The Home Computer Wars

What Hacker News says

1. walterbellJan 2015
   A few more references:

   (Commodore) The Home Computer Wars, Michael Tomczyk http://michaeltomczyk.com/Tech-Pioneer.php

   (Apple) The Apple Revolution, Luke Dormehl, http://www.zdnet.com/article/the-apple-revolution-book-revie...

   A Bibliography of the Personal Computer, Roy Allan, https://archive.org/details/ABibliographyOfThePersonalComput...

   A History of the Personal Computer, Roy Allan, https://archive.org/details/A_History_of_the_Personal_Comput...

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2. hgaJun 2014
   The Home Computer Wars is excellent, great insight into Tramiel, his various experiences prior, and how he made Commodore so successful during that period.

   At this level in this subtree, hoggle's recommendations of Accidental Empires is strong endorsed, if for no other reason than the anecdote about how Intel, by then a very big company in revenues, possibly Fortune 500, was almost killed by a single well intentioned low level employee. Emphasizes how much more fragile tech companies are than old fashioned Fortune 500 companies.

   The Cuckoo's Egg is a fantastic story in and of itself, about how a starving astrophysics grad student given a temporary sysadmin job went from a less than $1 accounting discrepancy to nailing down a KGB plot. One of the more interesting things is how the always publicity oriented FBI (best known way back when for bank robberies and kidnappings, infamous but easy to solve crimes), under who's remit this sort of counterintelligence was/is, wouldn't give the author the time of day (it didn't meet their $100K lost threshold). His best government contact was a delightfully colorful CIA guy (you'll love his snail mail address), who could only supply advice and connections.

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3. cfmcdonaldJan 2026
   Author of the OP here. The "spray" technique was known in the early 80s, if not earlier. It's mentioned in Michael Tomczyk's "Home Computer Wars":

   > The solution came in several forms. One way was to embed ferrite balls in the plastic case. Another way was to spray the inside of the case with a metal coating. But the best way was to encase the offending electronics in a small metal box inside the case, which is what was done with the VIC-20. [0]

   Why a metal box is the best way, he doesn't say and I don't know. My best guess is that it was more effective/reliable at passing the tests.

   [0]: https://archive.org/details/the-home-computer-wars/page/205/...

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4. walterbellJun 2014
   A few books on computer / computing / internet history:

   1953, Faster Than Thought, B.V. Bowden (British 1940s & 50s) https://archive.org/details/FasterThanThought

   1984, The Home Computer Wars (Commodore, Atari, Apple) https://archive.org/details/The_Home_Computer_Wars http://www.amazon.com/The-Home-Computer-Wars-Commodore/dp/09...

   1985, History of Computing Technology, Michael Williams (Abacus to IBM360) http://www.amazon.com/History-Computing-Technology-2nd-Editi...

   1985, The Great Telecom Meltdown, Fred Goldstein (USA deregulation) http://massis.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/TELECOM_Digest_On...

   2001, The Universal History of Computing, Georges Ifrah (Egypt to 1970s) http://www.amazon.com/The-Universal-History-Computing-Comput...

   2002, Electronic Brains (UK, US & Ukraine soon after WWII) http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/electronicbrains.shtml http://www.amazon.com/Electronic-Brains-Stories-Dawn-Compute...

   2008, Geeks Bearing Gifts, Ted Nelson (rants & factoids) http://www.amazon.com/Geeks-Bearing-Gifts-Ted-Nelson/dp/0578...

   2010, Commodore, A Company on the Edge, Brian Bagnall (war stories from 6502 through C64, no Amiga) http://retroasylum.com/commodore-a-company-on-the-edge-revie... http://www.amazon.com/Commodore-Company-Edge-Brian-Bagnall/d...

   2011, The Interface: IBM and the Transformation of Corporate Design, 1945–1976, John Harwood http://www.west86th.bgc.bard.edu/book-reviews/interface-ibm....

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