Opened in 1977 in
Marin County
Marin County is a county located in the northwestern part of the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 262,231. Its county seat and largest city is San Rafael. Marin County is acros ...
, CA, the Marin Computer Center was the world's first
public access microcomputer
A microcomputer is a small, relatively inexpensive computer having a central processing unit (CPU) made out of a microprocessor. The computer also includes memory and input/output (I/O) circuitry together mounted on a printed circuit board (PC ...
center. The non-profit company was co-created by
David Fox (later to become one of
Lucasfilm Games
Lucasfilm Games (known as LucasArts between 1990 and 2021) is an American video game licensor that is part of Lucasfilm. It was founded in May 1982 by George Lucas as a video game development group alongside his film company; as part of a large ...
' founding members) and
Annie Fox an author.
MCC (as it was known) initially featured the
Atari 2600, an Equinox 100, 9
Processor Technology Sol 20 computers (
S-100 bus systems), the Radio Shack Model I and the
Commodore PET. In addition to providing computer access to the public it had classes on the
programming language BASIC
BASIC (Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages designed for ease of use. The original version was created by John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz at Dartmouth College ...
. Later it added
Apple II
The Apple II (stylized as ) is an 8-bit home computer and one of the world's first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products. It was designed primarily by Steve Wozniak; Jerry Manock developed the design of Apple II's foam-m ...
and
Atari 800 computers, for a total of about 40 systems.
The Foxes left MCC in 1981, turning it over to new management, and later to the teens and young adults who helped run it.
See also
*
Public computer
External links
Marin Computer Center in People's Computers, Nov-Dec 1978
* ttp://www.ElectricEggplant.com Electric Eggplantbr>Scan of 1981 advertisement for Marin Computer Center
Buildings and structures in Marin County, California
History of computing
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