Jess Ragan Posted October 22, 2001 Share Posted October 22, 2001 Here's a tidbit for the "Did You Know?" section of the site... Steven Kent's book The First Quarter describes Atari founder Nolan Bushnell as a decadent weed fiend who held business meetings in hot tubs. According to the book, most of Atari's employees were also fond of the reefer, and before the company was sold to Warner Bros. the Atari production line would usually stink of marijuana. Man, now THAT'S something I hadn't expected to hear. I always thought of Mr. Bushnell as being more, well, dignified than that. JR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liquid_sky Posted October 22, 2001 Share Posted October 22, 2001 reefer madness eh? i knew bout the hot tub but not the ganja offnote, but how come pot has so many names? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lemmi Posted October 22, 2001 Share Posted October 22, 2001 wow now i know why my atari 2600 smelled funny when i first got it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StanJr Posted October 22, 2001 Share Posted October 22, 2001 Nothing better than a contact buzz from a new 2600. High Times, baby! Stan "Woody" Harrelson Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mos6507 Posted October 22, 2001 Share Posted October 22, 2001 Who in the early 70s wasn't into drugs? This sort of moral relativism where we try to apply today's ethics to past eras is just silly. Despite the drugs, the leftovers of late 60s idealism is what brought us the microcomputer revolution in the 70s. It's what led to all the best innovative thinking that evolved into what we take for granted now in the modern era. And if you think decadence is limited to the 70s, think of how it returned bigtime for the DOT COM boom a few years ago in a yuppified flavor. At least at Atari they accomplished something, hottubs or no hottubs. They had big dreams and they made quite a few a reality. The Dot commers did almost nothing but waste venture capital, but look stylish and sophisticated while doing so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genki Posted October 22, 2001 Share Posted October 22, 2001 Now I understand why Atari 2600 is so hard to program for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Night Phantom Posted October 22, 2001 Share Posted October 22, 2001 quote: Originally posted by Glenn Saunders: Who in the early 70s wasn't into drugs? I wasn't, unless they came in those Gerber bottles... quoteThis sort of moral relativism where we try to apply today's ethics to past eras is just silly. Antidrug ethics already existed in the culture of that time. That's why the drug scene was said to be part of the counterculture. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liquid_sky Posted October 23, 2001 Share Posted October 23, 2001 quoteStan "Woody" Harrelson out of all of your ending names, i got the biggest kick out of this one stan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariDude Posted October 23, 2001 Share Posted October 23, 2001 I just got the Ultimate History of Video Games and read about that too. Atari had purchased a building that was formerly a roller rink and it reeked of marijuana. The book also mentioned that when Warner Communications first bought Atari, there was a culture clash between the two companies. They had some of the Warner staff show up to Atari's headquarters and noticed that everyone was wearing T-shirts and jeans while they had typical business suits. They were supposed to meet for dinner that night at a local restaurant. Nolan did not want to make a bad impression like the one that they saw at the factory so he asked his staff to wear business suits for the dinner. The Warner staff did not want to appear stuffy so they came with relaxed clothing. It must have been funny to watch I wonder how things would have turned out if Atari had not been bought by Warner Communications when it was. My understanding of Atari under Nolan Bushnell was the fact that the company was always very tight with money and was almost always under threat of bankruptcy since they did not have the money to expand until Warner bought them. According to the book, Bushnell was a little hung over when he made the deal with Warner and he sometimes regrets that he ever allowed the deal to go through. I can't wait to find out what else was going on in that era that I did not know about. The book makes for a lot of interesting reading. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parcel Posted October 23, 2001 Share Posted October 23, 2001 Funny, I always thought the marijuana was a given. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Friend of Sonic Posted October 23, 2001 Share Posted October 23, 2001 NOW we know why Pac-Man and ET sucked so much... Okay, okay, ET wasn't their fault: the programmers were given mere weeks to do a game for the Christmas season. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Friend of Sonic Posted October 23, 2001 Share Posted October 23, 2001 test Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ze_ro Posted October 23, 2001 Share Posted October 23, 2001 Well, this certainly explains some of the weird-ass games that Atari has made over the years... they're like the Jim Morrison of the video game scene... except they didn't die out so suddenly... --Zero Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StanJr Posted October 23, 2001 Share Posted October 23, 2001 Hey liquid_sky! I do my best, baby! Clever Stan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cassidy Nolen Posted October 23, 2001 Share Posted October 23, 2001 I think all you have to do is play Crystal Castles and you will know they were all into something! As for Bushnell, I think he is responsible for so much more than he was ever given credit for. IMHO, he was the force that brought computers (of any kind) to the mass media. His adaptation of Space Wars was amazing given the restrictions, but his real intelligence can be seen in the Atari marketing of Pong et al. I should also end this by saying it is a lifetime goal to meet him. I met Joe Decuir at the last CGE, and missed meeting Ralph Baer (he was sick). Nolan, if you ever read this, you are the man! History is full of people so busy making it that they don't know they are. Cassidy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mos6507 Posted October 24, 2001 Share Posted October 24, 2001 >>Antidrug ethics already existed in the culture of that time. That's why the drug scene was said to be part of the counterculture.<< Depends on the agegroup. The 60s youth counterculture became the mainstream in the 70s. The 70s were the ME decade, the excess decade, as you recall. As we live in a democracy, baby boomers defined what the norms were by virtue of their numbers in relation to the rest of society. Certainly to most anyone a generation older looks at the younger generation as a counterculture. As a GenXer I look at GenY rap-rock, tattoos and tongue studs as counterculture And people change as they shift from age bracket to age bracket. If you look at the game offerings at Nolan's current startup, uWink, you'd probably come to the conclusion that he's gotten way conservative in his old age. There aren't even any action games there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liquid_sky Posted October 24, 2001 Share Posted October 24, 2001 quoteWell, this certainly explains some of the weird-ass games that Atari has made over the years... they're like the Jim Morrison of the video game scene... except they didn't die out so suddenly... Well, it is pretty close.. innovaters but weird ass.. if atari did in one of those hottubs it would be VERY doors'ish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Random Terrain Posted October 25, 2001 Share Posted October 25, 2001 No matter what decade it may be, there are people who choose not to drink, smoke, or take drugs. I'm not just talking about religious nuts either. There are always clear thinkers in any age. Asking who wasn't into something during a certain time period is a little silly. It's like asking, "who didn't watch 'friends' or 'Survivor?'" Plenty of people have not even seen one episode. There are people who are always ahead of their time. Right now, we allow people to slit the throat of a screaming animal as its blood drains out of its body so that we can have lunch. But in the future, people will look back at this dark time of allowing the murdering of animals for food and say, "who didn't do that?" The answer is plenty of people. Another example is that most doctors treat the symptoms rather than the causes of disease, but there are some who actually "treat" the cause right now, not 200 years from now. I guess I got a little off-topic, but "who didn't do something during a certain time" statements always get me started. This was not an attack on the person who said that line, he just started my automatic motor. Back to the smoking pot thing, I think that there should be no doubt to the sane mind that breathing in the smoke from anything that burns is not good for your body. That's smoke from cigarettes, marijuana, incense, car exhaust, and the list goes on. If you're smart enough to avoid smoke from a pile of burning leaves in your back yard, why would you think that breathing in smoke from any other source could be good for you and the people around you? OK, my mini-rant is over. If you want to read more stuff about smoking, you can visit my smoking page: Fi's Quotes on Smoking Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StanJr Posted October 25, 2001 Share Posted October 25, 2001 Who didn't think FofI would fly off the handle at an off hand remark made in the early 21 century? I mean really? Just teasin', FofI. The set up was just too "there." Goofin' Stan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Atari Posted October 25, 2001 Share Posted October 25, 2001 Everybody at Mythicon was probably high, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liquid_sky Posted October 25, 2001 Share Posted October 25, 2001 quoteEverybody at Mythicon was probably high, too. Id say, their memory sure was blown at least.. maybe they were alzhimers patients programming out of a nursing home? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Random Terrain Posted October 25, 2001 Share Posted October 25, 2001 StanJr: Too funny! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Bytchin Posted October 25, 2001 Share Posted October 25, 2001 So was Paperboy Nolan's idea? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hakogame 箱亀 Posted October 25, 2001 Share Posted October 25, 2001 I heard that some kids came up with the concept for paperboy and submitted it to atari, then after the game came out, the kids sued atari for stealing their idea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atarimastermarty Posted October 25, 2001 Share Posted October 25, 2001 Racoon lad, i wonder if its true. were did you here this? that would be messed up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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