That's exactly what the Salon article asserts. The author adds "and not a very good one", and you can agree or disagree. I think the important point is that the author redraws a connection between American popular art (SF novels, mostly) from the early part of the 20th century and the SW franchise, and the principals have had a late tendency to elide that particular provenance. And by the way, nowhere in the article does the author slight pulp SF -- quite the opposite.
You probably already know this, but Apple employed 6502's, which was made at the time by (correct me if I'm wrong) MOStek.
I recall the 6502 instruction set as being mingy when compared to the Z80 (for instance); I regarded that as a handicap at the time (this was 1981 or so) but it was probably a good thing for a beginning assembly hobbyist to cut his teeth on.
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That's exactly what the Salon article asserts. The author adds "and not a very good one", and you can agree or disagree. I think the important point is that the author redraws a connection between American popular art (SF novels, mostly) from the early part of the 20th century and the SW franchise, and the principals have had a late tendency to elide that particular provenance. And by the way, nowhere in the article does the author slight pulp SF -- quite the opposite.
You probably already know this, but Apple employed 6502's, which was made at the time by (correct me if I'm wrong) MOStek.
I recall the 6502 instruction set as being mingy when compared to the Z80 (for instance); I regarded that as a handicap at the time (this was 1981 or so) but it was probably a good thing for a beginning assembly hobbyist to cut his teeth on.