Nolan Bushnell
Nolan Bushnell
Nolan Kay Bushnellis an American engineer and entrepreneur who founded both Atari, Inc. and the Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza-Time Theaters chain. Bushnell has been inducted into the Video Game Hall of Fame and the Consumer Electronics Association Hall of Fame, received the BAFTA Fellowship and the Nations Restaurant News “Innovator of the Year” award, and was named one of Newsweek's "50 Men Who Changed America." Bushnell has started more than twenty companies and is one of the founding fathers of...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionEntrepreneur
Date of Birth5 February 1943
CityClearfield, UT
CountryUnited States of America
I think 'Something Ventured' is a nice piece because it celebrates venture capital in a unique and powerful way.
In 1980, Atari was bringing in around two billion dollars in revenue and Chuck E. Cheese's some five hundred million. I still didn't feel too bad that I had turned down a one-third ownership of Apple - although I was beginning to think it might turn out to be a mistake.
I guess I'd like to be known for being an innovator, fostering creativity, thinking outside the box. You know, keeping people playful.
In the early days of the video game business, everybody played. The question is, what happened? My theory - and I think it's pretty well borne out - is that in the '80s, games got gory, and that lost the women. And then they got complex, and that lost the casual gamer.
A lot of people think that success is luck and being in the right place at the right time. But I think if you’re willing to work harder than anybody else, you can create an awful lot of your own luck.
Everybody believes in innovation until they see it. Then they think, 'Oh, no; that'll never work. It's too different.'
I think in terms of businesses, in terms of things that are really big and marry technology with entertainment. That's where I like to spend my time.
I don't think people understand how much hard work innovation is. That it's not just getting an idea. You really have to cross your T's and dot your I's long before you ever start on the project. I don't think people perceive that about me. I work hard.
Blood and gore loses its cartoon defense. If you think we've got problems now, you'll see we have additional problems once the cartoon defense goes away.
Sonic and I were chatting back before we got on and he was telling me how proud he was to be inducted last year in the Walk of Game. The only thing he was a little concerned about was being walked on all the time. I said that's OK; it's par for the course.
literally thousands of people have told me over the years that they met their wife or husband playing Pong.
I'm here to pass the baton, so to speak, to some of these new inductees, many of which are guys that I respect in the business as being truly revolutionary.
Many kids with (attention deficit disorder) have been misdiagnosed, they're actually bored with teachers, as most won't even blink at concentrating on video games for hours,
Do I really want to do a mobile game that's one of 300,000, where discoverability is everything? You really have to have a little more sizzle on the steak. I would rather be one of 100 apps for Google Glass than one of 300,000 for iOS and Android.