{"id":468048,"date":"2022-06-27T14:00:07","date_gmt":"2022-06-27T11:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/atari-was-very-very-hard-nolan-bushnell-on-atari-50-years-later\/"},"modified":"2022-06-27T14:00:07","modified_gmt":"2022-06-27T11:00:07","slug":"atari-was-very-very-hard-nolan-bushnell-on-atari-50-years-later","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/atari-was-very-very-hard-nolan-bushnell-on-atari-50-years-later\/","title":{"rendered":"#\u201cAtari Was Very, Very Hard\u201d Nolan Bushnell on Atari, 50 Years Later"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a327e522ebc4\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a327e522ebc4\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/atari-was-very-very-hard-nolan-bushnell-on-atari-50-years-later\/#%E2%80%9C%E2%80%9CAtari_Was_Very_Very_Hard%E2%80%9D_Nolan_Bushnell_on_Atari_50_Years_Later%E2%80%9D\" >&#8220;\u201cAtari Was Very, Very Hard\u201d Nolan Bushnell on Atari, 50 Years Later&#8221;<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-2' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/atari-was-very-very-hard-nolan-bushnell-on-atari-50-years-later\/#Atari_in_the_Nolan_Bushnell_Era\" >Atari in the Nolan Bushnell Era<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/atari-was-very-very-hard-nolan-bushnell-on-atari-50-years-later\/#%E2%80%9CWe_Never_Had_Enough_Money%E2%80%9D\" >\u201cWe Never Had Enough Money\u201d<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/atari-was-very-very-hard-nolan-bushnell-on-atari-50-years-later\/#Ataris_Legacy\" >Atari\u2019s Legacy<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%9C%E2%80%9CAtari_Was_Very_Very_Hard%E2%80%9D_Nolan_Bushnell_on_Atari_50_Years_Later%E2%80%9D\"><\/span>&#8220;\u201cAtari Was Very, Very Hard\u201d Nolan Bushnell on Atari, 50 Years Later&#8221;<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<div>\n<!-- UNCACHED CONTENT --><\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"type:primaryImage size-full wp-image-812741\" data-pagespeed-no-defer=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/nolan_hero_2.jpg?width=1198&amp;trim=1,1&amp;bg-color=000&amp;pad=1,1\" alt=\"Photo of Nolan Bushnell in front of an Atari logo\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span class=\"type:primaryImage imagecredit\">Nolan Bushnell<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>It\u2019s been 50 years since Nolan Bushnell co-founded Atari, which brought video <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/game\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"7\" title=\"Game\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">game<\/a>s to the mainstream. To celebrate, we asked Bushnell what he learned during the early years\u2014and what we\u2019ve lost sight of since then.<\/p>\n<h2 role=\"heading\" aria-level=\"2\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Atari_in_the_Nolan_Bushnell_Era\"><\/span>Atari in the Nolan Bushnell Era<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>When you hear the name \u201cAtari,\u201d if you\u2019re of a certain generation, you might think back to a period in the very late 1970s and early 1980s when the <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Atari_2600\">Atari 2600<\/a> home video game console seemed unstoppable. But prior to Warner Communications purchasing Atari in 1976, the young company experienced four wild years of uncertainty and success while its employees relentlessly innovated a brand new class of electronic entertainment.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-812401 size-full\" data-pagespeed-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/atari_1972.jpg?trim=1,1&amp;bg-color=000&amp;pad=1,1\" alt=\"Ted Dabney, Nolan Bushnell, Larry Emmons, and Allan Alcorn at Atari in 1972\" width=\"650\" height=\"400\" data-credittext=\"Allan Alcorn\" src=\"\/pagespeed_static\/1.JiBnMqyl6S.gif\" onload=\"pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\" onerror=\"this.onerror=null;pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ted Dabney, Nolan Bushnell, Larry Emmons, and Allan Alcorn at Atari in 1972. <span class=\"imagecredit\">Allan Alcorn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The guiding creative force at Atari during that time was Nolan Bushnell, who co-founded the company with Ted Dabney on June 27, 1972 in Sunnyvale, CA. Bushnell and Dabney had already worked together on the world\u2019s first arcade video game, <em>Computer Space<\/em>, at Nutting Associates, and they were ready to take the business more fully into their own hands. They soon had a monster hit with the arcade game <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Pong\"><em>Pong<\/em> <\/a>in late 1972, which spawned copycats that spread video games all over the world. But Atari still faced an uphill fight as big names jumped into the market.<\/p>\n<p>With that in mind\u2014and the 50th anniversary of Atari at hand\u2014we thought it would be fun to talk about lessons from Bushnell\u2019s early years at the pioneering company. Bushnell spoke over the telephone, and his answers have been edited for formatting.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Benj Edwards, How-To Geek:<\/strong> Do you think the video game industry has lost sight of any innovations from the early days of Atari?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Nolan Bushnell:<\/strong> A little bit. Remember that Atari was founded as a coin-op company. And coin-op has this requirement that a newbie has to get into the game almost instantly without reading instructions. So the simplicity of onboarding is lost by a lot of people right now.<\/p>\n<p><strong>HTG:<\/strong> If you play a modern game, you have to sit and wait for loading, go through a tutorial, watch all the cutscenes, and it\u2019s an hour into the game before you can finally play something.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Nolan Bushnell:<\/strong> Yeah.<\/p>\n<p><strong>HTG:<\/strong> What did you do \u201cright\u201d in the early years of Atari that people could learn from today?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bushnell:<\/strong> We did really good branding. And I think that, in terms of our graphic badges and our logo and everything, we wanted to have a distinct look. I think it\u2019s held together. Right now, the Atari logo is the only thing that\u2019s still really vibrant.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-812408 size-full\" data-pagespeed-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/early_atari_arcade_games_composite.jpg?trim=1,1&amp;bg-color=000&amp;pad=1,1\" alt=\"Covers from eight arcade game fliers from the early-mid 1970s.\" width=\"650\" height=\"418\" data-credittext=\"Atari\" src=\"\/pagespeed_static\/1.JiBnMqyl6S.gif\" onload=\"pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\" onerror=\"this.onerror=null;pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A selection of fliers from early Atari arcade games during the Bushnell era. <span class=\"imagecredit\">Atari<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>HTG:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">App<\/a>le used iconic branding successfully too, and Steve Jobs was one of your <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gamedeveloper.com\/business\/steve-jobs-atari-employee-number-40\">early employees<\/a>. Do you think that rubbed off on Apple?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bushnell:<\/strong> I think so, because Jobs used to ride up to my house on Sunday mornings on his motorcycle. And we\u2019d drink tea and talk about things. And I talked about the importance of branding and color palettes and things like that\u2014how a brand and look is multi-faceted. You\u2019ve never really thought about a color palette as being unique to a company, and yet it\u2019s axiomatic.<\/p>\n<p><strong>HTG:<\/strong> So Steve Jobs used to hang out at your house?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bushnell:<\/strong> Yeah, he used to live\u2014I was up on a hill, and he was more down in the lots, but I could almost throw a rock and put it on his roof.<\/p>\n<p><strong>HTG:<\/strong> Was he living by himself at that time?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bushnell:<\/strong> Yeah. Big house, no furniture. That simple. [Chuckles]<\/p>\n<p><strong>HTG:<\/strong> So let\u2019s go the opposite way now. What did you do \u201cwrong\u201d at Atari that people could learn from today?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bushnell:<\/strong> I think that I\u2014how do I put this without sounding like an asshole? I put up with incompetence more than I should have. I should have been quicker to fire.<\/p>\n<p><strong>HTG:<\/strong> Well, you weren\u2019t born a manager, right? You\u2019d been mostly an engineer\u2026<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bushnell:<\/strong> Well, that\u2019s actually not quite true. Remember I <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fastcompany.com\/3068135\/the-untold-story-of-atari-founder-nolan-bushnells-visionary-1980s-tech-incubator\">managed<\/a> 150 kids at the amusement park. That was kind of my MBA, I\u2019ve always felt. It was a summer job, and it wasn\u2019t like managing a bunch of engineers, but keeping everybody happy and working was important. So was managing the numbers\u2014labor percentages and things like that.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-812413 size-full\" data-pagespeed-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/bushnell_1976.jpg?trim=1,1&amp;bg-color=000&amp;pad=1,1\" alt=\"Nolan Bushnell seen in an Atari ad from 1976.\" width=\"650\" height=\"380\" data-credittext=\"Atari\" src=\"\/pagespeed_static\/1.JiBnMqyl6S.gif\" onload=\"pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\" onerror=\"this.onerror=null;pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nolan Bushnell seen in an Atari ad from 1976. <span class=\"imagecredit\">Atari<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>HTG:<\/strong> I read an early quote from a <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gamasutra.com\/view\/feature\/2000\/the_history_of_atari_19711977.php?page=10\">manifesto<\/a> you wrote in the early days of Atari that said something like, \u201cIf the people are happy and the company is happy, then good things happen.\u201d Where did you get that egalitarian-type philosophy of management?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bushnell:<\/strong> It was really in the air. Remember, it was the summer of love and the hippie movement up in northern California. I mean, we all had our hippy costumes, and we\u2019d go up and be posers on weekends, and be hippies. I mean, total posing. [Laughs]<\/p>\n<p>It was a kind of ethos in the air. There were Vietnam War protests and things like that, you know. Everybody was testing the status quo.<\/p>\n<p><strong>HTG:<\/strong> Would you do anything differently if you could go back in time and change the Atari story?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bushnell:<\/strong> I think I would have been quicker to automate certain things. We were short on cash, and we were very lackadaisical about the fixtures and procedures we had.<\/p>\n<p><strong>HTG:<\/strong> It\u2019s because you were hippies.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bushnell:<\/strong> [Laughs] Yeah, I guess so.<\/p>\n<h2 role=\"heading\" aria-level=\"2\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%9CWe_Never_Had_Enough_Money%E2%80%9D\"><\/span>\u201cWe Never Had Enough Money\u201d<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<figure style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-812754\" data-pagespeed-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/atari_vcs_box.jpg?trim=1,1&amp;bg-color=000&amp;pad=1,1\" alt=\"The Atari Video Computer System product box (Atari 2600)\" width=\"650\" height=\"358\" src=\"\/pagespeed_static\/1.JiBnMqyl6S.gif\" onload=\"pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\" onerror=\"this.onerror=null;pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span class=\"imagecredit\">Atari<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><em>When it came time to develop and release a more advanced home video game console with cartridges (the 2600), Atari needed capital, and Bushnell sold his company to Warner Communications. Bushnell stayed with Atari until early 1979\u2014missing both the monster-hit years of the 2600 and Atari\u2019s spectacular failure just after that. (By then he was working on Chuck E. Cheese, but that\u2019s <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fastcompany.com\/40425172\/robots-pizza-and-magic-the-chuck-e-cheese-origin-story\">another story<\/a> entirely.)<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>HTG:<\/strong> Do you regret selling Atari at the time you did?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bushnell:<\/strong> Yes and no. I really liked my life after I sold it. I got married, I got my house, I kinda got my personal life in order. Atari was very, very hard. And we never had enough money. We were running it as if we were going to take it public, and then the market kind of went sideways.<\/p>\n<p>If I\u2019d have gone ahead and been able to take the company public, I would have had another three or four years in the rat race and probably would have never gotten married. So would it have been a good ride and would I have made gobspocks more money? Absolutely. But on my personal life basis, it was definitely a good thing to do.<\/p>\n<p><strong>HTG:<\/strong> What is your favorite Atari game ever published by Atari?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bushnell:<\/strong> <em>Tempest<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>HTG:<\/strong> That was in 1981, after you left the company. You played it anyway?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bushnell:<\/strong> It was in the lab when I was there.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-812419 size-full\" data-pagespeed-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/tempest_arcade_game.jpg?trim=1,1&amp;bg-color=000&amp;pad=1,1\" alt=\"an image from the arcade game Tempest.\" width=\"650\" height=\"335\" data-credittext=\"Atari\" src=\"\/pagespeed_static\/1.JiBnMqyl6S.gif\" onload=\"pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\" onerror=\"this.onerror=null;pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A screenshot of Bushnell\u2019s favorite Atari game, <em>Tempest.<\/em> <span class=\"imagecredit\">Atari<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>HTG:<\/strong> Why do you like <em>Tempest<\/em>?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bushnell:<\/strong> I think it\u2019s very, very dynamic. It\u2019s one of those games that was sort of all by itself, extremely innovative. I can\u2019t think of another game that was like it at all and that had so many different levels, all of which kept it interesting.<\/p>\n<p><strong>HTG:<\/strong> It\u2019s an experience unto itself. Almost psychedelic.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bushnell:<\/strong> Exactly. I wouldn\u2019t have said that, but I think you\u2019re correct. It was a little <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/trip-and-travel\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"10\" title=\"Trip &amp; Travel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">trip<\/a>py.<\/p>\n<p><strong>HTG:<\/strong> What kind of music were you listening to in 1972 when you founded Atari?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bushnell:<\/strong> The Beatles, Pink Floyd, the Who, Queen. All of those. I really, really liked Queen\u2014I can remember that. I\u2019ll tell you another one that I really enjoyed. ELO\u2014Electric Light Orchestra. A lot of people don\u2019t know them. I thought the whole idea of rock orchestras was very fascinating to me.<\/p>\n<p><strong>HTG:<\/strong> That\u2019s interesting because when I think of ELO, I think of the cover of\u2026what\u2019s the album with the UFO-looking thing on it?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bushnell:<\/strong> <em>Out of the Blue<\/em>.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-812421\" data-pagespeed-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/elo_album_1.jpg?trim=1,1&amp;bg-color=000&amp;pad=1,1\" alt=\"The cover of ELO's &quot;Out of the Blue&quot; album from 1977.\" width=\"650\" height=\"400\" src=\"\/pagespeed_static\/1.JiBnMqyl6S.gif\" onload=\"pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\" onerror=\"this.onerror=null;pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span class=\"imagecredit\">Epic Records<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>HTG:<\/strong> That reminds me of Atari design.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bushnell:<\/strong> Yeah. [Surprised] Yeah, you\u2019re right!<\/p>\n<p><strong>HTG:<\/strong> That was 1977. Heck, they might have been influenced by Atari at that point.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bushnell:<\/strong> Maybe.<\/p>\n<h2 role=\"heading\" aria-level=\"2\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Ataris_Legacy\"><\/span>Atari\u2019s Legacy<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><em>Over the decades, Bushnell has given hundreds of speeches, done thousands of interviews, and discussed almost every possible angle of the Atari story. But one thing still remains: 50 years is a long time. Bushnell himself will turn 80 next year.<br \/><\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>HTG:<\/strong> How does it feel when someone says, \u201cHey, it\u2019s been 50 years since you started Atari.\u201d What comes into your head?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bushnell:<\/strong> \u201cOh my god, am I that old?\u201d [Laughs heartily.] My oldest daughter turned 50 a year ago, and I thought, \u201cBoy, that says you\u2019ve been on the planet a long time if you have kids that are 50.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>HTG:<\/strong> And Atari\u2019s kind of like one of your kids.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bushnell:<\/strong> Definitely.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-812744 size-full\" data-pagespeed-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/atari_vcs_1.jpg?trim=1,1&amp;bg-color=000&amp;pad=1,1\" alt=\"Atari Video Computer System logo\" width=\"650\" height=\"337\" data-credittext=\"Atari\" src=\"\/pagespeed_static\/1.JiBnMqyl6S.gif\" onload=\"pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\" onerror=\"this.onerror=null;pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span class=\"imagecredit\">Atari<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>HTG:<\/strong> I was just thinking how 50 is a huge milestone. I\u2019m 41 now, so that\u2019s memory past my lifespan. I can\u2019t imagine trying to remember anything that happened 50 years ago. Is some of that stuff from the early 1970s still fresh? Do memories of that time come to you naturally?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bushnell:<\/strong> Yeah, quite a bit. Plus, I\u2019ve got a lot of old photos on my computer, and I have it set up so I have an Amazon Echo Show, and it scrolls through my library of photos. So I get reminded of things all the time.<\/p>\n<p>***<\/p>\n<p><em>Happy birthday, Atari!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script>\n setTimeout(function(){\n  !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)\n  {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n  n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};\n  if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';\n  n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n  t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];\n  s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s) } (window, document,'script',\n  'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n   fbq('init', '335401813750447');\n   fbq('track', 'PageView');\n  },3000);\n<\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more like this article, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/technology\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Technology category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/812246\/atari-was-very-very-hard-nolan-bushnell-on-atari-50-years-later\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;\u201cAtari Was Very, Very Hard\u201d Nolan Bushnell on Atari, 50 Years Later&#8221; Nolan Bushnell It\u2019s been 50 years since Nolan Bushnell co-founded Atari, which brought video games to the mainstream. To celebrate, we asked Bushnell what he learned during the early years\u2014and what we\u2019ve lost sight of since then. Atari in the Nolan Bushnell Era&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":468049,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/nolan_hero_2.jpg?height=200p&trim=2,2,2,2","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-468048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}