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PONG to ATARI

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PONG to ATARI In what many believe to be a smart But Warner Brothers didn’t partner with move, Nolan went to Warner Brothers and Nolan and Atari, instead they bought Atari. asked them to work with Atari to market and After purchasing Atari, Warner Brothers in- release the Atari 2600. Nolan made it clear vested millions of dollars into marketing and that his console was the future and that preparing the Atari 2600 for a christmas Atari’s vast library of arcade hits was a gold release. Warner Brothers then kicked Nolan mine waiting to be broken into. out of the company, a company he created and influenced for the last 10 years of his Warner Brothers looked into Atari life. Nolan would end up seeing the Atari and their console, the Atari 2600. They 2600 take over North America from the side concluded that they would need to get the lines. Warner Brothers replaced Nolan Bush- console on the market immediately for it to nell with Ray Kassar, who turned Atari into be successful. a proper, by the books, company. Atari soon became the fastest growing company in North America. At one point Atari accounted for a third of Warner Brothers income. “Steve Jobs, at the time of Atari, The new idea Nolan had was to worked for Atari as a programmer.” bring the arcade to the living room. He real- Up to the late 70s, Atari continued to push ized that parents were always against their out video arcade games and Nolan was living children going to those dark roomed arcade the life. His personality was fit fo the cam- places. So Nolan created the first home era. All the news stations were bringing him video game console, which we know today in for interviews and the camera loved him. as the Atari 2600. This console would allow But they haven’t seen nothing yet. Nolan still the owner to have interchangeable cartridg- had one more idea, one more golden egg, es. With these interchangeable cartridges, to give the world. That was the home video the player would be able to purchase many game console. games and choose between which one to play on their Atari 2600. This might be nor- mal practice today, but back then this was unheard of. Nolan’s new concept would even- tually spell the end for the era of the arcade. v s 3N +3 designed by designed NOLAN BUSHNELL NOLAN THE STORY OF STORY THE PONG PONG ATARI to Nolan Bushnell’s story begins to play and fall in love with the Magnavox during a moment of defeat. After losing all Odyssey. The Magnavox Odyssey was the his money in a poker game, Nolan decided very first video game home console. A tennis to take a job at a local amusement park. style game on the Magnavox Odyssey really Nolan would never of found as much success caught Nolan’s attention. A year later, Nolan in his career if it wasn’t for that job. At the created his own version of this game and he Lagoon Amusement Park in Utah, Nolan called that game “PONG”. learned all about coin operated games. ““PONG” ended becoming the biggest video Right after graduation Nolan took that arcade game hit of all time.” knowledge and created his first video arcade game, “Computer Space”. Unfortunately After seeing “PONG”’s success, Magnabox the game was marked as another defeat in sues Nolan Bushnell since the game was Nolan’s book. In 1962, Nolan got the chance essentially a rip off of their tennis game..
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