Product Description

Priming the Pump: How TRS-80 Microcomputer Enthusiasts Helped Spark the PC Revolution by David Welsh and Theresa Welsh takes you back to the largely unknown origins of personal computing. Personal computers grew out of a hobbyist movement in the 1970s, as some began experimenting with the new microchips, building their own computers. Kit computers appeared, available from small mail order companies, but the computer that brought a wider audience to personal computing was the TRS-80 Model I, introduced by Tandy Corporation in August 1977. It was the first complete mass market, off-the-shelf microcomputer that anyone could buy for $599.95. And it was available at 3500 Radio Shack stores nationwide.

Introduction of the TRS-80 meant, for the first time, anyone could experiment with software and affordably use word processing, spreadsheets, accounting, database and other applications... except for one thing: there weren't any programs. So, of necessity, new computer owners became programmers, and enterprising individuals working in basements and garages created the software everyone wanted. Many of them had never done any programming before.

The authors were part of a community of entrepreneurs who sold software for the TRS-80. Besides telling their own story, they also collected stories from key innovators from that era, including some who had never been interviewed before about their contributions to computing. The technology that originated with these amazing microcomputer pioneers went on to change life in fundamental ways and their stories are the heart of this book.There were programmers who created fabulous games like Dancing Demon, Microchess, Oregon Trail and the Scott Adams Adventures; there were rivals who created five different Disk Operating Systems for the TRS-80 and one man's fight with Tandy over who owned the code; there were scam artists who offered products that were too good to be true, and brilliant visionaries who were first with software features later "invented" by big companies with more money but not more talent.

The authors relate how Don French, a computer hobbyist who worked for Radio Shack at the time, suggested to his bosses that they capitalize on the latest craze, home-built computers. Radio Shack took a chance and hired young Steve Leininger away from Silicon Valley and told him to build a machine they could sell cheap. Working alone in an old saddle factory in Fort Worth, he built the first TRS-80; its total development costs were less than $150,000.

Author David Welsh was one of those self-taught computer-buyer/programmers. He created a word processor, Lazy Writer, and, working with his wife Theresa, sold copies worldwide to enthusiastic fans who were eager to ditch their typewriters. This was before Microsoft was a household word, when software was new and exciting and everyone was learning. Software generally had only one author, and programmers were proud of their work; some became stars. David and Thesesa Welsh, who lived through it all, have captured the defining moments and excitement of this era, with the untold stories from the microcomputer pioneers whose efforts and love for their "trash-80" helped spark the PC revolution that followed.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #261682 in Books
• Published on: 2007-05-21
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 348 pages

Review
I highly recommend it to anyone who lived during the era of the TRS-80 or is curious about how one the linchpins of the computer revolution came about!
-- Scott Adams, inventor of the Adventure games --Scott Adams Grand Adventures website

Radio Shack released the TRS-80 in August of 1977, and in honor of our first computer's 30th birthday, David and Theresa decided to stop collecting material and get their book out. Priming the Pump: How TRS-80 Enthusiasts Helped Spark the PC Revolution (www.microcomputerpioneers.com) is a very personal computer history book.

I read this book in the same week that I was reading reports about Steve Jobs and Bill Gates reminiscing on stage about the old days. Steve and Bill have their memories, too, of course, but the nostalgia of a billionaire is probably a little less bittersweet than that of a couple from the Midwest who rode the wave of the revolution for a few years, then had to settle back into the drudgery of nine-to-five work for hire.

But I don't want to give the impression that this book is just misty watercolor maunderings. For those of us who got hooked on the software thing at an impressionable age, this is exciting stuff. And Theresa is a fine writer. The story moves along briskly when she's at the keyboard. Dense with facts, its themes expounded smoothly.
-- Michael Swaine, Swaine's Flames --Dr. Dobb's Journal, August 2007

Review
I highly recommend it to anyone who lived during the era of the TRS-80 or is curious about how one the linchpins of the computer revolution came about!
-- Scott Adams, grandfather of PC Adventure games --Scott Adams Grand Adventures website

Customer Reviews

Some Good Information, but lacks polish
If you are a die-hard fan of the history of microcomputers, then this book may be worth your time. Personally, I found it to be poorly written, and lacking any polish.

Typos, missing articles, inconsistencies, repetition, and difficult to read passages are the norm. There are some good stories, but they are not well-told.

The authors mention that they did quite a bit of freelance writing to support themselves. You would never know it by looking critically at what they have written.

I finally gave up and moved on to another book in my reading pile.

Some interesting history, but too much baggage
This is a first-person narrative of the experiences of an early "cottage industry" software business focused on the TRS-80. I tend to enjoy this kind of material, and the TRS-80 was indeed a landmark in personal computing, but this book just isn't enjoyable. It consists of three completely separate parts: (1) anecdotes from the early days of the TRS-80's design and the people behind it, (2) David's personal story, and (3) his wife Theresa's personal story. There is no attempt to connect the three, so there's a fair amount of redundancy and often apparently conflicting points of view--the book doesn't speak with one voice. Part 1 has some interesting material on the TRS-80 and its designers and user community in part 1, which I enjoyed; but parts 2 and 3 are full of irrelevant "my life story" details that have nothing to do with this topic, and that frankly depict the authors as less-than-likeable people who were unable to get along well with each other or their business partners and were permanently embittered by landing in bankruptcy as a result. Just publishing part 1 as a self-contained narrative of the history and early user community of this important invention, with the interesting information about the people behind it, would have been more effective. Severo Ornstein's "Computing in the Middle Ages" is much more engaging, as is Steve Wozniak's iWoz (though it's self-indulgent) and Levy's "Hackers: Heroes of the computer revolution".

When Radio Shack Ruled
There must be as many as a million people with fiond memories of their first experiences with a TRS-80 computer, for there were more than a score of magazines devoted to the TRS-80, and book stores had a shelf of books on the Model I-IV, the 100, the PC-1 and the PC-2. "P" stood for ("pocket",not "personal"). We didn't call TRS-80 the "operating system" but we loaded it slowly with an audio cassette, or in a few seconds from a floppy, and it had "hooks" to allow attachment of our own code. This work concerns a single individual, not a team of specialists, who coded and sold a word processor. The official histories of computing make no mention of the TRS-80. but the device that intrigued so many for so long deserves books, and more books.