IMDb > Pirates of Silicon Valley (1999) (TV)
Pirates of Silicon Valley
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Pirates of Silicon Valley (1999) -- hv post

Overview

User Rating:
6.9/10   6,118 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Up 11% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Director:
Writers (WGA):
Paul Freiberger (book) and
Michael Swaine (book) ...
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Contact:
View company contact information for Pirates of Silicon Valley on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
20 June 1999 (USA) more
Genre:
Tagline:
Good artists create... Great artists steal.
Plot:
History of Apple and Microsoft. full summary | add synopsis
Awards:
Nominated for 5 Primetime Emmys. Another 1 win & 3 nominations more
User Comments:
Fun movie missed most of the facts more (77 total)

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Noah Wyle ... Steve Jobs

Joey Slotnick ... Steve Wozniak
J.G. Hertzler ... Ridley Scott

Anthony Michael Hall ... Bill Gates

Wayne Pére ... Captain Crunch

Sheila Shaw ... Mrs. Wozniak
Gema Zamprogna ... Arlene
John Di Maggio ... Steve Ballmer (as John DiMaggio)

Josh Hopkins ... Paul Allen
Gailard Sartain ... Ed Roberts

Allan Kolman ... Therapist
Richard Waltzer ... Homebrew Tech
Harris Mann ... Longhair #1

Clay Wilcox ... Longhair #2

Marcus Giamatti ... Dan Kottke
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Additional Details

Runtime:
95 min
Country:
Language:
Color:
Aspect Ratio:
1.33 : 1 more
Sound Mix:

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
At the 1999 Macworld conference, shortly after the premiere of this TV movie, the audience was stunned to learn that the introductory comments were made not by Steve Jobs, but by Noah Wyle, reprising his role in this movie. The real Jobs emerged and traded jokes with Wyle. more
Goofs:
Factual errors: When Bill Gates and Paul Allen are working out of the motel they are staying at in Albuquerque, there is a sign in the window that reads "Microsoft". At that time (1975), Microsoft was spelled as "Micro-Soft". more
Quotes:
Bill Gates: Honest to God, Ballmer. You have no culture.
Ballmer: Oh yeah, like you go around reading Plato! You're the only guy I know who can make furniture out of Playboys. Look, you got enough to make a chair. You don't have to worry about 'em moving around, 'cause they're all stuck together...
[laughs at his own joke]
Ballmer: They're all stuck together!
more
Movie Connections:
Spoofs Saturday Night Fever (1977) more
Soundtrack:
Get Down Tonight more

FAQ

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.
22 out of 31 people found the following comment useful.
Fun movie missed most of the facts, 20 May 2005
8/10
Author: Mark Tallman (mark.tallman@gostanford.com) from United States

This movie was fun. It caught the flavor of the two companies, Apple and Microsoft. Unfortunately, it missed many facts that would have enhanced the film further. For instance, IBM initially looked at Microsoft ONLY for programming languages. Digital Research was the preeminent operating system company. However, after Gary Kildall blew off two meetings with IBM, Gates saw an opening and took it. The QDOS MS then purchased and evolved into MS-DOS, was actually pirated code from Digital, specifically the code for CP/M-86. Had Gary Kildall made one call to the FBI and another to his lawyer, Gates would just be getting out of a halfway house about now. I learned most of this from a close friend, Gordon Eubanks. Gordon was Kildall's right-hand and head of his languages division after meeting Kildall at the US Navy Post-Graduate School in Monterey.

Had Kildall made those calls, how different the PC world would look... Microsoft would probably not exist, Digital Research would have licensed CP/M86 to IBM, allowing such things as 16MB of directly addressable memory in the very first PC's, something not available until many years later. We would be GEM based, not Windows based. WordStar, Ashton Tate and Lotus would still probably be the major application suppliers.

How much more ineresting would this movie had been with the facts, which are much better than anything a Hollywood writer could create.

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Message Boards

Discuss this movie with other users on IMDb message board for Pirates of Silicon Valley (1999) (TV)
Recent Posts (updated daily)User
which do you reckon is better; Mac or PC? japanfour
Very Accurate Depiction Of Events. eriktherandom
Wyle should have WON an Emmy for this! IanCurtisForEver
Any other tech. good movies like this? joecoolmedia
Accurate to Microsoft? PhrenicGermal
Steve Jobs interview - Are you a virgin? FlyingPie
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