by chris and raymond

Apple was one of the biggest pioneers for the current technology we have today,

but to understand how we got here and why Apple was so important, we need to go through their history.

It all started in 1973, when Steve Wozniak made his own version of the video game pong and gave the electronics board to Steve Jobs,

who had later gotten a job at Atari Inc. according to Wozniak,

they only hired him because He took the board to Atari and they thought he had built it himself.

Atari's cofounder Nolan Bushnell later described him as "difficult but valuable",

pointing out that "he was very often the smartest guy in the room, and he would let people know that".

Now, before this, Jobs had gone to India which he had met a future Apple employee. There, Jobs returned to Atari in early 1975.

That summer, Bushnell assigned him to create a circuit board for the arcade video game Breakout in as few chips as possible,

knowing that Jobs would recruit Wozniak for help.

During his day job at HP, Wozniak drew sketches of the circuit design;

at night, he joined Jobs at Atari and continued to refine the design, which Jobs implemented on a breadboard.

According to Bushnell, Atari offered $100 (equivalent to about $600 in 2026) for each TTL chip that was eliminated in the machine.

Jobs made a deal with Wozniak to split the fee evenly between them if Wozniak could minimize the number of chips.

Much to the amazement of Atari engineers, within four days Wozniak reduced the TTL count to 45, far below the usual 100,

though Atari later re-engineered it to make it easier to test and add a few missing features.

According to Wozniak, Jobs told him that Atari paid them only $750 (instead of the actual $5,000), and that Wozniak's share was thus $375.

Wozniak did not learn about the actual bonus until ten years later,

but said that if Jobs had told him about it and explained that he needed the money,

Wozniak would have given it to him.

Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak attended meetings of the Homebrew Computer Club in 1975,

which was a stepping stone to the development and marketing of the first Apple computer.

According to a document released by the United States Department of Defense, Jobs claimed that in 1975,

he was arrested in Eugene, Oregon, after being questioned for being a minor in possession of alcohol.

Jobs alleged that he "didn't have any alcohol",

but police questioned him and subsequently determined that he had an outstanding arrest warrant for an unpaid speeding ticket.

Jobs claimed he then paid the $50 fine. The arrest allegedly occurred "behind a store".