Nolan Bushnell: Gaming’s Absent Father
Asteroids arrests. Piercing white vector lines bisect the screen’s black void, issuing a flickering beacon out towards the bar, as if to plead: ‘play me, save us’. If you catch its gaze you can’t look away, pulled towards the machine as if drawn in by a tractor beam. Break the spell and you notice the other pristine relics of Atari’s hey-day flanking either side: a Centipede here, a Gauntlet there; a Marble Madness to the left, a Missile Command to the right. Robotron sits hunched in the corner, glaring at bystanders with their dumb, reflex-numbing beers. Losers, it challenges, its red twin arcade sticks raised like a squat boxer’s gloved fists. Donkey Kong chirrups by the cigarette vending machine, the moustachioed Jumpman leaping barrels as he carries Nintendo’s fortunes in the front pocket of his dungarees up and up and up. Read more…
