No. 004 · 1972 · Santa Clara

Atari

The bug report said it was broken. It was full of quarters.

Made arcades a business

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Make my startup a legend
  1. 1 1972. A training project: make a ball bounce.
  2. 2 They test it in a Sunnyvale tavern.
  3. 3 The regulars won't leave it alone.
  4. 4 Two weeks later, the bar calls. It stopped working.
  5. 5 He drives over to debug it.
  6. 6 The bug: the coin box is full.
  7. 7 Greatest bug report in history.
  8. 8 Product-market fit, measured by weight.
Founders
Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney
Founded
1972, Santa Clara
What they do
Arcade machines and home video game consoles.

The story

Bushnell gave new hire Al Alcorn a practice project, and it became Pong. The test unit at Andy Capp's Tavern in Sunnyvale stopped working because its coin box was jammed full, which told them everything they needed to know.