© Mark Ollig
From April 15 to 17, 1977, a first-of-its-kind computer convention called The West Coast Computer Faire took place.
The convention, held inside the San Francisco Civic Auditorium and Brooks Hall, was organized by Jim Warren and Bob Reiling.
Here, one could participate in computer-related conferences and technical seminars.
Attendees walked the show floor checking out the newest computers for 1977 tailored to small businesses and home computer users.
The computer fair showcased computing video games, speech recognition systems, musical synthesizers, and many new electronic devices, including a Projection TV system.
Two young men, Steve Wozniak, 26, and Steve Jobs, 22, introduced their new Apple II computer to the public during the computer fair.
As we all know, the Apple II became one of the first popular home computers, and the rest, as they say, is history.
A month after the West Coast Computer Faire, in the microcomputer magazine called BYTE, Steve Wozniak, when explaining the design for the Apple II, wrote, “To me, a personal computer should be small, reliable, convenient to use, and inexpensive.”
Other home computers introduced are the Tandy/Radio Shack’s TRS-80 Model 1 Micro Computer System and the Commodore PET (Personal Electronic Transactor) computer.
The West Coast Computer Faire was well-represented by people from the home computer hobbyist community, including the two largest amateur computer organizations: the Homebrew Computer Club and the Southern California Computer Society.
The computer fair showcased 180 exhibitors, and its official total attendance was 12,657.
A variety of computer terminals were on display, including the Dataspeed 40 computer terminal system. It operates at 1,200 bps (bits per second) and features a keyboard, CRT (cathode ray tube) display screen, and a small printer. This data terminal, made by the Teletype Corporation, which during 1977, is a subsidiary of Western Electric Company, the manufacturing arm of the Bell Telephone System owned by AT&T.
ComputerWorld magazine featured a 1977 ad for the Bell System Dataspeed 40 terminal system. I it saved at https://bit.ly/3gBGbOw.
Computer fair attendees played video games with names like Tank War, Space War, and Chase using the Cromemco Z-2 microcomputer system.
The games’ graphics and sound effects proved very popular with the younger kids (now in their mid to late 50s), who controlled the action using two joysticks.
The Cromemco Z-2 microcomputer used the Zilog Z80 8-bit microprocessor chip and a 4 MHZ 250-nanosecond cycle-time board.
This microcomputer’s all-metal, square-boxed chassis included 21 printed wiring card slots.
The Cromemco Z-2 microcomputer retailed for $595 ($2,600 in 2021) and could be ordered as a kit or fully assembled. I uploaded a picture of it from a 1977 magazine ad: https://bit.ly/2S9kOKp.
During the late 1970s, I read through many BYTE magazines, luring me with their stories of how I could build my very own computer and learn how to use DOS (disk operating system) commands.
Berkeley, CA-based NorthStar Computers, displayed their floppy-disk equipped North Star Micro Disk System at the West Coast Computer Faire.
Its operating system used North Star DOS (disk operating system) and its high-level computer programming language called North Star BASIC (Beginner’s All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code).
Check out this 1977 copy of the 23-page “North Star BASIC Version 6” manual describing BASIC machine line commands: https://bit.ly/32MgjYb.
A company called Heuristics Inc. demonstrated their new product, called SpeechLab. This peripheral hardware allowed a computer to recognize human speech and cost $300 ($1,311 in 2021).
An Aug. 15, 1977 ComputerWorld magazine article explained how SpeechLab digitized and removed the data from a “speech wave form” and then applied a pattern-matching technique to recognize the vocal input.
SpeechLab used 64 bytes of storage per spoken word.
The article is titled, “System Allows S-100 Vocal Input.”
The screen snapshot I took of the complete article is here: https://bit.ly/2S8DfPn.
People curious to learn how a microcomputer and software could help their businesses in 1977 also attended the computer fair.
They learned about using word processing programs and how customized software could track their companies’ inventory.
The computer fair also had many individuals stopping in to see how a home personal computer could benefit their everyday lives.
Many of us who lived through it feel The West Coast Faire was the primary fuel for the start of the home personal computer and small-business computer era.
The 1977 poster announcing “The First West Coast Computer Faire” can be seen at https://bit.ly/3sT8niv.
Back then, 44 years ago, the small business and home computing world was our oyster.
