Nolan Bushnell Appointed to Atari Board

[Dan Iacovelli]

Ok after reading the negative comments I have one thing to say.

 

Get the fuck over it.

 

If he was a thieving prick who copied stuff and......made it better......so what.

(or made others make it better like most owners do)

 

See Bill Gates.

thank you, I've stated that twice already and yet people continue to keep talking.

the past is the past get over the hurdle and continue and look where you at now and the future.

the 2600 for example: has been getting more games thanks to homebrewers at let the system has been

discontinued for the past 30 years(not counting the flashbacks or plug n plays, I mean the originals )

 

to get off topic for while: every so often I get mail for gary tramiel for trade shows at my address listed as Atari inc.

kind of weird.

[82atari5200]

Nolan is a farse...

 

Some examples:

 

He claims HE created Computer Space

 

WRONG - he described the gameplay (based on Space Wars he saw at Stamford) and Ted Dabney designed all of the circuitry for the game.

 

Nolan Bushnell - the Inventor of Pong

 

WRONG - He saw Ralph Baer's TV Tennis in Burlingame, May/June of 1972, goes to Al Alcorn, says for him to do a TV tennis games as a "test" - Al's design is so good, it becomes a product - Al did the work, did the designs - Nolan didn't even understand Vertical Hold on the scanlines of a TV.

 

Atari was a company with the right product at the right time and they got in on the ground floor, even Kassar Years later at the reigns had no clue what he was doing and just went along for the ride... and the glory.

 

Pizzatime Theatre that Nolan and Joe Keenan bought out from Atari was a semi-success, until Nolan got cheap and the home made pizza's were replaced with craptactular frozen dough and sauce (Domino's tastes like a gourmet meal compared to the plastic pizza sold at Chuck E Cheese.) Then Nolan as usual, got bored, went off sailing and the company folded literally overnight.

 

Sente - Nolan's BIG return to videogames - the games were all horrible, the only descent thing to come out of it was the pre-jamma universal cabinet designs which were nice cabinets - Sente was folded into Midway so fast you'd never have known they existed.

 

Androbots - wow, great idea - about 40 years before its time, even today, other then Roomba's and Aibo's running around - the age of personal robots is still not here. Nolan pulled a SUPER-STUPID move on this one - he tried to go public with it, took out a $10 million loan from Merrill Lynch against the IPO, Merrill felt the market wasn't good for the IPO and did a margin call on the loan - small problem - NOLAN SPENT IT ALL!!! So he would spend from 1984 until 1998 trying to pay off that debt and in the end had to sell his Woodside Manor (the old Folgers Estate) to pay off the final balance.

 

Etak was a minor success - basically stealing the design & technology from a former Atari Corporate Labs engineer - Levon Mitchell who designed the navigation system, Nolan bankrolled and sold that off.

 

Playnet - Bartop arcade machines - unfortunately Nolan teamed up with a partner more corrupt then Nolan who bleed the company dry and took off to Europe never to be seen again. Playnet was taken over by the bankruptcy courts.

 

uWink - Still hate that stupid name to this day. Taking the old Playnet technology - Nolan decides to resurrect the old Playnet, but can't use the name, so uWink happens. New designs, games, cash prizes and giveaways -- well the cash prizes, jet ski's and other prizes don't come for most winners part of the uWin gamers network --- another product that couldn't get out the door --- LITERALLY was the "wallruss" - a wall sized jukebox with internet connection to download and play any song you wanted in a bar or restaurant. Small problem -- it was built too deep and wide, nobody thought about getting it through a standard 36" wide doorway - so the prototype never even left the shop. Oh and then there is the OS cracking work and the extraction of a trivia game from the playnet system to be sold to Microsoft and the coin-mech routines pull out of the OS (WinNT) and the HAL layer code to allow the OS to talk directly with the hardware -- Hey Nolan, my consulting fees from 1999 are still unpaid, $42K plus interest - you ever gonna pay me you dead beat!!!

 

Let's not forget - uWink restaurants - after nearly 7 years of work on the playnet systems and $24million in investments - Nolan opens uWink media bistro's --- a table to kitchen order system no different then the way the kids at the drive thru at Macdonalds take you order and its displayed on monitors in the prep area to make your Big Mac. Oh and the games --- ah the games, cheap and borrowing flash type games that aren't much better then the ones you can find for free on the internet.

 

Of course there was the big to-do about the gourmet chef that was brought it to create masterful dishes. Who knows how long he stuck around until he probably stopping getting paid or something. Not too long after people blogged about their food being nothing more the heated up microwave mozzarella sticks and microwave baked stuffed clams -- again Nolan pulling the old Chuck E Cheese route of cheap crappy food to save money.

 

So here we are today - the grand "Huckster" himself manages to squirm his way into Atari as a member of the board. If you thought Atari wasn't doing well in the past - lets see how badly the great "salesman" can sell himself into the destruction of this iteration of Atari.

 

If those who are wonder "gosh - is Curt bitter over getting screwed by Nolan - damned straigh" Bitter or not - Nolan's string of failures and his history of lies speaks for itself.

 

Oh - and hey Nolan - what the F*CK did you spend $24million on at uWink - sure as hell wasn't the hardware or games or anything else that went into uWink --- more investment cash poured into the black hole of Nolan's failures.

 

 

Curt

 

Actually, my feelings on the whole thing can be summed up thusly:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Irtcv1SVvJ8

 

LOL!

 

Yeah, it's pretty funny. I mean, even if the guy really was everything he claimed to be vis a vis Atari (just for the sake of argument), he's been nothing special for the last 35 years. Even as seen in the best light, he's the business equivalent of a one hit wonder. He was in the right place at the right time. So putting him on the board of a company called "Atari" isn't going to do anything but get them (Atari and Nolan) a bit of PR.

 

Such a sad, pitiful move...

Not to argue against THE GUY who is the Atari Historian but that doesn't sound a whole lot different the Steve Jobs or Bill Gates. Jobs especially... Woz was the brains behind the operation. Jobs went on to bilk Perot out of millions for NeXT and finally the messiah returned once more and like the mighty Phoenix Apple is once again a major player....

[bojay1997]

Nolan is a farse...

 

Some examples:

 

He claims HE created Computer Space

 

WRONG - he described the gameplay (based on Space Wars he saw at Stamford) and Ted Dabney designed all of the circuitry for the game.

 

Nolan Bushnell - the Inventor of Pong

 

WRONG - He saw Ralph Baer's TV Tennis in Burlingame, May/June of 1972, goes to Al Alcorn, says for him to do a TV tennis games as a "test" - Al's design is so good, it becomes a product - Al did the work, did the designs - Nolan didn't even understand Vertical Hold on the scanlines of a TV.

 

Atari was a company with the right product at the right time and they got in on the ground floor, even Kassar Years later at the reigns had no clue what he was doing and just went along for the ride... and the glory.

 

Pizzatime Theatre that Nolan and Joe Keenan bought out from Atari was a semi-success, until Nolan got cheap and the home made pizza's were replaced with craptactular frozen dough and sauce (Domino's tastes like a gourmet meal compared to the plastic pizza sold at Chuck E Cheese.) Then Nolan as usual, got bored, went off sailing and the company folded literally overnight.

 

Sente - Nolan's BIG return to videogames - the games were all horrible, the only descent thing to come out of it was the pre-jamma universal cabinet designs which were nice cabinets - Sente was folded into Midway so fast you'd never have known they existed.

 

Androbots - wow, great idea - about 40 years before its time, even today, other then Roomba's and Aibo's running around - the age of personal robots is still not here. Nolan pulled a SUPER-STUPID move on this one - he tried to go public with it, took out a $10 million loan from Merrill Lynch against the IPO, Merrill felt the market wasn't good for the IPO and did a margin call on the loan - small problem - NOLAN SPENT IT ALL!!! So he would spend from 1984 until 1998 trying to pay off that debt and in the end had to sell his Woodside Manor (the old Folgers Estate) to pay off the final balance.

 

Etak was a minor success - basically stealing the design & technology from a former Atari Corporate Labs engineer - Levon Mitchell who designed the navigation system, Nolan bankrolled and sold that off.

 

Playnet - Bartop arcade machines - unfortunately Nolan teamed up with a partner more corrupt then Nolan who bleed the company dry and took off to Europe never to be seen again. Playnet was taken over by the bankruptcy courts.

 

uWink - Still hate that stupid name to this day. Taking the old Playnet technology - Nolan decides to resurrect the old Playnet, but can't use the name, so uWink happens. New designs, games, cash prizes and giveaways -- well the cash prizes, jet ski's and other prizes don't come for most winners part of the uWin gamers network --- another product that couldn't get out the door --- LITERALLY was the "wallruss" - a wall sized jukebox with internet connection to download and play any song you wanted in a bar or restaurant. Small problem -- it was built too deep and wide, nobody thought about getting it through a standard 36" wide doorway - so the prototype never even left the shop. Oh and then there is the OS cracking work and the extraction of a trivia game from the playnet system to be sold to Microsoft and the coin-mech routines pull out of the OS (WinNT) and the HAL layer code to allow the OS to talk directly with the hardware -- Hey Nolan, my consulting fees from 1999 are still unpaid, $42K plus interest - you ever gonna pay me you dead beat!!!

 

Let's not forget - uWink restaurants - after nearly 7 years of work on the playnet systems and $24million in investments - Nolan opens uWink media bistro's --- a table to kitchen order system no different then the way the kids at the drive thru at Macdonalds take you order and its displayed on monitors in the prep area to make your Big Mac. Oh and the games --- ah the games, cheap and borrowing flash type games that aren't much better then the ones you can find for free on the internet.

 

Of course there was the big to-do about the gourmet chef that was brought it to create masterful dishes. Who knows how long he stuck around until he probably stopping getting paid or something. Not too long after people blogged about their food being nothing more the heated up microwave mozzarella sticks and microwave baked stuffed clams -- again Nolan pulling the old Chuck E Cheese route of cheap crappy food to save money.

 

So here we are today - the grand "Huckster" himself manages to squirm his way into Atari as a member of the board. If you thought Atari wasn't doing well in the past - lets see how badly the great "salesman" can sell himself into the destruction of this iteration of Atari.

 

If those who are wonder "gosh - is Curt bitter over getting screwed by Nolan - damned straigh" Bitter or not - Nolan's string of failures and his history of lies speaks for itself.

 

Oh - and hey Nolan - what the F*CK did you spend $24million on at uWink - sure as hell wasn't the hardware or games or anything else that went into uWink --- more investment cash poured into the black hole of Nolan's failures.

 

 

Curt

 

Actually, my feelings on the whole thing can be summed up thusly:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Irtcv1SVvJ8

 

LOL!

 

Yeah, it's pretty funny. I mean, even if the guy really was everything he claimed to be vis a vis Atari (just for the sake of argument), he's been nothing special for the last 35 years. Even as seen in the best light, he's the business equivalent of a one hit wonder. He was in the right place at the right time. So putting him on the board of a company called "Atari" isn't going to do anything but get them (Atari and Nolan) a bit of PR.

 

Such a sad, pitiful move...

Not to argue against THE GUY who is the Atari Historian but that doesn't sound a whole lot different the Steve Jobs or Bill Gates. Jobs especially... Woz was the brains behind the operation. Jobs went on to bilk Perot out of millions for NeXT and finally the messiah returned once more and like the mighty Phoenix Apple is once again a major player....

 

The difference is that Bill Gates and Steve Jobs actually have quite a bit of business sense and proved it over the long term. Nolan Bushnell moved from one business disaster to another and never quite understood how to manage investment funds or budgets to actually produce a successful business model post-Atari. Heck, even Atari pre-Warner wasn't that well run given how close they were to insolvency throught the four years or so Bushnell actively managed the company.

[akator]

Since the industrial revolution, there are very few examples of successful business tycoons that weren't borderline sociopaths with highly questionable morals and behaviors. Unpleasant real estate, railroad, oil, automobile, aerospace, electricity, movie, television, telecom, and other moguls outnumber the "decent" ones at least 1000:1. Each of them would screw you, me, our mothers, and our kids for a nickel, and without thinking twice. Historically that's what they did and continue to do whenever the opportunity arises.

 

But hey, if someone wants to think Bushnell, Jobs, and Gates are personal friends, that's fine. Everyone needs a healthy fantasy life. I just don't understand why someone would waste perfectly good fantasy time thinking nice things about business leaders instead of something healthy like pinup models or pr0n stars...

[Retro Rogue]

Not to argue against THE GUY who is the Atari Historian but that doesn't sound a whole lot different the Steve Jobs or Bill Gates. Jobs especially...

 

Not even close. You're confusing personality conflicts with actual business dealings and substantial successes as legitimate CEO's and visionaries of their industries. To the point of one of the two who was recognized as CEO of the decade.

 

Woz was the brains behind the operation. Jobs went on to bilk Perot out of millions for NeXT and finally the messiah returned once more and like the mighty Phoenix Apple is once again a major player....

 

Only Jobs actually has legitimized talent, and was simply forced out of Apple originally. And he's proven that talent more than a ten-fold. As Curt already mentioned and we've discussed ad-nausea, that is hardly the case here with Nolan. He's always PR'd himself as something he's not. He's not a messiah, nothing he's done since co-founding Atari in '72 (which he nearly ran in to the ground every year until the buyout in '76) has succeeded - either all failed, went bankrupt, etc. His interviews on his theories of the current game industry over the last 20 years have been lauded as out of touch, laughable, and easily set aside. Just last year he was pushing his latest barely a blip on the radar "great Nolan Bushnell release" as Carmel pointed out. He's simply finagled his way on to a board of a company distantly related to the one he co-founded, to give advice on a subject (online and networked gaming) that he has no legitimate experience or success with. They're using each other for more PR, plain and simple.

Edited April 20, 2010 by wgungfu

[lost child]

Ok after reading the negative comments I have one thing to say.

 

Get the fuck over it.

 

If he was a thieving prick who copied stuff and......made it better......so what.

(or made others make it better like most owners do)

 

See Bill Gates.

 

From someone who was not hurt directly by these practices, that would be awfully easy to say. I suspect not so much for anyone who got bent over without so much as the courtesy of a reach-around. If Curt was a victim of Bushnell's business practices, then it's probably a little more difficult for him to "Get the fuck over it".

 

I applaud Curt and Marty for making an effort to document the truth. If Mr. Bushnell finds these things to be libelous, let him come forward to defend himself.

 

(This is one of the most interesting threads I've read in a long time.)

[kool kitty89]

Actually, he was a two-hit wonder. Chucky Cheese made him more money by far than Atari did.

 

So, being a millionaire not once, but twice, isn't an accomplishment? I could handle ridicule from the retro game playing masses if it meant having a bank account with a $1000000+ balance in it!

 

Don't forget that in both cases he squandered any success that those did have and both were quite unstable while he was "running" them: Atari continually on the verge of bankruptcy and Pizzatime Theater, of course going bankrupt. (then getting picked up by the more successful Show Biz Pizza)

 

The difference is that Bill Gates and Steve Jobs actually have quite a bit of business sense and proved it over the long term. Nolan Bushnell moved from one business disaster to another and never quite understood how to manage investment funds or budgets to actually produce a successful business model post-Atari. Heck, even Atari pre-Warner wasn't that well run given how close they were to insolvency throught the four years or so Bushnell actively managed the company.

 

Thank you for saying it, that's pretty much what I wan thinking. (and of course, Marty's more detailed response)

 

It's a shame that the Tramiels get so much negativity over Atari Corp. compared to Bushnell. (I mean things were certainly not perfect, but it's quite clear they at least good at business -Jack especially)

[ehenciak]

"(This is one of the most interesting threads I've read in a long time.)"

 

I'd say ... hell, I thought I knew a lot about Atari and 90% of this is news to me. I love a good dose of schooling in history from time to time :-)!

 

Nolan does make some decent posts on Facebook :-)! That much I know :-)!

[Rik]

One thing i do like about Nolan was his attitude towards his employees.I once read an article where one visitor described Nolan's work environment as looking like a bunch of street people working and walking about,long hair hippy types.Nolan's answer to that was "i don't care what they look like or what they do in their personal lives,just as long as they do their jobs,and that they do well also, i might add,that's all that matters to me.Nolan even let his employees go for their vacations when they pleased,again,just as long as their work performance stayed strong.He seemed like a fair reasonable person to me.

[desiv]

Only Jobs actually has legitimized talent, and was simply forced out of Apple originally.

 

Well, you had me until there...

I'm not saying he couldn't build a blue-box if needed... :-)

Unless you are talking business talent maybe. I'll agree he's a better businessman, track record wise, than Bushnell.

 

Unless... how close have you been to the RDF?

 

desiv

[moycon]

He seemed like a fair reasonable person to me.

 

Yeah but he isn't a very good business man, he makes poor decisions, and squanders so we should all hate him and rag on him.

[Kalvan]

By the way, isn't Infogrames/Atari in financial trouble these days and may go down soon?

 

Last time I checked, Star Trek Online had roughly three million people playing and counting. At roughly $15 per mounth, that means that revenue so far is around $200,000,000.

 

Frankly, I don't see what sort of advice Mr. Bushnell could give on the subject to Infogames.

[DracIsBack]

Jobs especially... Woz was the brains behind the operation.

 

That takes a "technology is everything" point of view. It's not everything and there are a million .bombs to prove it.

 

While I will be the first to criticize Steve Jobs and his funny use of "statistics" and his "reality distortion field", you can't argue with the man's success. Where has Woz been since 1998?

[Rik]

He seemed like a fair reasonable person to me.

 

Yeah but he isn't a very good business man, he makes poor decisions, and squanders so we should all hate him and rag on him.

Yeah,like i said in post #86.I meant personality wise he was likable to me,his being"laid back",if you like.Everyone has good and bad in them.I wouldn't want to hate Nolan for his bad business practices,maybe disrespect his bad practices but not hate him as a person based on bad business on his part.

Edited April 21, 2010 by Rik

[moycon]

Frankly, I don't see what sort of advice Mr. Bushnell could give on the subject to Infogames.

 

Wall mounted pizza dispensers with built in jukeboxes that play music from all the Star Trek movies for next to the PC!!??

[atarian63]

Nolan is a farse...

 

Some examples:

 

He claims HE created Computer Space

 

WRONG - he described the gameplay (based on Space Wars he saw at Stamford) and Ted Dabney designed all of the circuitry for the game.

 

Nolan Bushnell - the Inventor of Pong

 

WRONG - He saw Ralph Baer's TV Tennis in Burlingame, May/June of 1972, goes to Al Alcorn, says for him to do a TV tennis games as a "test" - Al's design is so good, it becomes a product - Al did the work, did the designs - Nolan didn't even understand Vertical Hold on the scanlines of a TV.

 

Atari was a company with the right product at the right time and they got in on the ground floor, even Kassar Years later at the reigns had no clue what he was doing and just went along for the ride... and the glory.

 

Pizzatime Theatre that Nolan and Joe Keenan bought out from Atari was a semi-success, until Nolan got cheap and the home made pizza's were replaced with craptactular frozen dough and sauce (Domino's tastes like a gourmet meal compared to the plastic pizza sold at Chuck E Cheese.) Then Nolan as usual, got bored, went off sailing and the company folded literally overnight.

 

Sente - Nolan's BIG return to videogames - the games were all horrible, the only descent thing to come out of it was the pre-jamma universal cabinet designs which were nice cabinets - Sente was folded into Midway so fast you'd never have known they existed.

 

Androbots - wow, great idea - about 40 years before its time, even today, other then Roomba's and Aibo's running around - the age of personal robots is still not here. Nolan pulled a SUPER-STUPID move on this one - he tried to go public with it, took out a $10 million loan from Merrill Lynch against the IPO, Merrill felt the market wasn't good for the IPO and did a margin call on the loan - small problem - NOLAN SPENT IT ALL!!! So he would spend from 1984 until 1998 trying to pay off that debt and in the end had to sell his Woodside Manor (the old Folgers Estate) to pay off the final balance.

 

Etak was a minor success - basically stealing the design & technology from a former Atari Corporate Labs engineer - Levon Mitchell who designed the navigation system, Nolan bankrolled and sold that off.

 

Playnet - Bartop arcade machines - unfortunately Nolan teamed up with a partner more corrupt then Nolan who bleed the company dry and took off to Europe never to be seen again. Playnet was taken over by the bankruptcy courts.

 

uWink - Still hate that stupid name to this day. Taking the old Playnet technology - Nolan decides to resurrect the old Playnet, but can't use the name, so uWink happens. New designs, games, cash prizes and giveaways -- well the cash prizes, jet ski's and other prizes don't come for most winners part of the uWin gamers network --- another product that couldn't get out the door --- LITERALLY was the "wallruss" - a wall sized jukebox with internet connection to download and play any song you wanted in a bar or restaurant. Small problem -- it was built too deep and wide, nobody thought about getting it through a standard 36" wide doorway - so the prototype never even left the shop. Oh and then there is the OS cracking work and the extraction of a trivia game from the playnet system to be sold to Microsoft and the coin-mech routines pull out of the OS (WinNT) and the HAL layer code to allow the OS to talk directly with the hardware -- Hey Nolan, my consulting fees from 1999 are still unpaid, $42K plus interest - you ever gonna pay me you dead beat!!!

 

Let's not forget - uWink restaurants - after nearly 7 years of work on the playnet systems and $24million in investments - Nolan opens uWink media bistro's --- a table to kitchen order system no different then the way the kids at the drive thru at Macdonalds take you order and its displayed on monitors in the prep area to make your Big Mac. Oh and the games --- ah the games, cheap and borrowing flash type games that aren't much better then the ones you can find for free on the internet.

 

Of course there was the big to-do about the gourmet chef that was brought it to create masterful dishes. Who knows how long he stuck around until he probably stopping getting paid or something. Not too long after people blogged about their food being nothing more the heated up microwave mozzarella sticks and microwave baked stuffed clams -- again Nolan pulling the old Chuck E Cheese route of cheap crappy food to save money.

 

So here we are today - the grand "Huckster" himself manages to squirm his way into Atari as a member of the board. If you thought Atari wasn't doing well in the past - lets see how badly the great "salesman" can sell himself into the destruction of this iteration of Atari.

 

If those who are wonder "gosh - is Curt bitter over getting screwed by Nolan - damned straigh" Bitter or not - Nolan's string of failures and his history of lies speaks for itself.

 

Oh - and hey Nolan - what the F*CK did you spend $24million on at uWink - sure as hell wasn't the hardware or games or anything else that went into uWink --- more investment cash poured into the black hole of Nolan's failures.

 

 

Curt

 

Actually, my feelings on the whole thing can be summed up thusly:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Irtcv1SVvJ8

 

LOL!

 

Yeah, it's pretty funny. I mean, even if the guy really was everything he claimed to be vis a vis Atari (just for the sake of argument), he's been nothing special for the last 35 years. Even as seen in the best light, he's the business equivalent of a one hit wonder. He was in the right place at the right time. So putting him on the board of a company called "Atari" isn't going to do anything but get them (Atari and Nolan) a bit of PR.

 

Such a sad, pitiful move...

Not to argue against THE GUY who is the Atari Historian but that doesn't sound a whole lot different the Steve Jobs or Bill Gates. Jobs especially... Woz was the brains behind the operation. Jobs went on to bilk Perot out of millions for NeXT and finally the messiah returned once more and like the mighty Phoenix Apple is once again a major player....

Not to mention that Atari/Al Alcorn I think, help that ass Jobs get financing by introducing him to "money" people he knew... If that is true how stupid. As a business guy I would NEVER do that for an employee.Might come back to bite you. as it did in this case. Bill gates, right place (and I mean super right) with family on the IBM board.. it's all who you know or in his case related to.

[Cebus Capucinis]

Frankly, I don't see what sort of advice Mr. Bushnell could give on the subject to Infogames.

 

Wall mounted pizza dispensers with built in jukeboxes that play music from all the Star Trek movies for next to the PC!!??

 

FUND IT!!!!!

[atarian63]

Jobs especially... Woz was the brains behind the operation.

 

That takes a "technology is everything" point of view. It's not everything and there are a million .bombs to prove it.

 

While I will be the first to criticize Steve Jobs and his funny use of "statistics" and his "reality distortion field", you can't argue with the man's success. Where has Woz been since 1998?

Apple is a cult and so is Jobs. Now they say apple is a lifestyle choice,it always was overpriced crap and still is. Jobs has been a successful huckster. Just an image to head the company.

[Albert]

Apple is a cult and so is Jobs. Now they say apple is a lifestyle choice,it always was overpriced crap and still is. Jobs has been a successful huckster. Just an image to head the company.

Please don't troll this thread with this garbage.

 

Thank you,

 

..Al

[+pboland]

I think that some people have lost their sense of perspective slightly and have gone all weak at the knees at the thought of their Messiah returning. Yes, we've had a great deal of fun over the years thanks to the company that Nolan co-founded. But that doesn't make him a saint. From what I've read here, Bushnell is a decidedly dodgy character with questionable business practices.

 

If people are so willing to ignore those faults then perhaps they might also forgive the Tramiels. After all they did rescue Atari from Warner when it was making heavy losses and managed to keep it going for another 10 years or so.

 

Anyone? No? Didn't think so.

Actually, I never really look at the Tramiels in a bad light. Sure there were some missed opportunities but, Atari could have died a lot sooner. The Tramiels never seemed like shady business people, a little tight maybe but not shady. I saw and interview or panel video with Jack Tramiel not too long ago. I think it had something to do with an anniversary of the C64 and he seemed like a strait shooter to me.

 

I never really could put my finger on Bushnell. I would see an interview with him and then see an interview with Al Alcorn and Al just comes off better. Bushnell always struck me as someone who like to talk and sometimes his stories in different interviews wouldn't match with others he had.

 

After all of that I started looking into Ralph Bear. That guy seems like the real deal. I really think of him as the start of commercial video gaming.

[Cebus Capucinis]

So...these books you are talking about....will they be announced on AA for sale? I don't want to miss out on my chance to own two very cool pieces of information about Atari history!

[homerwannabee]

You know Steve Jobs was in the same boat as Nolan Bushnell in 1998. Most thought of Apple bringing back Jobs as a publicity stunt that would have no real impact. If you look at what Jobs did from 1988 to 1997 you'll see a similar route.

[Kalvan]

Jobs especially... Woz was the brains behind the operation.

 

That takes a "technology is everything" point of view. It's not everything and there are a million .bombs to prove it.

 

While I will be the first to criticize Steve Jobs and his funny use of "statistics" and his "reality distortion field", you can't argue with the man's success. Where has Woz been since 1998?

 

First engineering new ASIC designs for a company that would later be bought out by Altera (The founder of which has now gone on to a new FPGA company using graphene based logic and memory), then working several ARM based chipset and SoaC projects that became the basis for several smartphones(not sure if that included the iPhone, but I wouldn't be surprised). Most recently (since 2007 or so) he's been the CTO for a company called Fusion I/O, which is one of only two companies so far (the other being OCZ)creating PCI Express based Solid State Drives.

 

I'd say he's kept quite busy.

[atarian63]

Apple is a cult and so is Jobs. Now they say apple is a lifestyle choice,it always was overpriced crap and still is. Jobs has been a successful huckster. Just an image to head the company.

Please don't troll this thread with this garbage.

 

Thank you,

 

..Al

Not a troll just an educated opinion.

[Kalvan]

You know Steve Jobs was in the same boat as Nolan Bushnell in 1998. Most thought of Apple bringing back Jobs as a publicity stunt that would have no real impact. If you look at what Jobs did from 1988 to 1997 you'll see a similar route.

 

Except that NeXT was a real computer company with a real quality product, and Pixar had already come out with Toy Story, A Bug's Life, and Toy Story 2 by the time Apple brought Jobs back.