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Posts Tagged “

Nolan Bushnell

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industry

Nolan Bushnells Pooh-Poohs In Game Ads

Atari founder and old dude Nolan Bushnell doesn't like in-game advertising. He doesn't believe those kinds of ads are very effective. Says Bushnell:

I don't believe those kinds of ads are very effective.

SEE? Bushnell's rationalization is that while playing have to focus on the in-game objectives and can't be bombarded with ads. We disagree! Gearbox's Randy Pitchford has done a pretty damn good job of convincing us otherwise. Thanks for that, Randy!
In-Game Ads Don't Work [MTV]

11:00 PM on Wed Apr 30 2008
By Brian Ashcraft
1,085 views, 27 comments

Latest by liquidnumb: I discovered the new Harold and Kumar because I play Quake Wars. more »

nolan bushnell

Atari Founder Working On An MMO

Nolan Bushnell created Pong. He founded Atari. And Chuck E Cheese. So, yes, he is a great man. He's also a man who fancies he knows where there's money to be made when it comes to videogames, which is why he let slip during an interview at GDC that he's working on an MMO. No further info than that, sorry, but he does say that "as compelling as World of Warcraft is, it too shall find that there are other ways to play a game". So long as it involves rolling a character that can pull off smoking a pipe in a hot tub, I'm in.
Nolan Bushnell gets massive [Gamespot]

6:20 AM on Fri Feb 29 2008
By Luke Plunkett
1,198 views, 31 comments

Latest by freespeech: stole/created it's the same thing right????? more »

interview

Nolan Bushnell Reminisces On NPR

For those who may not have wasted away the weekend with a bottle of Jack and their favorite National Public Radio programming, Atari founder Nolan Bushnell made an appearance to celebrate the 35th anniversary of PONG. In his short interview, he talked about things like the public reaction to Pong "How does the tv station know what I've turned this knob?" before taking a few shots at the violent and complex games that followed. Listening to the interview feels a lot like eating the comforting, nostalgic food that only your mom could make right, and then cracking a carton of decade-old, freezer burned ice cream for dessert. Still, it's worth a listen.

Pong: The Ping Heard 'Round the World [via vh1gamebreak] [image]

12:00 PM on Mon Dec 3 2007
By Mark Wilson
1,046 views, 25 comments

Latest by Rowd: @SemiSarcastic: No, that would be Ralph Baer [en.wikipedia.org] . Nolan Bushnell just stole the idea and marketed it successfully. He's a douche. :/ [ahcs.bungie.org] more »

film adaptation

The First Film License

In my last book Persuasive Games: The Expressive Power of Videogames, I think I claimed that the first film to commercial videogame adaptation was Death Race 2000, a 1976 arcade game based (loosely) on the 1975 cult film Death Race, in which drivers in a dystopic America circa the then-future millennium score points for people killed. The arcade game was not an officially licensed adaptation, but it was an adaptation nonetheless. It was also reviled in the media as the first example of a controversial videogame.

But In our research for a new book about the Atari VCS, Nick Montfort and I discovered that Death Race is in fact not the first film adaptation in games. That honor goes to none other than Shark Jaws, by Atari.

More »

8:00 AM on Tue Nov 13 2007
By bogost
2,833 views, 30 comments

Latest by littlestlamshi: @You got it! It's B! It's B! NOOOO! more »

retro

Learn About Atari's "Good Old Days"

With all this Atari gloom and doom, it's easy to forget the company used to rule the roost. Good thing Gamasutra hasn't forgotten! The site has posted a whooper of a feature (twenty pages!) that traces Atari year by year from 1971-1977. The feature is peppered with quotes from Atari founder Nolan Bushnell. Quotes like:

I had to come up with a game people already knew how to play; something so simple that any drunk in a bar could play.

The piece talks about Atari's early fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants years and the company's successful raise — as well as touching on things like the Apple I computer Atari connection and the dawn of Chuck E. Cheese. Give it a read.
Atari History [Gamasutra]

3:00 AM on Wed Nov 7 2007
By Brian Ashcraft
1,060 views, 19 comments

Latest by Neopolitian: I read that whole story. Now I think Bushnell was a fucking hack. Stole pong. Ripped off pong 100 times. Made some fake company to 'compete' with. Almost killed the industry in 1983. Those games were shit. more »

gametap

Bushnell Defines "Pure, Unadulterated Trash" Gaming

When Atari and Chuck E. Cheese founder Nolan Bushnell was recently interviewed, he lamented that the current crop of video games were competing in a "race to the bottom" and that they were "pure, unadulterated trash." The GameTap guys got in touch with Mr. Bushnell to find out what exactly was the root of his crankiness. Surely, not all games are pure, unadulterated trash. Nolan? "I have consistently been concerned about is sort of the repetition and the lack of innovation," he responded, later adding "as much as I applaud the beautiful, fantastic production guys of Halo 3, it's really Doom 1 in different clothing." More »

7:20 PM on Wed Oct 24 2007
By Michael McWhertor
6,651 views, 100 comments

Latest by AroundTheFur: he doesn't sound completely sour. i think he has a sweet nougat center. more »

clips

Clip: Bushnell on Rasberry Mojitos

Nolan Bushnell hits Game Head to talk UWink, Atari and the current state of the industry. My favorite part: When he smack talks Ralph H. Baer, saying the man behind the first Pong, light gun and Simon wasn't very good at invention and that "nobody uses his stuff." More »

11:00 AM on Mon Mar 19 2007
By Brian Crecente
1,171 views, 17 comments

ps3

Atari Founder Bitchslaps PS3

Atari founder and industry legend Nolan Bushnell had some pretty unkind things to say about the PS3 and Sony in general in a recently posted interview over at Red Herring. In the interview, which mainly deals with his restaurant endeavors, Bushnell forecasts the PS3's doom.

I think Sony shot themselves in the foot... there is a high probability [they] will fail. The price point is probably unsustainable. For years and years Sony has been a very difficult company to deal with from a developer standpoint. They could get away with their arrogance and capriciousness because they had an installed base. They have also historically had horrible software tools. You compare that to the Xbox 360 with really great authoring tools [and] additional revenue streams from Xbox live... a first party developer would be an idiot to develop for Sony first and not the 360. People don't buy hardware, they buy software.

Ouch. A shining endorsement of the 360 and a stunning condemnation of the PS3 from one of the founding fathers of gaming. Will Sony prove him wrong? Michael Fahey More »

6:40 PM on Tue Nov 7 2006
By Mike Fahey
494 views, 90 comments

Latest by foreverlazy: Well I heard a comment that Sony hasn't failed consumers, and I really do have to disagree with that statement. 1. I bought a $250 PSP, thinking "Hey, it's Sony, when have they failed consmers?" Well, a year or so more »

top

First (Or Close To It) uWink Restaurant Review

Atari founder Nolan Bushnell's latest restaurant uWink opened yesterday in Woodland Hills, California. Bushnell's previous restaurant Chuck E. Cheese was centered around arcade games, pizza and animatronic animals. His latest is geared more towards casual games and booze. There's food, too, but the key here is booze. The restaurant has a nice big bar, stocked with various types of alcohol. The drink menu comes via touch screen, so go ahead and order that 11th Tom Collins. You'll get no sass from the touch screen! More »

9:22 AM on Tue Oct 17 2006
By Brian Ashcraft
1,946 views, 24 comments

Latest by xerxes7: I don't know. I kind of like my beer with only one kind of alcohol in it. Not up for mixing it with other stuff. more »

uwink

Atari Founder's Restaurant Opening Next Week!

Got plans for October 16th? Atari and Chuck E. Cheese founder Nolan Bushnell is opening his first uWink video game diner in Woodland Hills, California. Here's how it works: Customers order food or drinks via touch-screens built into their tables. The computers even make cocktail recommendations based on a personality quiz. And customers can pay to play casual video games while they eat or wait for their food. Sound kinda cool, but totally missing an animatronic band. Brian Ashcraft More »

6:22 AM on Fri Oct 13 2006
By Brian Ashcraft
1,381 views, 11 comments

Latest by uber_fragger: I remember that band at Chuckie Cheese's, man thos things scared the crap out of me. more »

nolan bushnell

Nolan Bushnell Atari 7800 Fetching Big Bucks

Attention Atari collectors! Currently being auctioned on eBay is the above pictured, ultra rare "Nolan Bushnell Signature Series Atari 7800". For you kids too young to have ever dragged your parents to one of Bushnell's Chuck E. Cheese's, he's the founder of Atari. Go on, look it up! More »

6:50 PM on Sat Sep 9 2006
By Michael McWhertor
322 views, 9 comments

top

Kotaku Stalku: Nolan Bushnell Dislikes the "Wii" Moniker

At Wired's party, I had a chance to snuggle up close to Pong creator Nolan Bushnell. More »

10:50 PM on Wed May 10 2006
By Brian Ashcraft
125 views, 7 comments

silent hill

Futher Evident Silent Hill Movie Won't Be Sucky

In a recent interview, Silent Hill scribe Roger Avary gushes, we mean gushes about gaming. He says, More »

11:22 AM on Wed Apr 12 2006
By Brian Ashcraft
193 views, 5 comments

nolan bushnell

Atari Founder Finds Locale for uWink Bistro

Atari founder and Gaming's Grandfather, Nolan Bushnell, has found a location for the first uWink Bistro. At the techy restaurant, food and drinks will be ordered via touch screen and games played at each table. The fare will include pizza, burgers and shakes. More »

8:25 AM on Tue Feb 7 2006
By Brian Ashcraft
216 views, 2 comments

top

Where Did the Gamers Go?

A lot of interesting stuff happened in the video game industry in 2005, including the launch of the Xbox 360 and the PSP, and the Hot Coffee brouhaha. But there's one moment I keep thinking about over and over. It was Nolan Bushnell's presentation at the Digital Interactive Entertainment Conference, which our own Brian Ashcraft covered in early December. More »

10:39 AM on Tue Dec 27 2005
By kourosh
272 views, 14 comments

nolan bushnell

Game Godfather Nolan Bushnell's New Joint

In an interview with Wired, Pong designer Nolan Bushnell talks about his new restaurant venture, his next-gen Chuck E. Cheese, uWink, and a new game — he's calling it Ping. Bushnell wants to bring games back "to their role as a social facilitator, the way party games help people to interact." He maintains that Pong is "responsible for hundreds, maybe thousands of marriages." Bushnell's desire for games to become social facilitators seems noble, but he ignores the fact that other game types can be facilitators instead, suggesting that consumers need to be in a place like uWink or an arcade for said social interactions. Kind of flies in the face of digital communities like Xbox Live and most MMOs, doesn't it?

The Player [Wired]

8:40 AM on Thu Oct 6 2005
By lsmith
194 views