer and released all rights to Wozniak. Steve Jobs,
Wozniak's high school friend, convinced Wozniak to market the
machine. Jobs managed to land an order for 50 of the machines
with a chain computer store called The Byte Shop, helping to
launch the fledgling Apple Computer. The original selling price
was $666.66.
"The public eye is currently on Apple and Apple's CEO Steve Jobs
since they are riding a crest of excellent product releases and
climbing revenue," says Ismail. "This auction will hopefully
attract those who wish to own a piece of the history of Apple,
one of the most celebrated Silicon Valley success stories. This
machine also represents the birth of the microcomputer itself,
and is a very significant machine, both for its place in
computing history and for its rarity. There are probably less
than 200 of these remaining in the world."
Moreover, the machine going to the auction block is in a
condition and state of completeness not seen in similar recent
auctions. Says Ismail, "this computer comes with all the
accessories it was originally sold with, making it the most
complete Apple-1 to come to auction in recent times."
The owner of the computer, Ray Borrill, operated a chain of
computer stores in the Midwest in the late 70's, one of the first
in the nation. This particular Apple-1 was one of 15 units
ordered directly from Steve Jobs. It was used as a display model
and was never sold. Borrill decided to hold onto it through the
years for posterity. Borrill, now retired, has decided that it's
time to pass the machine on to someone else who will continue to
appreciate it as he did.
The Vintage Computer Festival is a yearly event in the Silicon
Valley that celebrates computer history by featuring speakers
from computing's past as well as a hands-on exhibit of old
computers and computing artifacts, some dating back over half
a century or more. This is the fourth year of the Festival.
Speakers this year include Jim Warren, founder and organizer of
the West Coast Computer Faire, as well as Larry Tesler, who was
at one point Apple's chief scientist and also worked at the
prestigious Xerox Palo Alto Research Center during the 1970s.
Warren and Tesler will be participating in a roundtable
conference on day 1 of the Festival.
This year, California Extreme 2000 (
http://www.caextreme.org), a
classic arcade game show featuring hundreds of classic video games
and pinball machines, joins the VCF. The VCF and California
Extreme 2000 share the same venue, and discounts will be available
at the door for attending both events.
Information about the Apple-1 auction can be found at
http://www.vintage.org/2000/apple-1.html. General information
about the fourth annual Vintage Computer Festival can be found at
http://www.vintage.org/.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Sellam Ismail
925/371.1050 x102
sellam_at_vintage.org
http://www.vintage.org
Sellam International Man of Intrigue and Danger
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Looking for a six in a pile of nines...
VCF 4.0 is September 30-October 1
San Jose Convention Center, San Jose, California
See
http://www.vintage.org for details!
Received on Tue Sep 05 2000 - 02:57:45 BST