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Nolan Bushnell Appointed to Atari Board


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The one truly awkward moment during all that shooting was when Ron Milner dropped a really sensitive quip. He said "you took the crap... and then you took the money". There was a pregnant pause and then everyone broke into laughter.

 

Haha, would love to have seen that moment. Thanks for sharing that.

 

 

What I'm trying to say here is that, beyond the facts of what went down and who, as a 3rd party observer, appears to have been the victim, real relationships between people are complicated.

 

Definitely, just like what I mentioned emotion wise between him and Ted. He forced Ted out, but Ted still did work for him for Chuck E. Cheese a number of years later, and was a mixture of complicated emotions with regards to him. Anger one minute, fond memories the next.

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theres been a few post about the books.

 

No Dan, any and all posts were people asking and questioning about the books and us responding. We did not bring the books in to this thread. So once again, more ridiculous crap from you. Keep it up. I'll be happy to discuss it while you're busy mumbling to your Jaguar Anime porn at the next "Jagfest".

get back on the subject, and tell why you don't like nolan returning to atari?

you obvious have some hatred toward him, because the title said it all. I've been on js-II and it also mentions about nolan rejoining atari but doesn't say "worms his way" it simply said he returns to atari, and there is no bashing of nolan in any of the post and it mentions it prob a pr stunt as you mentioned.

and leave jagfest out of this: I've been involved with jagfest since it inception in'97 I'm proud to be part of it.

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theres been a few post about the books.

 

No Dan, any and all posts were people asking and questioning about the books and us responding. We did not bring the books in to this thread. So once again, more ridiculous crap from you. Keep it up. I'll be happy to discuss it while you're busy mumbling to your Jaguar Anime porn at the next "Jagfest".

So what does Dan's involvement with Jagfest have anything to do with Nolan Bushnell? Now you are just using Ad Hominem attacks, and petty ones at that to get your point across. You know I will readily concede that Nolan was anything but professional during his time at Atari, but neither have you when responding to people who dare to say something contrary to your statements.

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So what does Dan's involvement with Jagfest have anything to do with Nolan Bushnell?

 

The same thing his claim of Curt and I using this thread to "plug" the books did.

 

Now you are just using Ad Hominem attacks, and petty ones at that to get your point across.

 

I see, you're glossing over everyone telling him how out of line and ridiculous he was for that, as well as his followup still trying to push the same thing. Makes sense.

 

You know I will readily concede that Nolan was anything but professional during his time at Atari, but neither have you when responding to people who dare to say something contrary to your statements.

 

Had nothing to do with any of that, did not comment on his views of Nolan, but please carry on.

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As for Ralph - man is sharp as a tack and still designing new products and idea's, he's going on 87 and he amazes me every time I meet up with him.

 

He turned 88 last month and he amazes me all of the time too. You do know that the Brown Box stopped working at Pax last month? After the show we drove up to visit Ralph and he fixed it in 15 minutes. Then he noticed that one of the controllers was out of sync so he fixed that hardware as well.

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get back on the subject,

 

Dan, you're in no place to be giving orders.

 

and tell why you don't like nolan returning to atari?

 

Now you're just acting silly. There's 20 pages worth of discussion with everyone that adequately illustrates that position.

 

you obvious have some hatred toward him, because the title said it all.

 

Yes, of course. It's hatred rather than editorial commentary on someone leveraging a supposed experience to talk people in to giving him a position. You have no idea what's going on internally at Atari SA, I do.

 

I've been on js-II and it also mentions about nolan rejoining atari but doesn't say "worms his way" it simply said he returns to atari, and there is no bashing of nolan in any of the post and it mentions it prob a pr stunt as you mentioned.

 

Really, anybody over there making accusations about us "plugging" our book?

 

and leave jagfest out of this: I've been involved with jagfest since it inception in'97 I'm proud to be part of it.

 

Wasn't about Jagfest Dan, it was about you and your continued pattern of conduct at the MGC and in regards to it in light of your recent commentary here in this thread. Once again, you're in no position to start dictating to me. You're the one that started this round up.

Edited by wgungfu
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I would like to point out that I have nothing against Nolan Bushnell. I have a huge respect for the man and I am in awe whenever I'm in his presence. I believe that I gave him the title "Father of the Videogame INDUSTRY" in my 2000 article about Ralph Baer. However, I would respect him even more if he seriously credited the others who were involved. We wouldn't think less of Nolan if he did. We would probably think more of him.

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you obvious have some hatred toward him, because the title said it all.

 

Yes, of course. It's hatred rather than editorial commentary on someone leveraging a supposed experience to talk people in to giving him a position. You have no idea what's going on internally at Atari SA, I do.

 

 

Okay, so why don't you enlighten us on what is really going on internally at Atari and how Nolan leveraged his way onto the board? I'm extremely curious as to how all this came about.

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Guys, please stick to the subject at hand. I don't want to see any more attacks volleyed towards users here. I will start deleting any subsequent messages of this nature and removing users making such attacks from this thread.

 

Thank you,

 

..Al

Al, you have my permission to delete my posts in this topic.

and marty, re:MGC you try missing a whole day of sleep and see how you feel the next day,that is what happned to me coming home at 2:30am on monday the day after MGC.

and please enlighten us on the back stage activities of the new Atari, the old is dead and gone(even though I get mail for gary tramiel for conferences and trade shows addressed to marketing at Atari inc(that still baffles me,because I didn't sign up for anything like that)

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I haven't read many of the posts in this thread, I'm just putting in my input.

 

Nolan Bushnell is important just like The Queen of England, the Emperor of Japan and any other "head of state". Many of these people throughout history have been fortunate merely in circumstance. By this I mean he is a figure head.

 

He is the kind of person who has lucked out by being at the right place at the right time, and putting ideas together. He is a Steve Jobs type character in some respects. Not with incredible business sense or technological sense, but a person with a vision (though I use that word very lightly) By this I mean he is an ideas man.

 

As someone trained in PR, this obviously reeks of it and is clearly just a way to try to gain some legitimacy. In many people's eyes there is pretty much nothing that is going to satisfy them.

 

I often wonder why people are even riled up about this when its clear the only thing they really care about are the games.

 

Certainly I can understand why someone like Curt would be "butt-hurt" over Bushnell, being screwed over is a pretty serious thing though I'm now warning Curt that he ought to be careful with his tongue if Bushnell ends up with any clout given his current dealings with "Atari" and the enjoyable flashback efforts.

 

All I can say is that I personally see this as a positive move. Atari now has the name, the licenses, and "the man" and is inching its way to being a remade Atari. As much as I can already sense you armchair experts in the various disciplines hammering away at keyboards to rage at me and I don't mean that to be insulting (as I myself am an armchair expert in various things I claim to know) but in the end it doesn't matter what a group of enthusiasts like us care. Atari doesn't cater to us and won't ever.

 

Atari delivers products to a young generation of hardcore gamers with the occasional serving of retro love to interested audiences. Despite this, it's still about as mainstream as they can be given their circumstances. They aren't here to remake your favourite arcades, they aren't here to be the all-american hardware company (Microsoft is your next best bet there) and they are here for one reason. To make money.

 

And that is all Nolan ever wanted to do, despite his successes and failures his name alone lends to the uninformed and perhaps even the carefree an extra iota of legitimacy to an otherwise hollow institution.

 

If they make money, then thats good for them. If they end up enabling people like Curt to make things like the Flashback portable, or Flashback 3 then even better, thats about the most we can hope for from the new Atari, and maybe just maybe Bushnell might even like this idea more than those already on the board of Atari. This might be a blessing in disguise.

 

But I don't know, none of us know (with obvious possible exceptions) and it will be interesting to see where it develops from here.

Edited by Atari-Jess
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Something Marty and I are trying to nail down with multiple independent confirmations and/or internal memo's. Nothing concrete I'd be willing state at this time.

 

 

Curt

 

Hi Curt...

In all your research about Atari, did you uncover whose idea it was to license Space Invaders for the 2600? I've always been curious...

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Allan told me a similar story - he literally had to bar Nolan from coming into the R&D lab because Nolan would stroll in, look over someone's shoulder, tell then that there was a better way, have the person start redoing it and in the end, Nolan would later walk back to that person or persons and say something like "the other way was better, you should change it back" and literally waste everyone's time. When Nolan did come in, Allan would have to walk side by side with him to make sure he didn't cause problems.

 

 

Curt

 

Nolan may be great to hang out with, but this (among other reasons) leads me to believe he is definitely not a good businessperson.

 

I think it was Al Miller who said in Stella at 20, "Nolan wasn't a great manager, but..." and I was always puzzled by that soundbite. What did he mean by "wasn't a great manager"? Al Alcorn also said he had to keep Nolan away from the developers because he'd suggest all sorts of feature-creep. So there were suggestions along these lines but nothing concrete, which made sense given they were all guests at his mansion at the time, assuming some of the participants here really all the details.

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Something Marty and I are trying to nail down with multiple independent confirmations and/or internal memo's. Nothing concrete I'd be willing state at this time.

 

 

Curt

 

Hi Curt...

In all your research about Atari, did you uncover whose idea it was to license Space Invaders for the 2600? I've always been curious...

 

I'm sure he didn't come up with the idea, but Kent's book has a part where Manny Gerard is interviewed and he states Ray told him to licence Space Invaders for the 2600.

Edited by SoulBlazer
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See this is where I can see a clear difference between Nolan and Ralph:

 

Everything I spoke with Nolan, it was always about business, profit, numbers, etc...

When I'd bring up the technical side, he'd always change the subject or simple ask, how quickly will it be done. He'd never engage in some simple "geek speak"

 

Ralph on the other hand, never brings up business, profit, etc... when we talk, its about circuit, signals - how to adapt products for kids, game play, TV interfacing, etc...

 

I mean, last time I was over, he and I spent a lot of time down in his lab area and on the workbench he had 3-4 active projects he was tinkering around with - just to tinker, nothing was in a contract or arrangement, he was just trying idea's out and some of them had some legs to them, cool good stuff.

 

So you see here is where the two titans of the Video Gaming Industry diverge... Nolan is a business & salesman - technology to Nolan is a way to make a buck. Ralph is an engineer, designer, inventor - technology to him is fun and creative.

 

 

Curt

 

As for Ralph - man is sharp as a tack and still designing new products and idea's, he's going on 87 and he amazes me every time I meet up with him.

 

He turned 88 last month and he amazes me all of the time too. You do know that the Brown Box stopped working at Pax last month? After the show we drove up to visit Ralph and he fixed it in 15 minutes. Then he noticed that one of the controllers was out of sync so he fixed that hardware as well.

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I agree completely and I've mentioned that many times to others - I would have the utmost respect for him if he'd drop the facade and give credit - in an honest and respectful way to all those who rightfully deserve it. Nolan has and always will have a place in history, but for him to stand in front of the others who did equal and in ways - more then he did, is unfair and he is just hurting himself.

 

 

Curt

 

I would like to point out that I have nothing against Nolan Bushnell. I have a huge respect for the man and I am in awe whenever I'm in his presence. I believe that I gave him the title "Father of the Videogame INDUSTRY" in my 2000 article about Ralph Baer. However, I would respect him even more if he seriously credited the others who were involved. We wouldn't think less of Nolan if he did. We would probably think more of him.

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I mean, last time I was over, he and I spent a lot of time down in his lab area and on the workbench he had 3-4 active projects he was tinkering around with - just to tinker, nothing was in a contract or arrangement, he was just trying idea's out and some of them had some legs to them, cool good stuff.

 

Curt

 

Curt, of all the cool things I've read about you being involved with over the few years I've been on this board, semi-regular hanging around with Ralph Baer is the coolest. You rock.

Edited by misspent_youth
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Wow Curt and Marty! if two Atari aficionados such as yourselves feel this way, my eyes are opened!

I certinaly agree with what Curt and Marty said. Having said that, Atari is doing so badly right now, I can't see this movie HURTING them anymore then they allready are! :P

 

 

 

I said it before... "Atari" will once again become owned by [Time] Warner once its Warner Bros. Interactive purchases the remnants of this company - just like it did with Midway, owners of the former Atari Games Corp.'s IP - sometime between now and 2011. That's my prediction.

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