COLLECTED WORKS NOLAN BUSHNELL
COMPUTER SPACE
Developer/manufacturer Nutting Associates Format Coin-op Release 1971
PONG
Developer/manufacturer Atari Format Coin-op Release 1972
TANK
Developer/manufacturer Kee Games Format Coin-op Release 1974
BREAKOUT
Developer/manufacturer Atari Format Coin-op Release 1976
ATARI VCS
Manufacturer Atari Release 1977
PIZZA TIME THEATER
Founded 1977
SAC-I
Manufacturer Sente Format Coin-op Release 1984
Who would play you in the movie of your life? For Atari founder Nolan Bushnell, it’s not an academic question. “I’d like Adam Driver,” he says, clearly finding the whole notion amusing. “There’s been talk of making a film [of my life] for a long time, and it’s still flopping about. I saw a screenplay and it was pretty accurate… and it wasn’t all pink bunny rabbits. I’d like it to be made, but both movies about Steve Jobs were crap and that put the kibosh on films about Silicon Valley entrepreneurs.”
If the Apple founder is worthy of two biopics, Bushnell is surely deserving of his own. After all, he produced the first commercially sold coin-op videogame, Computer Space, in 1971, and the colossus that emerged from it – Atari – is credited as being the fastest-growing company in US history.
Atari dominated the arcade business it created, with early hits such as Pong and Tank, before moving into the home market with the all-conquering Atari VCS console. Bushnell sold out to Warner in 1976 for $28 million (approx £135m in 2021 terms), using some of the earnings to keep control of the Pizza Time Theater restaurant business he’d recently launched.
“I was pretty good at selling,” he smiles. “I don’t know where I got it from. I suppose I’ve always been good with the spoken word. I’m a great bullshitter, but that’s OK. Yes, I was surprised how quickly Atari grew but there’s a saying that good luck happens to the prepared. I think I was surprisingly prepared for the chaos rapid growth brings. When you get used to a certain level of chaos, you’re not flummoxed by it.”
Bushnell stayed with Atari after the Warner takeover, parting ways several years later
