The backstory of classic computers
Books
The Soul of a New Machine (1981)
Tracy Kidder
Fire in the Valley:
The Making of the Personal Computer (1984/2000)
Paul Freiberger & Michael Swaine
Hypergrowth:
The Rise and Fall of Osborne Computer Corporation (1984)
Adam Osborne & John Dvorak
Big Blue:
IBM’s Use and Abuse of Power (1986)
Richard Thomas DeLamarter
Once Upon A Time In ComputerLand:
The Amazing Billion Dollar Tale of Bill Millard’s ComputerLand Empire (1987)
Jonathan Littman
Blue Magic:
The People, Power and Politics Behind the IBM Personal Computer (1988)
James Chposky and Ted Leonsis
Fumbling the Future:
How Xerox Invented, Then Ignored, The First Personal Computer (1988)
Douglas K. Smith & Robert C. Alexander
West of Eden:
The End of Innocence at Apple Computer (1989)
Frank Rose
The Macintosh Way (1990)
Guy Kawasaki
Accidental Empires:
How the Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their Millions, Battle Foreign Competition, and Still Can’t Get a Date (1992)
Robert X. Cringely
Hard Drive:
Bill Gates and Making of the Microsoft Empire (1992)
James Wallace & Jim Erickson
Insanely Great:
The Life and Times of the Macintosh, the Computer that Changed Everything (1994/2000)
Steven Levy
Where the Wizards Stay Up Late:
The Origins of the Internet (1996)
Katie Hafner and Matthew Lyon
Revolution in The Valley:
The Insanely Great Story of How the Mac was Made (2005)
Andy Hertzfeld
iWoz (2006)
Steve Wozniak
Priming the Pump:
How TRS-80 Enthusiasts Helped Spark the PC Revolution (2007)
David Welsh & Theresa Welsh
Commodore:
A Company on the Edge (2010)
Brian Bagnall
Hackers:
Heroes of the Computer Revolution (2010)
Steven Levy
Paul Allen:
Idea Man (2011)
Paul Allen
Steve Jobs (2011)
Walter Isaacson
Atari Inc.:
Business if Fun (2012)
Marty Goldberg & Curt Vendel
The Idea Factory:
Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation (2012)
Jon Gertner
The New Apple II User’s Guide (2012)
David Finnigan
Open:
How Compaq Ended IBM’s PC Domination and Helped Invest Modern Computing (2013)
Rod Canion
Sophistication & Simplicity:
The Life and Times of the Apple II Computer (2013)
Steven Weyhrich
Commodore:
The Amiga Years (2017)
Brian Bagnall
Racing the Beam:
The Atari Video Computer System (2009)
Nick Montfort & Ian Bogost
The Making of Prince of Persia
Journals 1985-1993 (2011/2020)
Jordan Mechner
Electronic Dreams:
How the 1980s Britain Learned to Love the Computer (2016)
Tom Lean
Break Out:
How the Apple II Launched the PC Gaming Revolution (2017)
David L. Craddock
Breakout:
How Atari 8-Bit Computers Defined a Generation (2017)
Jamie Lendino
The Friendly Orange Glow:
The Untold Story of the PLATO System and the Dawn of Cyberculture (2017)
Brain Dear
Commodore:
The Final Years (2019)
Brian Bagnall
IBM:
The Rise and Fall and Reinvention of a Global Icon (2019)
James W. Cortada
Sid Meier’s Memoir!:
A Life in Computer Games (2020)
Sid Meier
Not All Fairy Tales Have Happy Endings:
The Rise and Fall of Sierra On-Line (2020)
Ken Williams
Retro Tea Breaks:
In Conversation with Computer and Video Game Pioneers (2020)
Neil Thomas
The Secret History of Mac Gaming (2021)
Richard Moss
The Apple II Age:
How the Computer Became Personal (2023)
Laine Nooney