A Business is Born

I love programming. It is almost impossible to explain the joy of writing software to someone who has not experienced it.

First and foremost, it is an act of creation. From a simple thought, and the arrangement of a few words and symbols, a reality is created that did not exist before.

No other activity can keep you in the moment the way that writing software can. At each step, one hundred percent of your concentration is applied to the solving of the current problem. Time disappears.

A well written program is a work of art. From conception to final presentation, the activity is that of an artist - the embodiment of a dream world expressed as an interactive experience for the user.

This is the way I have always felt about programming. And in particular, from its early stages, I thought of Microchess as my work of art.

But the creation of Microchess was also the fulfillment of another dream. I very much wanted to start a business of my own. Because of the lower financial barriers to entry, I knew that it would probably be a mail order business.

At each stage of development, Microchess was not just a programming exercise. It was meant to be a product. It was meant to be used by customers who would be satisfied that they had paid a reasonable price for a fine product.

I first learned about the Altair and the inchoate personal computer market while I was taking a post-graduate course in entrepreneurship at York University. This new market seemed to fit my aptitudes and interests as well as being accessible and full of potential.

I have been looking through the 1976 Byte magazines. It is interesting that there are lots of ads for lots of computers and circuit boards, TV terminals and components, but none for software. At the time, in the hobbyist market, software was something you gave away or traded. A subject to write articles about in magazines and newsletters.

Microchess was unique in that it was a product to turn a hobbyist computer into something which would impress a spouse or a friend. This was the basis of its early market. This was to be the source of its value.