1 00:00:04,120 --> 00:00:07,160 Speaker 1: Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how 2 00:00:07,200 --> 00:00:13,800 Speaker 1: stuff Works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 3 00:00:13,840 --> 00:00:16,520 Speaker 1: I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with 4 00:00:16,560 --> 00:00:19,600 Speaker 1: How Stuff Works and I love all things tech and 5 00:00:19,720 --> 00:00:22,680 Speaker 1: tech stuff. Listener Matt asked if I might do an 6 00:00:22,680 --> 00:00:25,759 Speaker 1: episode or two, or maybe three or four about the 7 00:00:25,840 --> 00:00:30,440 Speaker 1: Amiga series of personal computers, and Amiga has a pretty 8 00:00:30,560 --> 00:00:36,280 Speaker 1: fascinating history with lots of ups and significant downs, And 9 00:00:36,320 --> 00:00:39,480 Speaker 1: I've definitely touched on Amiga a few times and episodes 10 00:00:39,520 --> 00:00:42,640 Speaker 1: about the early PC era, as well as the episodes 11 00:00:42,680 --> 00:00:47,479 Speaker 1: I've done about Commodore because Commodore acquired Amiga. But this 12 00:00:47,600 --> 00:00:51,519 Speaker 1: computer line deserves its own set of episodes because it's 13 00:00:51,560 --> 00:00:55,560 Speaker 1: it's not just fascinating from a technology standpoint, but it 14 00:00:55,640 --> 00:00:58,120 Speaker 1: plays into a lot of other things that were happening 15 00:00:58,160 --> 00:01:02,280 Speaker 1: in tech in the eighties that are also really important 16 00:01:02,320 --> 00:01:05,200 Speaker 1: and interesting all on their own. So the story is 17 00:01:05,240 --> 00:01:08,319 Speaker 1: likely going to take a few episodes to tell because 18 00:01:08,319 --> 00:01:11,040 Speaker 1: of how complex it is and how much the Amiga's 19 00:01:11,160 --> 00:01:14,760 Speaker 1: story plays into these other stories of other companies and 20 00:01:14,880 --> 00:01:17,360 Speaker 1: big events that were happening in the personal computer and 21 00:01:17,440 --> 00:01:20,240 Speaker 1: video game industries. But I think That's part of what 22 00:01:20,520 --> 00:01:22,959 Speaker 1: makes this hall fascinating because it gives you an opportunity 23 00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:26,480 Speaker 1: to understand some of those other topics from a new 24 00:01:26,560 --> 00:01:30,480 Speaker 1: angle within the context of Amiga. So I know it's 25 00:01:30,520 --> 00:01:32,600 Speaker 1: going to be at least three episodes because I've got 26 00:01:32,600 --> 00:01:37,320 Speaker 1: two to go right now. Probably gonna be four, we'll see. Also, 27 00:01:37,360 --> 00:01:41,319 Speaker 1: if you really want a true deep dive into the 28 00:01:41,360 --> 00:01:45,560 Speaker 1: history of Amiga, because this is peanuts compared to what 29 00:01:45,680 --> 00:01:48,400 Speaker 1: some folks have done, and if you want to know 30 00:01:48,640 --> 00:01:51,520 Speaker 1: more about all the people involved with Amiga, I have 31 00:01:51,560 --> 00:01:54,920 Speaker 1: a recommendation for you. There's a website called ours Technico. 32 00:01:54,960 --> 00:01:59,480 Speaker 1: It's one of my favorite websites, especially for technology, and 33 00:01:59,600 --> 00:02:03,320 Speaker 1: over it Ours Technica, a software developer named Jeremy Reymer 34 00:02:03,720 --> 00:02:07,040 Speaker 1: has written what I considered to be the definitive history 35 00:02:07,240 --> 00:02:12,480 Speaker 1: of Amiga. It's so far a twelve part article series, 36 00:02:12,880 --> 00:02:16,520 Speaker 1: and the very first article published on August first, two 37 00:02:16,520 --> 00:02:21,639 Speaker 1: thousand seven. The most recent part of this series published 38 00:02:21,639 --> 00:02:25,520 Speaker 1: on March twenty nine, two thousand eighteen. So it's a 39 00:02:25,560 --> 00:02:28,680 Speaker 1: series of articles that have spanned more than a decade now. 40 00:02:28,720 --> 00:02:32,280 Speaker 1: When I pulled this twelve part series over into notes 41 00:02:32,400 --> 00:02:34,760 Speaker 1: so that I could print it, out. It was about 42 00:02:34,840 --> 00:02:39,080 Speaker 1: seventy five pages and the word count was around forty 43 00:02:39,120 --> 00:02:42,640 Speaker 1: two five words. So while I'm going to be talking 44 00:02:42,639 --> 00:02:46,440 Speaker 1: about Amiga for several episodes and you still want more, 45 00:02:46,840 --> 00:02:49,080 Speaker 1: that's where you need to go. There's also a couple 46 00:02:49,080 --> 00:02:52,440 Speaker 1: of spinoff articles I did not include in my notes, 47 00:02:52,560 --> 00:02:56,600 Speaker 1: but they are related to Amiga. So if you're really fascinated, 48 00:02:57,040 --> 00:02:59,280 Speaker 1: that's the place to go, I would say. So the 49 00:02:59,320 --> 00:03:02,280 Speaker 1: Amiga it was one of the lines of computers that 50 00:03:02,360 --> 00:03:05,760 Speaker 1: emerged in the early nineteen eighties, back before things had 51 00:03:05,840 --> 00:03:09,040 Speaker 1: really shaken out, so that they were essentially a face 52 00:03:09,080 --> 00:03:13,919 Speaker 1: off between Apple and IBM, and then later on various 53 00:03:13,960 --> 00:03:19,880 Speaker 1: IBMBC clone manufacturers, and then later still Microsoft, so it 54 00:03:19,919 --> 00:03:24,720 Speaker 1: was always Apple versus IBM, then IBM clones, and then 55 00:03:24,840 --> 00:03:28,600 Speaker 1: Microsoft in particular. But back in those days, there were 56 00:03:28,600 --> 00:03:31,640 Speaker 1: a lot of different competing computers that were on the market, 57 00:03:31,720 --> 00:03:34,680 Speaker 1: and I've talked about those in previous shows. There was 58 00:03:34,720 --> 00:03:38,680 Speaker 1: the TRASH eighty or the TRS eighty from Radio Shack 59 00:03:38,760 --> 00:03:42,320 Speaker 1: Slash Tandy. There was the t I ninety nine Slash 60 00:03:42,320 --> 00:03:46,720 Speaker 1: four from Texas Instruments. There was the various computers from Commodore, 61 00:03:46,800 --> 00:03:49,720 Speaker 1: including the Commodore sixty four, which was the best selling 62 00:03:49,800 --> 00:03:53,560 Speaker 1: PC of all time, and those were all in that 63 00:03:53,640 --> 00:03:57,880 Speaker 1: same space that were there when Apple had its Apple 64 00:03:57,880 --> 00:04:01,520 Speaker 1: to come out, and before even the IBM personal computer 65 00:04:01,560 --> 00:04:06,520 Speaker 1: had shown up. J Minor is often credited as being 66 00:04:06,720 --> 00:04:10,960 Speaker 1: the father of Amiga. J Minor was born in Prescott, Arizona, 67 00:04:11,200 --> 00:04:14,400 Speaker 1: on May thirty one, nineteen thirty two, and as a 68 00:04:14,520 --> 00:04:18,880 Speaker 1: kid he became interested in electronics. He enrolled in San 69 00:04:18,920 --> 00:04:22,120 Speaker 1: Diego State College, and while he was in college, there 70 00:04:22,160 --> 00:04:25,839 Speaker 1: was an enormous event that happened. North Korea invaded South Korea, 71 00:04:25,880 --> 00:04:30,680 Speaker 1: precipitating the Korean War that happened on June twenty, nineteen fifty. 72 00:04:30,839 --> 00:04:33,520 Speaker 1: So J. Minor would then go and enlist in the 73 00:04:33,640 --> 00:04:38,159 Speaker 1: Coast Guard and he continued studying electronics. Once he was 74 00:04:38,240 --> 00:04:40,920 Speaker 1: discharged from the Coast Guard, he moved back to California 75 00:04:41,120 --> 00:04:44,599 Speaker 1: with his wife. He had had met a woman and 76 00:04:44,680 --> 00:04:48,120 Speaker 1: married her in nineteen fifty two, and then he enrolled 77 00:04:48,160 --> 00:04:50,960 Speaker 1: at the University of California at Berkeley, where he earned 78 00:04:50,960 --> 00:04:53,599 Speaker 1: a degree in electrical engineering in nineteen fifty eight, with 79 00:04:53,640 --> 00:04:57,600 Speaker 1: an area of focus in designing generators and servo motors. 80 00:04:58,120 --> 00:05:02,720 Speaker 1: Kind of interesting but his first gig, according to an 81 00:05:02,720 --> 00:05:06,920 Speaker 1: interview that he gave to the magazine Amiga User International 82 00:05:06,960 --> 00:05:11,800 Speaker 1: back in was to develop a computer control console with 83 00:05:11,839 --> 00:05:15,560 Speaker 1: a video display. Even though his expertise, at least a 84 00:05:15,600 --> 00:05:19,640 Speaker 1: scholarly expertise, was in generators and servo motors, so he 85 00:05:19,720 --> 00:05:22,680 Speaker 1: had to go back to teaching himself. He started to 86 00:05:22,880 --> 00:05:26,440 Speaker 1: read from books and learn logic design and how to 87 00:05:26,520 --> 00:05:29,160 Speaker 1: lay out transistor circuits. But he said the nice thing 88 00:05:29,279 --> 00:05:33,560 Speaker 1: was that in those days it wasn't too complicated to 89 00:05:33,720 --> 00:05:37,720 Speaker 1: learn from a book. You could still actually buy books 90 00:05:37,760 --> 00:05:40,000 Speaker 1: and become self taught and be able to work in 91 00:05:40,040 --> 00:05:45,160 Speaker 1: that space. Miners resume after college included several companies, including 92 00:05:45,160 --> 00:05:47,919 Speaker 1: fledgling ones that were sort of a sign of the 93 00:05:47,960 --> 00:05:52,400 Speaker 1: future for California and technology and kind of a a 94 00:05:52,520 --> 00:05:56,480 Speaker 1: foreshadowing of the birth of Silicon Valley. And j. Minor 95 00:05:56,560 --> 00:05:59,920 Speaker 1: found he really liked designing electronics. He wasn't as interest 96 00:06:00,040 --> 00:06:02,599 Speaker 1: it in other parts of engineering, and so he never 97 00:06:02,640 --> 00:06:05,960 Speaker 1: really felt tied down to any one employer if there 98 00:06:06,000 --> 00:06:09,480 Speaker 1: was another interesting opportunity to do design work on the horizon, 99 00:06:09,600 --> 00:06:12,440 Speaker 1: so he kind of hopped run company to company. In 100 00:06:12,560 --> 00:06:16,119 Speaker 1: nineteen seventy four, one of Miner's friends, a guy named 101 00:06:16,160 --> 00:06:19,760 Speaker 1: Harold Lee, convinced Minor to come and check out the 102 00:06:19,760 --> 00:06:22,720 Speaker 1: company that Harold Lee was working for. He was an 103 00:06:22,760 --> 00:06:26,360 Speaker 1: engineer for a little company called Atari. Now, Atari is 104 00:06:26,360 --> 00:06:28,840 Speaker 1: gonna end up being a very important part of the 105 00:06:28,880 --> 00:06:34,480 Speaker 1: Amiga story. Nolan Bushnell had founded Atari in nineteen seventy 106 00:06:34,480 --> 00:06:37,559 Speaker 1: two after he had designed an early arcade game called 107 00:06:37,640 --> 00:06:40,760 Speaker 1: Computer Space. The company at that time was known for 108 00:06:40,880 --> 00:06:45,719 Speaker 1: building arcade games like Pong and Space Race. Minor would 109 00:06:45,760 --> 00:06:49,920 Speaker 1: design components for many of Atari's early arcade games, and 110 00:06:49,960 --> 00:06:52,920 Speaker 1: then he became the lead chip designer of a new 111 00:06:52,960 --> 00:06:55,960 Speaker 1: project in nineteen seventy five, and that project's goal was 112 00:06:56,000 --> 00:07:00,719 Speaker 1: to create a reprogrammable gaming machine. Now, up to this point, 113 00:07:01,480 --> 00:07:04,799 Speaker 1: all the gaming machines were custom built for a specific game. 114 00:07:05,040 --> 00:07:09,760 Speaker 1: The circuitry of the machine was the game. But in 115 00:07:09,800 --> 00:07:13,200 Speaker 1: the phase of competition, Atari wanted to create a gaming 116 00:07:13,240 --> 00:07:16,400 Speaker 1: machine that could accept some form of media, which would 117 00:07:16,440 --> 00:07:20,480 Speaker 1: turn out to be cartridges, and run that media interchangeably 118 00:07:20,640 --> 00:07:23,520 Speaker 1: so that you could switch out between games using the 119 00:07:23,600 --> 00:07:28,320 Speaker 1: same hardware. This project would evolve into the video computer 120 00:07:28,520 --> 00:07:33,160 Speaker 1: system the VCS, also known as the Atari twenty hundred 121 00:07:33,840 --> 00:07:37,120 Speaker 1: one of the challenging aspects of building out this kind 122 00:07:37,120 --> 00:07:40,480 Speaker 1: of computer was keeping the costs low enough to make 123 00:07:40,520 --> 00:07:43,760 Speaker 1: it a marketable consumer device, which meant finding the right 124 00:07:43,840 --> 00:07:47,360 Speaker 1: processor to act as the CPU for the machine. It 125 00:07:47,440 --> 00:07:50,520 Speaker 1: needed to be powerful enough to do the job, but 126 00:07:50,760 --> 00:07:53,280 Speaker 1: not so expensive as to drive the price of the 127 00:07:53,280 --> 00:07:57,040 Speaker 1: final product out of the market range, and ultimately Atari 128 00:07:57,120 --> 00:08:01,559 Speaker 1: settled on the most technology six five O two chip. 129 00:08:01,960 --> 00:08:05,440 Speaker 1: And to be fair, I say CPU CPU is being 130 00:08:05,520 --> 00:08:09,280 Speaker 1: very generous for these video game consoles, but it was 131 00:08:09,320 --> 00:08:12,960 Speaker 1: serving that purpose. Now. The six two chip was not 132 00:08:13,160 --> 00:08:17,240 Speaker 1: particularly powerful, it's an eight bit processor, but Miner's design 133 00:08:17,320 --> 00:08:20,200 Speaker 1: got the most out of its capabilities and made the 134 00:08:20,280 --> 00:08:25,280 Speaker 1: VCS a viable product. Not just viable, it became the 135 00:08:25,480 --> 00:08:29,760 Speaker 1: runaway success of the late nineteen seventies. The at E 136 00:08:29,840 --> 00:08:34,360 Speaker 1: vcs would debut in nineteen and by the next year 137 00:08:34,559 --> 00:08:38,920 Speaker 1: it was already they must have item on everyone's list. 138 00:08:39,280 --> 00:08:42,719 Speaker 1: J Minor would move on to design new products for 139 00:08:42,800 --> 00:08:46,120 Speaker 1: at riis uh line, and this time they were was 140 00:08:46,120 --> 00:08:49,520 Speaker 1: focusing on personal computers, which were also emerging at this time. 141 00:08:49,559 --> 00:08:53,840 Speaker 1: In nine there are only a few personal computers that 142 00:08:53,880 --> 00:08:56,840 Speaker 1: were available on the market outside of the kits that 143 00:08:56,920 --> 00:08:59,560 Speaker 1: you could purchase to put to your own computer together. 144 00:09:00,120 --> 00:09:04,080 Speaker 1: So Apple had been founded in nineteen and had introduced 145 00:09:04,120 --> 00:09:08,160 Speaker 1: the Apple two in nine at Radio Shack Slash Tandy 146 00:09:08,240 --> 00:09:11,880 Speaker 1: had the TRS eighty and seventy seven, Commodore had the 147 00:09:11,920 --> 00:09:15,800 Speaker 1: PET or PET did not yet have the Commodore sixty 148 00:09:15,800 --> 00:09:19,839 Speaker 1: four that would come later. Digital Research had created the 149 00:09:20,080 --> 00:09:25,800 Speaker 1: CP slash M Operating Systems style UH interface, which Bill 150 00:09:25,800 --> 00:09:29,360 Speaker 1: Gates would later leverage when his company would create MS DOSS. 151 00:09:29,800 --> 00:09:32,320 Speaker 1: But no one knew where the industry was going yet. 152 00:09:32,600 --> 00:09:36,960 Speaker 1: It was slowly transitioning from the realm of hobbyists and 153 00:09:37,040 --> 00:09:41,839 Speaker 1: bleeding edge adopters to mainstream consumers. J Minor would use 154 00:09:41,840 --> 00:09:44,800 Speaker 1: the six five O two chip as the main microprocessor 155 00:09:44,920 --> 00:09:47,920 Speaker 1: for a pair of computers from Matari. They were the 156 00:09:48,000 --> 00:09:51,240 Speaker 1: four hundred and the eight hundred, and as you might guess, 157 00:09:51,280 --> 00:09:54,240 Speaker 1: the eight hundred was a more powerful computer than the 158 00:09:54,280 --> 00:09:57,440 Speaker 1: four hundred. The Atari computers could display a maximum of 159 00:09:57,520 --> 00:10:02,160 Speaker 1: forty colors on a screen simultaneously, which today obviously is nothing, 160 00:10:02,240 --> 00:10:05,600 Speaker 1: but back then it left the nearest competitor, which would 161 00:10:05,600 --> 00:10:08,640 Speaker 1: have been Apple at that time, in the dust. J 162 00:10:08,840 --> 00:10:12,720 Speaker 1: Minor designed chips to handle sound and graphics as well, 163 00:10:13,280 --> 00:10:16,800 Speaker 1: something that would foreshadow a future era of expansion cards. 164 00:10:17,120 --> 00:10:19,559 Speaker 1: They were meant to do the same thing that one 165 00:10:19,760 --> 00:10:24,960 Speaker 1: really take effect until the nineties. In Nolan Bush Now 166 00:10:25,080 --> 00:10:30,000 Speaker 1: sold his company to Warner Communications. Ray Cassar, the new 167 00:10:30,120 --> 00:10:34,040 Speaker 1: CEO of Atari, would clash with the company's programmers in 168 00:10:34,040 --> 00:10:36,680 Speaker 1: a big way. The programmers wanted to share in the 169 00:10:36,720 --> 00:10:41,679 Speaker 1: success of their work. They wanted royalties, but ray Cassar refused, 170 00:10:41,960 --> 00:10:45,280 Speaker 1: and in addition, Atari chose to write off the costs 171 00:10:45,400 --> 00:10:48,679 Speaker 1: of developing the four hundred and the eight hundred systems 172 00:10:49,360 --> 00:10:53,200 Speaker 1: up front, so all the costs of developing went right 173 00:10:53,240 --> 00:10:56,960 Speaker 1: into the budget at the front of it, instead of 174 00:10:56,960 --> 00:10:59,280 Speaker 1: being distributed across the lifetime of the four hundred and 175 00:10:59,320 --> 00:11:02,360 Speaker 1: the eight hundred. That meant that on the books, it 176 00:11:02,440 --> 00:11:05,320 Speaker 1: looked like the company had not met its profit goals 177 00:11:05,840 --> 00:11:08,959 Speaker 1: and because of that, it was not going to trigger 178 00:11:09,000 --> 00:11:12,079 Speaker 1: bonus payments. Programmers were not going to get paid bonuses 179 00:11:12,440 --> 00:11:16,000 Speaker 1: because at least on paper, Atari was just barely eking 180 00:11:16,000 --> 00:11:19,080 Speaker 1: out of profit, when in reality you could argue that 181 00:11:19,120 --> 00:11:22,800 Speaker 1: it's because they frontloaded all of the development costs. At 182 00:11:22,800 --> 00:11:27,040 Speaker 1: the very beginning of the year, some of the programmers 183 00:11:27,080 --> 00:11:30,040 Speaker 1: felt that they were being cheated, that they were being abused, 184 00:11:30,080 --> 00:11:34,000 Speaker 1: and people began to leave Atari. One of those programmers 185 00:11:34,040 --> 00:11:37,199 Speaker 1: was a guy named Larry Kaplan, and he will also 186 00:11:37,280 --> 00:11:39,720 Speaker 1: become very important in the Amiga story in just a moment. 187 00:11:40,200 --> 00:11:43,160 Speaker 1: But upon the four hundred and eight hundred release, Atari 188 00:11:43,240 --> 00:11:46,400 Speaker 1: did something a little weird. The computers, which were capable 189 00:11:46,440 --> 00:11:50,160 Speaker 1: of playing pretty neat games for that era, were not 190 00:11:50,400 --> 00:11:54,200 Speaker 1: marketed as multi purpose machines that could do gaming because 191 00:11:54,240 --> 00:11:58,320 Speaker 1: Atari did not want to cannibalize their console sales, and 192 00:11:58,360 --> 00:12:00,559 Speaker 1: so the four hundred and eight hundred were keted as 193 00:12:00,679 --> 00:12:05,080 Speaker 1: serious machines meant for serious stuff like business and academics. 194 00:12:05,720 --> 00:12:08,480 Speaker 1: Despite limiting the marketing reach for the product, the computer 195 00:12:08,520 --> 00:12:11,800 Speaker 1: models sold pretty well. And here's a fun fact. The 196 00:12:11,840 --> 00:12:15,200 Speaker 1: Atari four D PC would serve as the innards for 197 00:12:15,240 --> 00:12:19,880 Speaker 1: ataris fifty two hundred console, the successor to the A twenty. Sure, 198 00:12:20,240 --> 00:12:22,520 Speaker 1: but the software written for the two platforms was not 199 00:12:22,800 --> 00:12:26,360 Speaker 1: really compatible. All right, I've got more to say about 200 00:12:26,520 --> 00:12:30,840 Speaker 1: the era that would launch the Amiga, but first let's 201 00:12:30,840 --> 00:12:40,880 Speaker 1: take a quick break to thank our sponsor. After the 202 00:12:40,920 --> 00:12:44,080 Speaker 1: four hundred and the eight hundred, j Minor wanted to 203 00:12:44,120 --> 00:12:47,559 Speaker 1: move forward and really had his eye on a different microprocessor, 204 00:12:47,679 --> 00:12:51,000 Speaker 1: and this one was from Motorola, not most technologies. It 205 00:12:51,120 --> 00:12:54,320 Speaker 1: was the sixty eight thousand, So the six five oh 206 00:12:54,400 --> 00:12:56,839 Speaker 1: two was an eight bit micro processor, but the sixty 207 00:12:56,920 --> 00:12:59,920 Speaker 1: eight thousand was a sixteen slash thirty two bit Mike 208 00:13:00,000 --> 00:13:03,520 Speaker 1: grow processor, meaning it could handle much more complicated processes 209 00:13:03,600 --> 00:13:06,200 Speaker 1: than the six five oh two, and it was being 210 00:13:06,280 --> 00:13:08,960 Speaker 1: used in micro computers and would become the chip that 211 00:13:08,960 --> 00:13:12,960 Speaker 1: would power Apple's Macintosh in the mid nineteen eighties. So 212 00:13:13,040 --> 00:13:16,480 Speaker 1: J Miner pitched a computer system to Atari management that 213 00:13:16,559 --> 00:13:19,080 Speaker 1: would rely on the sixty eight thousand chip. It would 214 00:13:19,080 --> 00:13:22,840 Speaker 1: be the most advanced computer, especially in terms of graphics 215 00:13:22,880 --> 00:13:26,400 Speaker 1: and sound systems. It would be able to play incredible games, 216 00:13:27,160 --> 00:13:32,080 Speaker 1: but Attari management shut him down. In addition, Attari was 217 00:13:32,200 --> 00:13:34,600 Speaker 1: starting to do the same thing to engineers that it 218 00:13:34,600 --> 00:13:38,040 Speaker 1: had done to programmers previously, meaning the company was refusing 219 00:13:38,040 --> 00:13:40,840 Speaker 1: to pay out bonuses, and J. Minor did not want 220 00:13:40,880 --> 00:13:43,480 Speaker 1: to keep doing the same thing, that is, designing systems 221 00:13:43,520 --> 00:13:46,360 Speaker 1: for the six five oh two, and he was frustrated 222 00:13:46,440 --> 00:13:49,160 Speaker 1: his voice wasn't being heard. He felt that the company 223 00:13:49,240 --> 00:13:51,640 Speaker 1: wasn't valuing his work. He didn't like the fact that 224 00:13:51,679 --> 00:13:53,920 Speaker 1: he wasn't gonna get paid his bonus, so he decided 225 00:13:54,080 --> 00:13:56,480 Speaker 1: to put on his walk and shoes and he left 226 00:13:56,520 --> 00:14:00,840 Speaker 1: the company. So after he left Atari, j Minor joined 227 00:14:00,880 --> 00:14:06,240 Speaker 1: another company called z Mast. This company made special microprocessor 228 00:14:06,360 --> 00:14:10,160 Speaker 1: chips for specific types of products, and the specific type 229 00:14:10,160 --> 00:14:13,680 Speaker 1: of product that Minor worked on were pacemakers. So he 230 00:14:13,720 --> 00:14:16,120 Speaker 1: worked with z Mast for three years and in nineteen 231 00:14:16,200 --> 00:14:20,320 Speaker 1: eight two he got a call from Larry Caplan and 232 00:14:20,360 --> 00:14:23,400 Speaker 1: that was that Atari programmer I had mentioned earlier who 233 00:14:23,440 --> 00:14:26,800 Speaker 1: had left Atari in a huff in nineteen seventy nine. 234 00:14:27,200 --> 00:14:30,280 Speaker 1: After Atari, Larry Caplan had gone on to join a 235 00:14:30,360 --> 00:14:33,760 Speaker 1: brand new company called Activision. In fact, he joined so 236 00:14:33,840 --> 00:14:38,000 Speaker 1: early that typically we call him a co founder of Activision, 237 00:14:38,520 --> 00:14:42,880 Speaker 1: although Encyclopedia Britannica actually says that he was not a 238 00:14:42,880 --> 00:14:45,720 Speaker 1: true co founder but joined shortly after the founding of 239 00:14:45,720 --> 00:14:48,920 Speaker 1: the company. But he helped define that company. And I'll 240 00:14:48,920 --> 00:14:52,000 Speaker 1: have to do a full episode or maybe a short 241 00:14:52,040 --> 00:14:56,000 Speaker 1: series of episodes about Activision someday, because that company has 242 00:14:56,040 --> 00:14:58,760 Speaker 1: continued to be incredibly important in the video game world. 243 00:14:59,360 --> 00:15:03,000 Speaker 1: But the original incarnation of Activision was meant to be 244 00:15:03,040 --> 00:15:06,040 Speaker 1: a place where developers would get recognition for their work, 245 00:15:06,520 --> 00:15:13,120 Speaker 1: including getting credited on game boxes and receiving royalties as 246 00:15:13,200 --> 00:15:15,720 Speaker 1: a result of good sales for their titles. And these 247 00:15:15,720 --> 00:15:20,120 Speaker 1: are good things, but Larry Kaplan got disenchanted with this 248 00:15:20,200 --> 00:15:23,640 Speaker 1: company in nineteen eighty two. He wanted to go into 249 00:15:23,680 --> 00:15:28,720 Speaker 1: developing some hardware, but Activision did not the other exact 250 00:15:29,080 --> 00:15:31,160 Speaker 1: Activision did not want to go in that direction. They 251 00:15:31,160 --> 00:15:34,760 Speaker 1: wanted to focus solely on developing game titles, and so 252 00:15:34,880 --> 00:15:37,600 Speaker 1: Kaplan would leave the company that he had joined in 253 00:15:37,680 --> 00:15:40,400 Speaker 1: nineteen seventy nine, and he reached out to J. Minor 254 00:15:40,680 --> 00:15:42,560 Speaker 1: to see if Minor knew of anyone who might help 255 00:15:42,640 --> 00:15:45,880 Speaker 1: him get funding to get a new business off the ground. 256 00:15:46,440 --> 00:15:50,600 Speaker 1: So J Minor takes Larry Caplan's call and he introduces 257 00:15:50,680 --> 00:15:54,760 Speaker 1: Kaplan to his own boss, Bert Braddock over at Z 258 00:15:54,920 --> 00:15:58,320 Speaker 1: Mast and together these three began to put together a 259 00:15:58,360 --> 00:16:01,840 Speaker 1: plan for Larry Caplan's new business venture. They got an 260 00:16:01,880 --> 00:16:05,680 Speaker 1: office in Santa Clara, California. They hired away a vice 261 00:16:05,720 --> 00:16:08,720 Speaker 1: president over at Tonka Toys to be the CEO of 262 00:16:08,720 --> 00:16:12,720 Speaker 1: this new company, and the plan was that J. Minor 263 00:16:12,720 --> 00:16:17,520 Speaker 1: would design chips for the hardware. Z Mask would take 264 00:16:17,560 --> 00:16:21,160 Speaker 1: the designs and build those chips, and Larry Kaplan would 265 00:16:21,200 --> 00:16:24,360 Speaker 1: design games to run on that hardware, and this is 266 00:16:24,560 --> 00:16:27,000 Speaker 1: the business they would form. They have some sort of 267 00:16:27,320 --> 00:16:30,640 Speaker 1: video game console or computer business and they would all 268 00:16:30,680 --> 00:16:34,080 Speaker 1: work and make money from it. They were originally called 269 00:16:34,120 --> 00:16:38,040 Speaker 1: this venture High Toro uh or really it was just 270 00:16:38,160 --> 00:16:41,240 Speaker 1: High Toro, I guess, because they thought it sounded kind 271 00:16:41,280 --> 00:16:42,920 Speaker 1: of like a high tech company, and also it sort 272 00:16:42,920 --> 00:16:45,360 Speaker 1: of paid tribute to being a company born out of Texas. 273 00:16:45,920 --> 00:16:48,880 Speaker 1: But this process was going to take some time putting 274 00:16:48,920 --> 00:16:52,200 Speaker 1: all this business together, and while they were working on it, 275 00:16:52,280 --> 00:16:54,600 Speaker 1: Larry Kaplan, the guy who was asking for this in 276 00:16:54,640 --> 00:16:57,680 Speaker 1: the first place, started to get cold feet. He might 277 00:16:57,720 --> 00:17:01,040 Speaker 1: have worried that maybe the base was getting way too 278 00:17:01,040 --> 00:17:05,920 Speaker 1: competitive in creating hardware for the video game world. Maybe 279 00:17:06,000 --> 00:17:10,040 Speaker 1: he was worried about the prospects of this business being 280 00:17:10,040 --> 00:17:13,320 Speaker 1: able to hold its own. But for whatever reason, in 281 00:17:13,440 --> 00:17:16,600 Speaker 1: late nine two he bailed on the whole plan. Not 282 00:17:16,600 --> 00:17:19,359 Speaker 1: only that, but he decided to return to Atari, the 283 00:17:19,440 --> 00:17:23,639 Speaker 1: company he had quit three years earlier, and apparently Nolan 284 00:17:23,680 --> 00:17:27,119 Speaker 1: Bushnell had presented a very attractive offer. So Larry Kaplan 285 00:17:27,200 --> 00:17:30,359 Speaker 1: was out, and that left j Minor and z Mast 286 00:17:30,480 --> 00:17:34,240 Speaker 1: holding the ball. So Minor was asked to serve as 287 00:17:34,240 --> 00:17:37,439 Speaker 1: the chief engineer for High Toro, and he agreed to 288 00:17:37,480 --> 00:17:41,560 Speaker 1: do it under two important conditions. The first was that 289 00:17:41,600 --> 00:17:45,199 Speaker 1: he wanted to create a video game machine around the 290 00:17:45,240 --> 00:17:49,000 Speaker 1: sixty eight thousand Motorola chip, and the second was that 291 00:17:49,080 --> 00:17:52,360 Speaker 1: the video game machine should also be a computer, not 292 00:17:52,440 --> 00:17:55,800 Speaker 1: just a video game console. Now, this was in late 293 00:17:55,920 --> 00:17:59,399 Speaker 1: nine two, and the landscape was very different from what 294 00:17:59,480 --> 00:18:03,960 Speaker 1: it would be in just one year. In late video 295 00:18:04,000 --> 00:18:08,280 Speaker 1: game consoles were seen as money printing devices. There was 296 00:18:08,320 --> 00:18:12,040 Speaker 1: just a ton of cash in video games. Companies were 297 00:18:12,320 --> 00:18:15,320 Speaker 1: rolling in it, and everyone at the time was convinced 298 00:18:15,320 --> 00:18:18,600 Speaker 1: that the party was never going to stop. So investors 299 00:18:18,600 --> 00:18:21,560 Speaker 1: were willing to get behind something like a video game console. 300 00:18:22,080 --> 00:18:25,200 Speaker 1: But personal computers, on the other hand, were still seen 301 00:18:25,280 --> 00:18:29,240 Speaker 1: as a luxury product that very few people owned. Investors 302 00:18:29,240 --> 00:18:33,720 Speaker 1: were less keen to get behind those products, so the 303 00:18:33,760 --> 00:18:38,639 Speaker 1: company decided. High Toro decided that the wisest decision was 304 00:18:38,720 --> 00:18:43,119 Speaker 1: to hitch High Toro first as a video game console company, 305 00:18:43,160 --> 00:18:45,880 Speaker 1: that the product they were making was a video game console, 306 00:18:46,240 --> 00:18:49,679 Speaker 1: and then just kind of hide or ignore all the 307 00:18:49,680 --> 00:18:53,360 Speaker 1: computer elements when it came to trying to get investors. 308 00:18:54,119 --> 00:18:57,879 Speaker 1: J Minor had one standard that he personally wanted to 309 00:18:57,920 --> 00:19:00,720 Speaker 1: meet with this new machine. He wanted make a personal 310 00:19:00,760 --> 00:19:03,680 Speaker 1: computer that would be capable of running a really good 311 00:19:03,720 --> 00:19:06,359 Speaker 1: flight simulator on it. He had a friend named al 312 00:19:06,480 --> 00:19:09,879 Speaker 1: Pound at a company called Singer Link who had shown 313 00:19:09,920 --> 00:19:14,040 Speaker 1: Minor military grade flight simulators, and Minor thought these things 314 00:19:14,040 --> 00:19:16,440 Speaker 1: were amazing, So he wanted to create a machine that 315 00:19:16,480 --> 00:19:19,800 Speaker 1: could run something like that on your desktop without having 316 00:19:19,840 --> 00:19:22,840 Speaker 1: to have the multimillion dollar equipment to do it. Now, 317 00:19:22,920 --> 00:19:26,080 Speaker 1: that meant that Minor needed to build out a computer 318 00:19:26,200 --> 00:19:28,679 Speaker 1: that could be both a stripped down video game machine 319 00:19:28,800 --> 00:19:32,960 Speaker 1: and expandable into a high performance computer. Now. J. Minor 320 00:19:33,080 --> 00:19:36,359 Speaker 1: was a bit frustrated that they weren't just taking the 321 00:19:36,440 --> 00:19:40,119 Speaker 1: kid gloves off and going toe to toe with IBM, 322 00:19:40,160 --> 00:19:42,840 Speaker 1: because IBM was just at this point trying to get 323 00:19:42,960 --> 00:19:47,640 Speaker 1: established in the home computer space. They had dominated in business, 324 00:19:48,000 --> 00:19:51,920 Speaker 1: but we're just starting to get into home computers, and 325 00:19:52,200 --> 00:19:55,440 Speaker 1: Minor thought we actually have the opportunity here to take 326 00:19:55,520 --> 00:20:00,640 Speaker 1: the lead. However, the general thought was that video games 327 00:20:00,640 --> 00:20:02,840 Speaker 1: were where the money was, and that was better to 328 00:20:02,880 --> 00:20:05,680 Speaker 1: focus on that part of the market and to let 329 00:20:05,720 --> 00:20:08,880 Speaker 1: the computer stuff come later. J Minor would eventually say 330 00:20:09,119 --> 00:20:11,640 Speaker 1: that was probably the right decision for the time, just 331 00:20:11,680 --> 00:20:13,960 Speaker 1: because it would have been very difficult to get the 332 00:20:14,000 --> 00:20:19,199 Speaker 1: financing the investment for going after IBM, but he still 333 00:20:19,240 --> 00:20:21,159 Speaker 1: said he was sad that they were never able to 334 00:20:21,240 --> 00:20:23,960 Speaker 1: jump on that because the IBM PC when it came out, 335 00:20:24,000 --> 00:20:27,159 Speaker 1: it was monochromatic, it was crazy expensive, it had limitations 336 00:20:27,160 --> 00:20:30,320 Speaker 1: on memory. These were all areas that miners saw as 337 00:20:30,359 --> 00:20:34,320 Speaker 1: opportunities for them to take over, but it was just 338 00:20:34,359 --> 00:20:38,720 Speaker 1: not meant to be from an investment standpoint. So they 339 00:20:38,760 --> 00:20:43,200 Speaker 1: decided to divide operations for High Toro into two big categories, 340 00:20:43,320 --> 00:20:45,639 Speaker 1: and J Minor would head one side, which would be 341 00:20:45,640 --> 00:20:49,960 Speaker 1: the chip designers and engineers the hardware experts, and they 342 00:20:50,000 --> 00:20:52,919 Speaker 1: began working on prototypes for chips to go in this 343 00:20:53,240 --> 00:20:56,760 Speaker 1: future computer, and they didn't have a way to fabricate 344 00:20:57,200 --> 00:20:59,320 Speaker 1: chips to test their designs in a way that was 345 00:20:59,359 --> 00:21:04,000 Speaker 1: economically feasible, so instead they first would sketch their designs 346 00:21:04,000 --> 00:21:06,520 Speaker 1: out on white boards, and then they would move to 347 00:21:06,640 --> 00:21:09,800 Speaker 1: build prototypes on bread boards more and that in a 348 00:21:09,840 --> 00:21:12,679 Speaker 1: little bit. The other side of the operations was a 349 00:21:12,760 --> 00:21:16,000 Speaker 1: video game centric part of the business. The company would 350 00:21:16,040 --> 00:21:20,080 Speaker 1: make peripherals for existing systems from other companies, namely the AT, 351 00:21:21,560 --> 00:21:24,560 Speaker 1: and they would make video games for those systems as well, 352 00:21:24,800 --> 00:21:27,360 Speaker 1: and this served a couple of purposes. For one thing, 353 00:21:27,600 --> 00:21:30,040 Speaker 1: it brought in some revenue while the other side was 354 00:21:30,080 --> 00:21:33,000 Speaker 1: still working on getting the internal components together for their 355 00:21:33,040 --> 00:21:38,280 Speaker 1: future video game system, Slash Computer for another, and almost 356 00:21:38,359 --> 00:21:41,960 Speaker 1: acted like a front for the business. C. J. Minor 357 00:21:42,160 --> 00:21:44,840 Speaker 1: was really worried that if other companies had heard that 358 00:21:44,920 --> 00:21:47,959 Speaker 1: he was working on a new personal computer design, they 359 00:21:48,040 --> 00:21:50,879 Speaker 1: might try to do some industrial espionage snoop in and 360 00:21:50,920 --> 00:21:53,119 Speaker 1: find out what was going on, and once they figured 361 00:21:53,160 --> 00:21:55,840 Speaker 1: out what J. Minor was trying to do, they might 362 00:21:55,880 --> 00:21:59,760 Speaker 1: try to rush their own projects through their own existing 363 00:22:00,000 --> 00:22:02,720 Speaker 1: companies and try to beat the fledgling company to market. 364 00:22:03,320 --> 00:22:06,399 Speaker 1: So one of the products that they made at this 365 00:22:06,440 --> 00:22:09,720 Speaker 1: time was something called the Joyboard, which looked kind of 366 00:22:09,760 --> 00:22:12,520 Speaker 1: like a foot rest, and it was actually a balance 367 00:22:12,600 --> 00:22:16,240 Speaker 1: board and a control system, so players would stand on 368 00:22:16,280 --> 00:22:19,000 Speaker 1: this thing and they would lean in order to control 369 00:22:19,040 --> 00:22:21,040 Speaker 1: a video games like leaning to the Left and make 370 00:22:21,040 --> 00:22:23,440 Speaker 1: your character go to the left. And they actually made 371 00:22:23,440 --> 00:22:26,560 Speaker 1: a few games like skiing games and stuff that would 372 00:22:26,680 --> 00:22:32,399 Speaker 1: use this control system shortly after becoming a company to 373 00:22:33,080 --> 00:22:38,199 Speaker 1: really big things would change everything. I'll explain more in 374 00:22:38,240 --> 00:22:40,399 Speaker 1: a second, but first let's take another quick break to 375 00:22:40,480 --> 00:22:50,960 Speaker 1: thank our sponsor. The first thing that changed was that 376 00:22:51,000 --> 00:22:54,600 Speaker 1: the company Hi Toro had to swap out its name 377 00:22:54,760 --> 00:22:58,040 Speaker 1: because there already was a Japanese lawnmower company called Hi Toro, 378 00:22:58,200 --> 00:23:00,479 Speaker 1: and they didn't want to be confused with it, so 379 00:23:00,600 --> 00:23:04,360 Speaker 1: they got the brainstorming a new name for this company. 380 00:23:04,760 --> 00:23:09,120 Speaker 1: Minor reportedly suggested they use Amiga, which is the feminine 381 00:23:09,280 --> 00:23:13,240 Speaker 1: version of the Spanish word for friend, amigo. So he 382 00:23:13,320 --> 00:23:18,600 Speaker 1: supposedly suggested this, but also did not actually like the suggestion. 383 00:23:18,680 --> 00:23:21,680 Speaker 1: It was one of those things the kind of said 384 00:23:21,680 --> 00:23:23,959 Speaker 1: but what didn't really have a whole lot of feeling behind. 385 00:23:24,320 --> 00:23:26,439 Speaker 1: But no one could come up with anything better, so 386 00:23:26,480 --> 00:23:29,240 Speaker 1: they stuck with it. They made a few games for 387 00:23:29,280 --> 00:23:33,600 Speaker 1: the A under this company name, and they made some 388 00:23:33,680 --> 00:23:36,160 Speaker 1: peripherals for the video game industry, but that only worked 389 00:23:36,200 --> 00:23:39,080 Speaker 1: for a short time. And the reason I say this 390 00:23:39,800 --> 00:23:44,520 Speaker 1: is because in just a few months after the company 391 00:23:44,600 --> 00:23:48,760 Speaker 1: had been coming together in the first place, the bottom 392 00:23:48,760 --> 00:23:51,720 Speaker 1: fell out of the home video game market. This was 393 00:23:51,760 --> 00:23:56,280 Speaker 1: the infamous video game crash of nine eight three, and 394 00:23:56,320 --> 00:24:00,159 Speaker 1: I've done full episodes about this, so I'm just they 395 00:24:00,160 --> 00:24:04,040 Speaker 1: have a super short overview here to explain what happened 396 00:24:04,520 --> 00:24:08,320 Speaker 1: leading up to There were a ton of companies. They 397 00:24:08,359 --> 00:24:12,240 Speaker 1: were all in the home video game space. You had 398 00:24:12,400 --> 00:24:15,359 Speaker 1: console companies, you had in television, you had Atari, you 399 00:24:15,400 --> 00:24:19,320 Speaker 1: had Colleco and others that were all creating video game consoles. 400 00:24:19,720 --> 00:24:23,560 Speaker 1: You had tons of third party game developers of varying 401 00:24:23,600 --> 00:24:27,680 Speaker 1: degrees of skill and business sense making games for these systems. 402 00:24:28,280 --> 00:24:31,240 Speaker 1: And then you had executives who behaved as if video 403 00:24:31,240 --> 00:24:34,000 Speaker 1: games were always going to be a gravy train, and 404 00:24:34,520 --> 00:24:39,880 Speaker 1: in some cases they were making truly astoundingly dumb decisions, 405 00:24:39,920 --> 00:24:43,560 Speaker 1: such as making more copies of a game than there 406 00:24:43,560 --> 00:24:46,880 Speaker 1: were consoles out on the market. If you have five 407 00:24:47,000 --> 00:24:49,800 Speaker 1: hundred thousand consoles out on the market and you make 408 00:24:49,840 --> 00:24:53,440 Speaker 1: a million copies of a game, that's five thousand extra 409 00:24:53,520 --> 00:24:56,800 Speaker 1: copies that don't go anywhere. So this all came to 410 00:24:56,880 --> 00:25:00,480 Speaker 1: a head in three and eventually the market lapsed in 411 00:25:00,520 --> 00:25:05,639 Speaker 1: on itself. It could not sustain this sort of activity. 412 00:25:05,800 --> 00:25:09,439 Speaker 1: The video game crash had an enormous effect on the 413 00:25:09,480 --> 00:25:12,439 Speaker 1: company that was just about to become a Mega. It 414 00:25:12,520 --> 00:25:15,720 Speaker 1: was making that transition from Hi Toro to Amiga. Video 415 00:25:15,720 --> 00:25:19,160 Speaker 1: game companies were folding left and right. Companies like Atari, 416 00:25:19,200 --> 00:25:24,520 Speaker 1: which had been really cash rich just a couple of 417 00:25:24,600 --> 00:25:28,720 Speaker 1: years earlier, now found themselves over extended and in possession 418 00:25:28,800 --> 00:25:32,600 Speaker 1: of massive inventory that they could not move, and Amiga's 419 00:25:32,600 --> 00:25:37,320 Speaker 1: business of selling to that industry was pretty much wiped out. Moreover, 420 00:25:37,640 --> 00:25:41,080 Speaker 1: investors were now terrified at the thought of backing a 421 00:25:41,200 --> 00:25:47,680 Speaker 1: video game console, so in J Minor was told, we 422 00:25:47,720 --> 00:25:50,159 Speaker 1: have to market this as a video game console first 423 00:25:50,200 --> 00:25:53,280 Speaker 1: and ignore the fact that it's a computer, because otherwise 424 00:25:53,280 --> 00:25:56,920 Speaker 1: no one's going to put money behind it. The same 425 00:25:56,960 --> 00:26:00,479 Speaker 1: investors who were gung ho on supporting a video game console, 426 00:26:00,600 --> 00:26:04,040 Speaker 1: now we're terrified. So they asked, hey, do you think 427 00:26:04,080 --> 00:26:06,760 Speaker 1: maybe you could take this thing you're designing and instead 428 00:26:06,800 --> 00:26:09,640 Speaker 1: of making it a video game console, could you upgrade 429 00:26:09,640 --> 00:26:12,359 Speaker 1: it so it's a personal computer. Well, that's what J. 430 00:26:12,520 --> 00:26:15,879 Speaker 1: Minor hadn't mind all along, and in fact what he 431 00:26:15,920 --> 00:26:18,359 Speaker 1: had been working on, so it suited him just fine. 432 00:26:18,920 --> 00:26:22,680 Speaker 1: It validated his arguments, and the team continued to focus 433 00:26:23,000 --> 00:26:25,280 Speaker 1: on building out the chips that would go into the 434 00:26:25,359 --> 00:26:28,879 Speaker 1: first Amiga computer. Dave Morse, who was the CEO of 435 00:26:28,920 --> 00:26:31,760 Speaker 1: the company, decided that the chips all needed to have 436 00:26:31,960 --> 00:26:36,000 Speaker 1: code names, which would protect the company's intellectual property. Anyone 437 00:26:36,320 --> 00:26:41,080 Speaker 1: overhearing the employees talking about these chips would just hear 438 00:26:41,400 --> 00:26:43,720 Speaker 1: the code names and not instead of whatever the chips 439 00:26:43,760 --> 00:26:46,800 Speaker 1: actually were. So he decided that all the chips should 440 00:26:46,840 --> 00:26:50,520 Speaker 1: be given women's names. So the three major chips in 441 00:26:50,600 --> 00:26:55,760 Speaker 1: the Amiga chips set were called Agnes, Denise, and Paula. 442 00:26:56,200 --> 00:26:59,800 Speaker 1: The computer's code name was Lorraine, so you had a 443 00:27:00,080 --> 00:27:02,880 Speaker 1: rain the computer with Agnes, de Nice and Paula as 444 00:27:02,880 --> 00:27:07,040 Speaker 1: the chips. The design team held frequent meetings and everyone 445 00:27:07,119 --> 00:27:09,639 Speaker 1: was free to pitch ideas at those meetings, arguing for 446 00:27:09,680 --> 00:27:12,280 Speaker 1: features they felt should be included in the chips set. 447 00:27:12,720 --> 00:27:17,280 Speaker 1: To reach a consensus, the team instituted an unusual practice 448 00:27:17,680 --> 00:27:20,960 Speaker 1: involving toy baseball bats made of foam, so if you 449 00:27:21,040 --> 00:27:24,720 Speaker 1: pitched an idea and people didn't like it, they bat 450 00:27:24,880 --> 00:27:27,479 Speaker 1: you over the head with the bats. They just hit 451 00:27:27,560 --> 00:27:30,159 Speaker 1: you with these foam baseball bats. It was harmless, but 452 00:27:30,200 --> 00:27:34,439 Speaker 1: according to j Minor, it was a humiliating experience. Minor 453 00:27:34,480 --> 00:27:38,159 Speaker 1: had read about and taken a course in a special 454 00:27:38,200 --> 00:27:42,000 Speaker 1: type of co processor called a blitter, also known as 455 00:27:42,000 --> 00:27:45,840 Speaker 1: a blitter circuit. A blitter, which is b L I 456 00:27:46,080 --> 00:27:49,760 Speaker 1: T T e R, can manipulate and move data inside 457 00:27:49,760 --> 00:27:53,880 Speaker 1: a computer's memory quickly without having to text the CPU, 458 00:27:54,280 --> 00:27:57,080 Speaker 1: so it works in parallel with the CPU. It can 459 00:27:57,080 --> 00:27:59,280 Speaker 1: copy data from one block of memory, can move it 460 00:27:59,280 --> 00:28:01,440 Speaker 1: to where it needs to be, and the CPU can 461 00:28:01,480 --> 00:28:04,200 Speaker 1: just continue its own operations without having to expend any 462 00:28:04,200 --> 00:28:08,040 Speaker 1: resources to do this. And this blitter would allow the 463 00:28:08,080 --> 00:28:12,000 Speaker 1: Amiga to handle much more advanced graphics without overtaxing the 464 00:28:12,040 --> 00:28:15,879 Speaker 1: CPU compared to other computers on the market. Minor also 465 00:28:16,880 --> 00:28:20,040 Speaker 1: ended up working on a design for what was called 466 00:28:20,080 --> 00:28:23,960 Speaker 1: a hold and Modify mode or HAM mode h a M. 467 00:28:24,600 --> 00:28:27,760 Speaker 1: This was a way to kind of trick the system 468 00:28:27,760 --> 00:28:31,159 Speaker 1: into showing more colors on screen than it was technically 469 00:28:31,200 --> 00:28:33,800 Speaker 1: capable of doing, just based on the amount of memory 470 00:28:33,920 --> 00:28:37,240 Speaker 1: in the machine. So the memory served as a limitation, 471 00:28:37,320 --> 00:28:41,040 Speaker 1: a limiting factor. You couldn't show too many colors because 472 00:28:41,520 --> 00:28:45,400 Speaker 1: the amount of information you needed to represent the colors, hue, 473 00:28:45,880 --> 00:28:50,640 Speaker 1: its brightness, it's you know, it's opaqueness, all of those things. 474 00:28:51,240 --> 00:28:55,440 Speaker 1: Those values would take up memory space, and memory was expensive, 475 00:28:55,840 --> 00:28:59,800 Speaker 1: so to keep costs down and maximize efficiency, Minor and 476 00:28:59,880 --> 00:29:02,360 Speaker 1: his team started to work on this design, and HAM 477 00:29:02,440 --> 00:29:05,600 Speaker 1: mode would allow programmers to designate a line of pixels 478 00:29:05,880 --> 00:29:08,520 Speaker 1: as a single color and then make changes to just 479 00:29:08,720 --> 00:29:12,400 Speaker 1: one of the three properties that define that color, as 480 00:29:12,400 --> 00:29:16,959 Speaker 1: in hue, saturation, or luminosity. In this mode, the Amiga 481 00:29:17,000 --> 00:29:21,120 Speaker 1: computer would be able to display four thousand, nineties six colors, 482 00:29:21,400 --> 00:29:25,360 Speaker 1: which was light years ahead of the competition. They also 483 00:29:25,400 --> 00:29:28,320 Speaker 1: designed what they called the Copper chip. This chip had 484 00:29:28,360 --> 00:29:30,959 Speaker 1: three different instructions on it, all in order to exert 485 00:29:31,000 --> 00:29:34,160 Speaker 1: direct control of the computer's display, and the chip could 486 00:29:34,240 --> 00:29:37,400 Speaker 1: also access any part of the other display chips. It 487 00:29:37,440 --> 00:29:40,360 Speaker 1: would allow the Amiga to have multiple windows open side 488 00:29:40,360 --> 00:29:43,680 Speaker 1: by side at once, even when each window had contents 489 00:29:43,760 --> 00:29:48,840 Speaker 1: displaying at different resolutions, which is pretty phenomenal. The chip 490 00:29:48,920 --> 00:29:52,440 Speaker 1: code named AGNES, would contain the blitter and copper chips 491 00:29:52,480 --> 00:29:54,520 Speaker 1: and was in charge of handling direct access to the 492 00:29:54,560 --> 00:29:59,200 Speaker 1: computer's memory. Denise was a display chip that would produce sprites, 493 00:29:59,520 --> 00:30:01,520 Speaker 1: and a sp it is a two dimensional object that 494 00:30:01,680 --> 00:30:06,080 Speaker 1: hardware makers can use to create a composite of the 495 00:30:06,120 --> 00:30:08,400 Speaker 1: sprite along with the background. It allows the sprite to 496 00:30:08,480 --> 00:30:11,480 Speaker 1: move across the background without the need to having to 497 00:30:11,760 --> 00:30:15,960 Speaker 1: with redraw everything every time the sprite moves. Paula's job 498 00:30:16,640 --> 00:30:20,920 Speaker 1: was as a dedicated sound generation chip. It would control 499 00:30:21,040 --> 00:30:23,760 Speaker 1: four channels of audio, two on the left stereo channel, 500 00:30:23,880 --> 00:30:26,320 Speaker 1: two on the right stereo channel. That would give the 501 00:30:26,360 --> 00:30:30,040 Speaker 1: Amiga much greater sound reproduction capability than competing computers in 502 00:30:30,080 --> 00:30:34,920 Speaker 1: the early nineties. So this design phase slowly moved from 503 00:30:34,920 --> 00:30:37,800 Speaker 1: white boards to bread boards. So now it's time to 504 00:30:37,840 --> 00:30:39,800 Speaker 1: talk about bread boards what that means, and kind of 505 00:30:39,840 --> 00:30:42,640 Speaker 1: wrap up this episode. A bread board is a base 506 00:30:42,680 --> 00:30:46,480 Speaker 1: for building circuits and electronics. Uh It was also known 507 00:30:46,520 --> 00:30:49,000 Speaker 1: as or It is also known as a plug board 508 00:30:49,120 --> 00:30:52,080 Speaker 1: because it's a board into which you can plug chips 509 00:30:52,080 --> 00:30:55,360 Speaker 1: and wires. Today's bread boards are really super nice. You 510 00:30:55,360 --> 00:30:58,560 Speaker 1: don't have to solder connections between components. You just plug 511 00:30:58,600 --> 00:31:01,320 Speaker 1: everything in and the bread board itself has a little 512 00:31:01,400 --> 00:31:05,120 Speaker 1: layer of metal on the underside that allows connections, so 513 00:31:05,240 --> 00:31:08,960 Speaker 1: you don't have to actually solder everything together. But back 514 00:31:08,960 --> 00:31:11,920 Speaker 1: in the day you did have to do soldering. The 515 00:31:11,960 --> 00:31:16,160 Speaker 1: reason why that's really important is that today, because you 516 00:31:16,160 --> 00:31:19,280 Speaker 1: don't have to solder everything, you can reuse breadboards. You 517 00:31:19,400 --> 00:31:22,560 Speaker 1: just unplugged stuff and you plug new stuff in, so 518 00:31:22,600 --> 00:31:28,160 Speaker 1: you can very rapidly test out different circuit layouts, different designs. 519 00:31:28,480 --> 00:31:33,320 Speaker 1: Breadboard circuits are much much larger than the finalized type 520 00:31:33,640 --> 00:31:36,400 Speaker 1: of circuits that make their way into electronics. It's sort 521 00:31:36,440 --> 00:31:39,520 Speaker 1: of the macro scale of what you would eventually plan 522 00:31:39,640 --> 00:31:45,239 Speaker 1: to produce. So these chips that Miners team was developing, UH, 523 00:31:45,600 --> 00:31:48,560 Speaker 1: when manufactured, they would all fit to plug into the 524 00:31:48,600 --> 00:31:51,560 Speaker 1: motherboard for the first Amiga computer, But at this time 525 00:31:51,680 --> 00:31:55,440 Speaker 1: on breadboard form, they were huge, and by huge, i'm 526 00:31:55,480 --> 00:31:59,040 Speaker 1: talking about chips that would measure several feet along one side. 527 00:31:59,760 --> 00:32:05,520 Speaker 1: Each chip would have eight bread boards connected together to 528 00:32:05,640 --> 00:32:09,400 Speaker 1: simulate what the final chip would do. So Agnes was 529 00:32:09,440 --> 00:32:13,320 Speaker 1: eight bread boards, Denise was eight bread boards, Paula was 530 00:32:13,360 --> 00:32:16,880 Speaker 1: eight bread boards. Each bread board would hold three hundred 531 00:32:17,000 --> 00:32:20,480 Speaker 1: m s I logic chips. So for all three of 532 00:32:20,520 --> 00:32:26,760 Speaker 1: the simulated chips for Agnes, for Denise, for Paula, collectively 533 00:32:26,880 --> 00:32:30,760 Speaker 1: you had seven thousand, two hundred separate logic chips for 534 00:32:30,800 --> 00:32:35,040 Speaker 1: these simulated chips, and they all had to be wired together. 535 00:32:35,160 --> 00:32:36,840 Speaker 1: All those bread boards had to be wired together, all 536 00:32:36,840 --> 00:32:39,600 Speaker 1: those components had to be wired properly. So there were 537 00:32:39,640 --> 00:32:43,560 Speaker 1: a ridiculous number of wires connecting everything and each of 538 00:32:43,600 --> 00:32:47,560 Speaker 1: those simulated chips, and as you can imagine, that made 539 00:32:47,600 --> 00:32:51,320 Speaker 1: connecting and moving the bread boards really difficult to do 540 00:32:51,440 --> 00:32:54,560 Speaker 1: because one wrong move and you would introduce a system 541 00:32:54,680 --> 00:32:58,200 Speaker 1: crashing bug by knocking loose another connection. Then you'd have 542 00:32:58,280 --> 00:33:01,960 Speaker 1: to track down which connect was loose and reconnected properly. 543 00:33:02,560 --> 00:33:05,320 Speaker 1: The team hooked up their simulated chip set to a 544 00:33:05,400 --> 00:33:08,600 Speaker 1: sixty eight thousand processor and then they fired it up 545 00:33:08,840 --> 00:33:11,680 Speaker 1: and it worked. But that was just the hardware side. 546 00:33:12,000 --> 00:33:14,600 Speaker 1: In our next episode, we'll pick up by talking about 547 00:33:14,640 --> 00:33:17,560 Speaker 1: the software that was in development to run on this 548 00:33:17,640 --> 00:33:20,360 Speaker 1: first Amiga computer, and we'll also look at how the 549 00:33:20,400 --> 00:33:24,560 Speaker 1: company nearly got swept up by Atari after finding itself 550 00:33:24,560 --> 00:33:28,320 Speaker 1: in financial trouble, and we'll learn the crazy Game of 551 00:33:28,400 --> 00:33:32,680 Speaker 1: Thrones like story involving the company Commodore as well, and 552 00:33:32,760 --> 00:33:35,840 Speaker 1: it really does get pretty crazy in the meantime, If 553 00:33:35,880 --> 00:33:38,640 Speaker 1: you have any suggestions for future episodes of Tech Stuff, 554 00:33:38,680 --> 00:33:41,440 Speaker 1: whether it's a company, a technology, a person in tech. 555 00:33:41,480 --> 00:33:43,480 Speaker 1: Maybe there's someone you want me to interview or have 556 00:33:43,600 --> 00:33:46,080 Speaker 1: on as a guest host, let me know. 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