Talking With Nolan Bushnell

Milktoast writes "Joystick101.org has posted their interview with gaming legend Nolan Bushnell. The arcade guru who founded Atari, invented Pong, and started Chuck E. Cheese talks about the decline of the arcade, education, robotics, and gaming as a narrative. "

Oh, so he "invented" pong?

[Lac]

Pong was not invented. It was discovered.

Wait a Second

[ChromDome]

I thought Al Gore invented Pong?

Contribution to Society?

[mac123]

I vividly remember my one and **only** visit to Chuck E. Cheese.

I was forced to a relatived kid's birthday party.

I walked in the door to find a couple of hundred kids eating horrible pizza and swinging from the rafters.

I muttered to my wife "this must be what hell looks like"

The only redeeming factor was that they sold beer there to take the edge off (albeit at about $4 for a small cup)

The heart of the establishment appears to be a backroom birthday party factory....a bunch of 20 foot long folding tables where they can efficiently and quickly clean up one party and start the next one in about 5 minutes.

But the beer was ok.

If this was this man's most recent contribution to society, I fear for our survival.

Re:Contribution to Society?

[bill.sheehan]

My wife and I consider Chuck E. Cheese to be the world's most effective form of birth control. Whenever I start cooing at other people's mitotic miracles, or whenever my wife's biological clock chimes, we head for the nearest Chuck E. Cheese establishment.

So far, it's working!

My inner child can beat up your inner child.

Re:"It seems that we are out of time"

[Eccles]

He calls it a "transcript" of the interview, and the linked story also mentions that they only got a 15 minute phone call.

Right, he'd spent the rest of his change at the arcade...