May 26, 2020 ▸ Corporation, History, Technology

Episode 484: Atari: Life Behind the Pong

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On this episode of the world Famous Sofa King Podcast, we do a dive into the history of the video game and look at the rise and fall of Atari. The world of video games would not exist without the innovation of Atari. They started the video arcade with the invention of the coin operated video game, and just when that changed all of entertainment for millions of kids in the 70s and 80s, they created the at home video game console. Then there was the time they made the ET video game, considered by many to be the worst there ever was. It was so bad, they buried the unsold copies in a land fill instead of try to sell them. From rock star nerds at the birth of silicon valley to corporate sellouts, Atari had it all.

The company was started by two visionaries named Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. They were computer engineers who would visit campuses like the University of Utah and MIT just to play the video games that only computer engineers could play on the only five computers in America that could run them. Eventually, they realized that making video games end up like pinball machines, where you play for a quarter, they started their quest.

Their first game was developed for a company called Nutting Associates. It was a confusing thing called Computer Space. It didn’t sell well and was hard to play. Within a few years, they developed and programmed Pong, and it was a wild hit. It spread through bars and pizza parlors and arcades and made Atari some real money. As processors got cheaper, they made arcade games like Asteroids, Tempest, Missile Command, Centipede, and Paper Boy.

But as they drove around collected quarters (yes, they got 50% of the take, so they had to collect in the early days), there were other computer innovations that made home computing cheap enough to afford. Thus, they created the Atari 2600. This console is still considered the most successful gaming console ever. It sold the Atari games, but more importantly, it licensed home version of games made by other companies, like the epic Space Invaders. In fact, Taito’s Space Invaders made Atari sell more sets than any of their own games

The other great thing about Atari was that it revenge of the nerds. The engineers and computer programmers in the early days partied like rock stars. There was booze on site, a brigade that voted on marijuana quality, hot tub parties, women coming and going, and even Steven Spielberg wanted them. This was what led to the disaster that was ET, right during the first video game winter.

Atari crashed and burned once they were purchased by Warner, but they struggled to stay relevant. Though they still exist, they are shadow of their previous greatness. If you are over 40, you remember them fondly, and if you aren’t, you should do some retro gaming and learn yourself something, young’un!

Visit Our Sources:

https://www.ign.com/articles/2014/03/20/ign-presents-the-history-of-atari

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari

https://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/2012/04/pong-atari-and-the-origins-of-the-home-video-game.html

https://www.npr.org/2017/05/31/530235165/total-failure-the-worlds-worst-video-game

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_video_game_burial

https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/computer-games/16/185

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari,_Inc.

https://www.thoughtco.com/history-of-atari-1991225

https://backtothegaming.com/2018/05/11/the-history-of-atari/