[Apple History. Steve Jobs at Atari]

Jobs, Steve. Instructions for Converting World Cup PC Boards. Los Gatos, CA: Atari Inc., ca. 1974. 4 pages (11 x 8 1/2 in.; 280 mm x 216 mm), typed manuscript on Atari embossed letterhead, includes 3 original circuit diagrams in pencil by Jobs.  With 1 pg ANS on lined paper in black pen, signed "Steve Job"s, providing additional designs for the paddles and alignment of players defending a soccer goal. 1 page being an addendum to the printed report.

Acquired by the present owner directly from Atari in 2002

Jobs as designer for Atari and the arcade games that would influence Apple design. After leaving Reed College in the winter of 1974, Steve Jobs began working at Atari (as employee number 40) under the leadership of Nolan Bushnell and chief engineer Al Alcorn.  He worked night shifts to improve the designs of existing Atari games, isolated from the colleagues who believed him to be arrogant and offensively Bohemian.  He was as unimpressed by his colleagues as they were by him, referring to them regularly as "dumb shits." However, he was profoundly influenced by 41-year-old Ron Wayne, who had previously started a company and inspired Jobs to do the same.  Indeed, Wayne is listed on the original partnership agreement for Apple Computer Company as holding a 10% share, which he soon relinquished. 

By adding sounds or addressing the durability of hardware, Jobs contributed to the overall experience of the Atari user.  Walter Isaacson points out that Jobs "intuitively appreciated the simplicity of Atari's games.  They came with no manual and needed to be uncomplicated enough that a stoned freshman could figure them out."  Jobs carried this lesson with him to Apple, creating technology easily accessible and appealing in its straightforwardness.

The present report written for his supervisor Stephen Bristow, was meant to improve the functionality and fun of World Cup, a coin arcade-game with four simple buttons and an evolution from Atari's Pong game.  Job's report is stamped  "All-One Farm Design," a name appropriated from the commune he frequented at the time, and the address of the Jobs family in Los Altos.  At the bottom of the stamp is the Buddhist mantra, gate gate paragate parasangate bodhi svahdl.

Manuscript gaming diagrams by Jobs from his early years in the industry are rare.