Atari

Atari, Inc. was a pioneering video game and computer company that was originally founded on June 27, 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney in Sunnyvale, California.



At age 18 in 1974, Steve Jobs was hired by Al Alcorn as a technician and became employee #40. In early 1975, Jobs brought in his friend Steve Wozniak to work on the design of Atari's Breakout video game. Bushnell, who had supervised Jobs, remarked that he was "difficult but valuable". When Jobs and Wozniak founded Apple Computer, Bushnell declined an offer from Jobs to invest $50,000 for a 1/3 stake in their new venture. Bushnell sold Atari to Warner Communications for $28 million in 1976 and founded Chuck E. Cheese in the following year.

Articles

 * The History of Breakout at Big Fish Games (2012-05-30)
 * The Inside Story of Pong and the Early Days of Atari by Leslie Berlin at Wired (2017-11-15)
 * Al Alcorn, Creator of Pong, Explains How Early Home Computers Owe Their Color Graphics to This One Cheap, Sleazy Trick by Stephen Cass at IEEE Spectrum (2020-04-21)