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Lot Essay
'In early 1970 Tektronix introduced a portable, powerful and transistorized version of their large vacuum tube oscilloscopes called the 465. These oscilloscopes became the standard instrument for digital logic designers and were one of the first purchases that the new Atari made so I could design video games like Pong.
In 1973 we were growing fast and we needed talented staff. A teenage hippy dropout from Reed College applied for a job as a technician and I hired him because he could solder, read a schematic, and was cheap. That was Steve Jobs. He soon saved up enough money to fund his trip to India to meet his guru and when he returned a few months later he asked for his old job back and I gave it to him. His buddy, Woz, designed a single board computer they called the Apple I but it was too much of a prototype to sell as a personal computer so Woz set about to design the Apple II. He asked me if he could borrow the scope for a while to finish the design so I loaned it to him for a few months and the Apple II was born.
This scope has been in my possession since 1972 and it still works.'
(Al Alcorn, signed letter accompanying the lot)
This Tektronix 465 oscilloscope is a foundational artifact in the history of modern technology, having played a critical role in the creation of two of the most consequential innovations of the digital age: Atari’s Pong, which marked the birth of the video game industry, and the Apple II, the first personal computer to feature high-resolution colour graphics. Few surviving objects can claim comparable significance in shaping the trajectory of the digital revolution.
Introduced by Tektronix in 1970, the 465 was a powerful, portable transistorized oscilloscope that quickly became the standard instrument for digital logic designers. In 1972, Atari acquired this very unit for its chief engineer, Al Alcorn, who used it to design Pong—the game that ignited the global video game industry.
The introduction of Pong in 1972 was a watershed moment, establishing video games as a commercial and cultural phenomenon. Alcorn recalls the early days at Atari:
'I hired Steve Jobs on a fluke, and he's not an engineer. His buddy Woz was working at HP, but we were a far more fun place to hang out… Jobs didn’t get along with the other guys very well, so he’d work at night. Woz would come in and play while Jobs did his work, or got Woz to do it for him. And I enjoyed Woz. I mean, this guy is a genius, I mean, a savant.' (Al Alcorn, IEEE Spectrum, April 2020).
This oscilloscope was central to Alcorn’s design process for Pong, the game that became the template for an entire industry.
Several years later, Alcorn loaned his Tektronix 465 to Steve Wozniak, who was then designing the Apple II. This collaboration proved pivotal. The Apple II was revolutionary in part because it displayed high-resolution colour graphics when connected to a colour television—a feature that transformed personal computing.
Wozniak learned the technique for exploiting the NTSC colour system directly from Alcorn:
'I actually loaned them my oscilloscope, I had a 465 Tektronix scope, which I still have, and they designed the Apple II with it. I designed Pong with it… I remember showing Woz the trick for the hi-res color, explaining, sitting him down and saying, ‘Okay, this is how NTSC is supposed to work.’ And then I said, ‘Okay. Now the reality is that if you do everything at this clock [frequency] and you do this with a pulse of square waves…’ And basically explained the trick. And he ran with it.” (Alcorn, IEEE Spectrum, April 2020).
This insight enabled Wozniak to achieve one of Apple II’s defining features—color graphics—cementing its place as a revolutionary product.
The Apple II was not only a technical triumph but also a business catalyst. Jobs and Wozniak needed significant investment to transition from the Apple I to a consumer-ready product. Initially rebuffed by Atari’s founders, Jobs eventually secured backing from Mike Markkula, a former Intel executive. Markkula was unimpressed by the Apple I, but the Apple II’s colour graphics changed everything:
'Small computers like Wozniak’s typically could do one thing: display green capital letters on a black background. But here were multiple colors. Graphics. Sound. Games… Markkula found it hard to believe he was seeing these in a computer in some guy’s Los Altos garage. . Such advanced features were the stuff of machines costing tens of thousands of dollars, built by teams of engineers at some of the world’s most famous companies.' (Berlin, 2017).
Markkula’s investment transformed Apple from a garage startup into a global powerhouse. His initial projections—$500M in annual sales within ten years—were far exceeded, largely due to the Apple II’s groundbreaking graphical capabilities, achieved in part thanks to Al Alcorn and this oscilloscope.
In 1973 we were growing fast and we needed talented staff. A teenage hippy dropout from Reed College applied for a job as a technician and I hired him because he could solder, read a schematic, and was cheap. That was Steve Jobs. He soon saved up enough money to fund his trip to India to meet his guru and when he returned a few months later he asked for his old job back and I gave it to him. His buddy, Woz, designed a single board computer they called the Apple I but it was too much of a prototype to sell as a personal computer so Woz set about to design the Apple II. He asked me if he could borrow the scope for a while to finish the design so I loaned it to him for a few months and the Apple II was born.
This scope has been in my possession since 1972 and it still works.'
(Al Alcorn, signed letter accompanying the lot)
This Tektronix 465 oscilloscope is a foundational artifact in the history of modern technology, having played a critical role in the creation of two of the most consequential innovations of the digital age: Atari’s Pong, which marked the birth of the video game industry, and the Apple II, the first personal computer to feature high-resolution colour graphics. Few surviving objects can claim comparable significance in shaping the trajectory of the digital revolution.
Introduced by Tektronix in 1970, the 465 was a powerful, portable transistorized oscilloscope that quickly became the standard instrument for digital logic designers. In 1972, Atari acquired this very unit for its chief engineer, Al Alcorn, who used it to design Pong—the game that ignited the global video game industry.
The introduction of Pong in 1972 was a watershed moment, establishing video games as a commercial and cultural phenomenon. Alcorn recalls the early days at Atari:
'I hired Steve Jobs on a fluke, and he's not an engineer. His buddy Woz was working at HP, but we were a far more fun place to hang out… Jobs didn’t get along with the other guys very well, so he’d work at night. Woz would come in and play while Jobs did his work, or got Woz to do it for him. And I enjoyed Woz. I mean, this guy is a genius, I mean, a savant.' (Al Alcorn, IEEE Spectrum, April 2020).
This oscilloscope was central to Alcorn’s design process for Pong, the game that became the template for an entire industry.
Several years later, Alcorn loaned his Tektronix 465 to Steve Wozniak, who was then designing the Apple II. This collaboration proved pivotal. The Apple II was revolutionary in part because it displayed high-resolution colour graphics when connected to a colour television—a feature that transformed personal computing.
Wozniak learned the technique for exploiting the NTSC colour system directly from Alcorn:
'I actually loaned them my oscilloscope, I had a 465 Tektronix scope, which I still have, and they designed the Apple II with it. I designed Pong with it… I remember showing Woz the trick for the hi-res color, explaining, sitting him down and saying, ‘Okay, this is how NTSC is supposed to work.’ And then I said, ‘Okay. Now the reality is that if you do everything at this clock [frequency] and you do this with a pulse of square waves…’ And basically explained the trick. And he ran with it.” (Alcorn, IEEE Spectrum, April 2020).
This insight enabled Wozniak to achieve one of Apple II’s defining features—color graphics—cementing its place as a revolutionary product.
The Apple II was not only a technical triumph but also a business catalyst. Jobs and Wozniak needed significant investment to transition from the Apple I to a consumer-ready product. Initially rebuffed by Atari’s founders, Jobs eventually secured backing from Mike Markkula, a former Intel executive. Markkula was unimpressed by the Apple I, but the Apple II’s colour graphics changed everything:
'Small computers like Wozniak’s typically could do one thing: display green capital letters on a black background. But here were multiple colors. Graphics. Sound. Games… Markkula found it hard to believe he was seeing these in a computer in some guy’s Los Altos garage. . Such advanced features were the stuff of machines costing tens of thousands of dollars, built by teams of engineers at some of the world’s most famous companies.' (Berlin, 2017).
Markkula’s investment transformed Apple from a garage startup into a global powerhouse. His initial projections—$500M in annual sales within ten years—were far exceeded, largely due to the Apple II’s groundbreaking graphical capabilities, achieved in part thanks to Al Alcorn and this oscilloscope.