--- description: I never belonged to Silicon Valley's famous Homebrew Computer Club. I was a little too young to have joined it in its prime, and I... title: For One Night Only, Silicon Valley’s Homebrew Computer Club Reconvenes image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdffd85a8c5483cad/6998b9af83ec377e24c79255/image8.jpg?branch=production&width=480&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Business](/section/business/) * [Tech](/tag/time-section-tech/) # For One Night Only, Silicon Valley's Homebrew Computer Club Reconvenes by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) Nov 12, 2013 10:36 AM CUT  Computing pioneer Lee Felsenstein with two of his creations, the SOL-20 and Osborne-1 computers Computing pioneer Lee Felsenstein with two of his creations, the SOL-20 and Osborne-1 computersHarry McCracken / TIME by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) Nov 12, 2013 10:36 AM CUT I never belonged to Silicon Valley’s famous [Homebrew Computer Club](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homebrew%5FComputer%5FClub "undefined"). I was a little too young to have joined it in its prime, and I lived on the wrong coast. But by the time I got interested in PCs in 1978, it was already the stuff of legend. Newbies like me merely used mass-produced microcomputers; Homebrew members designed and built their own machines. I was in awe of their skills. I still am. And on Monday night, I got my chance to rub elbows with some of those members and experience, at long last, an approximation of the Homebrew experience. The [Computer History Museum](http://www.computerhistory.org "undefined") hosted a 38th anniversary reunion of the organization, funded by a successful [Kickstarter campaign](http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jpf/homebrew-computer-club-reunion "undefined") and attended by dozens of original members, plus a gaggle of other long-time PC enthusiasts, tech-history nerds and wannabes such as me. (Not that everybody in attendance was an old-timer: A show of hands revealed that a goodly percentage of the crowd wasn’t alive in 1975 when the first Homebrew meetings were held.)  Harry McCracken / TIME Wendell Sander with his original Apple-1 (left) and a modern Apple-1 clone (right, in wooden case, using a MacBook Pro as its display) The most iconic Homebrew member may be Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak; in its earliest days, the company he and Steve Jobs started was practically a spinoff from the club. Woz attended the reunion and spoke effusively about how Homebrew’s mission of making computers part of everyday life inspired Apple’s first computer, the Apple-1 (now a [rare and valuable collectible](http://techland.time.com/2013/05/25/this-apple-1-is-the-most-expensive-apple-computer-ever/ "undefined")). Homebrew would have been a fascinating, seminal organization even if it had played no role in Apple’s founding. Other key early PC companies such as Processor Technology and Cromemco also sprung from it; Steve Leininger, the designer of [Radio Shack’s TRS-80](http://techland.time.com/2012/08/03/trs-80/ "undefined"), was a member. And the open exchange of ideas that went on at its biweekly meetings did as much as anything to jumpstart the entire personal-computing revolution. It was the crucible for an entire industry. Even its underside was historic: At the reunion, Processor Technology cofounder Bob Marsh said that Homebrew members invented software piracy by sharing unauthorized paper-tape copies of Altair BASIC, a practice he said was the BitTorrent of its time. (Bill Gates, co-creator of Altair BASIC and general partner in a startup called Micro-Soft, famously [took out an ad in the Homebrew newsletter](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open%5FLetter%5Fto%5FHobbyists "undefined") to complain about the theft.) Like original Homebrew meetings, the reunion wasn’t about formal presentations so much as ad-hoc demos, discussions and information-sharing. And though I spotted a few MacBooks, they were outnumbered by computers of the sort you’d expect to spot at Homebrew, including including more [MITS Altairs](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altair%5F8800 "undefined") than I’ve ever seen in one place. Among those present who I chatted with: * Lee Felsenstein, who designed two major computers (the Sol-20 and Osborne-1) and presided over the original club’s meetings. He moderated the on-stage portion of the reunion, adding to the event’s general you-are-there feel.  Harry McCracken / TIME Homebrew member Chris Espinosa with an original club newsletter * Paul Terrell, whose Byte Shop was Silicon Valley’s first computer store and the [very first Apple retailer](http://techland.time.com/2012/11/22/behold-some-of-the-first-apple-computer-photos-ever/ "undefined"). * Wendell Sander — best known as the designer of the ill-fated Apple III — who brought [his own Apple-1](http://www.apple1notes.com/old%5Fapple/Hello.html "undefined") to the reunion. (One inauthentic-but-neat touch: Sander’s unit stores programs on an iPod Touch instead of the tape deck the computer originally used.) * Chris Espinosa, who started at Apple in 1976 — like Woz and Terrell, he’s a character in the [Ashton Kutcher _Jobs_ movie](http://techland.time.com/2013/08/06/an-apple-history-nerds-take-on-the-jobs-movie/ "undefined"), which includes a scene set at a Homebrew meeting — and who still works at the company. * The New York _Times’_ veteran tech reporter John Markoff, who told me that he wasn’t a Homebrew member but did cover meetings as a journalist. Also not an original member but present for the reunion: [Ted Nelson](http://hyperland.com "undefined"), the [legendary visionary/iconoclast](http://hyperland.com "undefined") who coined the words “hypertext” and “hypermedia” and wrote [_Computer Lib/Dream Machines_](http://scripting.com/stories/2010/10/03/emailingWithTedNelson.html "undefined"), a prescient 1974 book popular among Homebrew members. His funny and idiosyncratic speech was one of the night’s highlights — and I was pleased to learn that a 1950 issue of TIME inspired his interest in computers.  Harry McCracken / TIME The mid-1970s, when Homebrew mattered so much, seem like a long time ago. But the fact that so many original members were able to attend Monday’s event is a reminder of just how new the computer era still is. The giants whose shoulders we all stand on are still very much with us — and that’s a fact worth cherishing. CNET’s Daniel Terdiman, who was also at the reunion, has [a good writeup and more photos](http://news.cnet.com/8301-10797%5F3-57611874-235/homebrew-computer-club-reunion-lights-up-silicon-valley/ "undefined"). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7229312/for-one-night-only-silicon-valleys-homebrew-computer-club-reconvenes/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7229312/for-one-night-only-silicon-valleys-homebrew-computer-club-reconvenes/"},"headline":"For One Night Only, Silicon Valley's Homebrew Computer Club Reconvenes","datePublished":"2013-11-12T10:36:19.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T10:47:10.007Z","description":"I never belonged to Silicon Valley's famous Homebrew Computer Club. 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