Latest / Ridiculous History / A Ridiculous Love Letter to Atari, Part One: From Pings to Pongs

Transcript

A Ridiculous Love Letter to Atari, Part One: From Pings to Pongs · Ridiculous History

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: the show, fellow Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: much for tuning in. Let's hear it for our super producer,
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Max Magnavox, Williams.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: Boop Max, the expeditioner, Williams thirty three.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: I believe under his belt.
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: I think he's the thirty third one. That's true.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: That is mister Noel Brown. They called me Ben Bullen,
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: and we are unrepentant, unapologetic fans of video games, so
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: much so that you can hear our obsession come through
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: in casual conversation on air. You can also see video
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: game episodes that we have done on various shows in
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: the past, like Stuff of Genius, What was the first
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: video game And of course the legendary podcast project by
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: the Williams Brothers Ephemeral.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, what a classic, already a classic, a
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: gem of the podcast world.
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: Guys.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: I have been deep in video game nerd dem over
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: the past week because a friend of the show, friend
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: of mine, one of my oldest friends and friend of yours,
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: Ben Peyton, was visiting from New York and he is
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: a fellow video game nerd, and he helped me buff
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: the heck out of two characters in two different games
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: of mine that I had spect way way way wonkily.
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: One was Monster Hunter Wild's, which I really love, and
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: the other was Elden Ring, where I never finished the
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: dang game. I got stuck and it was apparently because
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: I was doing a faith based build. Then I had
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: intelligence way maxed out and it didn't make any sense
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: of the weapons I had. Some of that stuff is
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: even too nerdy for me, but not for dear Peyton,
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: and he helped me. And now I'm rocking it in
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: Volcano manner Baby.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: Nice, nice, congratulations man. I think I've mentioned this on
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: maybe off air, but maybe on air for stuff they
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: don't want you to know. I will play just comfort
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: food video games when I'm doing QA, stuff that I
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: can play on mute. And I have been putting off
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: finishing one, a wonderful little game called Ghost of Yo Tie,
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: a little game.
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: You said I heard it was massive. How I described that.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: Well, I kept putting it off, you guys. And there is,
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: without spoiling it, there is. It's very cinematic storytelling kind
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: of open world stuff. And there is this happens in
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: so many of these kinds of games where you get
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: to a point in the game where it tells you
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: are you sure you want to continue because you can't
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: go back until this mission is completed and ever since then,
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: I would look at our queue of qa's that I'm
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: saying q because that's one of Max's weird words. Uh.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: I would look at our queue of qa's to conduct
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: to make sure we have our bleeps and bloops in
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: the right place, and I would go, let me just
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: keep doing side missions.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: I do it all the time, guys, Like I'm doing
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: that right now in Borderlands. I'm about to get to
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: the Timekeepers layer, but rather than going there, I'm just
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: doing all the little you know, homework assignments from the
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: mission posts where you basically go grab a gem and
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: then running around and dodge you know, rippers and robots
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: and stuff. But I think I'm I think I'm about
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: ready to rip off the band aid and the scent.
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: It can be.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: It can be bittersweet.
• 3:49
  Speaker 4: Man.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: My guy in Yo Tai has killed every possible person
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: with a bounty, as as all the little fox charms
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: and got really the sumi e. Anyway, we are saying
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: that to prove our, if not our bona fides, to
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: prove our enthusiasm for all things video game.
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: Went also to show how far things have come.
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I mean these games are wild, man, They're huge.
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: The graphics have gotten to the point where it looks
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: like a movie sometimes, especially in the cutscenes, and just
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: the depth and attention to detail is staggering.
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: Truly is.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: And I think it's evidence too by some of the
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: excellent video game screen adaptations that we're seeing things like
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: Fallout and The Last of Us. Like, games truly have
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: become a cinematic art form, I think more and so
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: now than ever, But they sure had some humble beginnings.
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: Speaking of bleeps and bloops.
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I consider video games a proper and legitimate form
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: of literature at this point, you know. And we owe
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: this all to the to the humble beginnings, to the
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: legendary games and creators of consoles who came before. So
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: this is going to be our two part series on
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: a little thing called Atari. I don't know if you
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: guys have ever been lucky enough to have the experience
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: of of like seeing an actual Magnavaux Odyssey or playing
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: an Atari.
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: It was weird.
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: It was such a nostalgia rush.
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: There's a really cool toy museum that I think we
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: went two together ben in Austin, Texas, and they have
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: a lot of the Mega drives and all these old
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: school machines you know, on display, you know, the museum style.
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: But then they also have a little corner in the
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: back where you can play weird old PC games. They've
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: got like an old you know, spect out old PC
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: back there and some of these systems. So that's really
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: the only experience I've had with it. I was a
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: Nintendo baby. That was what was out the Christmas, the
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: first Christmas I remember a video game existing.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: I remember playing Super Mario one with my dad, and
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: we both didn't know that fireballs were unlimited once you
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: got the flower. We thought you might like run out
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: after three or ten, which made us play the game
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: on an entirely different level of difficulty.
• 6:22
  Speaker 4: You're playing like a Dark Souls game.
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: Yes, I distinctly remember when I first played a video game.
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: I would jerk the controller left and right physically with
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: my arms because that was just the intuitive thing that
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: I felt, and I'll never forget that. I must have
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: been like, you know, six years old, and I was
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: just that was what my mind wanted my arms.
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: Today, I still do that need to some people do
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: when they play.
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: For the people who were inexperienced, you'll see land them
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: a controller and they'll want.
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: To do the same thing.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: So some people do it when they're driving.
• 6:49
  Speaker 4: Uh yeah, I've been playing near Tamata. I finally picked
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: that one up. And when you're in intense fight scenes,
• 6:54
  Speaker 4: I have noticed that I moved way too much and
• 6:56
  Speaker 4: it does nothing.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: Well, it helps you. You know, who are we to judge.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: I'm a big I'm guilty of doing the stand up
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: and walk around while thing, especially if it's really intense.
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: We well, not for nothing that the switch startup screen
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: warns you to fix the little loop around your wrists
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: in case you fling the damn thing through a plate
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: glass window. You know, wait, the switch too, it's got
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: you know that you can remove the controllers.
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: That still does sort of a kind of things. And
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: they do have these little wrist.
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: Straps, and I guess it's more to cover their butts
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: use someone does something dumb.
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: But I always crack up when I see that.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: And this is one of our favorite times of the week. Folks,
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: when we get to hang together and record one of
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: our favorite shows, Ridiculous History. Our research associate for this
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: series is none other than Magnavox Williams himself.
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: Magnific Max.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so thank you, Max. And what we're seeing here
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: is a lot of video game journalism and a lot
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: of video game historians share similar experiences to what we
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: just described. You know about Nintendo, you know about Sega.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: If you were a rich kid, you might have had
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: a neo geo no offense, and of course PlayStation. But
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: there's one word term concept that has sort of dominated
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: the history of video games, and that is none other
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: than atari.
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: And I gotta say before digging into this excellent research
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: brief courtesy of Magnavox Max, I didn't know the origin
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: of that word. And we're going to get into that
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: and it's it's pretty clever actually. So let us set
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: our minds back to nineteen hundred and sixty nine, in
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: the earliest days of Atari, before it was when it
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: was just you know, a glimmer in the eye of
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: two guys, Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, who met in
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: nineteen sixty nine when they were working for another really
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: cool company called Ampex in Redwood City, California, and just
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: to have an audio nerd moment for a second, Ampas
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: makes has made tape, magnetic tape and reel to reel machines,
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: and now there are really cool plug in versions of
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: Ampex tape machines that sort of emulate the different types
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: of magnetic tape and the different speeds that the reels
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: would run at. So Ampex looms large in the world
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: of pro audio even to this day.
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: And these guys, Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, we're following
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: up on an obsession that Bushnell had had ever since
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: his college days as an electrical engineering student in Utah.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: This is also coming to us, by the way, courtesy
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: of great work by Keza MacDonald at IGN dag Spicer
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: for the Computer History Museum and of course Jamie Lindino
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: for PC mac all right, so Bushnell, he's fascinated, you
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: guys with one of the very first video games, something
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: called Space War.
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: That was an MIT thing, right, didn't that like run
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: in a lab basically a MIT and P would pop
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: through to play it and it was about the only
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: way you could get your hands on it.
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: It was a huge.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: Computer at MIT and that came to us courtesy of
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: a professor Steve Russell and two of his students. And
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: this is nineteen sixty two, so very early days. Bushall
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: would grab one of his frat bros. And instead of
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: you know, going out and raising caine and drinking cheap beer,
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: they would sneak into the Computer.
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: Labs engineering frat bros Duda party, I guess space.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no, maybe they had beer while they were doing that. Yeah,
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: we don't know, we don't know.
• 10:34
  Speaker 4: They definitely had beer, as we'll get to later to
• 10:36
  Speaker 4: the story.
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: Oh that's right, the Lucy goosey office policies of the
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: Atari company. Whenever we talk about this era of computing,
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: and I'm probably a broken record at this point, but
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: I always have to recommend the excellent AMC show Halt
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: and Catch Fire, which is about like the earliest days
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: of you know, Texas Instruments and what led to the
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: personal computer. Somewhat fictionalized for sure, but it has to
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: do with the Silicon Prairie, which was where Texas Instruments
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: was created, and then some folks that start get their
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: start there end up migrating to Silicon Valley and kind
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: of making that what it is, but excellent needle Drops,
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: just a fabulous show about the earliest days of computer nerdery.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: And Bushnell was definitely Here's why we want to spend
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: some time on his college education because Bushnell was definitely
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: in the right place at the right time. This is
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: a very new, nascent, emergent industry. Computer graphics, like the
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: idea of computer graphics are invented at his alma mater
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: at the University of Utah in the nineteen sixties by
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: a guy named Ivan Sutherland, a pioneer of computer science.
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: And if you looked around the world of academia and
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: Ivory Towers at the time, the University of Utah was
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: one of the primo spots to learn about computer They
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: had cutting edge equipment for their era.
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: State of the art, which by today's standards would probably
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: be laughable, and you could probably do the same level
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: of programming on a smart fridge. Today you hear about
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: people putting doom on smart fridges and stuff like that.
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: You know, unlike a frickin' what do you call it,
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: a tamagotchi. It's just it's incredible how much things have
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: shrunken down in terms of physical size, and just the
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: amount of power you can pack into the smallest spaces.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: One hundred percent. Yeah, So the stuff that was state
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: of the art in the early nineteen sixties, if you
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: looked at it now, it'd be more like an artistic statement,
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: but it's it's powerful history. So Space War, one of
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: the earliest video games, our buddy Bushnell is one of,
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: is in rarefied air. He's one of the very few
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: individuals who can play these kind of games on campus computers.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: And at the same time, there's something, there's some parallel
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: experiences that inform his career. For sure.
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: We're talking about the arcade, and when we think of
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: an arcade today, we think of, you know, that little
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: cove at your local mall, especially growing up that had
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: like arcade cabinets. The first time I ever saw a
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: game like Mortal Kombat was at my local mall.
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: Arcade.
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: A game that has four different players, like teenage Routing,
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: Ninja Turtles X Men had more than four. Those were
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: those were great ways to bond with your friends. And
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: I got to tell you the I can't wait till
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: we all go to Japan with each other because the
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: arcades there, the arcade culture is very much alive, and
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: they took what was happening in the United States and
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: just went hollwild with it.
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: For sure, we're super lucky here in Atlanta to have
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: some pretty incredible Japanese inspired arcades, I believe. At Perimeter Mall,
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: there's a place that does all these gotchapong machines, and
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: then they have like all the crazy Japanese rhythm games.
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: And then at another mall, Comelin Mall, there's a place
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: called Round One that is incredibly heavy on the Japanese
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: arcade machine fighters and rhythm game stuff that you would
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: really only typically see at a con or something or
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: you know, in Japan. To your point, but bush Nell
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: is doing a little summer job situation, or maybe a
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: holiday job, make a little extra money at an arcade
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: at the time, and we're seeing mainly pinball machines. In
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: the early days of arcades, bing bing bang bang bong
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: coin operated pinball machines, and the early days of that
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: are very beautifully portrayed in the film Licorice Pizza from
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: Paul Thomas Sanderson. So just do check that one out
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: too if you want to get a glimpse into this
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: period in time. They were as we said, coin operated
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: entertainment halls, similar to slot machines or pachinko parlors you
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: might see over in Japan, games of chance, ways to
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: win prizes, things like that.
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: And so bush Nell looks around at this, and so
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: as huh, I wonder if I can combine these two
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: ideas of computer games and arcades places where people would
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: gather for recreation. And so he essentially he's coming up
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: with this concept of the classic nineteen eighties arcade. Now
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: you have game cabinets that take a quarter or what
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: have you, places where the parents can drop the teens
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: off all Saturday, you know, and give them a little
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: pocket money for the food court. This concept of the
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: halcyon days of arcade halls. It probably would have happened
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: independently at some point, but the way history shakes out,
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: it happens because of Bushnell and Atari, and it takes
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: a while to get there though, because these guys are
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: him and his associate Ted Dabney. They're making the first
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: version of this stuff. The guys who say, let's take
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: some of these cool computer games that have been hidden
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: in universities, let's monetize them, let's make them operate based
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: on coin insertion, and let's make a company that sells
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: this idea. Now, the etymology may be weird, but the
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: name of the name of the company that they started
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: working for when they were envisioning this idea, we don't
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: know the etymology too well, but it is called Nutting Associates.
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: Ha ha he he hah, not to be confused with
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: Coming Georgia, which we love to talk about. The game
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: that they started was called Computer Space. This was their
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: first time obviously there still heavily influenced by Space War.
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: So they work on this game called Computer Space that's
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: released in nineteen seventy one. It didn't exactly set the
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: world on fire and was viewed as something of a
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: failure by the brass over at Nutting, but it was
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: a pretty big swing and it still sold fifteen hundred
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: units and made Bushnell and Dabney Bushnell rather and Dabney
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: enough cash to kind of go out on their own
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: and start their own company focusing on coin operated electronic games.
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: And it's really cool that they got a slice of
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: the pie from those sales and that R and D
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: because that doesn't always happen in tech companies.
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: As we know, so out of thievery and tech and
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: back in these days too, you know, industrial espionage things
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: like that I've often talked about. It's a different world,
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: but similar development process electronic instruments, like by Japanese companies
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: like Roland. They would cover up the proprietary components on
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: the circuit boards inside of these things with like different
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: material so that if anyone were to snap a picture
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: of the circuit board, they couldn't see the layout of
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: these like chips that would make the sounds that the
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: role in said JUNO one, O six would make. And
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: also down the line led to some some flaws because
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: these coatings would build up moisture underneath, et cetera. But
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: they were doing it for real reasons, which was just
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: a real cutthroat kind of space race space war for sure.
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: And we also we also see, you know, across various industries,
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: we see that employees, often very brilliant talented employees might
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: not get their work recognized, right. They just get their salary,
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: but they don't get a share of the profits from
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: their amazing ideas. So good on you Nutting for paying
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: these guys out a little bit extra. They got enough money,
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: as we said, to create their own company that they
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: originally were going to call Sizogy, which is a real word.
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: It's spelled s yz y g y.
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: Great word.
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: It can be a thing referring to alignment between celestial
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: bodies in opposition, or if you wanted to make a
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: little more broad, just a pair of connected or corresponding things.
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and it turns out that they would have to
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: change the name. They founded it in nineteen seventy one,
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: but then they learned the name was already in use
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: out there in California, so they changed the name of
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: their company to Atari Incorporated in nineteen seventy two. And
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: I think we're all very interested in the etymology here
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: because that is a Japanese word that is used when
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: we're talking about the Chinese game Go. Have you guys
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: ever played Go?
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: I haven't. My first exposure to it was.
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: In the movie Pi, And I know that it is
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: beloved by a lot of computer programmer types and you know,
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: any other enthusiasts of these types of strategy games.
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: But it does have a I think there's.
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: Like an unlimited number of moves or it's some kind
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: of like insane number of combinations of moves and that's
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: what it's known for. So you can really easily see
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: how someone that was interested in that board game might
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: be able to parlay that.
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: Kind of stuff into a video game.
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: It's so it's so hard, man, especially when you're playing
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: with someone who is very familiar with the game or
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: invested in it. I always enjoy playing Go, and I
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: don't think I will ever win against someone who knows
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: what they're doing.
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: I've never even attempted it. It just seems a little
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: over above my pay grade. But I'm fascinated by the
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: culture surrounding it is. It is widely known as being
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: a game for brainy types.
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: So this is okay. So Chinese game Japanese word or
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: taru taru a taru literally meaning to hit a target ataru,
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: And in this context, the name Atari means something kind
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: of like I'm about to win clever. Yeah, like a check, right,
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: like a pre a pre winning declaration. Yes, yeah, like
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: check and chess. And this is I think it's a
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: really smart name because it is aspirational too. It's telling
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: you that you by played an Atari game or yourself
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: about to win.
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: It's also good branding because some other options that they
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: were considering were SENTI sente and Hane, which to me
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: on paper would not be immediately clear how to pronounce,
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: whereas Atari is clear, instantly snappy, and it just I
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: don't know, it has a nice ring to it.
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Hani, I appreciate that point. This occurred to me
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: as well. Hotta would be off putting to American consumers.
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: Now pronounce it hain.
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: Everybody would pronounced like hey because Haynes was a thing.
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: They would be like video game underwear. So another cool
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: thing that Atari had going for them was better technology. Dabney,
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: the co founder we mentioned earlier, he invented the early
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: tech that allowed dots to move on a screen without
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: having a room sized computer powering them.
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think we're talking about early versions of microprocessors
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: and integrated circuits. I think that's kind of Again, I'm
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: not an expert, but I'm fascinated by this stuff. So
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: it was called the spot motion circuit, And to your pointment,
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: at allowed a dot to move up and down, left
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: and right on a screen two dimensional space.
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: And it was very different from the Megamegamega Lab.
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: You know bound computers that powered space war. Yeah, these
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: were still quite large though. We were talking about the
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: early days of arcade cabinets.
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, these are still big, like refrigerator sized pieces of
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: furniture that can play a game with you, and like
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: the later smart fridges.
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: Isn't it funny?
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: How now?
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: Our buddy Matt Frederick from Stuff That I Want You
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: to Know has one of these, but they have the
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: like sort of nostalgia arcade machines that just look big
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: on the outside, but inside it's probably all in a
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: raspberry pie or something like that, like a freaking pinky sized,
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: you know device.
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: That's how my emulator is too. It's a I bought
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: the not the nostalgia one, but the paired down in
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: form factor pared down console thing like.
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: A desktop size, right.
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: It looks tight. It looks like the size of a
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: small hard drive, I know drive.
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah, which are cool.
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, mascot one that straight up sits on the ground
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: and looks like it's really really has a lot of
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: great fighting games, has insane has like every game on it,
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: like everyone you could possibly imagine.
• 23:39
  Speaker 3: So at this point.
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: In nineteen seventy two, bush Now went to a demo
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: of the first ever home video game console to Max's nickname,
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: the Magna Vox Odyssey, which was a little very seventies
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: looking brown.
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: And based plastic box.
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, this thing, it reminds me of wood grain,
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: but that's just because of the time, which senties very like.
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it looks like like wood paneling you'd see in
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: seventies homes and kitchens.
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: You know, we're gonna sit on the papa sad and play. Magnavox.
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: Might make it to the waterbed.
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: Yep, yep, curl our toes in the shag carpets.
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: I love it. Please check out our episode on Stuff
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: of Genius for more about the Magnavox Odyssey. This thing
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: did something amazing as an at home console. You were
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: able to play different games, multiple different games. Now they
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: were all silence, but you would see things like table
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: tennis that probably looks familiar to a lot of people.
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: And the Magnavox was pretty successful. It sold around three
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: hundred and thirty thousand units across North America and Europe
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: when it was released.
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: For sure, And while it did allow you to play
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: different games, they were, like you said, silent bend games,
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: including the delightfully charmingly named table tennis or Tennis for two.
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: Maybe that's different. I think this one was just called
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: table tennis. We didn't mention Tennis for two. That comes
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: into Nope, that was the very very very early game.
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: Tennis for two is in nineteen fifty eight.
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: Insane.
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: Anyway, this machine was limited to what it had inside
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: of it, like these were hard programmed little carture games.
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: There were no cartriges yet at this point.
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: Yes, and there had been those games we mentioned previously,
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: Tennis for two and fifty eight, Space War and sixty two,
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: and then there have been more commercial games like Computer
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: Space of course. But the mythical force, the behemoth that
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: was to change video games forever, is coming on to
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: the stage.
• 25:46
  Speaker 3: It is Paula No, no, no, no. Oh man, what
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: a banger that is. And again it's so quite looking
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: back on it.
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: You got these little little white bars on either side
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: of the screen, and then the little dots that were
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: able to move up, down, left and right, and it
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: was all just based on you know, what's the word
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: I'm looking for, the trajectory, you know, like physics, kind
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: of the most basic of physics, Like the ball would bounce,
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: you'd move the paddle so it would bounce and then
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: catch it on the other side.
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: I love it. There's a live action. That's a weird
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: way to say it, but there's a live action pulling
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: machine that's actually quite popular in Japanese arcades.
• 26:23
  Speaker 3: It's the only cattles stand by that sounds intense. How
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: does that work? It's like literally cool. It's like a
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: ball and paddles.
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: It's like it's like tron kind of. It's similar to
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: air hockey, but there's no hockey. It's all magnet magnetized stuff.
• 26:38
  Speaker 3: So is it vertical though, or is it like.
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: No, it's horizontal. I got you, gott and so you've
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: got your little your uh, you've got your little line
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: that functions as your paddle, and there's a square that
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: looks like a live action pixel and it boops and
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: bops around and it gets really intense.
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: I bet yeah. It also reminds me.
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's it's it's not the same, but it's
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: level similarity to fostball.
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, especially with the fact
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: that it can be so weirdly competitive.
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: Guys, I'm just gonna put out right now, we're about
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: to do a few episodes on the history of kind
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: of interesting niche sports, and I put forth that we
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: should maybe add to that down the line and do
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: one on.
• 27:21
  Speaker 3: The history of foosball for sure.
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I had early ones were hand carved, and
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: I would love to hear more about them.
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: All right, let's put on the list. I'm also glad
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: that those real life Pong machines in Japan are located
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: in arcades not in bars, because just like foosball plus
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: a couple of beers with the buddies, that stuff could
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: get intense.
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: You know, can ever?
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah?
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, So Pong was the very first release of this
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: new company Atari. Yeah, yeah, and it is the first
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: project of the company.
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: There's another guy we need to introduce also of a
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: former Ampex employee, Al Alcorn, cool name Al Already Ampex
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: is a big name in audio and video recording. This
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: gives Alcorn the background he needs, the training he needs
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: to design the game called Pong, and when he starts,
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: there are no microprocessors at this time, so he builds
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: Pong using analog circuitry and very very few people knew
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: how to design in this new field we're calling digital video.
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: So the first prototype for Pong is a wooden cube
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: covered with yes fox wood grain as screen, two knobs,
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: and then a coinbox because they're not given up on
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: the coin idea.
• 28:46
  Speaker 3: Mm hm, whipping got no gas tank, but it's still
• 28:48
  Speaker 3: got wood grain. It's true.
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: And this is coming from Dag Spicer over at the
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: Computer History Museum. So let's get down to the display.
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: We know what the device looks like, but you know,
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: there weren't like LCD monitors at this point. What are
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: we talking here? How would you how would you make
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: you know, turn those bits into into video.
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a good question. Well, it depends on how
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: much money you're willing to spend at the TV store.
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: I guess we're talking about prototype stuff at this point, right, right.
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: Right, So Al is not shelling out for the top
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: of the line boob Tube. Instead, they buy a cheap
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: twelve inch black and white TV set from just a
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: store up the way, and they use that in place
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: of a standalone display because the standalone display is kind
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: of expensive at the time, and this is a prototype, right,
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: we just want to prove that it works, then we
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: can worry about making it sexy.
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: So they have their sort of makeshift headquarters at a
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: tavern called Andy Caps, which is I believe that was
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: isn't that guy the guy that has the hot Fries. Yes,
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: he's a He's also like a you know, A when
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: he comic strip fell. This is in Sunnyvale, which I
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: believe is a suburb of San Francisco. Bushnell's got pals there.
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: They set it up there as sort of a testing ground,
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: and it gets pretty popular.
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like his his cheers, his local. It's where
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: he goes to unlined after work. So of course he
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: has friends there and he knows management. And a few
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: days after they install the machine, they realize that it
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: is stopped working. This is not uncommon with prototypes. But
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: when Al comes in to the bar to check out
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: what's going on, he says, oh, wait, PAUNG hasn't failed.
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: It's just entirely choked up with quarters.
• 30:45
  Speaker 3: They gorged with coins.
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: So many people are playing this game that it can't
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: accept any more quarters, so it's not going to work.
• 30:53
  Speaker 3: We got to envy out the coin box.
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: This is good data, man, because it really proves to
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: them that this thing might have some legs and the
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: ability to be rolled out to a much larger audience.
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And Bushnell is having one of those watershed moments
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: because his dreams are being proving correct, right and he says,
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: this could be much bigger than just a corner at
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: old Andy Capps. We had already noted that the magne
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: Vox Odyssey likely inspired Bushnell and co. To create polng
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: in the first place. And this also was wetting the
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: appetite of the consumer market because more and more people
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: were familiar with the idea of at home video games.
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: And this makes Bushnell think, wait, we can wake way
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: more money selling directly to somebody's house than we can
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: just putting a machine in a bar and waiting for
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: quarters to roll in.
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: Right, they're already jumping ahead to the next phase, not
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: just like rolling these things out as arcade machines and
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: some of those arcades of bush youth.
• 32:00
  Speaker 3: Let's just put it right in folks living rooms.
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, and this is a this is a pretty aggressive
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: demand to lay on our pal al So we're saying, Okay,
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: you already did a great job making this thing and
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: getting the form factor smaller than we could have imagined. Kudos,
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: Tally Ho. I need you to make it even smaller
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: so we can sell it to kids at home. This
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: is where Alkhorn creates kind of a video game Avengers
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: or Justice League, a hit spot a team in Grass Valley,
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: which is out in California's historic Gold Country, and they say, okay,
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: we're as a team. We're going to figure out how
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: to implement a custom integrated circuit that allows us to
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: hack the economy of scale so we can produce Pong
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: at a massive level and keep the price competitive, because
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: you know, it doesn't matter how good it is if
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: people can't afford to pay for.
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: It, right, exactly. Those are the ones that you mentioned
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: that only like the doctor's kids had in your neighborhood.
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: So why are they in Gold Country. They're doing this
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: because they want to get away from the hubbub and
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: distraction of Atari's main production facilities in Silicon Valley, which
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: are already you know, cranking out arcade machines.
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: Right, So from this more solitary kind of atmosphere, they
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: brought in a few new faces, Bob Brown and Harold Lee,
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: who were some engineers whose task was to fit this
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: entire game onto a single chip.
• 33:34
  Speaker 3: This is a taller.
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's tall milkshake to sip for sure, and they
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: are able to figure this out. Spoiler right, anybody who
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: lives in twenty twenty six knows this. But there is
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: an endearing and inspiring startup energy cinematic story to it
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: because the wiring is done by Al's wife, Katie. It's
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: like a family affair, which I find so endearing.
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: And this is why keep bringing up Halt and Catch
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: Fire because it really shows this kind of early punk
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: rock spirit of like the earliest computer makers and you know,
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: folks doing things in their garage. And I can't recommend
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: that show enough because every time I hear about someone's
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: wife doing a thing like in the bedroom or whatever,
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: the using the space and the materials they had, that's
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: what my mind jumps to. So this product was able
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: to be built, and it was an instant success when
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: the massive retailer Sears decided to take.
• 34:29
  Speaker 3: It on as an item that they would.
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: Have for So check out our Seiers episode by the way, folks, Yeah,
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: instant houses, well not instant, but you know catalog.
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: Houses, mail order houses.
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: Yet you know william s Burrow's house he passed away
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: a while ago, but his state manager, whose name is
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: escaping me, just passed away last week. And this house
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: that this guy maintained william S Burrow's final residence was
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: in fact a Sears catalog house.
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: Oh, nice, nice, I believe my parents first house was
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: a Sears catalog.
• 34:58
  Speaker 3: That's cool.
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: Did they I'll have it.
• 35:01
  Speaker 3: No, they sold it in the nineties, nineteen nineties, just
• 35:06
  Speaker 3: to verify it.
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: Now we know that this can be the deciding factor
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: for any startup company's success when a larger company offers
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: you visibility, promotion, and distribution. So Sears, you know they're
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: a big dog. They're not ordering Atari products one at
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: a time. They order two hundred thousand units as their
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: very first individual order. This is a huge challenge for
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: this up and comer Atari because now they have to
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: make two hundred thousand units in time for the nineteen
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: seventy five Christmas season. So they rush to find extra
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: assembly buildings. They're hiring staff left and right. They do
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: get it over the finish line. They make this Sears
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: Pong game. It's rebranded as Telgames. Get it like television games,
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: and it becomes you know, it's like the Elmo back
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: in the day. It's the Muscow Christmas gift t.
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: HI jingle all the way. Indeed, Yeah, good problem to have,
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: but certainly required some what they call in the games
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: industry today crunch. But things aren't all, you know, sunshine
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: and daffodils. For the Atari company, they run into pretty
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: quickly some legal hurdles.
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, this is not all trumpets and angel farts for
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: these guys. It's nineteen seventy four and the creator of
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: the Magnavox Odyssey, Ralph Behar says to his employers. He says, Look,
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: these guys are ripping us off with this Atari malarkey,
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: Atari malarkey. We've got to sue them. And this Bushnell
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: guy has copied the idea for Paul from entirely from
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: that demo of table tennis that he saw in nineteen
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: seventy two. We can prove it because he signed the
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: guest book.
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: Not entirely untrue. But then the question becomes about like
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: where is the novelty?
• 37:03
  Speaker 3: You know what I mean?
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: Like, just because you made a game that mimics a
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: sport that already exists, that means no one else can
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: ever do that again. And then it becomes sort of
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: a matter for the courts to the side.
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: Just because someone else made a hat, does that mean
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: no one else could have a hat? Just because somebody
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: else played a song on a guitar, does that mean
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: guitar music is banned for everybody else.
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: Well, and oftentimes exactly ben And oftentimes, in these types
• 37:30
  Speaker 2: of cases, rather than roll the dice with a trial,
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: settlement is recommended as the best option. And that's what happens.
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: Bushnell and Ntari, you know, armed with some successful sales
• 37:41
  Speaker 2: and probably a pretty decent legal team, settled out of
• 37:44
  Speaker 2: court for around four hundred grand, between four hundred grand
• 37:48
  Speaker 2: reportedly and a million bucks.
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: That's right, folks. In the US justice system, at least,
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: settling out of court is incredibly common. And one of
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: the things that some parties like about settling out of
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: court is you don't always have to disclose the financial
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: amount of the settlement or admit wrongdoing or admit wrongdoing.
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: So we know that Bushnell and Atari eventually settle. We
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: don't know the exact sum that they settled for, but
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: it did result in them becoming an official licensee for Magnevox,
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: and this is good for Atari. It's expensive, but it's
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: a good way to write the ship because now they
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: can continue selling games that may be seen as infringing
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: upon Magnevox's patent, which is pretty broad. And this is
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: something we still see in the world of tech today,
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: like what can and cannot be patented like clicking with
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: a mouse.
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: Right, or podcasts, you know, publishing, you know, serialized audio
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: content on a feed.
• 38:52
  Speaker 3: We know where that one went.
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: But there was a time in the early days where
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: we were around where there are these patent trolls who
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: were literally trying to sue certain podcasts over the use
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: of this concept.
• 39:03
  Speaker 3: Did jump in here.
• 39:04
  Speaker 4: This is actually a big problem with video games, which
• 39:06
  Speaker 4: a certain very famous video game made by Nintendo and
• 39:11
  Speaker 4: Game Freak is suing another game called Pow World right
• 39:14
  Speaker 4: now for pen and breach basically saying you cannot catch
• 39:18
  Speaker 4: creatures and balls that we own that well, that we
• 39:22
  Speaker 4: own that mechanic.
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: Let's see in this this is a weird sticky thing.
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: Check out our series on IP and trademarks and patents
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: as well all the related Gobbly gook there and him
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: Biddy hooplah. Well, we know the Magdavox patent. It seems
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: really broad today, but it's because they were first to
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: market in a new field. Their patent at the time
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: covered any television game that could be controlled by a player.
• 39:51
  Speaker 3: That's super broad.
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: Also, if you're interested in that kind of stuff, check
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: out our episode on Apple records versus Apple Computers.
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: So Magnavox now becomes something like a patent troll themselves.
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: They are putting in huge amounts of blood, sweat, and
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: treasure into tracking down and legally prosecuting people that they
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: think are infringing their patent.
• 40:14
  Speaker 2: But Atari seems to have wiggled their way out of
• 40:17
  Speaker 2: this and they're able to sort of stay the course
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: and continue forward and developing new things because they're no
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: longer having to worry about Magnavox going after them because
• 40:27
  Speaker 2: they're license at this point and Magnevox is too busy
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: going after everybody else.
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and it turns out, you know, a lot of
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: historians will say that Atari probably would have won the
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: case if it went to court, but they're going to
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: argue this settlement turned out to be a better play
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: in the long run because now Atari doesn't have to
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: wage all those legal battles. Magnavox is giving blood dry excellent,
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: and they're like functioning as a shield for Atari.
• 40:56
  Speaker 3: Yet going after all all the little guys.
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: For sure, after all, the chihuah was right. So this is,
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: as we said, a two part series. We're gonna spend
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: the week on Atari because we love it and there's
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: a lot of ridiculous history to it already. We can't
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: wait for you to join us later in the week
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: for Atari Part two. In the meantime, thanks for our
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: super producer and research associate for this episode, mister Max
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: Magnavox Williams.
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: Huge thanks to Alex Williams for composing this bang and
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: bop of a theme that you hear between your ears
• 41:32
  Speaker 2: this very moment.
• 41:34
  Speaker 3: Christopher rasiotis an Jeff Kobe here in spirit mm hm.
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: And a half hearted threat of legal action to our
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: good friend Jonathan Strickland aka the Quizter.
• 41:45
  Speaker 3: Litigation is always on the table with that guy.
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: You just can't You never know where he's gonna move next.
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean, he's tricksy.
• 41:53
  Speaker 3: Nope, you sure don't.
• 41:53
  Speaker 2: Hey, j Mohammad Jacobs the Puzzler and you know.
• 41:56
  Speaker 3: The second one to Jonathan Strickland, the Quizzer.
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: I reckon Rachel Big Spinach Lance, that's doctor Rachel Big
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: Spinach Lance. The rood Dude's a ridiculous crime. If you
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: dig us, you'll love them. And Noel, this is a
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: fun one, man. I'm looking forward to Part two.
• 42:12
  Speaker 3: Ah, same We'll see you next time, folks.
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.