rev. 02/11/08

Some images from the
 First West Coast Computer Faire Program
(First West Coast Computer Faire, April 15-17, 1977 at Brooks Hall in San Francisco)

This was the event that legitimized the the birth of the personal computer industry!  It included the debut of the Apple II computer, as depicted in the Turner Network Television movie "Pirates of Silicon Valley", loosely based on Paul Frieberger and Michael Swaine's 1984 book "Fire in the Valley- The Making of the Personal Computer" (expanded and re-released in 1999 by McGraw-Hill).  It's inaugural exhibitors included such early firms as IMSAI, MITS (builder of the Altair), Sphere, Processor Technology, Cromemco, Digital Research ( CP/M), Tarbell Electronics, Vector Graphics, Polymorphic Systems, Byte Publications, amongst the several hundred others.  Event promoter and Dr. Dobbs Journal Editor "Big" Jim Warren was an amazing figure seen to be roller-skating around the cavernous Brooks Hall while attending to business.

Technical meetings, conferences, and workshops featuring many pioneering names in the early microcomputing movement are listed, as are some of the individual homebrew exhibitors with their one-off creations.

This is a 42-page (including the covers), 8 1/2" by 11" black-and-white program with heavy gloss covers.  It has many ads for some of the local computer shops and manufacturers, including two full-page ads for IMSAI featuring the rarely-seen "Megabyte Micro" 8080 ad, and the "Complete Control" ad featuring IMSAI's unique 8048 Single Board Control computer, based on Intel's then-new 8048 processor.  A copy like it is plainly visible in the Apple Computer booth scene in "Pirates of Silicon Valley".

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