Al Alcorn and Explains the Need for Preservation

Al Alcorn and Explains the Need for Preservation

During a 2015 interview with Games Industry.biz, Atari Co-Founder Al Alcorn mentioned the importance of and current state of gaming preservation. He showed concern for the industry in this matter because there's no central location for such a thing. "It always amazes me how much interest there is...
Nolan Bushnell Mandates Success at Atari

Nolan Bushnell Mandates Success at Atari

On August 3, 1973, Nolan Bushnell issued a memo to the engineering department of Atari with an eight-point action plan. These points included a specific quantity of Gotcha arcade machines, sufficient staff to be available when "emergency projects" arose, and plans for a color version of Pong. Nolan...
George Plimpton Starts a (Console) War

George Plimpton Starts a (Console) War

In 1979, Mattel Electronics released what would be the first viable competitor to Atari with its new Intellivision console. In order to separate themselves from Atari, Mattel released a series of ads starring acclaimed American writer George Plimpton. In these ads, Atari and Intellivision were placed side by...
Warren Robinett Waxes Poetic

Warren Robinett Waxes Poetic

In June of 1979, Warren Robinett, a programmer at Atari, submitted the source code to the second game he'd developed for Atari. The game was called Adventure, and it would be the last game he would develop for the company, leaving soon after submitting the title for production....
Business Advice from Nolan Bushnell

Business Advice from Nolan Bushnell

Nolan Bushnell is the type of person who seems to always have an idea. To that end, he also follows through and works to implement the idea. In an interview with CNN in 2002, he was asked about his ability to continue being inspired. In that interview, he...
Shigeru Miyamoto Weighs in on Tetris

Shigeru Miyamoto Weighs in on Tetris

In the mid eighties, Tetris was being quietly passed around the video game industry. When it made it's way to Nintendo, Then Nintendo President Hiroshi Yamauchi asked game industry legend Shigeru Miyamoto to try it out. When Yamauchi asked Miyamoto a few days later if Tetris was any...
Goodbye to a Legend; The Passing of Bernie Stolar

Goodbye to a Legend; The Passing of Bernie Stolar

Growing up in the 90's, I was enamored with the "Console war," the battle between Sega and Nintendo. I found myself strictly on the Nintendo side, but was also intrigued by Sega. A friend of mine had Genesis and would spend hours, sometimes days on it. While I...
Interview: Sega of America Visionary Bernie Stolar

Interview: Sega of America Visionary Bernie Stolar

Bernie Stolar is one of those people in the gaming industry who has been able to bring more than one of the most important platforms ever made to life. He's a man who not only has a vision but is unapologetic in his process of bringing those visions...