The Ledger
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Bushnell: Atari produced only 35,000 of the 150,000 Pong machines deployed
“About a 150,000. Only of which, Atari only did about 35,000 of them. We got massively copied.”
Bushnell: Executive perks and traditional hours create toxic corporate divides
“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…”
Warner Communications fired Bushnell after ugly culture clashes at Atari
“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.”
Bushnell: Steve Jobs was opinionated but never wrong at Atari
“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.”
Bushnell promised Sears 75,000 units despite 25,000 capacity
“And so, not wanting to be soul sourced, I said, we can do about 75,000.”
Bushnell: Sears ordered 150,000 Atari Home Pong units for Christmas delivery
“He give us an order for 150,000. And He wants them delivered by Christmas, by, you know, October, November.”
Atari arcades sold for $1,500 but earned up to $50,000 in lifetime revenue
“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.”
Bushnell: Initial Pong machines earned nearly $300 weekly on $300 cost
“I mean, the game was earning almost 300 dollars a week. And the total cost that we had was about 300 dollars.”
Bushnell: Treating business like chess eliminates angst over failure
“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, …”
Bushnell bought Chuck E. Cheese from Warner for $500,000 over five years
“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.”
Bushnell bluffed to Sears that Atari could build 75,000 Home Pong units
“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.”
An $8 microprocessor enabled Atari's programmable ROM cartridge console
“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 …”
Bushnell: Pong arcade units earned $300 weekly on a $300 manufacturing cost
“The game was earning almost 300 dollars a week. And the total cost that we had was about 300 dollars.”
Atari sold $1,500 arcade machines that earned $30,000 to $50,000 lifetime
“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.”
Bushnell: Warner Communications acquired Atari for $28 million in 1976
“Twenty-eight million bucks.”
Bushnell: Atari was founded on just $500 of initial capital
“Ted put in 250 dollars, I put in 250 dollars, and that's all the money that went into Atari.”
Bushnell: Clones Accounted for Roughly 115,000 of 150,000 Total Pong Units
“About a 150,000. Only of which, Atari only did about 35,000 of them. We got massively copied.”
Bushnell and Dabney founded Atari with just $500 in total initial capital
“Ted put in 250 dollars, I put in 250 dollars, and that's all the money that went into Atari.”
Bushnell: Atari eliminated dress codes and time clocks to evaluate solely by outcomes
“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…”
Bushnell: Atari Sold Nearly 180,000 Home Pong Consoles to Sears in 1975
“We did. And in fact, I think that year we sold almost a 180,000 and they took them all.”
Bushnell: Bally rejected Pong because coin-op norms required single-player games
“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…”
Sears Bank advanced Atari 80% of the contract price per finished unit
“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.”
Bushnell: Atari financed early manufacturing through 60-day supplier terms and cash sales
“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 as a quality control technician at Atari
“Steve Jobs worked for me, and He was a technician in quality control, and he was really good at it.”
Bushnell: Atari sold nearly 180,000 Home Pong units to Sears in 1975
“We did. And in fact, I think that year we sold almost a 180,000 and they took them all.”
Atari financed early production by securing 60-day terms from parts suppliers
“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.”
Sears Bank advanced Atari 80% for every finished Home Pong console
“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.”
Bushnell: 1975 toy retailers capped prices at $35
“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.”
Bushnell: Early Investors Passed on Atari Calling Video Games 'Flaky'
“I tried to get, you know, investors, but everybody thought that video games were kind of flaky.”
Bushnell: Atari initially only had enough cash to build 12 Pong units
“I looked at all the cash we had, and we had enough cash to build like 12 units.”
Case: Control Video's GameLine was like Netflix for Atari games
“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…”