Atari

“We did. And in fact, I think that year we sold almost a 180,000 and they took them all.”

“How we financed the company was we would sell for cash the machines. We had 30 day terms. Most of our parts we had 60 day terms. So we'd get the cash literally 60 days before we had to pay for the parts for that.”

“And so, Sears Bank set up a bonded warehouse at the end of the conveyor line, and so as soon as a consumer Pong dropped off the assembly line, they would advance us 80% of the contract price with Sears.”

“A semiconductor company in Silicon Valley came up with a microprocessor. That they were willing to sell us for eight dollars, and all of a sudden, our eyes were opened, and we said, we can do a von Neumann architecture, program-based, put cartridges with ROMs …”

“The game was earning almost 300 dollars a week. And the total cost that we had was about 300 dollars.”

“What we didn't know is that the toy business at that point in time did not sell anything that was more than 35 dollars.”

“Before I sold to Warner, we were selling games. These were coin-operated games, remember? We were selling them for about 1500 dollars. During their lifetime, in CoinDrop, they'd earned 30 to 50,000 dollars.”

“There was this clash of cultures that got to be really ugly, and ultimately they got tired of me, and I got tired of them, and I was fired.”

“Twenty-eight million bucks.”

“He was opinionated, but he was never wrong in his opinions. You didn't have to worry if you empowered Steve to do something. It happened. I mean, Steve had one speed. It was full on.”

“I tried to get, you know, investors, but everybody thought that video games were kind of flaky.”

“Ted put in 250 dollars, I put in 250 dollars, and that's all the money that went into Atari.”

“About a 150,000. Only of which, Atari only did about 35,000 of them. We got massively copied.”

“And so, not wanting to be soul sourced, I said, we can do about 75,000.”

“The company was called Control Video Corporation. They had a product called GameLine, which at the time was almost like Netflix for video games. Back then, most people didn't have PCs, but a lot of people had Atari game machines. And so GameLine allowed you to…”

“I looked at all the cash we had, and we had enough cash to build like 12 units.”

“Ted put in 250 dollars, I put in 250 dollars, and that's all the money that went into Atari.”

“And then we didn't have a dress code, and we didn't have time clocks. We had this attitude that everybody knew what they needed to do, and they were adults, and they could wear what they want, and they could come and go when they want, and we weren't big broth…”

“We did. And in fact, I think that year we sold almost a 180,000 and they took them all.”

“He give us an order for 150,000. And He wants them delivered by Christmas, by, you know, October, November.”

“About a 150,000. Only of which, Atari only did about 35,000 of them. We got massively copied.”

“And I show it to them and they don't like it because it's a two player game and the coin operated world doesn't allow for a two player game. If there's not a one player game at that time, that was sort of written in stone somewhere in the annals of coin op wor…”

“I don't think you need to arbitrarily create an us versus them mentality in your company, you know, and one of the things that happens when you're owned by a New York company, they think that your laid back style is that you're not working as hard, and they th…”

“Before I sold Warner, we were selling games. These were coin-operated games, remember. We were selling them for about 1500 dollars. During their lifetime, in CoinDrop, they'd earned 30 to 50,000 dollars.”

“I mean, the game was earning almost 300 dollars a week. And the total cost that we had was about 300 dollars.”

“And so, Sears Bank set up a bonded warehouse at the end of the conveyor line, and so as soon as a consumer Pong dropped off the assembly line, they would advance us 80% of the contract price with Sears.”

“I kind of view business a little bit like a game Chess. You play the game, you play hard, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. And then you set up the pieces, and you do it again. And you don't have angst that the fact, oh my god, I lost that game of chess, …”

“We sold zero.”

“And how we financed the company was we would sell for cash the machines. We had 30 day terms. Most of our parts we had 60 day terms. So we'd get the cash literally 60 days before we had to pay for the parts for that.”

“Steve Jobs worked for me, and He was a technician in quality control, and he was really good at it.”

“And that was all the technology and the one open store. The one open store was cash flowing half a million dollars a year. And they let me pay it a 100,000 a year for five years.”

“And I had my manufacturing guy there, and I, and he says, we could probably do 25,000. And so, not wanting to be soul sourced, I said, we can do about 75,000.”