Rebirth of America, this is my era

Chapter 50 A Group of Lovely People

On the surface, Nolan Bushnell's sale of Atari had nothing to do with Ethan Jones, but in fact, the involvement was very large.

For example, when Atari was in the hands of Nolan Bushnell, Ethan Jones could use the name of Stanford to bully others by using the company's name as a banner, but after Atari fell into the arms of Disney or MCA, this trick of bullying was no longer useful.

There is no need to say much about the former. No matter which era Disney is from, it is always the representative of ferocity.

Beneath that friendly appearance lies a bloodthirsty capital giant.

The latter is actually not a good person either. MCA, founded in 1924, is also a media giant today.

Universal, one of the eight major Hollywood studios, is his subsidiary.

Faced with this fact, Ethan felt that he had to withdraw after the cooperation with "Snake Game" expired.

Even if we still make arcade machines in the future, we cannot form an alliance with Atari, which is committed to a giant.

Because these guys are the kind of people who are ruthless and willful.

God knows what they will do.

Or, he even suspected that he might not be able to leave after his contract with Snake Game expired.

If those guys really bought Atari, there's no way they would leave Snake Game behind, right?
We are not fools, who can't see the value of "Snake Game"!

I will pester him to renew his contract no matter what!
"Ouch! How could something like this happen suddenly?"

Ethan was a little annoyed.

He was just about to play the role of a hunter and keep an eye on 6502, but when he turned around, someone wanted to steal his house?

Of course, despite his complaints, Ethan did not forget his business.

After quickly finishing the task at hand, he went to the phone and dialed the number given by Woz.

Then, he heard a sweet female voice. It was the staff at the switchboard.

After understanding Ethan's needs, the other party transferred his call to MOS.

The beeping sound represents a long wait, but when the phone is picked up five or six seconds later, it sounds the sound of salvation.

"Hello, MOS Tech, how can I help you?" A deep male voice entered Ethan's ears.

"Excuse me, is this Mr. Chuck Petrus?" Ethan looked at the business card in his hand.

On that blue and white piece of paper, there was a brief introduction:

Chuck Peddle, MOS Technical Engineer
Ethan's inquiry received a positive answer from the other side.

"Yes, I'm Chuck, Chuck Pete, who are you?"

"Hello, I'm a friend of Steve Wozniak. You know Steve Wozniak, right? He's the fat guy you met in San Francisco before."

Ethan paused for a moment, but an excited voice came from the other end of the phone—

"Ohh! I know! I know! Woz! The guy who works at HP, right?"

"I have the impression, I have the impression, he bought two MOS 6502s from me!"

"You called me today. Does that mean he used 6502? It's very useful, right?"

"Did he praise our chip? Did he find any other problems?"

"Oh - please forgive my faux pas, I'm just too excited right now! I really want to know your feedback on 6502!"

The anxious voice made Ethan laugh.

The guy on the other end of the phone seems kind of cute, right?
Although the two were far apart, Ethan could clearly feel that the guy who was answering the phone was like an elementary school student waiting for results after an exam, with hope written all over his face, eager to receive praise and compliments from the teacher.

And this eagerness also made Ethan clear his throat and say, "Oh, Mr. Paddo, please don't be anxious."

"As you said, I did come here for 6502. My friend used your product and it was very good."

"He even said several times that when the performance of 6502 and its low price collide, the world may change."

Ethan followed Wozniacki's instructions and transmitted positive feedback to the person on the other side.

After hearing his words, there was suddenly no sound on the other end of the phone.

This situation made Ethan very strange. After waiting for a few seconds, he saw that the other side was still quiet, so he called out.

"Mr. Padre? Mr. Padre?"

The cautious voice showed Ethan's doubts.

The slightly gentle tone brought out a sob.

"Ahem... I'm sorry... sir, I'm a little excited."

'? ' This response surprised Ethan.

But the next second, the other party told the truth.

"Oh - thank you, thank you for your love, and thank you for your trust."

"In fact, before Woz contacted me, many friends called to inquire about 6502, but after hearing the price, they all thought we were scammers. Only Woz, your friend, believed us!"

"Thank you so much for trying! Thank you so much for your help! You proved that we are not liars! Oh - this is really exciting! Woohoo - finally someone believes us -"

"If I wasn't still on the phone, I would even want to share this joy with my colleagues!"

Ethan raised his eyebrows at this response.

Well, he finally understood why Wozniacki asked him to be sincere.

These guys really are...

So funny.

Thinking of this, Ethan smiled and said, "Oh, Mr. Paddo, can I ask you a question?"

"Wow, okay..."

"Is this your company's phone number?" "Ahem - yes -"

"Okay, if you don't mind, you can call all your friends over."

Before Ethan finished speaking, the person on the other end of the phone showed confusion, "What? Sir, I don't understand what you mean."

“I said, you can call your engineers over, and I will tell them that your product is very useful.”

Ethan's repetition made Chuck Pete on the opposite side ecstatic.

After a scream, Ethan heard a muffled bang, followed by a burst of hurried footsteps that gradually faded away.

After waiting for about two minutes, a roar suddenly appeared from far away.

However, this voice came and went quickly.

After the noise, there was silence.

Then, he asked, "Hello? This sir... Oh! Sorry, I forgot to ask your name... That... Steve Wozniak's friend, are you still there?"

"I'm here, you can call me Ethan."

"Okay! Ethan, my colleagues are here."

"Then ask them to answer the phone."

Ethan's invitation brought endless excitement.

"Hello Ethan! I'm Bill Mensch, the architect of 6502! Do you really think 6502 is very useful?"

"Yeah~ The personal computer we made is running now, it's awesome!"

"Oh! Ethan! I'm Rod Ogier! Do you really like 6502?"

"Of course! We love it, love how it performs, and love the price!"

"It's my turn! It's my turn! I'm Ray Hilt, hello Ethan, I want to know how many chips you need this time? Or, can I know which company you are from? We can provide you with 6502 specifically. If you think $42 is too expensive, we can give you $25 per piece! Because you are the first person to buy our product!"

'? ? ? '

Tell the truth!

When the words of proactive discount appeared, Ethan Jones was really confused!

what is this?

How can there be such a business!

You are the seller!
Why offer discounts proactively?

Ethan opened his mouth. At this moment, he really didn't know what to say.

He admitted that his brain's capacity could no longer handle the surprises created by the other party.

The people on the other end of the phone seemed to know that they were too excited. After a few scoldings, Chuck Pete's voice came out again, "Sorry, Ethan, we were too excited. We may have scared you. Please forgive us."

"However, it is true that our 6502 can be priced even lower, as low as $25."

"As for why this is the case... my colleague just said that first of all, thank you for your trust and choice, and secondly, when we made this chip, we never thought about making money."

“We just want to promote computers.”

'...'

Ethan was shocked!

He never imagined that what the old professor said in his previous life was actually true!

This group of people are really doing this with ideals in mind!
What the hell! Doing business without making money? What kind of spirit is this?
Ethan just felt like his brain was freezing.

After stuttering and confirming with the other party for a long time, he finally accepted the fact.

When he found out that the sincerity that Wozniacki had mentioned could actually yield such a reward, Ethan no longer hesitated and directly stated his purpose, "Uh... everyone, I know you can all hear my voice."

"First of all, I really like your 6502, and I called here just to learn more about this chip."

"Secondly, my real purpose is not to buy 6502, but to know whether you are willing to give me authorization."

“Production authorization, research and development authorization.”

These words caused a strange silence on both ends of the phone.

After several seconds, Chuck Pete finally spoke.

"Ethan, are you serious?"

"of course."

"Oh... this won't work."

"Huh? Why?"

Ethan was very confused. This was different from what was written in the script!

Chuck Peddle on the other end of the phone smiled bitterly and said, "Ethan, I think you may not have had a thorough understanding of us before you called, or... uh... maybe not many people know about our MOS problem now."

"Our central microprocessor is developed based on 6800."

"You heard it right. Our 6502 is developed based on the 6800, Motorola's 6800."

"Until we resolve this issue, we can't actually give you authorization."

“Because we don’t have a patent at the moment.”

Note: ①Chuck Peteau, the patent owner of 6502. ②This chapter may seem a little fake, but this group of people is like this in reality. At first, they set the price at $42. Later, at the San Francisco Electronics Show, someone said that $25 was more suitable for the public, so they immediately changed the price. Then in 76, when Atari came to them to buy CPUs, Atari said that they would not lose money if they sold CPUs at $12, so Chuck Peteau directly changed the price to $12 per piece. Of course, in fact, MOS is also profitable at a price of $12 per piece. Chuck Peteau said in an interview with the American Computer History Museum in Mountain View in 14 that the production cost of 6502 in 1975 was four dollars per board with two cores. The production cost of a single 6502 is only two dollars.

PS, to answer the two questions above, the first question says that the price of Apple 2 is 1298. When I was writing this paragraph, I put myself in the shoes of the original owner. I thought that Jobs just said that 6502 can give Apple a low price advantage, and I completely forgot about Apple 2. The second question is about Atari being sold to Warner. In reality, it was indeed sold to Warner. The specific process was this: when the lawsuit was filed in 75, Nolan wanted to find a backer, and he found Disney. Disney's offer was too low for Nolan, and then MCA heard the news and offered. Nolan was not satisfied with the prices of both companies. In 76, when Nolan found that 6502 wanted to be a home console, Warner came in and offered a higher price and promised that Nolan would continue to be the CEO, so Nolan sold it directly.

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(End of this chapter)