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World Cup Memo Written By Steve Jobs Going Up For Auction

Posted by Unknown on from the gate-gate-paragate-parasangate-bodhi-svahdl dept.

New submitter Dega704 writes with an excerpt from El Reg: "Before Steve Jobs came up with the iPhone or even the Apple II, he designed paddles for ball-flipping games at Atari where the scruffy 19-year-old was employed to improve game design. Sotheby's New York will auction off a document dating from Jobs's time there: a 1974 report that Jobs wrote for his boss suggesting ways to improve arcade game World Cup. According to Jobs' biography, his Atari days are most notable for his clashes with colleagues, who he considered to be 'dumb shits'. He was made to work night shifts there partly because he was in a phase of refusing to wash and so he apparently smelt bad, causing complaints from his co-workers. But Jobs obviously did some work at Atari too, with the document laying out his ideas for improving player experience. The typed four-page document includes three circuit designs in pencil and additional designs for the paddles and alignment of players defending a soccer goal."

28 of 206 comments (clear)

  1. Steve WHO? by russotto · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Steve JOBS came up with the Apple II? I don't think so.

    1. Re:Steve WHO? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      I was working as a sales rep in a Silicon Valley computer store in the early 80's. I knew the Woz and many other notables (I sold 3com their first 100 PC's). One day Woz's mother came into our store, looking for a joke present for the computer geek son who had everything geeky he could want. I sold her a bottle of "Bug Off" - anti-static spay for his monitor! ... :-)

    2. Re:Steve WHO? by TheWanderingHermit · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Kind of shocking the guys at Slashdot would miss something as big as this. Wonder if they're just too young and inexperienced to know about Woz.

      (Yeah, I know they're not -- which means only temporary idiocy could explain them making that mistake!)

    3. Re:Steve WHO? by RyuuzakiTetsuya · · Score: 4, Informative

      Putting the thing into a plastic case and embedding the keyboard was Steve's idea. Trying to keep it simple and not suck is still kind of a revolutionary concept.

      We're all so willing to live with things that suck. I mean, even OSX sucks in many ways(I prefer it because it sucks less than Windows, and while Linux is great for stability, living with the OS is a kind of suck I can't deal with; even if it sucks less overall).

      --
      Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
    4. Re:Steve WHO? by hawk · · Score: 3, Funny

      Bah.

      Including a keyboard, case, and power supply.

      computers for sissies that can't handle a soldering iron.

      What's next--put a program in rom so you don't hae to key it in???

      humbug

      Hawk

    5. Re:Steve WHO? by tyrione · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Steve JOBS came up with the Apple II? I don't think so.

      Steve Wozniak is on record stating that Steve designed the layout of everything on the Apple II down to how to layout the ICs. Wozniak could have cared less but saw the merit in Steve's constant design critique to make things organized, minimalistic and right down to the look of the inside of cases not to be nothing but some piece of crap sheet metal cover, ala today's typical PC Clone shell.

    6. Re:Steve WHO? by Swampash · · Score: 5, Informative

      I think you mean he COULDN'T have cared less.

  2. I refuse too wash too! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm going to be a billionaire!

  3. Venerated as a demi-god by stevegee58 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    He's venerated as a demi-god but like many high/over achievers he was also complete prick.

    Sorry Steve.

    1. Re:Venerated as a demi-god by starworks5 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Basically the bully that got to boss around and fuck over all the nerds, but doesn't actually possess much along the lines of ability, at least i had some respect for bill gates and his skills.

    2. Re:Venerated as a demi-god by Vinegar+Joe · · Score: 3, Funny

      Steve Ballmer with better fashion sense.

      --
      "The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
    3. Re:Venerated as a demi-god by caitsith01 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yep, would you rather be (a) uber successful but smelly, nasty, humourless and loveless, or (b) less successful but regularly bathed, kind, funny and loved?

      Of course this is slashdot so I should offer option (c), unsuccessful, smelly, nasty, humourless and loveless.

      --
      Read Pynchon.
    4. Re:Venerated as a demi-god by phantomfive · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It's ok, look around, most of the people you work with are pricks, your boss is....so are the people at the gym, in the super-market, and everywhere. So am I, and so are you, most likely.

      Fact is, most people are pricks. So what?

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    5. Re:Venerated as a demi-god by Man+On+Pink+Corner · · Score: 3, Funny

      Yeah, I guess that explains why Ballmer followed Jobs around like a bipolar chimpanzee, repeatedly insulting and dismissing Apple products on Monday and paying legions of engineers to try their best to copy them on Tuesday.

      Yeah, Jobs and Ballmer, two peas in a pod.

      Just one question: were you dropped on your head as a child?

    6. Re:Venerated as a demi-god by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Thing is, if you take all those people who are pricks, and consider them "normal", Jobs is still a prick.

    7. Re:Venerated as a demi-god by Bacon+Bits · · Score: 4, Funny

      Of course this is slashdot so I should offer option (c), unsuccessful, smelly, nasty, humourless and loveless.

      I have a perfectly good sense of humor, thank you very much.

      --
      The road to tyranny has always been paved with claims of necessity.
    8. Re:Venerated as a demi-god by Swampash · · Score: 4, Insightful

      As a previous poster has observed, Jobs was probably a better computer technician in the pure "here's a bucket of ICs and a board and a soldering iron, build a computer" sense than most people here. It's just that his partner was Steve Wozniak, who took that shit to a whole different level.

  4. Re:"refusing to wash.." by king+neckbeard · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What does a post about Steve Jobs have to do with geniuses?

    --
    This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
  5. Re:"refusing to wash.." by starworks5 · · Score: 5, Funny

    He employs them in his apple stores

  6. Re:"refusing to wash.." by jhoegl · · Score: 5, Funny

    I laughed, then I realized you might be serious... so I laughed harder.

  7. Industrial designer by k(wi)r(kipedia) · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Well, he may have come up with the design for the thing. After all, if a computer or a smartphone is simply a bunch of chips soldered, screwed or superglued together, then Apple would be selling iBoards and the iBerry Pi, instead of selling the iMac and the iPhone.

  8. Re:"refusing to wash.." by kiwimate · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You may want to look up the definition of the word. It probably has many more meanings than you suspect.

    P.S. - why are some people never happy unless they're ripping down someone else?

  9. Re:"refusing to wash.." by Tablizer · · Score: 5, Insightful

    He was a user-interaction genius, not necessarily a technical genius. He knew what people would want without them first knowing they wanted it.

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
  10. Re:Only a video game? by Man+On+Pink+Corner · · Score: 4, Funny

    I thought it was going to be a memo about how to improve the snoozefest that is soccer/futbol.

    Let's see...

    1.1.14.a: All players will be issued 9mm handguns with one cartridge each, except that the goalkeeper shall receive three cartridges. Players are allowed to handle the ball with their elbows, heads, feet, or rackets. All horses, except for those participating in the game, must be tied securely on the sidelines with sponsors' logos removed or covered. Matches will continue for 25 minutes or until no players remain awake. Players may purchase supplementary PCP at the on-field concession stand. Broadcasts, recordings, and retransmissions in any form are prohibited without the express written consent of Batman. The use of polearms in excess of 3 meters in length is prohibited except during league play.

    Nope, still not worth watching.

  11. ironic? by Cyko_01 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I find it odd that, with his background is video games, the mac is not a more successful gaming platform.

  12. It always breaks my heart... by Genda · · Score: 4, Insightful

    To hear about a young man on a path to providing joy and happiness to millions, only to lose his way and become a business executive. Where did we fail you Steve. You clearly had the potential. Antisocial, poor hygiene, you had all the traits of a budding young geek. Then somewhere a terrible turn south. Perhaps we'll never know.

  13. Re:"refusing to wash.." by TapeCutter · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Jobs was not a scientific genius, more of an organisational genius (re: Edison), so 'not a real genius' to some nerds. Geniuses are human, I know, it was a shock to me too when I first dicovered it! I'm 'smart' and I'm a nice person, so by inference geniuses are nice people, right?

    To see the same phenomena in a scientific genius just pick up any bio of Issac Newton, he was widely recognised in his own lifetime as genius of the highest caliber by the public, and a common arsehole by his collegues and relatives. "American idol" style fawning over an arsehole who happens to also be a genius is definitely not something new.

    Like him or not

    I don't go out of my way to read about Jobs, Woz, BillG, et al, but I I like Woz as a person from what I've seen of him, Jobs I'm still undecided. None of that detracts from their status as modern day geniuses.

    --
    And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
  14. Re:Only a video game? by GrahamCox · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Any game that ends in a 0-0 tie is not entertaining to watch

    Not always, but it often is. It's not always about the score, or winners and losers but how the game is played.

    No doubt though, you also only watch car racing for the crashes.