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Sheet Music/BASIC listing of "Fool on the Hill"
played on the Altair 8800 computer

This is a reproduction of the listing of the Intel 8080 instructions programmed by Steve Dompier to play "Fool in the Hill" (the Beatles) on his Altair through radio interference on an close by AM radio as reported in newsletter issue number three of the Homebrew Computer Club. This "performance" occured on April 16, 1975. The Homebrew newsletter repoted:

Thanks to Steve for playing “Fool on the Hill” with his Altair for our enjoyment April 16. (See the next issue of P.C.C. for details of he did it.)

Below we feature the actual listing of the 8080 instructions that you yourself can enter into your Altair and create this performance. Steve Dompier himself sent us the listing which was published in the People's Computer Company (PCC) newsletter in May 1975. See this article below along with a delightful drawing by Steve which he provided to us on November 3, 2005 for our Homebrew@30 event held on November 5, 2005:

I am sorry that I cannot attend the Homebrew 30th - I sure would like to be there. Oh, well, next time.

I have attached 4 jpeg scans of the Peoples Computer Company, May 1975 article that I wrote called 'Music of a Sort', containing the code for the program and 2 songs. After the article was published, I received many phone calls (as far away as India) from people that wanted to play me the songs that they had entered into the Altair.

Good Luck with the 30th !

Steve Dompier


Music of a Sort, Introduction to Article by Steve Dompier,
Peoples Computer Company, May 1975

"Program to make an Altair Play Music" including the listings for
"Fool on the Hill" and "Daisy"

More instructions and notes on how to run the programs
(and set up your radio to receive it)

Steve's delightful drawing of the Altair maestro at the time
serenading the creatures of hte hill (including Mr. Dragon of
the People's Computer Company).

 

See Also:


See movies of Erik Klein switching in and playing "Fool on the Hill"

Our celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Homebrew Computer Club

Our collection of Homebrew Computer Club Newsletters

Our collection of People's Computer Company Newsletters

Our Altair 8800

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