Random Video Game Facts

This is a listing of random facts about the video gaming industry.

• Nolan Bushnell founded both Atari, Inc and the Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza-Time Theater, a chain of interactive restaurants.
• Nolan Bushnell has been inducted into the Video Game Hall of Fame, the Consumer Electronics Association HOF and named one of Newsweek's “50 Men Who Changed America”.
• Leonard Herman's book, “Phoenix- The Fall & Rise of Video Games”, is THE definitive source for video gaming history.
• Jeff Minter created Tempest 2000 for the Atari Jaguar. It was a remake of Dave Theurer's 1981 classic, Tempest.
• Defender 2000 on the Atari Jaguar was Jeff Minter's amazing remake of Eugene Jarvis's 1980 classic, Defender.
• Space Invaders Extreme is an updated version of the classic arcade game and was relesed on the DS and PSP for the 30th anniversary of Space Invaders, last appearing in arcades in 1978.
• The original Atari Inc. was founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Edwin Irrizary.
• Ralph H. Baer is a video game pioneer, inventor, engineer, widely known as “The Father of Video Games”, who is noted for his many contributions to the video game industry.
• In 2006, Ralph H. Baer was awarded the National Medal of Technology for inventing the home console for video games and spawning the video game industry.
• 8-bit integers, memory addresses, or other data units are those that are at most 8 bits (1 octet) wide.
• 8-bit CPU and ALU architectures are based on registers, address/data buses, of that size. It‘s also a term given to computers in which 8-bit processors were the norm
• Michael Thomasson is one of the most widely respected videogame historians in the videogame field. He teaches college level videogame history, design & graphics courses.
• The Odyssey, released by Magnavox January 1972, was the first home video game console.
• Nolan Bushnell’'s Atari was incorporated on June 27, 1972!
• Obsessed with “Space War”, Bushnell released it as “Computer Space” with Nutting Assoc. - it failed.
• Despite the popularity of Bushnell‘s Pong, it held a very small market share once the clones appeared.
• Pong was named for the sound the ball made when it made impact.
• When the Connecticut Leather Company shortened it‘s name to COLECO, they were the leading manufacturer of above-ground swimming pools.
• Coleco released a Pong-like console in 1976 called Telstar.
• Fairchild‘s Video Entertainment System (VES), released in 1976, was the first console with a cabled joystick/dial controller & a cartridge slot.
• Looking to get into a new entertainment venue, Warner Communications bought Atari for $28 million in 1976.
• The Atari VCS was released in October 1977.
• In 1978 Steve Jobs approached Nolan Bushnell about Atari marketing the inexpensive micro computer he built in his garage. Bushnell declined and Jobs started Apple Computer.
• Steve Jobs created the game, Breakout.
• Taito & Nintentdo both began as a pachinko manufacturers.
• Taito released Space Invaders to arcades in 1978. It was the first game that could be played indefinitely, but go harder with each level and displayed a high score.
• Atari released the 400 and 800 computers in 1978.
• In 1979 Atari ousted Space Invaders as “King of the Arcade” by selling 70,000 Astroids games for $2,700 each.
• January 1980 Atari took over the Home video game console market by licensing Taito‘s Space Invaders for the 2600.
• Mattel‘s Intellivision (Intelligent Television) debuted in 1980.
• Activision announced its formation on April 25, 1980 in the video game arena by stating it would develop and sell games for the 2600. Atari had previously made all of its own games.
• July 17, 1981 Imagic was founded by 9 former Atari and Mattel employees to create games for the 2600 and Intellivision. Gotta love Demon Attack!
• To port Asteroids to the VCS, programmers had to use bank switching which enabled the game to contain 8k of code.
• In Japanese, “Donkey Kong” translates to “stubborn gorilla”. It was Nintendo‘s first US success.
• Milton Bradley bought GCE on the strength of the Vectrex (8bit microprocessor with 64k RAM) and released it in October 1982.
• The Colecovision console debuted September 1982 with an impressive 48k RAM.
• Expansion slot #1 on the Colecovision allowed it to play all 2600 games. It even featured all the switches.
• Atari released the 5200 console in 1982 to compete with the Colecovision.
• Everyone wanted to get into the video game business. Quaker Oats licensed the movie title Towering Inferno and made a game out of it.
• Coleco was the first company to develop games for 3 different consoles.
• Caballero was the first porn studio to release an X-rated video game for the 2600. They did so under the name Mystique. The game sucked.
• In 1998, Pitfall 3D: Beyond the Jungle for the Sony PlayStation, featured the voice of Bruce Campbell as Pitfall Harry.
• The in-house name for the Atari 2600 was “Stella” - hence the appropriately named 2600 emulator.
• The original name chosen for Bushnell & Dabney's enterprise was Syzygy- an astronomical term meaning unity or alignment.
• Atari is based on the Japanese “ataru,” which roughly means “prepare to get your ass kicked.”.
• Atari‘s first product was the coin-op version of Pong. It was completed in late 1972, featuring a B&W TV and a laundromat coin-op mechanism.
• Almost 40,000 Pong machines were produced, but it wasn't Bushnell's first arcade game. Computer Space was his first.
• The Atari 2600 cost $100 million to develop. Its success was the extremely low chip count with only four main chips on the circuit board.
• The original 2600 retailed for only $199, but only sold 250,000 units during its first year.
• Fairchild Semiconductor's Channel F was the first microprocessor-based cartridge console.
• Taito's arcade hit Space Invaders grossed over $100 million as a cartridge for the 2600.
• The only Atari console to generate a profit from the late 1980s onward was the 2600jr, a sub-$50 bargain version of the original 2600.
• More than 800,000 Flashback 2.0s were sold. Its a small 2600 replica that sold for under $30 and included a version of Pong.
• The book: Racing The Beam: The Atari Video Computer System takes a different approach by showing how the limitations of the Atari VCS shaped the fledgling gaming industry.
• Ed Fries, a former Microsoft gaming VP, has written and released a version of Halo that runs on the Atari 2600.
• An insanely expensive carts is a special edition of Nintendos Stadium Events. A copy sold for $41,300.
• Androbots were designed as educational add-ons to Apple II computers, but eventually Atari computers could control them as well.
• A pause feature appeared on the Atari 7800, but only newer 7800 games programmed to take advantage of the pause feature worked.
• Porn star April O‘Neil chose her stage name in homage to the character from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. She‘s a gamer and fan-girl!
• In late 2011 porn star Heather Vandeven appeared in a Saints Row The Third TV commercial.
• Jeff Minter wrote in support for an analog rotary controller for Tempest 2K (Jaguar). No one ever produced the hardware.

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