Nolan Bushnell
Nolan Bushnell Key ( born February 5, 1943 in Clearfield (Utah ) ) is an American engineer and entrepreneur who both Atari, Inc. and the Chuck E. Cheese 's Pizza- Time Theaters chain founded. Bushnell was inducted into the Video Game Hall of Fame and the Consumer Electronics Association Hall of Fame, received the BAFTA Fellowship and the Nations Restaurant News " Inventor of the Year " award and is located at Newsweek 's " 50 people who changed America. " Bushnell founded more than 20 companies and is one of the founding fathers of the video game industry. He currently serves on the board of the Anti -Age games, but his latest project is the educational software maker Brainrush video game technology used for learning purposes, believes the involvement of brain research in a way, of the Bushnell, will change the education fundamental. Nolan, who is co-founder and chairman of Brainrush, believes that Brainrush will be his greatest success.
Life
Bushnell comes from a Mormon family in Utah, but is not itself religious claims to be. He had worked during his school and college years much at Lagoon Amusement Park in his hometown of Ogden, Utah. He was particularly interested in the Midway Arcade games where the theme park visitors had to use their luck and skill to reach the goal and win a prize. In 1968 he studied at the universities of Utah and Stanford electrical engineering, and was a member of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. There he first came in contact with computers. During his computer science studies, he particularly enjoyed playing Spacewar, which was originally written by Steve Russell for the DEC PDP-1, and wanted to publish it as an automatic version. He produced some copies of the first arcade machines called Computer Space, but ultimately the game was not accepted due to its complexity - the potential customers were not experienced enough in dealing with video games.
After selling Atari for 28 million dollars to Time Warner, he bought the mansion of coffee magnate James Folger in Woodside, California, and lived there with his wife Nancy and his eight children. The Bushnell's now live in Southern California.
Bushnell's oldest child, Alissa, works with him at uWink.
Nolan grew up in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but is no longer an active member. A 1999's Time magazine described him as a " last Mormon " and describes how he smokes a pipe, which is incompatible with the health requirements of the Church.
In June 2008, a new film was announced, in which Leonardo DiCaprio Bushnell should play.
On 10 March 2009, at the British Academy Video Games Awards, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts awarded him the honorary membership of the Academy of Arts for his achievements as the founding father of the video game industry.
Bushnell was presented in the documentary Something Ventured which premiered in 2011. Privately, he is committed to the international student exchange.
Syzygy
In 1969, a brief break Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney to his partner Syzygy, to be called with the intention of producing a Spacewar clone, the Computer Space. In order to keep their business alive while they developed the prototype, they offered a repair service for broken pinball machine. You made an agreement with Nutting Associates, a maker of münzbasierten rate and shooting games, which produced a fiberglass housing, which included the coin transport mechanism.
Computer Space was a commercial failure, although achieved sales of over $ 3 million. Bushnell felt that Nutting Associates had the game does not really marketed well, and decided to license his next game for a major manufacturer.
Atari
On 27 June 1972 he founded with his partner Dabney and a starting capital of $ 500, the computer company Atari. Originally he wanted the company Syzygy call, but to his surprise, there was already a roofer with this name, and he gave the name "Atari " from - a term used in Japanese martial arts and the game of Go, which he in his spare time likes played. Atari means as: Attack, Hit. He let go of his colleagues, the Atari co-founder Allan Alcorn to program a simple reaction game: Pong. This easy to understand even for beginners game -founded in 1972 the first success of the company. Bushnell came with it in a legal dispute with the company Magnavox, which ended with Magnavox received a profit share of Atari until 1976. Atari 1977 video console set forth in 2600 and offered games on plug-in modules, which you could easily plug in the device to play like that. This became a hit with approximately 30 million units sold and over 500 games. 1979 was followed by the Atari home computers, with which one could not only play, but also to program.
1976 Bushnell sold Atari to Time Warner, but remained another two years as a consultant. During this time he displeased the Warner management, more and more, about the conservative nature to bring out new products, the dining room for the manager or the four -star chef. Finally, in 1978 Bushnell left the company.
Chuck E. Cheese Pizza
In May 1977, he founded the fast food chain Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre, the target group had families with children. The concept was to provide customers next to the Food and slot machine games in a decorated with animatronic figures ambience offer. Presumably, this restaurant chain was the first with this approach. From 1979 Bushnell awarded licenses to successful franchise business, which also results in the company Showbiz Pizza Place was born. 1984, during a crisis, the gaming industry, Chuck E. Cheese made $ 15 million loss and went with a total of 250 locations (including 128 corporate, franchise the rest ) into Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. The self-operated Chuck E. Cheese restaurants were incorporated by Bushnell's franchisee Bob Brock in whose undertaking Showbiz Pizza Place. By 1993, both chains were running side by side, then took Showbiz Pizza Chuck E. Cheese mascot and namesake.
Axlon and Androbot
In the '80s Nolan Bushnell founded the game company Axlon, which produced 2600 games for the Atari. He was also co-founder of Sente games. Even the name " Sente " he took from the Japanese. While in the game of Go, the word " Atari " is a threat to hit a stone, Sente means to be in the forehand.
With Allan Alcorn Bushnell founded the company in 1982 Androbot Inc., which was to produce affordable home robots that were suitable for play and carry small objects. The project attracted so much attention that Bushnell got calls from people who wanted to buy the shares of his company. He wanted Androbot therefore go public and to borrowed capital of Merrill Lynch Private Capital Inc. in 1983 when the technology stock market collapsed, Merrill Lynch withdrew his support so that Bushnell suddenly alone with five million dollars stood in the chalk. Shortly after Merrill Lynch Bushnell sued because of a $ 500,000 promissory note, Bushnell countered with a countersuit, because Merrill Lynch in his opinion on the Androbot bankruptcy was complicit. The dispute dragged on for years and cost him his entire fortune almost. In order to finally finish it, he sold his mansion in 1998 and thus paid his remaining debts.
UWink
Since 1999, he leads the Internet company uWink. This was trying to establish itself on the market, including a touch-sensitive kiosk model, a profit concept for bar and price gains and as an online entertainment network system with different products. The production of the kiosk model has now been set. The last attempt was the uWink Bistro, an interactive restaurant where guests could order their food via touch-sensitive screens and pass the time until delivery with games or watching short films. It should be possible on the screens even interactions with other guests at other tables. Three restaurants were opened in California, the first in Woodland Hills on 26 October 2006, the second in Hollywood and the third in Mountain View. However, the economic crisis in 2008 pulled the restaurants affected, so they had to close it again.
In April 2010 Atari Bushnell invited to his future as a member of the Supervisory Board and consultants in the company. Bushnell participated in: "I am very glad to be back to meet with Atari - and this at a time in which we can grow into growing key sectors of the games industry, with great strides. ". In July 2013, Atari was forced to declare bankruptcy. Bushnell said in an interview, a number of shareholders have Atari abused, it would have gone to them only to the high salaries, instead of to the rescue of the company.
Brainrush
Bushnell's latest company is Brainrush, whose founder, chairman and chief he is, a company that uses video game technology to produce educational software. The company was founded in 2012 funded by a venture capital fund. It is based on the idea that the curriculum can be supported by mini-games. One can take any unit of language, art, geography, multiplication tables, chemistry or biology, and this turned into a learning game. Brainrush calls the underlying technology " Adaptive practice." Learning, practice and trying to take place all at the same time and find yourself in one thing: The Game. Assessments should be done automatically and can be repeated at intervals. Between 2010 and 2012 Brainrush tested the concept in learning Spanish for specific purposes with 2,200 teachers and 80,000 students and generated by its own account to a tenfold higher learning speed. In the fall of 2013 Brainrush will bring out the full platform for each topic.
Colloquial use of Atari
In the Book of Tobias O. Meissner to the development of the computer game industry and the associated scene generation of American Atari Kids with the associated generation Golf in Germany is set parallel. As Atari Democrats moderate left technology-friendly politicians from the period are referred to in the U.S., among others, Al Gore.
Prizes and awards
In July 2010, Bushnell received the Lara Award in the Lifetime Achievement category ( Lara of Honor ), an award by the German video game industry.