Comments
Reset_Tears t1_iyclgjo wrote
Inventor of Pong would really be Allan Alcorn, who was assigned the project by Nolan Bushnell as a sort of "training exercise."
The real TIL I've experienced though was on Allan Alcorn's Wikipedia entry, which randomly details a story of him (as chief engineer of Atari) hiring an 18-year-old "hippy kid" who smelled so bad Alcorn had to make him only work at night. That young recruit's name... Steve Jobs.
ElfMage83 t1_iyclwfw wrote
Jobs was a weird one for sure. I wonder how long before the reality distortion field fails completely.
bolanrox t1_iydzwci wrote
Jobs then outsourced his work to Woz for less than half of the money he was getting.
Woz did the work because he found it fun more than anything
8urnMeTwice t1_iyf8j6k wrote
And the game they made was Breakout right? I used to love that game
SomewhatIntriguing t1_iye14ok wrote
Well that's the whole point of outsourcing, to make a profit.
Halvus_I t1_iyemo3v wrote
I suppose when the company he built is worth less than a trillion dollars.
deadbeef1a4 t1_iyd97ww wrote
And “Chuck E. Cheese” is short for “Charles Entertainment Cheese”
politicsfreepodcast t1_iyd8js8 wrote
Maybe if he'd combined the two, we'd still have Atari.
Solidsnakeerection t1_iydce8f wrote
Chuck E Cheese went bankrupt and the company was bought by rival Show Biz Pizza who in a rare move chose to adopt the Chuck E Cheese name and rebrand the locations they had owned rather then convert the Chuck E Cheese locations.
politicsfreepodcast t1_iydfmr7 wrote
Ah. I take it back then.
TheRynoceros t1_iyco2lu wrote
And those binoculars that they gave away on every episode of Double Dare?
Edit: Nope. Different Bushnell family.
emmasdad01 t1_iycjiw7 wrote
Icon
raflcopter t1_iyd9w0x wrote
Who gets credit for Pasqually's Pizza & Wings?
Whiskey-Jesus t1_iycyphw wrote
Learned this on the dollop
SuperSimpleSam t1_iydspni wrote
The podcast How I Built This had him on. It was a good episode.
Blutarg t1_iydc7mv wrote
A truly great man.
[deleted] t1_iyck1hd wrote
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apjoca t1_iyclknp wrote
So basically Chuck E. Cheese is the red headed step child of the 3
Solidsnakeerection t1_iydc5yp wrote
He left Atari and worked hard on Chuck E Cheese. He felt it had more potential
bolanrox t1_iydznjs wrote
arcades were seen as a seedy place before this, so he got his games into a family friendly establishment
AudibleNod t1_iyd2fhr wrote
He realized that once a video game was released the real money was in arcades.
bolanrox t1_iydzppp wrote
and getting arcades marketed kids and families even more so
pickleer t1_iyeg724 wrote
Yeah, that animatronic band was the same flavor "it just works" as pong. Pong aged better, though!
Look_to_the_Stars t1_iye52gv wrote
I don’t know what it is about titles like this but I hate them.
Why not just write “TIL Nolan Bushnell, the inventor of Pong and founder of Atari, also founded Chuck E. Cheese”? Why word it as if the end is a big reveal?
ElfMage83 t1_iycjowf wrote
TIL that the guy who founded Atari and Chuck E. Cheese invented Pong.