Bags of Mail

The first mention of Microchess to users was a front page teaser in the November, 1976 issue of Kim-1 User Notes publication by Eric Rehnke. The first orders for Microchess were generated by that free publicity.

In December, as the product was almost ready to ship, I sent announcements of the new product to all of the magazines and newsletters serving the new industry.

Dave Beetle of Los Gatos, California, published On_Line, a bi-weekly newsletter of classified advertisements aimed at computer hobbyists. The first official announcement of Microchess appeared in the December 15, issue.

On_Line provided a great service to computer hobbyists in those days. Ads were cheap and the publication was frequent so a lot of surplus computer hardware was sold and traded through Dave’s important publication. Microchess ads appeared in On_Line for the next few years and never failed to generate sales of the product.

The January 1977 issue of Kim-1 User Notes featured the Microchess new product announcement.

In early 1977, the other magazines, Byte, Creative Computing, the brand new Kilobaud and the very important Doctor Dobbs Journal of Computer Calisthenics and Orthodontia published announcements of Microchess and orders began to trickle in to our apartment in Toronto.

My contact with MOS Technology was Rick Simpson and we chatted from time to time on the telephone. MOS Technology showed Microchess playing on the Kim-1 at various trade shows and Rick was kind enough to forward a list of interested customers to me for follow-up.

One day, I asked Rick if he would allow me to insert advertising flyers in the Kim-1 packages they shipped. He discussed it with management, and the company agreed. From then on, every Kim-1 shipped contained a goldenrod colored flyer advertising Microchess. One out of every three purchasers of the Kim-1 ordered Microchess on cassette.

At the time, I was still working for Comshare during the day and filling orders for Microchess at night. We had just moved from our apartment to a small house in downtown Toronto when the news of Microchess reached the installed base of Kim-1 owners. I arrived home from work to find two large canvas bags marked “Canada Post” on our front doorstep. I didn't understand. Why had our letter carrier left his bags there? It seemed very odd.

I wasn't even sure I should look inside the bags. He would probably be back soon to pick them up, but it was already evening and none of it made any sense. I looked inside and was surprised to find the top letters addressed to me. I dug deeper into the bag. They were all addressed to me. I dumped the bags on the floor and began to look into the envelopes. Most of them contained orders for Microchess. But the real excitement was discovering that the envelopes also contained checks. There is something uniquely satisfying about receiving money for something you have created yourself.

It was time to quit my day job.