Spring+2009+Lecture+2+Notes

= __Spring 2009 Lecture 2 Notes__ =


 

 
 * Nolan Bushnell – Born in Utah in 1943
 * At age 15, took over for father's construction jobs, after father died – afterward, felt he could do anything
 * Lived by an interesting philosophy – takes 3 years to master anything to the 90th percentile. Could spend the rest of your life getting the last 10% expertise, but he wanted to always live in the 90%, moving from topic to topic.
 * 1962 – Enrolled in University of Utah – had 2 educations
 * Lost tuition money in a game of poker – took job at arcade. No videogames at the arcade, of course, just pinball/stands for prizes/etc.
 * Manned a “throw baseball at bottles” stand, but always felt that the bottles were the least important part of the job – Most important was attracting people to the game, which he learned to do.
 * Moved inside the arcade - watched games such as Chicago Coin Speedway
 * Helped to maintain machines, learned how they worked.
 * Also learned how the Amusement industry itself worked.
 * Back at University of Utah, Bushnell majored in Engineering. Wasn't long before he found the computers.
 * Like MIT, Utah was one of the 4 top schools for computer science.
 * Bushnell befriended lab assistants, gained time in the labs.
 * Learned FORTRAN and Gortran.
 * Spacewar completed in 1962, so a number of computer games had since been developed.
 * Not in abundance, but a handful. Utah students ended up programming 7 games by this time.
 * Bushnell preferred Spacewar, and memorized the game.
 * Bushnell himself made a few games: Tic Tac Toe, 3D Tic Tac Toe, and Fox and Geese.
 * Fox and Geese – based on ancient solitaire game, which evolved over years into 2-player game
 * Fox – player (represented by an X in Bushnell's computer version)
 * Geese – computer-controlled (represented by O's in Bushnell's computer version)
 * If Fox got 1 goose alone, he could kill it – Geese tried to corner fox (simple computer program to make a goose move towards the Fox each turn)
 * Bushnell graduated from University of Utah in 1968
 * 1969 was hired by Ampex Corporation - $10,000 a year, research designer
 * Worked on Ampex projects for 18 months before getting the desire to “wander”
 * Decided to combine his “2 educations,” engineering and games, to create a coin-operated version of Steve Russell's Spacewar.
 * First tried using Texas Instruments mini-computer – Too expensive and too slow.
 * Decided to design a computer board himself, a board dedicated to playing Spacewar.
 * Still at Ampex, Bushnell got most parts for free - “Hobby” program gave you free cheap parts.
 * Got parts Ampex didn't have from salesman friends at electronics stores.
 * Method worked – did not have crisp graphics like Russell's version which ran on expensive PDP-1
 * Had most features of original – spaceship, realistic physics, star field, etc.
 * Changed gameplay somewhat – single player game with player-controlled ship avoiding missile fire from flying saucers while shooting back
 * Bushnell called his version Computer Space
 * Bought and old black and white TV from Goodwill, built a rough case, and had a prototype.
 * Needed someone to manufacture it.
 * Found partner in Bill Nutting, of Nutting Associates – who had recently entered into the Coin-Op Business.
 * Nutting hired Bushnell away from Ampex and licensed Computer Space.
 * Computer Space had a way to go before it could be marketed
 * Bushnell worked on Nutting projects during the day, and Computer Space on his own time – this let him keep all rights to Computer Space. Nutting was only a licensee.
 * Bushnell emphasized presentation – designed a case for Computer Space with round edges and a futuristic look – caught the eye of the customer.
 * Nutting produced final design out of fiberglass.
 * Original test site – Bar outside of Stanford University named Dutch Goose
 * Attracted a lot of looks, very few players – still, Nutting built 1500 machines.
 * Music Operator's Association (MOA) convention – later renamed Amusement Music Operator's Association (AMOA) to reflect important of videogames
 * 1971 MOA convention – Bushnell attended with Computer Space
 * Was enthusiastic about presenting machine, though very few purchases made.
 * After the failure of Computer Space, Bushnell decided to leave Nutting.
 * He, Ted Dabney, and Larry Bryan (both former Ampex engineers) agreed to chip in $250 each to form a company - first needed a name.
 * Bryan came up with Syzygy – astrological term – name taken by a candle company.
 * Bushnell decided to use a word from Japanese game Go.
 * Word roughly translated to the chess equivalent of “check” - Atari
 * Bryan dropped out before company became official - never put in his part of the money, thus Atari founded on only $500 ($250 each from Bushnell and Dabney)
 * Bally – large pinball company - contract shortly after Atari started – make wide-format Pinball machines
 * Atari started pinball-route (buying cheap games, installing, maintaining) for extra cash
 * Very first Atari employee – Cynthia Villanueva – 17 year old, former babysitter
 * Receptionist – told to make Atari seem larger – had callers wait on hold while she pretended to “find” Bushnell who was really sitting nearby
 * Also did odd-jobs, from errands to building electronic components

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