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Annotated Atari Depositions - Part 4
Today, we continue with Nolan Bushnell’s January 1976 deposition in the Magnavox v Bally et al case. This time, I don’t have as many comments/notes or pictures. It’s mostly just straightforward text....
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Annotated Atari Depositions - Part 5
Today, we continue with Nolan Bushnell's depositions from January 13 and 14, 1976. MR. WILLIAMS: Q. As I understand your prior testimony, the game which eventually was known as Pong was· developed...
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The Prehistory of esports - The First Video Game World Record?
In today’s post, I take another look back at what I call the “prehistory” of esports. I have tackled the subject before in posts about the American Video Athletic Association, the Atari $50,000...
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The etymology of "video game"
One subject I have toyed with addressing on this blog is the subject of what was the first video game or who created the first video game. So far, however, I have avoided tackling the subject,...
View ArticleAtari Depositions - Part 6
First, for those who read my last post on the etymology of "video game," I was able to get some more issues of Cash Box and find a little more information - including a usage of the term in the March...
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The First Light Gun Game
I suspect that most readers of this blog have played an arcade light gun game – those rifle games that used a beam of light instead of bullets or wiper blades and contacts to determine when a target...
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The Early History of Sega - Service Games Part 1 - the Prehistory of Service...
If you’ve read Steven Kent’s seminal Ultimate History of Video Games (and if you’re reading this blog, I suspect you have) then you probably know that Sega was formed in 1965 from a merger or two...
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The Early History of Sega - Service Games Part 2 - When was Sega/Service...
NOTE - since my first post, I have finished reading the two source documents (or at least the parts referencing Service Games and Sega) and have new information, so I thought I would reorganize the...
View ArticleThe Early History of Sega - Service Games Part 3 - Running Afoul of the...
Last time we talked about the founding of Service Games and a few of the many entities that were related to it. Today, we discuss their many run-ins with the government.Service Games was initially...
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The Early History of Sega - Rosen Enterprises
For the last few posts, we've been looking at the history of one of Sega Enterprises' predecessors, Service Games. Today, we take a look at the other one - Rosen Enterprises. Before we do, however, a...
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The Early History of Sega - What Was Sega's First Arcade Game
This is my final post on the early history of Sega. In this post, we take up the question of what was Sega’s first arcade game. Of course, the answer to this question depends on which Sega you’re...
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Atari Depositions Part 7
Here is the last half Nolan Bushnell's July 3, 1974. Deposition. Kind of dry I know but think some of the others will be more interesting.MR. HERBERT: As I understand it it's a paper you signed for the...
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Softape History - Part I (plus a review of Atari: Game Over)
A few weeks back, I posted an all-too-brief history of Programma International – one of the earliest and largest Apple II software publishers. Today I cover an even earlier company that is in some ways...
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I'm Hooked, I'm Hooked, My Brain Is Cooked - Two Pieces of Video Game Radio...
Today, I cover a couple of little discussed radio relics of the golden age of video games – one a pop song and the other a radio drama. Space Invaders by Uncle Vic The pop song is the 1980 novelty...
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Swordquest Origins
While working on the section of my book on video game comic books, I came across some information on the Swordquest series that I found interesting and I that I haven't seen mentioned on the various...
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History of Softape - Part 2
Two posts back, I gave a brief account of the history of the early Apple II software publisher Softape. Today, I will take a closer look at three of its most prolific game programmers. Gary ShannonNOTE...
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Annotated Atari Depositions, Part 1
Today I thought I’d try something different and see if goes over well. In the past several months, I’ve come into possession of a number of legal documents from various video game lawsuits of the...
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Photo Odds and Ends
I thought I'd take a quick break to post some interesting photos I've come across recently.First up are some more photos from the 1974 All Japan TV Game Championship that I reported on before...
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Annotated Atari Depositions - Part 2
Today we continue with Nolan Bushnell’s deposition from January 13 and 14, 1976. In this part, Nolan discusses his various experiences with computer games at the University of Utah. This (when and if...
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Annotated Atari Depositions, Part 3
written down the titles of the papers of the people.Q. I gather you have ordered a copy of the transcript from the University of Utah?A. Yes.Q. And have you corresponded with Dr. Atwood to try and get...
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