Early Macintosh developer: We would have worked for free

UPERTINO, Calif. -- For the people who created the Macintosh, it was the proverbial labor of love.

On Saturday evening, the original Macintosh development team came together to celebrate the machine it had created three decades earlier -- a product that had paved the way for hits to come, including the iPod, iPhone, and iPad.

(Credit: Apple)

It was in this building 30 years ago that a young Steve Jobs changed the world of personal computing -- all to the soundtrack of the "Chariots of Fire" theme.

Looking back fondly on the process, the team said creating the product was not about the money. "If Steve said, 'How about you guys don't get paid?' said Rod Holt, Apple's original hardware guru, and one of the company's first 10 employees. "We would have still had a group."

"But there would have been a lot of grumbling," he added, laughing.

Bill Atkinson, who created the MacPaint program, described Jobs pitch in recruiting him, even tearing up at one point during the panel. A grad student at the time, he was reluctant to join. But Apple flew him to Cupertino and Jobs personally convinced him. "Think of how fun it is to surf on the front of a wave," Jobs told Atkinson. "Come down to Silicon Valley, where we are inventing the future."