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Nolan Bushnell
Of course we know Nolan best as the person who caused our favorite treasure to be created, but he is much more than that. He is a fascinating and accomplished person for many reasons.
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Here is a picture of him posing with an Androbot, a personal robot that was one of Nolan's post-Atari ventures and which, unfortunately, is no longer being made. In 1984, Axlon offered Andy, a robot with a programmable personality which is shown in the ad to which the link will lead you. You will note that he looks a lot like an Androbot. We are pleased to have an Andy of our own. |
In the early 1970s, Nolan Bushnell built one of the first video games named Computer Space. It was too complicated to succeed but, building on this experience, in 1971 he created Pong and history was made. In 1972 he founded Atari in 1972 and, effectively, began the electronic gaming revolution which regards him as its father. GameSpot calls him the 5th most influential person in computer gaming of all time!
In 1977, he sold Atari to Time Warner after which he founded a number of companies through which he hoped to use electronic games to entertain, enlighten and educate. Included among these were Chuck E. Cheese, the still popular restaurant that he founded in order to provide an appropriate family atmosphere in which children could play, Androbot, which was dedicated to building personal robots, and Axlon, the wonderful company that produced AGs.
Fortunately as the internet develops, more and more information about him is becoming available. We found this fascinating profile from an April, 1985 magazine. GameSpot has an excellent Nolan Bushnell article from a 1998 interview. The San Jose Mercury News included him in its report on The Revolutionaries which includes another interesting interview with him. Good Deal Games posted both a biography and an interview and TheTech published an informative and wide ranging interview.
He seems to be very busy these days. He is hard at work on his newest venture, uWink. CNET published articles detailing his recent activities on March 15, 2005 and July 27, 2005. He is preparing to open a restaurant/gaming facility which appears consistent with his past. There is much information about this on the uWink website.