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Nolan Bushnell Appointed to Atari Board


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I think the issue of identity is very interesting. How does one know that a hot 16 year old girl is not some 60 year old fat fart in his basement in a bathrobe. One way is to have a third party like 7-11 authenticate with a pix and drivers license and then have an encrypted authorization. Another way--less secure is to link facebook. The difficulty of a hoaxer to get all the pix and data make the gap much harder.

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I think the issue of identity is very interesting. How does one know that a hot 16 year old girl is not some 60 year old fat fart in his basement in a bathrobe. One way is to have a third party like 7-11 authenticate with a pix and drivers license and then have an encrypted authorization. Another way--less secure is to link facebook. The difficulty of a hoaxer to get all the pix and data make the gap much harder.

Unless the hoaxer is someone close to the real person, operating with his sanction.

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Well, when you consider it, anyone who has any sort of 'fame' in circles is going to be met with scrutiny and skepticism, especially in an online world, for precisely what you're posting about. One of the blessings and the curses of the internet, to be honest, is the anonymity factor. I could say I'm a green Martian living in Chicago, it could be true, but nobody would believe me, justifiably so.

 

I guess I will ever play the role of the skeptic (right alongside others like jay). But really, is it better to be tested under the microscope and proven true than to have everyone instantly believe you? I feel the former is better for information purposes than the latter.

 

This is sticking in my craw so I have to point this out. You have a somewhat familiar acquaintanceship with Curt. However, in certain posts you spell his last name properly, while in the last post, you mis-spell his last name, adding an extra L. If you and he are e-mailing somewhat regularly (albeit infrequently) why would you misspell his last name, and why only part of the time? If he's a 'cool and fun guy', as you state, remembering his last name's appropriate spelling would seem tantamount. A simple slip of the keyboard or "typing from an iPhone" would not warrant something like this, in my opinion, as if one were wanting to accurately represent oneself one would ensure to spell-check the names of people one is involved with, even were it a minor association.

 

You also didn't answer my question about Paramount vs. Warner. If the guys 'hocking the script' were first involved with Warner, then moved to Paramount, it seems clear who is, in fact, producing the movie. Why even mention the company that is NOT making the movie in the first place? It is less ambiguous and holds closer to a simpler explanation if one were to simply state the accurate producers of the film from the very start, rather than beginning two steps behind what has already happened.

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The most silly things that Curt said is that Dabney did the original tech. Dabney was a good hardware engineer and a good friend. He was not a digital engineer. He did the tv interface circutry for Computer space and the sound module. Important things but clearly not patentable. The slip counter architecture that all game were base on until 1978 when the microprocessor took over were my invention and patented

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What did you think in his rant was accurate. I will rebut.

Okay, let's take the issue of Bushnell's involvement with the creation of Computer Space. Was it Bushnell or Ted Dabney who originally designed the hardware? Or what about Pong: is it true that Bushnell saw Ralph Baer's TV Tennis before giving the game concept to Al Alcorn for implementation? If he did not, has he has claimed over the years, how did his signature end up in the guest book?

 

EDIT: I see you've already posted about Computer Space, although you didn't entirely answer all of what Curt has written. Why does Bushnell claim that he converted his daughter's bedroom into a lab for the development of Computer Space when Ted Dabney has stated that it was his daughter's bedroom that was converted into a lab?

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You've got the stage! We'd love to hear some of your rebuttals to Curt's statements. We're all ears!

 

But first he'll need to learn how to reply. For example, when I reply, I see something like this:

 

[q uote name=Cebus Capucinis' date='Mon Apr 26, 2010 2:47 AM' timestamp='1272264463' post='1998028]

You've got the stage! We'd love to hear some of your rebuttals to Curt's statements. We're all ears!

[/ quote]

 

Then I type down here.

 

By the way, rebuttal sounds like a butt upgrade. Don't like your old butt? No problem! Call Re-Butt! The professionals at Re-Butt will have your new butt installed in less than 30 minutes, guaranteed.

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If this is really Nolan, I would seriously like a job as a creative director. I have experience with 3D and have great ideas for games that would honor classic gaming, but use new tech and add story and humor. I would be willing to live in France if necessary.

 

A great game is easy to learn but difficult to master.

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Ralph Baer was at most a pain in the ass. He is what i like to paint as a patent whore. Just one step from a ambulance chasing attorney. The real important guys upon whose shoulders I stood was Steve Russel from MIT who programmed the PDP1 to play space wars. His program was written in 1963 I played it in 1965 and loved it and it changed my life. I saw the Burlingame demo of the odyssey and thought it was crap and it was. I signed the register with my own name and have never denied it. It did spark the idea that the ping pong idea could be an interesting game if it were done well.

 

Odyssey only did as well as it did because people had played Pong in the bars and they though that was what they were buying. Magnavox discontinued odyssey because of all the returns they got. When we came out with consumer Pong the market was soured. We showed it at the toy show and sold none because of the bad taste that Odyssey gave them. If it hadn't been for Sears the Magnavox Baer disaster may have spoiled the whole market.

 

Atari signed a license to get out of the Magnavox patent suit. I thought and still do think that Baers patents are crap but because we were raising money it was cheaper to settle for a "junk" settlement. We settled for less than it would cost to litigate and it amounted to less than .5% on sales. That is a junk settlement. Ask Ralph about that.

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While it is my turn to rant. During the Magnavox patent suit Baer came to atari and spent a lot of time in our game room playing our coin op game touch me. A few years later he licensed the game to Hasbro as Simon. He even patented it? Ask him who invented Simon some time.

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If this is really Nolan, I would seriously like a job as a creative director. I have experience with 3D and have great ideas for games that would honor classic gaming, but use new tech and add story and humor. I would be willing to live in France if necessary.

 

A great game is easy to learn but difficult to master.

 

I would love to talk. But understand my bias. While 3d is interesting visually I am more interested in new game mechanic. Remember all the controversy and flames when I said that the Wii was much more interesting that the PS3 a year before it launched. The controllers were more interesting than the better graphics. Lets be serious the Wii has at best a poor graphics engine but it really kicks ass in new types of game play. Now we have the Iphone and I pat both of which have some really cool things that can be done. Watch this page cause that is where I am going.

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Missle command was done by a small team and I only helped fine tune it. In no way could I be classed as the inventor.

At what time did Bushnell help to fine-tune Missile Command? And who were the other members of the development team who can verify this?

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What did you think in his rant was accurate. I will rebut.

Okay, let's take the issue of Bushnell's involvement with the creation of Computer Space. Was it Bushnell or Ted Dabney who originally designed the hardware? Or what about Pong: is it true that Bushnell saw Ralph Baer's TV Tennis before giving the game concept to Al Alcorn for implementation? If he did not, has he has claimed over the years, how did his signature end up in the guest book?

 

EDIT: I see you've already posted about Computer Space, although you didn't entirely answer all of what Curt has written. Why does Bushnell claim that he converted his daughter's bedroom into a lab for the development of Computer Space when Ted Dabney has stated that it was his daughter's bedroom that was converted into a lab?

Perhaps it is because Ted Dabney does not have a daughter. My daughter was Britta and I put her in with her older sister Alissa. Both Ted and I did the hardware. Ted the analog and me the digital. See my other post about Baer

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There is often a confusion of dates between the coin op and the consumer. I had no involvement with the consumer version but a lot with the coin op.

There's no such "confusion of dates"...I'm referring to the coin-op version of Missile Command, not the consumer (Atari VCS) version, which came later.

 

The coin-op didn't even have an official proposal until May of '79 (the original design spec document is posted elsewhere in this thread)...six months after you left Atari. According to programmer Dave Theurer, Steve Calfee came up with the general concept for the game and he (Dave) started working on it after he programmed Atari Soccer (which was completed in early '79).

 

So what exactly was your "involvement" with the coin-op version? And how were you somehow involved with a game that was started after you left Atari?

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Missle command was done by a small team and I only helped fine tune it. In no way could I be classed as the inventor.

At what time did Bushnell help to fine-tune Missile Command? And who were the other members of the development team who can verify this?

 

 

You got me, I cannot remember who was on the team. Sorry. But I remember the day when missile command was in the conference room with all of us around. It had to be after 1976 since we were on Borreagas avenue.

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