A recent assignment in one of my classes asked us to listen to interview of well know entrepreneurs and how they created what they were known for. I choose to review Jessica Harris’ of NPR discussion with Nolan Bushnell who founded Atari in 1972 and developed their first game Pong.
Atari began as a development house or a game design business for other people because they did not have any infrastructure, factories or money and would sale their skills for royalties. Nolan while attending a convention saw people having fun playing a style of computerized ping pong game that was not well made and realized they could make a better product. He defined the game and asked Al Alcorn to develop what we now know as Pong. The game was successful because how easy it was in that you could hold a beer and one hand and play with the other. He also lends its success to the changing women’s empowerment movement and their ability to beat guys because of their fine motor skills. Adapt work to skill workers.
After several years they entered the at home consumer gaming market and were not able to sale their gaming console. The largest challenge was due the $70+ cost while most toys and games maxed out at a $35 cap. Instead of continuing to attempt to sale to the toy/gaming resale companies they ended up contacting Sears which was becoming a family gaming room company with sales in Pool Tables and similar at home games. By going outside of the industry and engaging with a company that was changing to consumer desires the at home console became very successful.
Click here for the podcast.
https://www.npr.org/series/126166186/from-scratch
If you are interested in a shorter version of the Atari story check out this Youtube video from Discovery UK.
Fire Pit Stories 