77-417: GDCA may refer to: Global Digital Currency Association Game Developers Choice Awards General Department of Civil Aviation of Armenia Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title GDCA . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to
154-461: A bear that mumbled/echoed a child's words back to him/her. In the late 1980s, Axlon managed the development of two new games for the Atari 2600, most likely as part of a marketing attempt to revive sales of the system, already more than a decade old. This included Motorodeo, a monster truck -themed games that was one of the last games developed for the Atari 2600 system, being released in 1990. The company
231-497: A board meeting with Warner near the end of the year, reiterated this position. Bushnell recommended that funds be used in R&;D for developing a new, technologically superior console, as he feared rising competition would make the aging tech specs of the VCS obsolete. Bushnell's concerns never materialized as a combination of Kassar's marketing and the popularity of Taito 's Space Invaders at
308-584: A breakthrough technology, game concept or gameplay design. GDC had announced their intention to award Nolan Bushnell (co-founder of Atari ) the 2017 Pioneer Award. However, after several people asked the GDC to reconsider this in light of documented sexist activities in Bushnell's past in light of the current #MeToo movement , GDC opted to not award the Pioneer Award and instead "will dedicate this year's award to honor
385-649: A buyer. Warner Communications , looking to boost their own failing media properties, agreed to acquire Atari for $ 28 million , with Bushnell personally receiving US$ 15 million , in November 1976. Warner provided a large investment into the Atari VCS to allow it to be completed early the next year and released in September 1977. The first year of Atari VCS sales were modest and limited by Atari's own supply. While many of initial games were arcade conversions of Atari arcade games,
462-417: A company that develops a portable large-scale VR system for enterprises to train e.g., security forces. Nolan is on the advisory board of Anti-AgingGames.com and was a co-founder of the company, featuring online memory, concentration, and focus games for healthy people over 35. BrainRush is a company that uses video game technology in educational software where he is Founder, CEO and chairman. The company
539-576: A different focus. Best Downloadable Game Award recognizes the overall best game released on console or PC platforms specifically and solely for digital download - with an emphasis on smaller, more 'casual'-friendly titles. The Character Design award recognizes the overall excellence of non-licensed character design in a game, including originality, character arc and emotional depth. The IGDA Award for Community Contribution recognized developers for significant efforts "building community, sharing knowledge, speaking on behalf of developers and/or contributing to
616-466: A few months later, with Kassar being named as Atari's CEO by mid-1979. In 1977, while at Atari, Bushnell purchased Pizza Time Theatre back from Warner Communications. It had been created by Bushnell, originally as a place where kids could go and eat pizza and play video games , which would therefore function as a distribution channel for Atari games. Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre also had animatronic animals that played music as entertainment. It
693-514: A film and turned these offers down, he accepted an offer made by Paramount Pictures in June 2008 with a script by Craig Sherman and Brian Hecker, with Leonardo DiCaprio envisioned to star as Bushnell. While news of the film was quiet over the next ten years, in March 2018, film financing company Vision Tree was working to start an initial coin offering for cryptocurrency to raise up to US$ 40 million for
770-577: A game similar to Chicago Coin 's Speedway , which at the time was the biggest-selling electro-mechanical game at his arcade. After Bushnell attended a Burlingame, California demonstration of the Magnavox Odyssey , he gave the task of making the Magnavox tennis game into a coin-op version to Alcorn as a test project. He told Alcorn that he was making the game for General Electric, in order to motivate him, but in actuality he planned to simply dispose of
847-571: A group of leading game creators. Votes are then additionally made by editors of Game Developer . Any video game released in the preceding calendar year, regardless of medium, is eligible to be nominated, though upgrades, expansions, and mission packs are not eligible to be nominated. The top nominated games are assembled into the list of nominees, typically presented in December, are then voted on by final voting body, made up of ICANs, and editors of Game Developer. In this final stage of voting, games with
SECTION 10
#1732855492367924-409: A later statement to Kotaku , Bushnell cautioned that "exploring these kinds of issues through a finite, 40-year-old prism [does not offer] a productive reflection of our company", and referred to feedback from his former employees. Kotaku spoke to a dozen female former Atari employees, some whom had already spoken out on social media. All who agreed that while the company's 1970s and 1980s workplace
1001-577: A test in Spanish language vocabulary learning with over 2200 teachers and 80,000 students across the country and got an increase in learning speed of between 8–10 times traditional learning. BrainRush rolled out the full platform in the fall of 2013. On March 6, 2019, Nolan was appointed CEO and Chairman of publicly traded company Global Gaming Technologies Corp. Bushnell was featured in the documentary film Something Ventured about venture capital development, as well as Atari: Game Over , which documented
1078-463: A third Southern California restaurant and one in Mountain View, California . All the restaurants have since closed. On April 19, 2010, Atari SA , the owner of the Atari brand and its home legacy since 2001, announced that Nolan Bushnell would join the company's board of directors. It marked his de facto return to Atari after more than 30 years. Bushnell is also one of the founders of Modal VR,
1155-480: A touchscreen interface bar-top/arcade system that would also provide internet access, phone calls, and online networked tournaments; and a digital jukebox, capable of storing thousands of songs and downloading new releases. By late 1997 the company was facing financial troubles and was planning to withdraw the units it had released in the field and relaunch the line with improvements to the credit card swipe system and internet connections. The company died shortly before
1232-447: A toxic work environment at Atari for women that became the foundation for the then-future video game industry, based on several documented interviews and accounts of Atari at the time of the 1970s and 1980s; a notable example was of Bushnell holding board meetings in a hot tub and invited female secretaries to join them. Wu and others asserted that while Bushnell had done much for the industry, recognizing him with this type of award during
1309-459: A whole." The 2011 awards ceremony took place on October 12, 2011. All the awards from the previous year returned, and a new award for Online Innovation was introduced. Minecraft and Rift by Mojang and Trion Worlds respectively took home the most awards, with two each. Kelton Flinn and John Taylor received the special Online Game Legend award as founders of Kesmai and creators of Island of Kesmai and Air Warrior . Additionally,
1386-464: A wholly owned subsidiary of Tele Atlas . While many of the ideas eventually led to current-day innovations, most of Catalyst's companies eventually failed due to a lack of underlying technology available in the 1980s to sustain these high-tech innovations. For example, Catalyst's companies included CinemaVision, which attempted to develop high-definition television. Cumma attempted to distribute video games using special vending machines that would write
1463-575: Is credited with Bushnell's Law , an aphorism about games that are "easy to learn and difficult to master" being rewarding. Bushnell was born in 1943 in Clearfield, Utah , in a middle-class family who were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . He attended Davis High School in the nearby town of Kaysville, Utah . Bushnell enrolled at Utah State University in 1961 to study engineering and then later business. In 1964, he transferred to
1540-506: Is known that Bushnell had always wanted to work for Walt Disney, but was continually turned down for employment when he was first starting out after graduation; Chuck E. Cheese was his homage to Disney and the technology developed there. In 1981 Bushnell turned over day-to-day food operations of Chuck E. Cheese's to a newly hired restaurant executive and focused on Catalyst Technologies . Through 1981 and 1982, Bushnell concentrated on PTT subsidiaries Sente Technologies and Kadabrascope. Sente
1617-408: Is right, specifically with regards to how people should be treated in the workplace. And if that means an award is the price I have to pay personally so the whole industry may be more aware and sensitive to these issues, I applaud that, too. If my personal actions or the actions of anyone who ever worked with me offended or caused pain to anyone at our companies, then I apologize without reservation. In
SECTION 20
#17328554923671694-730: The Game Developers Conference for outstanding game developers and games . Introduced in 2001, the Game Developers Choice Awards were preceded by the Spotlight Awards , which were presented from 1997 to 1999. Since then, the ceremony for the Independent Games Festival is held just prior to the Choice Awards ceremony. Nominations for games are made by International Choice Awards Network (ICAN),
1771-501: The UBM technology group . In 2007, gamasutra.com took over management of the awards from the IGDA . An advisory board selected by the editors of gamasutra.com and Game Developer magazine oversees the selection process. In the past, nominations are accepted from registered gamasutra.com users, confirmed to be game developers, and from the advisory board. Once the nomination process is complete,
1848-631: The University of Utah College of Engineering , where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering . He was a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity . He was one of many computer science students of the 1960s who played the historic Spacewar! game on DEC mainframe computers. He married his first wife, Paula Rochelle Nielson, in 1966 and had two daughters; in 1969, they moved to California. They divorced in 1975, just prior to Warner Communication's purchase of Atari. Around
1925-415: The dot-com bubble burst with its prototype machines still in development in 1997. Before BrainRush, Bushnell's most recent company was uWink , a company that evolved out of an early project called In10City (pronounced 'Intensity') which was a concept of an entertainment complex and dining experience. uWink was started by Bushnell and his business adviser Loni Reeder, who also designed the original logo for
2002-455: The Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza brand by 1993. Today over 560 locations of this restaurant are in business. Bushnell founded Catalyst Technologies , one of the earliest business incubators . The Catalyst Group companies numbered in the double digits and included Androbot , Etak , Cumma, and Axlon. Axlon launched many consumer and consumer electronic products successfully, most notably AG Bear ,
2079-626: The MMORPG EverQuest was inducted into the GDC Online Awards Hall of Fame. The 2011 awards ceremony took place on October 10, 2012. Star Wars: The Old Republic , developed by BioWare Austin , became the top winner at four awards, with League of Legends by Riot Games trailing slightly behind at three awards. The Online Game Legend award was given to Raph Koster , developer of previous Hall of Fame inductee Ultima Online as well as Star Wars: Galaxies . MMORPG World of Warcraft
2156-525: The Nations Restaurant News "Innovator of the Year" award, and was named one of Newsweek ' s "50 Men Who Changed America". He has started more than 20 companies and is one of the founding fathers of the video game industry . He is on the board of Anti-Aging Games. In 2012, he founded an educational software company called Brainrush, that is using video game technology in educational software. He
2233-471: The advisory board identifies five finalists for each regular category. The recipients of the Lifetime Achievement, Pioneer (formerly known as First Penguin) and Maverick awards are selected by the advisory board. For the other awards, a vote open to all those who participated in the nomination process chooses a recipient from each category's finalists. Note: Events held for awards are held early in
2310-428: The arcade drove Atari VCS sales. Both Warner Communications and Bushnell commonly recognized he was no longer a good leader for the company, removing him as CEO and Chairman in early 1979. Warner offered Bushnell the opportunity to stay as a director and creative consultant, but Bushnell refused. Before leaving, Bushnell negotiated the rights to Pizza Time Theatre from Atari for $ 500,000 . Keenan replaced Bushnell but left
2387-426: The arcade game market and creation of Atari. There had been debate between whether Bushnell or Ralph H. Baer , who is credited with creating the first home video game console, should be considered the father of video games, which had led to some bad blood between the two inventors. However, the industry recognized that Baer should be considered the father of home video gaming, while Bushnell is credited with innovating
GDCA - Misplaced Pages Continue
2464-611: The arcade game. At the British Academy Video Games Awards on March 10, 2009, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts awarded the Academy Fellowship to Bushnell in recognition of his outstanding achievement as a founding father of the video games industry. Since 2008, there has been interest to a biographical film about Bushnell's life. While Bushnell had been approached by others to make such
2541-559: The art form of game development". The Ambassador Award replaced it after 2007. The Maverick Award recognizes the current achievements of a developer who exhibits independence in thought and action while experimenting with alternate/emerging forms of digital games. For its eight iteration in 2010, GDC Austin was rebranded as GDC Online, with a greater focus on MMOs , and social and casual games . The Game Developers Choice Online Awards were also introduced to recognize technical excellence and innovation in online games . In addition to
2618-472: The awards of the competitive categories, special awards were given out to pioneering online games and creators. In 2012 it was announced that GDC Online would be replaced by GDC Next in Los Angeles in 2013, and the awards were subsequently discontinued. The 2010 awards ceremony took place on October 7, 2010. League of Legends by Riot Games led the winners with five awards from six nominations, including
2695-410: The beginnings of what became Pixar . During this time Bushnell was using large loans on his Pizza Time stock to fund Catalyst. By the end of 1983, Chuck E. Cheese was having serious financial problems. President and long-time friend Joe Keenan resigned that fall. Nolan tried to step back in, blaming the money problems on over-expansion, too much tweaking of the formula and saturation in local markets by
2772-571: The best game from any development studio which released its first publicly available title during the calendar year. This was formerly known as the New Studio of the Year Award. In years prior to 2008, the award was awarded to the studio name, as opposed to the game title. Best Design award recognizes the overall excellence of design in a game, including gameplay, mechanics, puzzles, play balancing, and scenarios. Best Mobile/Handheld Game Award recognizes
2849-449: The company financially stable, Atari entered the consumer electronics market, with its home Pong consoles first released in 1975. Atari continued to make variants of its existing arcade games for dedicated home consoles until 1977. During this period, former Atari employees Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak had approached Bushnell about investing in their home computer system, the Apple I , that
2926-435: The company. The company has gone through several failed iterations including a touch-screen kiosk design, a company to run cash and prize awards as part of their uWin concept and also an online Entertainment Systems network. After nearly 7 years and over $ 24 million in investor funding, the touchscreen kiosks/bartop model was closed amid complaints of unpaid prizes and lack of maintaining service agreements with locations to keep
3003-422: The current video game industry. Kotaku observed that the percentage of females in the video game industry has declined since 1991 to as low as 15% as of 2016, which is difficult to attribute, but suggested may be tied to a portion of women that would not be able to withstand the type of workplace of the 1980s Atari. In an editorial , Dean Takahashi suggested the current environment within the video game industry
3080-458: The end of 1977, he married Nancy Nino, with whom he had six children. He also used his profit from selling Atari to Warner to purchase the former mansion of coffee magnate James Folger in Woodside, California . Although he was a Latter-day Saint in his youth, by the time of his first divorce he had forgone the teachings often being called a "lapsed Mormon". He said that he stopped practicing
3157-574: The failure of the restaurants was the placement of the restaurants. The Woodland Hills location was on the second floor of a suburban shopping mall and the Hollywood location practically hidden with minimal visibility on a higher level of a shopping center complex. The first Bistro opened in Woodland Hills, California on October 16, 2006. A second in Hollywood was established, and in 2008 the company opened
GDCA - Misplaced Pages Continue
3234-548: The faith after he got into a debate over the interpretation of the Bible with a professor at the University of Utah's Institute of Religion while in college. Bushnell worked at Lagoon Amusement Park for many years while attending college. He was made manager of the games department two seasons after starting. While working there, he became familiar with arcade electro-mechanical games , watching customers play and helping to maintain
3311-583: The film, which was set to be produced by DiCaprio's studio Appian Way Productions , Vision Tree, and Avery Productions. In January 2018, the Advisory Committee of the Game Developers Choice Awards announced that Bushnell would receive the Pioneer Award at the March ceremony at the Game Developers Conference (GDC), crediting his role at Atari. That day, several people through social media, including Brianna Wu , claimed Bushnell fostered
3388-465: The first Pizza Time Theatre in San Jose in 1977 as a means for Atari to stock its arcade games. As Atari faced more competition in both arcade and home consoles from 1975 onward, Bushnell recognized that the costs in developing both types of systems with only limited shelf life were too high, and directed Atari's engineers at Cyan Engineering towards a programmable home console. This console eventually
3465-497: The following year. Winners are listed first and highlighted in bold . The Game of the Year Award recognizes the overall best game released during the previous calendar year, as interpreted by the members of the Game Developers Conference. Best Audio award recognizes the overall excellence of audio in a game, including sound effects, musical composition, sound design and orchestration. The Best Debut Award recognizes
3542-440: The game onto discs on demand. ByVideo developed an early online shopping experience using kiosks and Laser Discs that allowed shoppers to virtually purchase products that would then be delivered later. After a failed bid to purchase Atari Games in 1996, the company which carried on Atari's arcade legacy, Nolan Bushnell became senior consultant to the small game developer Aristo International after it bought Borta, Inc., where he
3619-438: The game well, and decided that his next game would be licensed to a bigger manufacturer. Bushnell also knew that the next game they developed would need to be simpler and not require users to read instructions on the cabinet, since their target audience would likely be drunken bar patrons. In 1972, Bushnell and Dabney set off on their own, and learned that the name "Syzygy" was in use; Bushnell has said at different times that it
3696-403: The game. Alcorn incorporated many of his own improvements into the game design, such as the ball speeding up the longer the game went on, and Pong was born. Pong proved to be very popular; Atari released a large number of Pong -based arcade video games over the next few years as the mainstay of the company. After the release of Pong , Bushnell and Dabney had a falling-out: Dabney felt he
3773-436: The highest votes in a category are the winners. Winners for Special Awards (Lifetime Achievement, Pioneer, Ambassador) are decided by a "Special Awards Jury", which appears to consist of a variety of 5 people. This group may consider recommendations from ICAN members. The winners are announced during the Game Developers Conference , which is typically held in March of the calendar year. GDC related properties are owned by
3850-403: The industrial engineering department at the U of U. For several summers, he built his own advertising company, Campus Company, which produced blotters for four universities and sold advertising space around a calendar of events. He also sold copies of Encyclopedia Americana . After graduating, Bushnell had moved to California from Utah with the hopes of being hired by Disney , but the company
3927-413: The intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=GDCA&oldid=467664304 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Game Developers Choice Awards The Game Developers Choice Awards are awards annually presented at
SECTION 50
#17328554923674004-481: The intention of producing a Spacewar clone known as Computer Space . Dabney built the prototype and Bushnell shopped it around, looking for a manufacturer. They made an agreement with Nutting Associates , a maker of coin-op trivia and shooting games, that produced a fiberglass cabinet for the unit that included a coin-slot mechanism. Computer Space was a commercial failure, though sales exceeded $ 3 million. Bushnell felt that Nutting Associates had not marketed
4081-414: The issue with the committee. Some stated that those who accused Bushnell of sexism did not take into consideration the culture of the time, and there was a clear and distinct difference between the sexualized occurrences at Atari in the 1970s, and the real harassment and threats faced by women in the current #MeToo movement. The situation has led to discussion of how the Atari workplace may have influenced
4158-430: The kiosk/bartop units in working condition. The latest iteration (announced in 2005) is a new interactive entertainment restaurant called the uWink Media Bistro, whose concept builds off his Chuck E. Cheese venture and previous 1988–1989 venture Bots Inc., which developed similar systems of customer-side point-of-sale touch-screen terminals in addition to autonomous pizza delivery robots for Little Caesars Pizza . The plan
4235-562: The machinery while learning how it worked, developing his understanding of how the game business operates. He was also interested in the Midway arcade games , where theme park customers would have to use skill and luck to ultimately achieve the goal and win the prize. He liked the concept of getting people curious about the game and from there getting them to pay the fee in order to play. While in college, he worked for several employers, including Litton Guidance and Control Systems , Hadley Ltd, and
4312-602: The management team. He resigned in February 1984, when the board of directors rejected his proposed changes, and Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theater (now named after its famous rat mascot) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March of 1984. ShowBiz Pizza Place , a competing Pizza/Arcade family restaurant, then purchased Pizza Time Theatre in May 1985 and assumed its debt. The newly formed company, ShowBiz Pizza Time, Inc., operated restaurants under both brands before unifying all locations under
4389-423: The ongoing #MeToo movement was sending the wrong message. Wu stated, "Nolan Bushnell deserves to be honored, but this is not the right time for it. It's easy to draw a line between the culture he created at Atari and the structural sexism women in tech face today." The hashtag "#NotNolan" was shared by those with similar complaints about the GDC's choice. The following day, the Advisory Committee reconsidered
4466-419: The overall best game commercially released on any handheld platform. The Innovation Award recognizes games that demonstrate innovation and push the boundaries of games as an expressive medium. Multiple awards per year were given before 2007. Best Narrative award recognizes the quality of writing in a game, including story, plot construction, dialogue, and branching narratives. Best Technology award recognizes
4543-499: The overall excellence of technology in a game, including graphics programming, artificial intelligence, networking, and physics. Best Visual Art award recognizes the overall excellence of visual art in a game, including animation, modeling, art direction, and textures. These awards are voted by the audience for best game of that year. Known as the First Penguin award until 2007, the Pioneer Award celebrates individuals who developed
4620-489: The pioneering and unheard voices of the past". The Ambassador Award is given to individuals within or outside the industry who helped video games "advance to a better place." It replaced the IGDA Award for Community Contribution after 2008. The Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes the achievements of a developer who has impacted games and game development. The following award categories have been retired or replaced with
4697-524: The publicly voted Audience Award. Richard Bartle received the Online Game Legend award for his work on the first MUD and the 2003 book Designing Virtual Worlds . The massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) Ultima Online was inducted into the GDC Online Awards Hall of Fame for being "a specific online game that has resulted in the long-term advancement of the medium, pioneering major shifts in online game development and games as
SECTION 60
#17328554923674774-448: The second wave of games in 1983 were more abstract and difficult to promote. Warner placed Ray Kassar , a former vice president of Burlington Industries , to help with Atari's marketing. Kassar created successful advertising and marketing throughout 1978, positioning the Atari VCS for a larger sales period at the end of the year. However, Bushnell had concerns on Kassar's plans and feared they had produced too many units to be sold, and at
4851-443: The selection of Bushnell for the award and announced the Pioneer Award would not be awarded, and instead it would be used that year to "honor the pioneering and unheard voices of the past". GDC further stated that they believed their selections "should reflect the values of today's game industry". Bushnell released a statement agreeing with the committee's decision: I applaud the GDC for ensuring that their institution reflects what
4928-595: The unearthing of the Atari video game burial . He was also featured in animated TV show Code Monkeys in Episode 3 of Season 1. For the 50th anniversary of Atari, Bushnell was interviewed by then-current Atari CEO Wade Rosen for the Atari 50 video game where he discussed his history with the company and its relevance in the modern era. Bushnell is considered to be the "father of electronic gaming" due to his contributions in establishing
5005-434: Was a reentry into the coin-operated game business. Arcade cabinets would have a proprietary system with a cartridge slot so operators could refresh their games without having to buy whole new cabinets. Kadabrascope was an early attempt at computer assisted animation. In 1983 as the restaurants started to lose money, Sente, though profitable, was sold to Bally for $ 3.9 million and Kadabrascope was sold to Lucasfilm which became
5082-532: Was being pushed to the side by Bushnell, while Bushnell felt Dabney was holding back the company from larger financial success. Bushnell purchased Dabney's share of Atari for $ 250,000 in 1973. To get more arcade games to market and bypass exclusivity limitations that coin-op game distributors had set, Bushnell discreetly had his neighbor Joe Keenan establish Kee Games in 1973 to manufacture near-copies of Atari's games. Even with Kee's output, Atari had difficulty meeting demand for arcade games, and by 1974 Atari
5159-485: Was built from borrowed parts from Atari and with technical support from Atari employees. They initially offered the design to Bushnell and Atari, but Bushnell wanted Atari to focus on arcade and home consoles. Later in 1975, Jobs offered Bushnell a chance for one-third equity stake in their budding company Apple Inc. , for $ 50,000 ; Bushnell remarked in hindsight, "I was so smart, I said no. It's kind of fun to think about that, when I'm not crying." Bushnell also established
5236-480: Was chairman. Aristo's CEO and chairman was Mouli Cohen . In association with Aristo, Bushnell spearheaded TeamNet, a line of multiplayer-only arcade machines targeted towards adults, which allowed teams of up to four players to compete either locally or remotely via internet. Aristo was later renamed PlayNet. Borta Inc. Developed video games that included versions of Urban Strike and Jungle Strike along with online Sports Games. Aristo developed two main products:
5313-402: Was facing financial hardships in part due to the competition in the arcade game market. Bushnell opted to merge Kee Games into Atari in September 1974 just ahead of the release of Tank , a wholly original arcade game from Kee. Tank was an arcade success and helped bolster Atari's finances. Keenan became president of Atari and managed its operations while Bushnell retained his CEO role. With
5390-500: Was for guests to order their food and drinks using screens at each table, on which they may also play games with each other and watch movie trailers and short videos. The multiplayer network type video games that allowed table to table interaction or even with table group play never materialized. Guests often spotted the OSX based machine being constantly re-booted in order to play much simpler casual video games. Another factor that possibly led to
5467-560: Was in use by a candle company owned by a Mendocino hippie commune and by a roofing company. They instead incorporated under the name Atari , a reference to a check-like position in the game Go (which Bushnell has called his "favorite game of all time" ). They rented their first office on Scott Boulevard in Sunnyvale, California , contracted with Bally Manufacturing to create a driving game , and hired their second employee, engineer Allan Alcorn . Bushnell originally wanted to develop
5544-650: Was inducted into the GDC Online Awards Hall of Fame. Nolan Bushnell Nolan Kay Bushnell (born February 5, 1943) is an American businessman and electrical engineer. He established Atari, Inc. and the Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre chain. He has been inducted into the Video Game Hall of Fame and the Consumer Electronics Association Hall of Fame, received the BAFTA Fellowship and
5621-477: Was influenced by the broader Sexual Revolution , the allegations made against Bushnell were exaggerated or false, and that the culture was one that they all freely participated in. Some of the more notable female employees of Atari spoke further of the situation at the company and Bushnell during the 1970s: The women interviewed by Kotaku generally considered the attack and decision related to Bushnell's award as unfair, and expressed anger at those that had raised
5698-455: Was largely sold to Hasbro . Etak, founded in 1984, was the first company to digitize the maps of the world, as part of the first commercial automotive navigation system ; the maps ultimately provided the backbone for Google Maps , mapquest.com , and other navigation systems; it was sold to Rupert Murdoch in the 1980s. In May 2000 the company, headquartered in Menlo Park, California , became
5775-474: Was not in the routine practice of hiring fresh college graduates. Instead, Bushnell got a job as an electrical engineer with Ampex . At Ampex, he met fellow employee Ted Dabney and found they had common interests. Bushnell shared his ideas of creating pizza parlors filled with electronic games with Dabney, and took Dabney to the computing labs at Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory to show him Spacewar . In 1969, Bushnell and Dabney formed Syzygy with
5852-532: Was released in 1977 as the Atari Video Computer System or Atari VCS and later known as the Atari 2600. However, before Atari had completed its design, the Fairchild Channel F , the first home console to use game cartridges , was released in November 1976. Bushnell realized they needed to speed up the Atari VCS's development. After initially considering become a public company , he instead sought
5929-535: Was venture capital funded in 2012. It is based on the idea that many curriculum lessons can be turned into mini-games. Developers can take any body of knowledge from English language arts to foreign language, geography, multiplication table or chemistry tables, to parts of the human body and gamify the experience. BrainRush calls their underlying technology "Adaptive Practice." They have also developed an open-authoring system allowing users to quickly create games in different topic areas. Between 2010 and 2012, BrainRush ran
#366633