Father of the Video Game Industry

Blog post 1

        Nolan Bushnell is known as the "Father of the Video Game Industry". Bushnell founded Atari in 1972 and subsequently launched the video-game revolution with Pong. He sold Atari in 1976 for $28 million, and the following year opened the first Chuck E. Cheese's restaurant, which combines fast food and electronic games and amusements. He sold that, too, and since has been involved in several projects.

Bushnell didn't make the first videogame, nor was he the first to design and sell a home videogames console. But with Computer Space, he introduced videogames to the arcades, and the company he founded, Atari, was the first to turn games into big business on the back of Pong and then with the Atari 2600, the first console to achieve any measure of success. What I'm really impressed with is what inspired Bushnell to think that video games could be a big deal. Back in the 1960's, a video game, Spacewar! could be played on a mainframe at a cost of $120,000, and Bushnell was one of students who were lucky to have access to university computer centres to play the game. "The only question, he remembers was how to bring them to everyone, not just those of us who could sneak into a computer lab late at night."

Bushnell sold the company for $28 million earlier than the "North American game crash" of 1977 and 1983. After his swift departure, the game market crashed and prices dropped, hitting profits hard. Bushnell then founded the Chuck E Cheese restaurant chain (more than 500 locations), but is involved with games again now, with a restaurant-gaming business. According to the way he comes up with big ideas that meld entertainment, information, and technology in new ways, it is probably one of the reasons that Bushnell is so accomplished.

Source: http://techland.time.com/2012/06/27/atari-at-40-catching-up-with-founder-nolan-bushnell/

by Shin Park