Adam Osborne made a name for himself in the 1970s as one of the first successful authors and publishers of computer books. After selling his publishing company to McGraw-Hill, Osborne launched a computer hardware manufacturer, which produced the famous Osborne-1 portable microcomputer. When that business collapsed in 1983, Osborne shifted to software with his third and final venture, Paperback Software International. Unfortunately, Osborne’s decision to copy a competitor’s menu design for his own program proved his undoing after a lengthy lawsuit that proved a critical moment in the evolving legal battle over software copyrights.

• Computer Chronicles Revisited, Part 86 — Lotus HAL, What’sBest!, VP-Planner, Javelin Plus, and Silk
• Computer Chronicles Revisited, Part 23 — Steve Wozniak, Adam Osborne, Lore Harp, and Gene Amdahl
• Osborne-1 Computer (Steve’s Old Computer Museum)
• Portable computer pioneer Adam Osborne dies (The Register, 2003)
• Broderbund Software, Inc. v. Unison World, Inc. (1986)
• Digital Communications Associates, Inc. v. Softklone Distributing Corporation (1987)
• Lotus Development Corporation v. Paperback Software International (1990)
• Lotus Development Corporation v. Borland International, Inc. (1995)
• Podcast Music: “Scenic Detour” by Melody Ayres-Griffiths

A February 1986 "Computer Chronicles" episode featured a number of software (and hardware) products designed to help people use their personal computers to invest from home. This podcast looks at the ultimate fate of four of these products and the companies behind them.

• Computer Chronicles Revisited, Part 57 — QuoTrek, Spear Securities, Signal, Dow Jones Information Service, and the Telescan Analyzer
• Computer Chronicles #319 — Investment Software
• Hoggett v. Brown (Texas Court of Appeals, 1997)
• Podcast Music: "Scenic Detour" by Melody Ayres-Griffiths

“Sid Meier’s Pirates!” was famously the first game to bare the name of its legendary creator. But it wasn’t the first time an author used his name in the title of a computer game. In 1982, a small adventure game developer called Screenplay published “Ken Uston’s Professional Blackjack,” named after its reputed author and the most famous blackjack player in the United States at the time. But who was Ken Uston? And why did Paul Schindler sing the praises of his blackjack program on an early “Computer Chronicles” episode? Find out in this episode of the Chronicles Revisited Podcast.

• Computer Chronicles Revisited Special No. 5 - Ken Uston's Professional Blackjack (February 2022)
• Computer Chronicles #125 – Artificial Intelligence (1984)
• Ken Uston’s Professional Blackjack (1982 Apple II release)
• Richard W. Munchkin interview with Al Francesco (2002)
• Uston v. Hilton Hotels Corporation (1978)
• Uston v. Resorts International Hotel, Inc. (1982)
• The Odds Couple (Sports Illustrated, 1979)
• Med Systems Software – Spring 1981 catalog
• Podcast Music: “Scenic Detour” by Melody Ayres-Griffiths

George Morrow was a regular contributor to the early seasons of Computer Chronicles, providing commentary on industry trends and filling in for Gary Kildall as co-host. He was also the chairman of Morrow Designs, a manufacturer of microcomputers founded in the period before the IBM PC took the market by storm. But the company's 10-year run came to an arbupt end in early 1986 after losing out on a key government contract to provide portable computers to the IRS.

• Computer Chronicles Revisited Special No. 8 — Morrow Designs
• Computer Chronicles #202 — Portable Computers
• Computer Chronicles #430 — Business Applications, Part 4
• The Computer Entrepreneurs (Levering, Katz, and Moskowitz, 1984)
• CBS Inc. v. Morrow (Federal Circuit, 1983)
• Peter Campbell, "At the Forum" (Morrow Owners' Review, June 1984)
• Sypko Andrae, "Auction at Morrow" (Morrow Owners' Review, August-September 1986)
• "Last Word with George" (Morrow Owners' Review, Dec. 1987-Jan. 1988)
• "Morrow's Micro Stuff" (PC History)

In 1987, three small software companies appeared on "Computer Chronicles" to demonstrate their income tax preparation programs. One of those programs, TurboTax, continues to dominate the market today. But while TurboTax now belongs to Intuit Corporation, back in 1987 it was still owned by a literal "mom and pop" company called ChipSoft. How did Intuit end up taking over TurboTax? And what happened to the other two products?

• Computer Chronicles Revisited, Part 80 — The Tax Advantage, MacInTax, TurboTax, and PC/Tax Cut
• Computer Chronicles #421 — Tax Preparation Software
• In$ide Intuit (Suzanne E. Taylor and Kathy Schroeder, 2003)
• Oral History of Scott Cook (Computer History Museum, 2019)
• Oral History of Scott Proulx (Computer History Museum, 2019)
• Podcast Music: "Scenic Detour" by Melody Ayres-Griffiths

PageMaker was the program that defined desktop publishing for the Macintosh platform back in 1985. But what about the PC? Three ex-Digital Research employees believed that desktop publishing could reach the masses of IBM and compatible users as well, so they started Ventura Software. Today, their product "Ventura Publisher" is a largely forgotten footnote in desktop publishing history.

• Computer Chronicles Revisited, Part 69 -- PageMaker, Ventura Publisher, and the DEST PC Scan Plus
• Computer Chronicles #408 -- Desktop Publishing, Part 2 (1986)
• Oral history with Paul Brainerd (Computer History Museum, 2006)
• Oral history panel with Paul Brainerd, Jonathan Seybold, Lee Lorenzen, and John Scull (Computer History Museum, 2017)
• Ted Silveira's review of Ventura Publisher (PROFILES Magazine, 1987)
• Podcast Music: "Scenic Detour" by Melody Ayres-Griffiths