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- Jim Combs, from issue #4 (April 2008)
Those of us who have tried, know how extremely hard it can be to start your own business and become successful. However, an aspiring entrepreneur by the name of Nolan Bushnell beat the odds and forever changed the world of gaming. Nolan K. Bushnell, was born February 5th, 1943 in Clearfield, Utah. He graduated from the University of Utah in 1968. During his time at the University, studying Computer Science, Mr. Bushnell stumbled upon a PDP-1 (a large Super Computer) with a game on it called “Spacewar”(created in 1962 by Steve “Slug” Russell, a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology). Nolan was so fascinated by the game that in 1971, Nolan and partner Ted Dabney formed Syzygy— which means simply, the alignment of heavenly bodies. With Syzygy open for business, Nolan had an outing to create his own arcade version of Spacewar, they called it Computer Space.
Once a working version of Computer Space was up and running, they searched for a manufacturer. One day while talking to his dentist about his arcade game, he found out about a patient who worked for Nutting Associates. Nolan and Ted went to pitch Computer Space and caught the interest of the Coin-Op company, owned by Bill Nutting. Nutting Associates funded the Computer Space project and only about 1,500 Computer Space’s where produced. Incidentally, they are extremely sought after amongst Arcade collector’s. It is fun to note that Computer Space makes an appearance in the Cult Classic Science Fiction movie, Soylent Green—released in 1973.
Not pleased with sales of Computer Space, Nolan and Ted went on to start a new company, it was more of a name change than anything because it turned out a Candle company already was using the name Syzygy. And in June of 1972, Nolan and Ted changed their company name to Atari. Atari is a word derived from Nolan’s favorite Japanese board game, Go. A game similar in fashion to checkers; when you surround your opponent’s stones and are getting ready to go in for the kill, you say the word Atari. This was the start of something beautiful, Atari went on to become a major household name in the wonderful and awesome world of gaming.
One of Atari’s first employee’s was a gentleman by the name of Al Alcorn who was put to the task of developing a simple game. Days later Al returned with a prototype of two electronic paddles and a ball, creating a game similar in fashion to ping pong, hence the name Pong. Little did the world know, that pong would become a land mark in gaming history. Pong revolutionized gaming as we know it. Some argue that Nolan got the idea for Pong by attending a show in Burlingame, California. This show displayed Ralph Bahres, the father of video games, first ever home console to be played on a Television, the Magnavox Odyssey. Odyssey contained a game of tennis with paddles and a ball bouncing back and forth on the screen.
The first realization that Pong was a huge success has an amazing story behind it…. When the first Pong machine was test marketed at Andy Capp’s Tavern, so many people where hypnotized by Pong that the bucket containing the quarters over-flowed so bad the Tavern owner thought it was broke and called Al Alcorn to come and repair it. When Al arrived, he was shocked to find that their was nothing wrong at all, it was just backed up with quarters. Nolan was out of town on business when he received the phone call from Al, stating what had happened and that they have a success on their hands. Pong was so successful that, in 1974, Sears Roebuck approached Nolan to sell home console versions of pong in their catalogues.
Nolan became known for his laid back work ethic and reputation. He hosted meetings in hot tubs and allowed his employees to show up whenever they wanted and wear what they wanted to work. Life was good at Atari and everybody was like family. By 1976, Nolan wanted to focus more on the home console market. On the horizon was, what was to be, the worlds most nostalgic gaming system, the Atari 2600 a.k.a. the Atari Video Computer System. Atari quickly had another knock out seller under their belt. It is fun to note, that the code name for the Atari VCS was “Stella” named after the designer’s, Joe Decuir, bike.
Also, as outlet to test all Atari’s games and being the entrepreneur that Nolan is, he started Pizza Time Theaters which later became known as Chuck E. Cheese after Nolan bought Pizza Time back from Warner Communications in 1977. Back in 76, Atari was evolving and Nolan saw such potential, especially with the VCS on the horizon, that he wanted to offer another company a chance to buy into it. So one day, the CEO of Warner Communications, Steve Ross, saw his son playing some Atari games and was thoroughly impressed and saw a huge opportunity. And, in August of 1977, a deal was struck for 28 million.
Sadly, a year later after the merger, Nolan was not happy at all with the direction Warner was taking with Atari. And due to differences of opinion, Nolan was forced to quit Atari, the company he started. Because of a non-compete clause, from 1978 to 1984, Nolan was banned from working in the video game field. This, however, did not stop Nolan. He had another company of his own, Axlon, which produced robots. Once Nolan was allowed to work in the video game world again, he jumped right back in and started Sente, and partnered with Bally/Midway. Sente is another name derived from Nolan’s favorite game, Go, which means: Taking control in the game.
Over the years, Nolan has stayed in the electronic entertainment industry and to this day he owns and manages his own online website, Uwink, which works have included touch-screen kiosk’s and video screens built into tables at pizza restaurants that let you order your grub and play games on the same screen. Nolan is a mover and shaker in the video game world and a true inspiration to those venturing into the world of a entrepreneur. He has come a long way and there are no signs of him stopping.
