![]() ![]() They came to the meetings to talk about the Altair 8800, to review other technical topics, and to exchange schematics and programming tips. Most of the members were hobbyists but had an electronic engineering or computer programming background. Members Club members John Draper ("Captain Crunch"), Lee Felsenstein, and Roger Melen Occasionally and variously renamed after the release of the 6800, 6809, and other microprocessors, the group continues to meet monthly in Cupertino, California. Many of the original members of the Homebrew Computer Club continue to meet (as of 2009 ), having formed the 6800 Club, named after the Motorola (now Freescale) 6800 microprocessor. The 1999 made-for-television movie Pirates of Silicon Valley (and the book on which it is based, Fire in the Valley: The Making of the Personal Computer) describes the role the Homebrew Computer Club played in creating the first personal computers, although the movie took the liberty of placing the meeting in Berkeley and misrepresented the meeting process. ![]() Its Menlo Park building is a historical landmark in 2019 the building became home to a venture capital firm, Pear Ventures. The Oasis closed on March 7, 2018, due to unaffordable rent. Piling into wooden booths with tables deeply etched with the initials of generations of Stanford students, Garland and Melen and Marsh and Felsenstein and Dompier and French and whoever else felt like showing up would get emboldened by the meeting's energy and pitchers of beer. As Steven Levy wrote about the Oasis gatherings: Others, at the suggestion of Roger Melen, convened at The Oasis, a bar and grill they considered a pub located on El Camino Real in nearby Menlo Park, recalled years later by a member as "Homebrew's other staging area". ![]() Īn anecdote from member Thomas "Todd" Fischer relates that after the more-or-less "formal" meetings the participants often reconvened for an informal, late night "swap meet" in the parking lot of the Safeway store down the road, as SLAC campus rules prohibited such activity on campus property. Subsequent meetings were held at an auditorium at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC), until 1978, when meetings moved to the Stanford Medical School. The next few meetings were held at a large home in Atherton, California, which had been used as a preschool. Steve Wozniak credits that first meeting as the inspiration to design the Apple I. The first meeting of the club was held on March 5, 1975, in French's garage in Menlo Park, San Mateo County, California, on the occasion of the arrival in the area of the first Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS) Altair 8800 microcomputer, a unit sent for review by People's Computer Company. They both were interested in maintaining a regular, open forum for people to get together to work on making computers more accessible to everyone. It was started by Gordon French and Fred Moore who met at the Community Computer Center in Menlo Park. ![]() The Homebrew Computer Club was an informal group of electronic enthusiasts and technically minded hobbyists who gathered to trade parts, circuits, and information pertaining to DIY construction of personal computing devices. History Invitation to first Homebrew Computer Club meeting, sent by Fred Moore to Steve Dompier Gordon French, Lee Felsenstein, and Harry Garland would frequent the Oasis following the formal meetings of the club. With its newsletter and monthly meetings promoting an open exchange of ideas, the club has been described as "the crucible for an entire industry" as it pertains to personal computing. Several high-profile hackers and computer entrepreneurs emerged from its ranks, including Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, the founders of Apple Computer. The club had an influential role in the development of the microcomputer revolution and the rise of that aspect of the Silicon Valley information technology industrial complex. The Homebrew Computer Club was an early computer hobbyist group in Menlo Park, California, which met from March 1975 to December 1986. He hosted the first meeting of the club in his garage, in March 1975. Gordon French, co-founder of the Homebrew Computer Club, photographed at the Living Computer Museum in 2013. JSTOR ( March 2022) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message).Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.įind sources: "Homebrew Computer Club" – news Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. This article needs additional citations for verification. ![]()
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