“I am able to program in machine language, I was at the top, today technology moves too fast, but luckily I still want to learn“: this is how Nolan Bushnell sits down for the interview after touring the stands of the IAB Forum in Milan, where he was called to give a speech.
He’s the classic character who needs no introduction: 79 years, many of which spent founding and carrying on Atari, one of the companies that created the video game industry and helped train Wozniak and Jobs to create their first computer. After Atari, Bushnell passed the baton to others, who then allowed him to make a living from business owner between various companies and boards of directors.
Today he is back again on the board of the new Atari, which is working on a console that has a lot to prove, despite its glorious past. To understand how it goes, take a walk down memory laneto know what he thinks of today’s video games and what advice he can give to those who want to enter this sector, we could only have a chat.
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Let’s go back to the years when he first saw Spacewar!: what were the first emotions?
“The first thing I thought was, ‘If I could take all of this and put it on the playground where I work now, I’d make a lot of money.’ It’s funny to think that my desire to enter this sector was born thanks to a summer job where I was in charge of the amusement park games, but that’s how it is. I’ve always thought it was important to do a lot of jobs, because you never know when the experience you’ve learned might come in handy. Each job is like a Lego brick and in the end each of us can build something”.
So the impression that it was something that would change the world was there right away
“Yes, absolutely: in my university years we went at night to play Spacewar! and we stood until morning. It wasn’t a great idea for grades, like it isn’t now, but you felt at the center of something unique and special, something that was poised to change everything.”
Then came Atari, which must be a place full of memories: can anyone tell us about it?
“It was a pioneering time when everything was ready to change in a very short time and even ideas that seemed like a dead end led to something. I remember At the beginning we didn’t believe much in it Pong: I had seen similar concepts at work, but at first Pong it was just supposed to be a tutorial for Allan Alcorn, I wanted him to practice coding. That tutorial was damn fun! I also like to think that Atari somehow has contributed to different workspaces: we had our flaws, but it was a place where people could go around without too many formalisms and think only of creativity, there were no workplaces like this, we started a revolution”.
Do you think it was more difficult to work in video games now or then?
“Business is a bit like war and a bit like a game, and therefore basically there will always be those who will try to eat you because they are bigger, while you try to get bigger yourself. I believe that today as then the market moves very fast and today, as then, a mistake is enough to end badly. And if once you had to keep up with a technology that made gigantic leaps year after year, today the investment for a successful game is so great that if it goes wrong, you risk big. At the time there were no manuals for running such a company, it was tough, but the atmosphere in the offices was electric, everyone felt they were part of something. I had structured Atari to separate the various areas: research, arcades, pinball machines, consoles, it was a nice way to operate in an industry on the rise, but obviously compromises were made and we know how it went. But I’m proud of one thing: well before many modern companies, our employees were free to manage their time, what counted for us was the results and that the game was ready at the right time. The rest was up to them.”
Like when Fairchild F came out, the first cartridge console, which forced you to make agreements with Warner by selling Atari: have you ever regretted that choice?
“No, because beyond the money it allowed me to slow down a bit and in that period I found my future wife. I felt the need for a family, for something more, I no longer wanted to live alone. If I hadn’t sold, perhaps the company’s story would have been different but above all mine. Maybe I’d still be there trying to make ends meet. It’s better that way”.
He has never lacked companies, even outside of video games: the impression is that he left each one when he felt he could no longer influence its course. What advice could you give from this experience?
“My success has always come when I was in the right place and at the right time. When I failed it was almost always because I was at the wrong time and in the wrong place. So it’s important to know how to choose battles and not fight useless ones. You learn it with experience and studying a lot. You have to know the market, you have to know the technologies and you have to do it at a level that makes you the best in the world. You will still make mistakes, but they will be smarter mistakes. Above all: if someone thinks that running a game company is like running anything else, they are very mistaken. It takes passion and knowledge, no one would let someone who doesn’t like to dress well manage a fashion brand, right? And it was difficult, very difficult.”
How do you feel seeing all the people that Atari has influenced, not just the gamers but maybe those who later became developers?
“I’m very, very proud, even if the credit isn’t entirely mine. Video games would they still have become a phenomenon even without me? Yes of course, but I think I brought them to the general public at least 4 years before they could have arrived. Obviously I don’t take the honor of having done it all myself. I’m also very proud of what Atari left behind, how it sowed the seeds on which other great companies, like Apple, were born.”
She believes in sowing the seeds of the future: her next book is about the future of school education
“Yes, and even there video games will play a fundamental role, or at least gamification will. There is so much untapped potential in video games for all those applications that still today they struggle to find space, but I’m sure they will. That’s why I also invested in a company that looks at games from an aging perspective. If playing can help us learn, it can also help us not unlearn and keep the brain awake. Point to one ExoDexa, a platform that shortens the time of education and that in a couple of years it will also arrive in Italy. My other project is Moxy, a virtual betting system based on blockchain and cryptocurrencies, even if today it’s better to talk less about cryptocurrencies!”
He has also returned to work with Atari: how is it going?
“Very well, I am convinced that there is some great potential in what we are doing, the new president is the right person. Of course, the biggest challenge is making decades-old titles appealing to a young audience, not just nostalgics. We are working in the field of augmented reality and VR. You have never tried Pong in VR? You’re basically one of two bars and it’s hilarious! Our goal is to create something that surprises people.”
Speaking of fun, do you still play Atari titles?
“Of course, I recently replayed a DigDug and i love it, as well as Tempest e Asteroids. As for games today, I play a lot of Sudoku on my phone and sometimes a few puzzle games or strategy titles, but I’m too old for fast moving things!”
Beyond the fun, is there a time when video games have given you other sensations?
“Video games now offer an incredible range of emotions: I’m someone who plays mostly to have fun, but I’ve often felt a certain type of connection with video games, as if there were a dialogue. Get it the ghosts of Pac-Man: sometimes I thought that they really had it in for me, that they had a developed personality and that a kind of strange relationship was being created for which they wanted to make me pay for it”.
Video games are also wonderful tools for bonding with others, for example in relationships with parents
“Absolutely yes! Although my first father-son activity was teaching him to weld, so they could create their own hardware. I’ve always tried to play a lot with all my children, it was inevitable with a father like me, and I think something has remained. Wyatt is doing well on Steam right now with Escape Academy and I’m very happy for him.”
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There will be something he doesn’t like about video games, especially modern ones
“Like everyone, I’m not a big fan of advertising and microtransactions, but my business side reminds me that these people have to make money somewhere. I also admit that I don’t really like titles like Grand Theft Auto: they are not for me, they are too violent and too relaxed in making criminal activities cool”.
So what are video games, for one of the fathers of video games?
“They are a technology that we have still exploited too little and that can change the world. It can change the school, it can change the job, it can make our life better when we are old. But they’re also a beautiful way to tell a story or get away from the ugliness of the world for a few minutes.”