Background

Nolan Bushnell was born on February 5, 1943, in Clearfield, Utah, the United States. His father, a cement contractor, died when Bushnell was 15 years old. Bushnell stepped in to complete his father's remaining contracts, earning his first exposure to the business world.

Education

Bushnell graduated from the University of Utah College of Engineering with a degree in electrical engineering in 1968 after transferring from Utah State University. Back then, computers were big, bulky mainframes, and the only people who had access to them were computer students. He was among the computer science students of that time who used to play the momentous game Spacewar! on the mainframe computers. He was also associated with the frat group named Pi Kappa Alpha.

Career

During his high school and college days, Bushnell was employed at the Lagoon Amusement Park, eventually becoming a manager. It was at the recreation center that he first saw the interest people had for gaming. Bushnell had gotten his creative start several years earlier. In 1970, Bushnell decided to make such "video games" accessible to the general public, so he, along with his associate Ted Dabney, formed a game company and worked on his first game.

They built a similar game as Spacewar and named it Computer Space. Although it was rudimentary and cumbersome, the game developed into the now-legendary Pong the following year. Players found the 1971 game too confusing and too frustrating, and the game never became a hit. Bushnell suddenly realized that popular games had to be "easy to learn, but difficult to master." So Bushnell and a partner went to work on a new game: Pong. This electronic version of ping-pong featured a ball that players bounced between two paddles using manual knobs. Players dropped quarters into the machine to start new games.

While the development was in process, Bushnell and Dabney repaired pinball machines in order to support their company. While Dabney developed the prototype of the gaming machine, Nolan negotiated with the manufacturer Nutting Associates to launch their machine in the market. The machine was launched but did not receive much success. Nolan then resolved to collaborate with a different company to launch his other games.

After Pong was completed in 1972, Bushnell put a Pong machine in a bar called Andy Capp's for a trial run. Later that night, the owner of the bar called Bushnell told him to come to get the machine because it was broke. When Bushnell got there, he opened the coin box and found out that there were so many quarters put in the machine that they shorted out the machine. Bushnell knew he had a hit.

The company, Bushnell and Dabney created, was originally called Syzygy, but when Bushnell went to register the name, he found out it was already taken, so he had to find another name. The duo renamed their company in 1972, as Atari. The name they chose, Atari, means "prepare to be attacked" in Japanese. Their office was set in Sunnyvale, California, and also appointed Allan Alcorn who was an engineer, and also the first employee of their company. Later on, Bushnell forced his partner, Ted, out of the company.

Within two years, over 100,000 copies of Pong - an electronic version of table tennis - were sold, primarily for bars and nightclubs. The video game phenomenon was born. The game gained immense popularity among gamers and the company continued to produce it for the following few years. In 1975, Atari released a version of Pong that could be played on television sets, in partnership with Sears. Bushnell got Sears to sell a home version of Pong in their stores, and it was the hottest item in the 1975 Christmas season. However, Pong soon grew tiresome, and Bushnell realized that he needed to make a machine that could play any type of game.

The construction of the gaming console Atari VCS (which later came to be known as Atari 2600) was in progress in the year 1976, and during that time Nolan realized the need for funds. Bushnell decided that his only option was to merge Atari with a larger company. In 1976 he sold Atari to Warner Communications for $28 million dollars. Bushnell agreed to stay with the company, but not for long.

Subsequently, ‘Atari’ was acquired by the American company Warner Communication and this helped him amass the required amount for the launch of Atari VCS. In 1977, the VCS was available in the market. The same year, the Pizza Time Theatre was bought by Nolan from Warner Communication, with a vision to use it as a means of distributing the games produced by Atari. The Pizza Time Theatre was later known as Chuck E. Cheese. Bushnell had to leave Atari, Inc. owing to some disagreement he had with the Warner Communication, in 1978.

Bushnell wanted his new company to rival McDonald's and Disneyland and he began to rapidly expand. The restaurants allowed customers to play video games, watch movies, or view a show put on by such robotic entertainers as Madame Oink, Harmony Howlett, or the proto-type Chuck E. Cheese while waiting for their food. In its first year of operation, Pizza Time earned $347,000. By 1982, revenues mounted to more than $99 million.

But the good times were about to end. As the video game market collapsed, interest in Bushnell's restaurants faded. On top of that, the chain earned a reputation for poor food, bad service, and high prices. To stem the tide of financial losses, the robots were reprogrammed to appeal to a more adult crowd, but it was too late. Bushnell resigned in 1984 and soon afterwards Pizza Time Theaters filed for bankruptcy.

But Bushnell was not out of business. In 1981 he formed Catalyst Technologies, a company that gave financial and other support to start-up companies. It financed a number of ventures, including one called Androbot. Androbot attempted to develop robots for home use, and Bushnell predicted every home would have at least one by the year 2000. The enterprise failed. The robots often broke down and were too expensive for home use. Bushnell put the company up for sale in 1985.

But Bushnell continued to seek new opportunities. The internet's growth and possibilities prompted Bushnell to join with Aristo International in 1996. The idea was to develop interactive stands for hotels, bars, and restaurants that would allow patrons to play games (alone or in teams connected across the internet), send email, order concert tickets, or play digital recordings using either coins or charge cards. Aristo changed its name to PlayNet Technologies in 1998 and asked Bushnell to become its chairman. He declined, preferring to remain the director of strategic planning.

In 2007, he was appointed as the chairperson of the company NeoEdge Networks, and the same year became associated with the company GAMEWAGER, as a member of the advisory board. The following year, he was made a Board of Directors of the company AirPatrol Corporation.

He was the chairman of the company Borta, Inc. and after the company was acquired by Aristo International, he was appointed as a senior consultant to the company. He was the co-founder of the company uWink along with Loni Reeder. In 2010, Nolan Bushnell, after a hiatus of several years, joined Atari as one of the company’s Board of Directors along with Tim Virden.

He founded the company BrainRush and is presently the Chairperson and CEO of the company. The company uses the means of video games for the purpose of teaching. During the period 2010-2012, an experimental test regarding the success of BrainRush was conducted and the results were overwhelming. He is presently associated with the Anti-Aging Games as a member of their advisory board. On March 6, 2019, Nolan was appointed CEO and Chairman of the publicly-traded company Global Gaming Technologies Corp.

Achievements

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  Nolan Bushnell revolutionized the entertainment industry. With Pong, he brought arcade-style games into the home and paved the way for a number of other companies to design, build, and market video games for personal use. With Pizza Time Theaters, he took the video game concept a step further, combining it with his passion for robotics and food to create an entertainment experience for the entire family. While his early successes launched the video game revolution, Bushnell developed a reputation for losing interest in the companies he founded.
  
  Bushnell was inducted into the Video Game Hall of Fame as well as the Consumer Electronics Association Hall of Fame. He was also bestowed with the BAFTA Fellowship and also listed among the 50 Men Who Changed America by the magazine Newsweek.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Finding the Next Steve Jobs: How to Find, Hire, Keep and Nurture Creative Talent

    (In Silicon Valley legend Nolan Bushnell's first book, he ...)

    2013

Religion

Steve Bushnell was raised as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, although he no longer is an active member.

Views

Early in life, Bushnell wanted to be a teacher but his grades and other interests had always prevented that. Instead, he took on a project to reform the education system. His idea was to reinvent the schools, much as he reinvented home entertainment.

He told Joyce Gemperlein, "I think that if properly structured, kids can learn at 200 to 300 times the current speed. So that they can go to school for a couple of hours in the morning and the rest of the time they can be working on projects, having fun." Bushnell believed this technological approach to education would be more important than biotechnology in our century.

Bushnell has always been convinced that computer games are an excellent way to foster curiosity and creativity in a social context. In other words, Bushnell sees computer games as a means of education; and certainly, his own games paved the way for the myriad of explicitly educational video games available today.

Quotations: "Everyone who has ever taken a shower has had an idea. It’s the person who gets out of the shower, dries off, and does something about it that makes a difference."

"The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer."

"I want to fix education in the world. As soon as I work on that, I am going to work on world hunger and then world peace."

"Creativity is every company’s first driver. It’s where everything starts, where energy and forward motion originate. Without that first charge of creativity, nothing else can take place."

"I always try to do something nobody else has done."

Membership

Nolan Bushnell was a member of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity.

• 

  Pi Kappa Alpha

Interests

• playing video games

Connections

Nolan Bushnell was first married to Paula Nielson. The couple had three children together. However, the marriage did not last. He later married his second wife, Nancy. This couple has five children together.

Spouse:

Nancy Bushnell

ex-spouse:

Paula Rochelle Nielson

Son:

Brent Bushnell

Brent Bushnell is an entrepreneur, engineer, and CEO/co-founder of Two Bit Circus, a Los Angeles-based experiential entertainment company. The interdisciplinary team strives to create immersive, social fun and is currently building a network of micro-amusement parks featuring free-roaming VR, robot bartenders, an interactive supper club, and more.

Daughter:

Alissa Bushnell

Alissa works with her father in one of his companies.

Son:

Tyler Bushnell

Tyler Bushnell is the inventor of the Polycade, built to give retro gaming an effective platform in the 21st century. With its contemporary design, low-footprint, affordability, and ease-of-use, the Polycade gives common ground to retro-enthusiasts and modern gamers.

Son:

Wyatt Bushnell

Son:

Dylan Bushnell

Dylan Bushnell is CEO and founder of Dip, a mobile app that unlocks luxury assets for its members, enabling access to amenities and experiences that are otherwise impossible.

Acquaintance:

Steve Jobs

Nolan Bushnell turned down Steve Jobs offer to invest in the company Apple and obtain a stake in the company. Bushnell also happens to be the only person to have hired Steve Jobs. "He was very intense," said Bushnell.

Acquaintance:

Steve Wozniak

References

• Zap!: The Rise and Fall of Atari
  1984