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Inducted 1996
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Nolan K. Bushnell was born the son of a cement contractor and
grew up in Clearfield, Utah. In the third grade, his teacher put him in
charge of the class science project...that was the beginning of his
interest in electronics. He attended Utah State and the University of
Utah, where he received a degree in electrical engineering.
Known as the P.T. Barnum of Silicon Valley; Mr. Bushnell made his
debut in 1972 when he and Al Alcorn devised the table tennis-like
game Pong, starting the video game craze. As a result, Atari became
a pioneer in the field and reached sales of nearly $2 billion in 1982.
The company was sold to Warner Communications in 1976.
In 1977, Mr. Bushnell opened the first Chuck E. Cheese restaurant.
It combined fast food, electronic games, amusement facilities and
musical entertainment by computer-animated robot characters. The
chain currently has sales of over $300 million. Catalyst Technologies,
a company he founded in 1981, was an umbrella corporation that
served as an incubator to mass produce small businesses.
Mr. Bushnell is currently CEO of E2000, a company which proposes
to establish revolutionary, family entertainment centers in shopping
malls. The centers will feature many new forms of electronic
entertainment and extensively use the world wide web for menus,
signs, signups and entertainment.
He has been described as the consummate gamesman who wins,
loses and bounces back. One former associate said, "He is a spark
plug - a source of energy." Mr. Bushnell himself believes that
business is the greatest game of all. There is a great deal of
complexity and a minimum of rules. |
