'80s, the general image of the computer was always this giant machine with little things all over it. the mindset was the computer as the brain. and it was a threatening concept. >> the 1980s is a period of time when the big, impersonal, giant machine that lives in a huge, air-conditioned room someplace suddenly becomes something that sits on your desk. >> something is happening out there, something that's expanding your world. small computers are happening. >> as soon as we have intelligent machines creeping into our daily lives, into our factories, into our hospitals, into our businesses, then it's going to be a new world out there. >> computer stores have become the neighborhood soda shops of the binary generation. the disciples, young and old, of smart machines. >> companies that were starting to build personal computers, companies like atari, tandy, commodore, apple began to see them as a home market.