This is not just a story about early-stage hustle. It’s also indicative of the nature of the computer industry’s growth. Software needs to run on hardware, but given enough processing power, a software program can simulate the hardware on which it’s expected to run. Gates and Allen had, as part of a previous venture, built an 8008 emulator on similar principles. Once they updated their emulator, they were able to begin building a new BASIC.
