In 1956, Wayne moved to
California. In 1971, Wayne started his first business designing and manufacturing
slot machines. This venture failed within its first year of operation.
Atari (1973–1976) As Junior Designer, Wayne established the official documentation and materials control systems at
Atari. This sophisticated cataloging and inventory tracking system dramatically improved Atari's manufacturing efficiency and eliminated substantial losses attributable to lost, duplicated, and mis-filed raw materials required to fabricate complete video game systems. The documentation system included operating instructions, circuit diagrams, and cabinet designs for all arcade games sold by Atari. As product development manager, he designed video game enclosures and led development of games such as
Gran-Track Racing. His Atari tenure ended following the Warner Communications acquisition.
Apple (1976–1977) In 1976, Wayne was well respected for his sophisticated and comprehensive internal corporate documentation systems at the three-year-old
Atari. There, he met coworkers
Steve Jobs and
Steve Wozniak. To assist in mediation of one of their typically intense discussions about the design of computers and the future of the industry, Wayne invited the pair to his home to facilitate and advise them. In the ensuing two-hour conversation about technology and business, Jobs proposed the founding of a computer company led by Wozniak and himself. The two would each hold a 45% stake so that Wayne could receive a 10% stake to act as a tie-breaker in their decisions. As the venture's self-described "adult in the room" (known as Apple Newton). He also wrote the
Apple I Operations Manual. Wayne's attitude concerning business was already risk-averse following his experience five years prior with the "very traumatic" failure of his slot machine business, the debts from which he had spent one year repaying. Furthermore, his passion was in original product engineering and in slot machines, and not in the documentation systems Jobs and Wozniak expected him to manage, possibly indefinitely at Apple. Believing he was "standing in the shadow of giants" of product-design and eager to shield himself from financial exposure, he exited the company. The exact timeframe of this exit has been disputed by Steve Wozniak, who in an interview said that Wayne left the company after a few months. Wayne has stated in the decades that followed, he does not regret selling his share of the company, as he made the "best decision based on the information available at the time". He remarked in an interview in April 2016 that his one regret was selling his copy of the original signed contract for $500. The same document was sold for $2.51 million many years later. He said he had truly believed that the Apple enterprise "would be successful, but at the same time there could be significant bumps along the way and I couldn't risk it. I had already had a rather unfortunate business experience. I was getting too old and those two men were whirlwinds. It was like having a tiger by the tail. I couldn't keep up with these guys." Steve Jobs approached him again as a business contact for Apple, but Wayne refused to forward Jobs's proposal to purchase a friend's company. Wayne believed that his friend should retain ownership of the company, supplying this technology to Apple under exclusive license instead of selling the business. Wayne later expressed regret for interfering with this decision instead of allowing the negotiations to be made directly between the parties. ==Media==