Recommendations using strategies for the video game industry.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

lililet 18 THE HOME VIDEOGAME INDUSTRY: THE FIRST FOUR DECADES C-118 CASE AN INDUSTRY IS BORN In 1968. Nolan Bushell, the 24-year-old son of a Utah cement contractor, graduated from the Univer- sity of Utah with a degree in engineering.' Bushnell then moved to California, where he worked briefly in the computer graphics division of Ampex. At home, Bushnell turned his daughter's bedroom into a labo- ratory. There, he created a simpler version of Space War, a computer game that had been invented in 1962 by an MIT graduate student, Steve Russell. Bushnell's version of Russell's game, which he called Computer Space, was made of integrated circuits connected to a 19-inch, black-and-white television screen. Unlike a computer, Bushnell's invention could do nothing but run the game, which meant that, unlike a computer, it could be 1 be produced cheaply. Bushnell envisioned videogames like his standing next to pinball machines in arcades. With hopes of having his invention put into production. Bushnell left Ampex to work for a small pinball company that manufactured 1,500 copies of his videogame. The game never sold, primarily because the player had to read a full page of directions before playing way too complex for arcade gaming. Bushnell left the pinball company and with a friend, Ted Dabney, put up $500 to start company that would develop simpler videogame. They wanted to call the compa- ny Syzygy, but the name was already taken, so they settled on Atari, a Japanese word that is the equiva- lent of t of "check in the go." In his home laboratory, Bushnell built the sim- ha plest game he could think of. People knew the rules immediately, and it could be played with one hand. The game was modeled on table tennis, and players batted a ball back and forth with paddles that could be moved up and down sides of a court by twisting knobs. He named the game Pong after the sonarlike sound that was emitted every time the ball connected with a paddle In Fall 1972, Bushnell installed his prototype for Pong in Andy Capp's tavern in Sunnyvale, California. The only instructions were "avoid missing the ball for a high score." In the first week, 1.200 quarters were deposited in the casserole dish that served for a coin box in Bushnell's prototype. Bushnell was ecstatic; his simple game had brought in $300 in a