Today, I’m thankful for personal entertainment and its ability to ‘breakout’ from the ordinary.
These days, we often spend endless hours of idleness on our iPhones, iPads, or iMacs surfing the Internet. Some of us use our ‘devices’ in a productive manner, gathering information that helps inform our world viewpoints. For instance, some use their screen time productively, perhaps to read the latest edition of the Washington Post, listen to an NPR podcast of Science Friday, or possibly get some work done by opening and responding to emails in their personal or professional inboxes. Others might readily admit that their technological time is spent ‘reading’ (listening to) a chapter in Audiobooks, entering caloric intake on Noom, or scrolling through their feeds on social media. Although some might prefer LinkedIn as a more sophisticated medium for societal engagement, others would readily admit that Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snap Chat fittingly satisfy their urge. Amazingly, I’m dumbfounded every Sunday when my device informs how I’ve spent ‘screen time’ over the last week. Although the majority of the time is spent in my Microsoft Mail (i.e., I’m using my iPhone for work), I’m also admittedly ashamed, if not surprised, to uncover that I really do spend too much time following my progressive step count on Fitbit or entering incorrect words into the New York Times Crossword app.
Clearly, our devices have become our most favored means of entertainment. We might ever struggle to recollect how we spent our time in our childhood or early adulthood, long before Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs turned us all into technological zombies. Can you imagine a time long before on-demand television shows and movies could be readily accessed from our iPhones? Or long before Google or Yahoo search engines were invented? Or even perhaps long before Comcast had nearly 500 channels on its Xfinity network? Well, I sure can, and it started sometime in late November of 1980.
Exactly forty years ago, I started openly campaigning for something that every 12-year old boy in suburban America yearned for at that time. With Christmas only 4 weeks away, I requested, if not pleaded, with my hard-working, blue-collar parents for the latest craze in entertainment – the Atari Video Computer System (or Atari VCS, later to be rebranded as the Atari 2600). This home-based video game console was all the rage in my adolescent youth, and it helped to spark a technological revolution that appears to have no end. The Atari VCS’s simple keyboard design (with wood paneling inlays) contained just 4 simple buttons and a cartridge holder in the front, along with 2 rear outlets into which the single-button joystick would attach. I desperately tried to convince my parents that all I wanted for Christmas was an Atari VCS. In fact, for the reasonable retail price of just $199 for the console (which included one video game cartridge in the box), endless hours of entertainment would be ensured. After much cajoling, my parents acquiesced to my endless petitioning, and the miracle of Christmas was fully realized.
But, the story as to how we got to that point in 1980 and where we have come over the last 40 years is something that still blows my mind.
In 1965, a student at the University of Utah College of Engineering named Nolan Bushnell spent a ridiculous portion of his collegiate career sneaking into the University’s computer science lab late at night with his fraternity brothers to play Spacewar!, a primitive video game first invented at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1962. When he was not studying (yeah, right!) or clandestinely playing this game, he earned money working at the Lagoon Amusement Park and Arcade, where he was mesmerized by how people would spend their hard-earned money to play Pinball or other primitive amusement games. So, in 1969, after graduating with a degree in electrical engineering and working for a few years at a company called Ampex, this young entrepreneur set off with his colleague Ted Dabney to form their own company called Syzygy. Their intent was simple: develop a coin-operated ripoff of Spacewar! that could be marketed in arcades throughout the United States. Well, the Company did not get off to a good start. It turns out ‘Syzygy’ was already in corporate use, so they had to immediately find a new name. They settled on a name that was derived from the Japanese word for ‘hitting the target’ , and with a slight change of the last letter from one vowel (u) to another (i), they ended up with the word ‘Atari.’ In their shop, they advanced some basic understanding of computer technology that would allow for ‘dots’ on a screen to be programmed to move in different directions. Seeking to develop a game that might rival the then-popular Magnavox game of tennis, they challenged their then-recent hire Al Alcorn, an aspiring junior engineer, to develop a similar paddle game for arcade use. Well, after a few months, Alcorn came back with a game with two paddles on either side of the screen, a moving dot for a ball, and a digital score at the top. But, unlike the tennis game that Magnavox had created, their game had 4 unique features: (1) the ball increased in speed each time it made contact with the paddle; (2) the paddle was separated into 8 parts, so depending on where the ball made contact, the angle of the ball varied with each specific ricochet off the paddle; (3) a small space at the top of the game could allow for the ball to sneak through, thereby limiting the length of any point; and (4) sound was added to amplify the effects. So, after viewing an early prototype, the owners of Atari placed the program into a large orange-painted cabinet and connected it (with a lot of solder) to an old back-and-white TV. They also added in a coin-operated system that would start each game upon the entry of a quarter and continue until the first person scored 11. Finally, they placed a cut-up milk-gallon jug at the bottom of the inner portion of the cabinet below the coin slot to collect the quarters as they are deposited into the machine. Oh, and they did one other thing: They gave it the name Pong.
Now, many of you know a different kind of game called Pong – the one that is often played in dark basements of fraternity houses using a quarter, some inebriated participants, and a red Solo cup. Well, in the original Atari version of Pong, there was no red Solo cup.
What I mean is that, in September 1972, the Atari entrepreneurs took their newly-formed arcade game of Pong down the street in Sunneydale, California, to Andy Capp’s Tavern, a smoke-filled bar owned by one of their friends, Bill Gattis. They plugged in Pong next to the Pinball machines and waited to see what would happen. A few days later, the owner Bill called Bushnell with an irritated tone, urging them to get down to the tavern as fast they can. A near riot was about to ensue unless the Atari boys came and fixed their dysfunctional machine. When they arrived, they found that the game had stalled because it could no longer collect any quarters, as the entire milk jug and the coin slot had been jammed packed with quarters. In essence, the game was a massive bar room success.
Atari was on to something.
After mass-producing large arcade cabinets of the game, they formally released Pong into the commercial world on this exact day (Nov 29) in 1972. By the end of 1974, more than 8,000 machines could be found in bars, restaurants, arcades, and other venues. The video arcade phenomenon exploded, as other games from Atari – Asteroids, Tempest, Centipede, and Missile Command – came to fruition. Other companies would also join in, creating masterpieces such as Galaga (Namco), Space Invaders (Taiko), Pacman (Nintendo), Miss Pacman (Nintendo), Donkey Kong (Nintendo) and hundreds more. Before one knew it, Atari was a video-arcade success with their ‘breakout’ novelty games.
Meanwhile, as Atari grew, Bushnell sold the Company in 1976 to Warner Communications, who then attempted to parlay the Atari name into the burgeoning field of home entertainment. With the advent of affordable microprocessors, Warner’s CEO Ray Kassar envisioned the idea of teenagers never having to leave their home and never having to bug their parents for their allowance in quarters. He conceived of Project ‘Stella’ to develop video game consoles for home use that would be supplemented with software cartridges of different games. They took popular games from the arcade – Space Invaders and Asteroids – and sold them as cartridges. At the same time, they added in home-grown ideas, such as Adventure, Pitfall, Yar’s Revenge, and River Raid. However, like all good things, the fad of Atari home consoling would fizzle out after a lackluster release of E.T. – The Extraterrestrial Game. In fact, it got so bad that Atari even had to deposit its unsold cartridge games – including more than 500,000 versions of E.T. The Extraterrestrial – into a cemented landfill in New Mexico. Only years later, in 2014, would that landfill be uprooted to reveal the treasured cartridges.
Atari may now be a forgotten name, but its legacy oddly lives on in the ‘breakout’ technological device you hold in your hand. You see, back in 1973, Atari conceived of a game called Breakout, which was fashioned after their seminal Pong game. In this enticing game, 8 layers of bricks line the top of the screen. As the ball is bounced off the paddle and hits one of the bricks, the brick explodes, leaving a hole in which the ball can then venture into the next layer with the next strike of the paddle. The key is to destroy all the bricks before these layers slowly creep down the screen. Ironically enough, Breakout was the brainchild of two young entrepreneurs, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs. Interestingly enough, they would take their earnings from this venture to establish their own company, which they named after a juicy red fruit.
How my daily blog evolved from Apple to Atari and then back to Apple, I recognize, might seem a bit convoluted. Nevertheless, you must admit that the tale is highly entertaining – much like the little technological device sitting in your hand.
Comments