Who was the greatest Mind behind Atari?

[GasMonkey]

Was it Bushnell who founded the company and had the initial vision? Or, was it Trameil, the founder of Commodore who rescued Atari and spearheaded the Atari ST line of computers?

 

Atari had a roller coaster ride after Bushnell sold the company to Warner and I wonder if the pull between developing a gam machine or PC was what eventually brought down the company.

 

What do you think,

S

Edited December 14, 2007 by GasMonkey

[accousticguitar]

The day Bushnell left was the beginning of the end for Atari.

[Warriorisabouttodie]

Was it Bushnell who founded the company and had the initial vision? Or, was it Trameil, the founder of Commodore who rescued Atari and spearheaded the Atari ST line of computers?

 

Atari had a roller coaster ride after Bushnell sold the company to Warner and I wonder if the pull between developing a gam machine or PC was what eventually brought down the company.

 

What do you think,

S

 

--

http://VintageAtari.com

http://VintageSega.com

http://VintageNintendo.com

 

 

What about Jay Miner? He was involved with the chip architecture of both the Atari 2600 and Atari 800 series...

[GasMonkey]

Was it Bushnell who founded the company and had the initial vision? Or, was it Trameil, the founder of Commodore who rescued Atari and spearheaded the Atari ST line of computers?

 

Atari had a roller coaster ride after Bushnell sold the company to Warner and I wonder if the pull between developing a gam machine or PC was what eventually brought down the company.

 

What do you think,

S

 

--

http://VintageAtari.com

http://VintageSega.com

http://VintageNintendo.com

 

 

What about Jay Miner? He was involved with the chip architecture of both the Atari 2600 and Atari 800 series...

 

I think Bushnell had the initial vision, with help from the guy who developed the technology, but he was very much the visionary behind the 2600.

 

I also think you are dead on about Jay minor, and if Atari execs would have listened to him, there would not have been an Amiga (as Jay was the brains behind that computer as well), or any need for Jack to rescue the company. In fact the Atari St would have been the Amiga and would have been released earlier than 1985.

 

I would not down play Jack, but Atari was lost without Bushnell for too long. And of course when Jack left Commodore, Commodore had the same trouble.

 

I wonder where Bushnell is today.

[+Omegamatrix]

The man who thought up the mindlink.

[GasMonkey]

The man who thought up the mindlink.

 

That sounds familiar -- but I can't recall what it is.... Help please, or at least a hint?

[ApolloBoy]

The man who thought up the mindlink.

 

That sounds familiar -- but I can't recall what it is.... Help please, or at least a hint?

 

It was a controller that you used by essentially moving your eyebrows. It was prototyped and scheduled for a 1984 release but it was ultimately canned.

[Cassidy Nolen]

You have to go WAAY back past the 2600 to see the greatest minds in Atari. The facts are simple....technology without marketing and application is not profitable (Odyssey 100, ). Nolan is the PT Barnum of the digital age. He was not a programmer, designer, salesman, etc but rather all of these. He was smart enough to get help when he needed it and was charismatic enough to pull the business off. Luck certainly was on his side but there was a visionary view of things.

 

Al Alcorn, The Woz, Jobbs, Gates, Deciur were all brilliant. I still think Nolan is responsible for videogames as we know them. For that, I would say he is the greatest mind.

 

C

[GasMonkey]

You have to go WAAY back past the 2600 to see the greatest minds in Atari. The facts are simple....technology without marketing and application is not profitable (Odyssey 100, ). Nolan is the PT Barnum of the digital age. He was not a programmer, designer, salesman, etc but rather all of these. He was smart enough to get help when he needed it and was charismatic enough to pull the business off. Luck certainly was on his side but there was a visionary view of things.

 

Al Alcorn, The Woz, Jobbs, Gates, Deciur were all brilliant. I still think Nolan is responsible for videogames as we know them. For that, I would say he is the greatest mind.

 

C

 

I would have to agree! The Odyssey is a good example of this. It's too bad Nolan did not stay in the business. I look to Gates as a business hero, but there is no imagination there -- no spark. It's too bad the most boring of the technologies fromt eh 80s endured, the Mac excluded of course.

[Rik]

When bushnell ran ATARI,the Bushnell era,or after Bushnell?Although Bushnell did not invent video games,the first video game was built in the 60's,i think around 67 by a college or university student,and later the first home video system by the guy who invented the first run of the EARLY INCARNATION MAGNOVOX ODYSSEY,IIRC.But its Bushnell who took the idea and perfected it.It took alot of thought and knowledge and smart business savvy to make it work,and Bushnell was all that.The story of how PONG became an absolute success is a real good read,and makes one realize that Bushnell is a smart son of a gun,he was an absolute marketing genious,IMO.Bushnell started ATARI.After Bushnell sold ATARI,everything went down the tubes AFAIC.Tramiel came after Bushnell,and didnt do the company justice IMO.

Edited December 15, 2007 by Rik

[GasMonkey]

When bushnell ran ATARI,the Bushnell era,or after Bushnell?Although Bushnell did not invent video games,the first video game was built in the 60's,i think around 67 by a college or university student,and later the first home video system by the guy who invented the first run of the EARLY INCARNATION MAGNOVOX ODYSSEY,IIRC.But its Bushnell who took the idea and perfected it.It took alot of thought and knowledge and smart business savvy to make it work,and Bushnell was all that.The story of how PONG became an absolute success is a real good read,and makes one realize that Bushnell is a smart son of a gun,he was an absolute marketing genious,IMO.Bushnell started ATARI.After Bushnell sold ATARI,everything went down the tubes AFAIC.Tramiel came after Bushnell,and didnt do the company justice IMO.

 

Baer was the Chief Engineer and Manager of the Equipment Design Division at Sanders Associates. He built a two-player video game using a standard television set where two dots chased each other around the screen. This may not seem like much, but sots bouncing round the screen was the basis for most video games for the next seven years.

 

After Bear demonstrated the device to the company's director of R&D Herbert Campman, funding was approved. In 1967, they brought Bill Harrison on board and added a light gun was constructed from a toy rifle.

 

With Bill Rusch joining the project, development speed up with the end result being a third machine-controlled dot that was used to create a ping-pong game. With additional funding, even more games were built for the console.

 

Baer had the idea of selling the product to Cable TV companies that could transmit static images as game backgrounds. However, the Cable TV industry was slumping and the idea went nowhere.

 

Development continued on the unit for a few more years. The prototype had two controllers, a light gun and sixteen switches that selected the game to be played. These first generation games were actually built into the unit. Baer eventually signed with Magnavox in 1969 with the prototype being released as the Magnavox Odyssey in 1972, some 21 years after the concept was imagined.

 

The Magnavox Odyssey was with a combination of analogue and digital circuitry. While there has been some disagreement over where the unit is digital or not, it is the first game console and it does have a considerable amount of digital circuitry.

[Deteacher]

To answer the question on when the first video game was invented, check out this link:

 

http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/history/higinbotham.asp

 

Interesting read.

[Shawn]

To answer the question on when the first video game was invented, check out this link:

 

http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/history/higinbotham.asp

 

Interesting read.

 

Don't need to read it but I do already know it was in the 50's that "pong" was made to make a tour more exciting for the tourists and also to keep the engineers amused.

[carmel_andrews]

Gasmonkey...You forgot to mention that Baer touted his 'Little brown Box' to the likes of teleprompter and RCA...Pretty much the same way Bushnell Touted Pong to Bally...Unfortunately both RCA and Teleprompter made the same BooBoo as bally did and Passed up the opportunity to become the first videogame company

 

Leaving the ground open for companies like Atari and Magnavox to exploit (Ironically Magnavox was bought out by Philips who are the one of the major shareholders of infogrammes/Atari)

 

Bushnell got lucky because he knew how to find and hire talent (and also because most of the early people were those he knew from uni (as well as AMPEX)

 

Unfortunately after Bushnell unloaded Atari to Warners, People at Atari started sensing a shift/change in direction and didn't seem to like it, Warners sort of thought that 'if Bushnell can do it, so can we' unfortunately it didn't quite work out that way as they were hiring management that were 'non computerate', i.e they may have understood the basics of sales and marketing but didn't have the foggiest about the very product or technology that Atari were founded on and added to the fact that they were'nt in the slightest bit interested in replacing the very people that created the product and technology Atari were founded on

 

Hence why a lot of Atari h/w and software competition came from Atari themselves

 

What Warners did build up in regards to R&D was ultimately decimated by Tramiel, since Tramiel wanted Atari only as a vehicle for his untried/untested 'ST' computer rather then the technology that Atari already had in the oven

Edited December 16, 2007 by carmel_andrews

[+Psionic]

Who was the greatest Mind behind Atari?

Probably Ted Dabney.

 

I wonder where Bushnell is today.

http://www.uwink.com/

[Deteacher]

To answer the question on when the first video game was invented, check out this link:

 

http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/history/higinbotham.asp

 

Interesting read.

 

Don't need to read it but I do already know it was in the 50's that "pong" was made to make a tour more exciting for the tourists and also to keep the engineers amused.

 

What's really cool is that the article also includes a link to a video clip of the game in action. Not a bad tennis simulator for 1958, if you ask me.

[mos6507]

The Tennis for Two thing is kind of like Babbage's Difference Engine. It's something that is only important from a historical perspective. Space War started it all (in elite circles) and Pong with the masses (Ralph's in the home, and Atari's in the arcades).

[AtticGamer]

I think there are more games before Tennis Programming, but mostly were computer games lacking screens but not all of them.

First Videogame.

Edited December 18, 2007 by Atari_kid

[+H.E.R.O.]

Al Alcorn, The Woz, Jobbs, Gates, Deciur were all brilliant. I still think Nolan is responsible for videogames as we know them. For that, I would say he is the greatest mind.

 

Jobs? I dunno...All the stories I've ever heard is that he never did anything and Woz did all the work , whether it was Breakout or the first Apple computer.

 

Still gotta put Ralph Baer in there as well for videogames (and electronic games as well...HAIL SIMON!) overall.

[Noelio]

Agreed however Jobs sold it and used his famed "Reality Distortion". If you could combine Jobs, Woz and Tom Sellick you have Nolan Bushnell... Just what the era ordered lol.

Gates was good but without Steve Allan and Balmer to level him out/keep him in check, he would have probably became a psycho killer instead! LOL!

 

I think Nolan was the man of the early era but he should have hung on. Can you imagine what Miner/Woz/Jobs/Bushnell/Alcorn would have accomplished under the same roof(if ther was an armed guard and moderator of some sort hahaha)???

I think we would have had the modern wintel / mac 10 - 15 years earlier.

 

Al Alcorn, The Woz, Jobbs, Gates, Deciur were all brilliant. I still think Nolan is responsible for videogames as we know them. For that, I would say he is the greatest mind.

 

Jobs? I dunno...All the stories I've ever heard is that he never did anything and Woz did all the work , whether it was Breakout or the first Apple computer.

 

Still gotta put Ralph Baer in there as well for videogames (and electronic games as well...HAIL SIMON!) overall.

[Rik]

I've read quite a few articles on Bushnell,and not everyone praises him.I've seen him labeled as a stupid cranky jerk,who did nothing more than find a way to charge money for playing video games,and that the real geniuses are Ralph Baer,and Higinbotham.I guess one cant be respected by everyone.Like i said in my previous post,it still took someone smart and market savvy to do it,which Bushnell was.

Edited December 19, 2007 by Rik

[Noelio]

If you watch the movie "The Pirates of Silicon Valley" you will get an extremely accurate depiction of the apple/ms/intel/ibm boys. Jobs comes across as the famed "Soup Nazi" of the Seinfeld series but its exactly what it took to keep things focused. Woz, as lovable, generous and great a creature he is just had an extremely deep and innocent love of the equipment and the autodidactism of building while learning. Without Jobs he would had strayed into other territories that there was probably no immediate market for. Same goes for Bushnell. He was smart enough in all departments but a master of none yet he had confidence and stacks of charisma to make the market look their way and open their shelves as well as wallets.

It was the one shot to jump into the heavy traffic and Bushnell saw that and jumped in. None of the other greats or the true electronic geniuses would have got out of their basements or sheds long enough to seize the day and they would all tell you that to this day. Bushnell / Jobs took it all from the -science fair mode- to trade show level and thank God for that! Hehehe. We would all be collecting heathkit consoles otherwise, playing reversi clones on the latest hp calculator MAYBE only now discovering 16 or 32 bit architectures!

 

The real true genius was the design indeed but its a tree falling in the forest with noone to hear it without a charismatic technopreacher to present it.

 

 

 

I've read quite a few articles on Bushnell,and not everyone praises him.I've seen him labeled as a stupid cranky jerk,who did nothing more than find a way to charge money for playing video games,and that the real geniuses are Ralph Baer,and Higinbotham.I guess one cant be respected by everyone.Like i said in my previous post,it still took someone smart and market savvy to do it,which Bushnell was.

[GasMonkey]

I've read quite a few articles on Bushnell,and not everyone praises him.I've seen him labeled as a stupid cranky jerk,who did nothing more than find a way to charge money for playing video games,and that the real geniuses are Ralph Baer,and Higinbotham.I guess one cant be respected by everyone.Like i said in my previous post,it still took someone smart and market savvy to do it,which Bushnell was.

 

He may be many of those things, but then again, Tramiel was not that well liked either... businesses operated differrently back then I think -- times are different.