Microsoft Altair BASIC 1.0 on Paper Tape 50th Anniversary For Sale

Microsoft Altair BASIC 1.0 on Paper Tape 50th Anniversary
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Microsoft Altair BASIC 1.0 on Paper Tape 50th Anniversary:
$35.00

This is the very first product sold by Microsoft (or Micro-Soft as it was known at the time). When Bill Gates and Paul Allen saw the announcement of the Altair 8800 in the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics, they called MITS and said they have a version of BASIC for the 8080. That was a lie. They feverishly started writing the BASIC interpreter with an 8080 emulator and presented it to MITS in March 1975. Micro-Soft was officially formed as a partnership on April 4, 1975.This paper tape is a copy of the very first version of BASIC sold - it is version 1.0. It was first sold in July of 1975 for $150 and required an 8K Altair. The 8K version had more features and was a better experience overall — 4K BASIC (released later) required Gates and Allen to cut a lot of functionality due to tight memory constraints.
Interestingly enough, Bill Gates published an "Open Letter to Hobbyists" in 1976 expressing his dismay that his version of BASIC was copied and freely exchanged throughout the hobby world. In 2024, a friend of mine working at Microsoft in Seattle learned I had this copy of BASIC version 1.0 and the curator of their archives asked if I could make them a copy (apparently Bill Gates had donated his only copy to the Computer History Museum). So now my hobbyist-made copy is in the Microsoft archive!
I have duplicated this using my DSI paper tape punch, and then I load each copy into my Altair and verify it works. I realize most people will buy a copy simply as a curio, but rest assured, it has been tested and verified.
You will receive one copy of BASIC 1.0 created on NOS oiled 1" paper tape. Each paper tape will have a text header reading "8080 BASIC ver 1.0 Micro-Soft 1975". (If you attempt to load this paper tape, make sure you skip the text header.)
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