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IN 1972, NOLAN BUSHNELL FORGED the
videogame industry, with the release of Pong, the world's first successful coin operated
video game. Although this little game seems very rudimentary now, at that time, the
public hadn't seen anything like it.
Nolan was raised in a Mormon family and he eventually went on to study electrical
engineering at the University of Utah. During this time, he had a part time job at
an amusement park in Salt Lake City. Bushnell's understanding of the public's craving
for interactive games may have stemmed from this experience working on the midway.
While enrolled at the University of Utah, he came in contact with a game known as
Space Wars. This may not seem extraordinary, except that it was played on an eight
million dollar mainframe computer known as a Digital PDP-1.
Nolan felt that if only he could bring this sort of gaming entertainment to the public,
the demand for it would be high. Bushnell has been quoted, "The problem was
that it would take a heck of a lot of quarters to pay for an eight million dollar
machine, so I just filed the concept away in the back of my mind." While Nolan
was attending MIT, where he finished his master's degree, the silicon computer chip
was discovered. What was especially significant, for the budding Multimedia industry,
was that this new technology was not only quicker and smaller, but also less expensive.
As an inventor, this was a dream come true. Nolan had already identified a niche
and, fortunately for him, the silicon computer chip would make his dream fiscally
possible.
After graduating in 1969, he went to work for Ampex in Sunnyvale, California. Nolan
Bushnell, now married and with a child, met Ted Dabney, working at this audio equipment
company. Together, they began to experiment on video game projects in a makeshift
lab that Nolan had set up in his daughter's bedroom. Nolan was making twelve thousand
dollars a year when he and Ted quit Ampex.
Nolan and Ted initially wanted to have monitors branching out from one central computer,
but this just wasn't practical. Bushnell's inspiration to have dedicated, stand alone
video games, each with its own microprocessor, was indeed a crossroads for personal
computing. Computer Space, released in 1971, was the world's first coin-operated
videogame. Computer Space may have been ahead of its time. It was difficult to learn,
and as a result, failed.
The public obviously needed something more familiar and simple.
Nolan then field-tested a prototype of table tennis-like Pong at Al Capp's Tavern,
in Sunnyvale California. This game broke down as a result of too many quarters being
stuffed into its coin box. It was 1972, when Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney founded
Atari. 10,000 units of Pong were sold. However, by 1973, due to fear of competition,
Ted sold his half of Atari to Nolan. This may have seemed prudent at the time, because
knock-offs of Pong were becoming more abundant.
More than 25 companies made different versions of Pong. These copycat
games incorporated different designs, paddles, and speeds that circumvented the copywriting
laws of the day. By 1974, Atari was releasing a new game every six weeks. This was
the same year that Steven Jobs, currently the interim CEO of Apple, was hired to
design video games for Atari.
Nolan's persistence and dedication would, however, pay off. He recognized the immense
market that was still left to be conquered - home video games. Sears-Roebuck's best
selling catalogue item, in 1975, was at-home Pong. Sears purchased 150,000 units.
In 1976, Bushnell paid Steven Jobs $5000 to design Atari's new video game, Breakout.
Jobs in turn, signed on Steve Wozniak, the other Apple cofounder. Wozniak created
Breakout, astonishingly, in five days and received a paltry $350 for the lion-share
of the work. In October 1976, Bushnell sold Atari to Time Warner. Despite the humble
beginnings of Atari, he received a staggering 28 million dollars. Nolan would go
on to establish Chuck E. Cheese, a combination video arcade and pizza joint targeted
at children.
Today, as a result of Pong, Nolan Bushnell is often referred to as the father of
computer entertainment.
James Zakrison is
a native Calgarian and has been employed in the graphics industry for the last 13
years. He plans on being self-employed in the Multimedia Industry.
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