Paul Allen, waving his copy of Popular Electronics with an Altair 8800, shouts at Bill Gates, “Hey, this thing is happening without us!” Bill is persuaded to leave Harvard to write software for Altair. They write a BASIC interpreter. Then he calls Altair, giving the name Paul Allen, trying to alter his voice, because he knew Paul would be the one to go to Altair. Ed Roberts, from Altair, responds that he’s received many calls about phantom BASIC interpreters, but none of them work, and tells him that the first person to walk through his door with a working one will get the contract. In a few weeks, Gates and Allen complete the job, with the help of Monte Davidoff, a boy from Milwaukee.
