Nolan Kay Bushnell was born on February 5, 1943. He is an American businessman and electrical engineer. He started Atari, Inc. and the Chuck E. Cheese chain. He has been honored by the Video Game Hall of Fame and the Consumer Electronics Association Hall of Fame. He has also received the BAFTA Fellowship and the Nations Restaurant News "Innovator of the Year" award. He was named one of Newsweek's "50 Men Who Changed America." He has started more than 20 companies and is considered one of the founders of the video game industry. He is a member of the board of Anti-Aging Games. In 2012, he created an educational software company called Brainrush. This company uses video game technology to make learning software.

He is known for creating a saying called Bushnell's Law. This saying describes games that are "easy to learn and difficult to master" as being very rewarding.

Personal life

Bushnell was born in 1943 in Clearfield, Utah, into a middle-class family that was part of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He attended Davis High School in Kaysville, Utah, a town near Clearfield. In 1961, he went to Utah State University to study engineering and later switched to studying business. In 1964, he moved to the University of Utah College of Engineering, where he earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering. He was a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity.

He married his first wife, Paula Rochelle Nielson, in 1966, and they had two daughters. In 1969, the family moved to California. They divorced in 1975, just before Warner Communications bought Atari. Later in 1977, he married Nancy Nino, and they had six children together. He also used the money he earned from selling Atari to Warner Communications to buy the former mansion of James Folger, a famous coffee business owner, in Woodside, California.

Although he was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints during his youth, by the time of his first divorce, he had stopped following the teachings of the church. He was often described as a "lapsed Mormon." He explained that he stopped practicing the faith after having an argument with a professor at the University of Utah's Institute of Religion about how the Bible should be understood.

Business career

Nolan Bushnell worked at Lagoon Amusement Park for many years while going to college. He became the manager of the games department two seasons after starting his job. While working there, he studied arcade electro-mechanical games by watching customers play and helping to keep the machines running. He learned how these games worked and how the game business operated. He was also interested in Midway arcade games, which required players to use skill and luck to win prizes. He liked how these games made people curious and willing to pay to play.

During college, Bushnell worked for several companies, including Litton Guidance and Control Systems, Hadley Ltd, and the industrial engineering department at the University of Utah. For several summers, he started his own advertising company called Campus Company. This company made blotters for four universities and sold advertising space around a calendar of events. He also sold copies of Encyclopedia Americana.

After graduating, Bushnell moved to California from Utah, hoping to work for Disney. However, Disney did not usually hire new college graduates. Instead, he became an electrical engineer at Ampex. There, he met Ted Dabney, who shared his interest in creating pizza parlors filled with electronic games. Bushnell showed Dabney a computer game called Spacewar! at Stanford University’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.

In 1970, Bushnell and Dabney started a company called Syzygy to make a copy of Spacewar! called Computer Space. They partnered with Nutting Associates, a company that made coin-operated games, to build a cabinet for the game with a coin slot. Computer Space sold more than $3 million worth of units, but it was not a success. Bushnell believed Nutting Associates did not market the game well. He decided to license future games to larger manufacturers and designed simpler games for drunken bar patrons.

In 1972, Bushnell and Dabney started their own company after learning the name Syzygy was already used. They chose the name Atari, which refers to a position in the game Go, Bushnell’s favorite game. They rented their first office in Sunnyvale, California, and hired engineer Allan Alcorn. Bushnell asked Bally Manufacturing to create a hockey video game.

After seeing a demonstration of the Magnavox Odyssey, Bushnell gave Alcorn the task of making a similar game for General Electric. Alcorn added improvements, like making the ball move faster as the game continued, which led to the creation of Pong. Pong became very popular, and Atari released many versions of it. In 1973, Bushnell and Dabney had a disagreement, and Bushnell bought Dabney’s share of Atari for $250,000.

To avoid limits set by coin-operated game distributors, Bushnell had his neighbor Joe Keenan start Kee Games in 1973 to make copies of Atari’s games. Despite Kee’s help, Atari struggled to meet demand and faced financial problems by 1974. In September 1974, Bushnell merged Kee Games into Atari before the release of Tank, a new game from Kee that helped improve Atari’s finances. Keenan became president of Atari, while Bushnell remained CEO.

In 1975, Atari released home Pong consoles. They continued making home versions of arcade games until 1977. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak asked Bushnell to invest in their Apple I computer, but Bushnell focused on arcade and home consoles. Later, Jobs offered Bushnell a third of Apple Inc. for $50,000, but Bushnell declined. In 1977, Bushnell opened the first Pizza Time Theatre in San Jose to display Atari’s arcade games.

As competition grew, Bushnell decided to focus on a programmable home console. This led to the release of the Atari Video Computer System (later called the Atari 2600) in 1977. Before completing the design, Fairchild released the Channel F, the first home console with game cartridges. Bushnell accelerated development, and Warner Communications bought Atari for $28 million in 1976. Warner invested heavily in the Atari VCS, which was released in 1977.

The first year of sales for the Atari VCS was limited, but marketing efforts by Ray Kassar boosted sales in 1978. However, Bushnell worried about overproduction and wanted to invest in new technology. His concerns did not come true because of Kassar’s marketing and the popularity of Taito’s Space Invaders. By 1979, Warner removed Bushnell as CEO and chairman. He refused to stay as a director and negotiated the rights to Pizza Time Theatre from Atari for $500.

Other ventures

• In 1981, Nolan Bushnell started the TimberTech Computer Camp in Scotts Valley, California.
• In 1982, Bushnell commissioned a 67-foot racing yacht named Charley, designed by Ron Holland. The boat won line honors in the 1983 TransPacific Yacht Race.
• In 1983, Bushnell introduced the first "Androbot" TOPO. It was displayed at the First Annual Consumer Robotics Show in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
• In 1984, Bushnell bought the arcade game company Videa and renamed it Sente Games. Before closing in 1987, the company created games like the hockey video game Hat Trick.
• In 1991, Bushnell supported the Commodore International CDTV, a CD-ROM-based version of the Amiga 500 computer designed for consumer electronics.
• In 1995, Bushnell launched a new line of amusement centers called E2000, similar to Chuck E. Cheese's but with a video game theme. However, a lawsuit by Merrill Lynch caused investors to withdraw, making it hard for Bushnell to fund the project.
• In 1999, Bushnell joined the board of directors at Wave Systems Corp.
• In 2005, he served as a judge on the USA Network reality series Made in the USA.
• In 2007, Bushnell joined the board of NeoEdge Networks as chairman and the advisory board of GAMEWAGER.
• In 2008, Bushnell became a member of AirPatrol Corporation's board of directors.
• In 2009, Bushnell announced his intention to move into the game-education market with a venture called Snap. He also planned to appear at SGC, a gaming convention organized by ScrewAttack.
• In 2016, Bushnell joined the board of directors of MGT Capital Investments. John McAfee, proposed Executive Chairman and CEO of MGT Capital, said, "Nolan is one of the brightest minds in cyber technology. He has founded over 20 high-tech companies, giving him deep knowledge of the tech industry. As a director, he will help MGT find and build the necessary partnerships to become a world leader in cyber security."
• In 2016, Bushnell co-founded Black Sheep Ventures Ltd, a private equity firm with Ronald Bauer. The firm operated from 2016 to 2022.
• In 2017, Bushnell joined the board of directors at Perrone Robotics, a company that makes robotics software for autonomous vehicles and mobile robots.
• In 2021, he co-founded Moxy.io, a blockchain-based platform for esports competitions, tournaments, and events.

Media appearances

Bushnell appeared in the documentary film Something Ventured, which is about how venture capital works. He also appeared in the documentary Atari: Game Over, which documented the discovery of the buried Atari video games. Additionally, he was featured in the animated TV show Code Monkeys in Episode 3 of Season 1. For the 50th anniversary of Atari, Bushnell was interviewed by current Atari CEO Wade Rosen for the Atari 50 video game. During the interview, he talked about his time with the company and how it is important today.

Accolades

Nolan Bushnell is known as the "father of electronic gaming" because he helped create the arcade game market and founded Atari. There was a debate about whether Bushnell or Ralph H. Baer, who invented the first home video game console, should be called the "father of video games." This disagreement caused tension between the two inventors. However, the industry later recognized Baer as the father of home video gaming, while Bushnell is credited with advancing arcade games.

On March 10, 2009, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts honored Bushnell with the Academy Fellowship at the British Academy Video Games Awards. This award celebrated his important role in starting the video games industry.

Since 2008, there has been interest in making a movie about Bushnell’s life. Although he refused some offers to make the film, he agreed to work with Paramount Pictures in June 2008. The film was to be written by Craig Sherman and Brian Hecker, with Leonardo DiCaprio expected to play Bushnell. However, the film project had little news for ten years. In March 2018, a company called Vision Tree planned to raise up to $40 million using cryptocurrency to fund the film. The film would be produced by DiCaprio’s studio, Appian Way Productions, Vision Tree, and Avery Productions.

In January 2018, the Advisory Committee of the Game Developers Choice Awards announced that Bushnell would receive the Pioneer Award at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in March. This award honored his work at Atari. However, some people, including Brianna Wu, criticized the decision. They claimed Bushnell created a harmful workplace environment for women at Atari during the 1970s and 1980s, based on historical accounts. For example, some reports said Bushnell held meetings in a hot tub and invited female employees to join. Wu and others argued that recognizing Bushnell during the #MeToo movement might send the wrong message. They used the hashtag #NotNolan to express their concerns.

The next day, the Advisory Committee changed its decision and said the Pioneer Award would not be given to Bushnell that year. Instead, the award would honor "pioneering and unheard voices of the past." The GDC stated that their choices should reflect the values of today’s game industry. Bushnell agreed with the committee’s decision.

Later, Bushnell told Kotaku that discussing past workplace issues through a 40-year-old lens might not be helpful. He mentioned feedback from former employees. Kotaku interviewed 12 former female Atari employees, some of whom had already spoken publicly. Most said the workplace culture in the 1970s and 1980s reflected the broader social norms of the time, and the allegations against Bushnell were exaggerated or false. They described the workplace as collaborative and not oppressive.

Elaine Shirley, who worked at Atari during Bushnell’s time, said, "Those were the times. He [Nolan Bushnell] hit on women and they hit on him. If the #MeToo movement was active when Atari was alive, I think half our company would be charged. To my knowledge, no one ever did anything they did not want to do."

Loni Reeder, who worked at Atari and later co-founded a company with Bushnell, said, "I was treated fairly and paid well. None of us were offended by him. I take great offense at people saying we were oppressed…We had a united and cohesive environment."

Carol Kantor, the first games user researcher at Atari, said, "I know people who were guilty of sexual harassment, but not Nolan. He didn’t hold his power over people."

The women interviewed by Kotaku felt the criticism of Bushnell was unfair and expressed frustration with those who raised the issue. They said the workplace culture of the 1970s was different from the current #MeToo movement.

This situation has led to discussions about how the Atari workplace might have influenced the modern video game industry. An editorial by Dean Takahashi suggested that today’s industry culture is more shaped by companies like Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft, which had different approaches to workplace environments.