Steve Wozniak, Speaking To The Denver Apple Pi Club In 1984, On College Pranks, Building The Apple I & II, And The Apple Pledge Of Allegiance

“I pledge allegiance to the logo of corporate marketing in Cupertino. And to the computers for which it stands: One notion, under Jobs, indispensable, for hardware and software for all.” Steve Wozniak, to the Denver Apple Pi Computer Club in 1984.

And that video above is just a funny anecdotes. TUAW reader Vince Patton pointed the Apple fan site to 14 insightful videos he uploaded to YouTube of Steve Wozniak talking to the Denver Apple Pi Club in 1984. As TUAW notes, they’re a treasure trove of first hand accounts into the formation of Apple, the creation of the Apple I and II, and Woz’s college antics.

Apparently Patton recently discovered his father’s VHS taping of Woz’s talk to Denver Apple Pi computer club at the Colorado School of Mines on October 4, 1984. He cleaned up the recording and uploaded 14 clips to YouTube. Two of the best are embedded here but they’re all worth watching.

On the Apple II’s creation

“The computer [the Apple II] was not being design to be a product and it was not being design to be sold, nearly as much as it was being designed to impress and do some very unusual things that had not been seen before.” Steve Wozniak

Ironically, when speaking about the Apple II’s integrated hardware, Wozniak brings up a point that Apple still abides by today, “Whenever you can recognized standards that will prevail, build them in.” By doing so in the Apple II, this allowed Apple to leave slots open for future hardware, or as Woz says, “for expansion beyond what we can think of.”

Looking at Apple’s past hardware, this is a notion the company still believes in. From the early iMac’s use of USB over serial to the 10-year life of the Dock Connector, Apple cautiously approaches emerging standards, but tends to invest early and sticks with standards more than most other consumer electronic companies. Apparently it has been that way from the start.

Steve Jobs on the formation of Apple


“Yeah, we’d lose our money, but at least we would have a company.” said Steve Jobs according to Woz.

As Wozniak states, this was reason enough to sell bare PC boards and run the possibility of losing money — just so they would be involved in a company. And so the two, along with Ron Wayne who designed the manual, began selling the Apple I personal computer kit in 1976.

Woz explains there was originally three employees with him and Jobs owning 45% of the company. The remaining 10% went to Ron Wayne, who designed the Apple I manuals. He got cold feet several weeks into the venture and sold his 10% stake in Apple for $800. He received an additional $1,500 later that year in exchange for forfeiting any claims against the company. Given Apple’s current value, Wayne’s 10 percent share would have been worth more than $43 billion today.

Brian Heater profiled Wayne for Engadget in 2011. It’s a fantastic read.


All 14 videos are on Vince Patton’s YouTube account.