Nolan Bushnell, Cofounder of Atari
A couple of years ago, I came across a new version of the Atari 2600 sitting on a grocery store shelf. I remember the original model. It was black rectangular console with wood veneer. Across the upper edge was the slot for a game cartridge and four switches to customize games. Joysticks or paddles connected to the console for game control. In 1970-something the Atari game console with game cartridges was a Christmas gift from my parents. My dad connected the console to the antenna screws on the back of our massive box of a TV. I parked my butt in front of the TV and played the heck out of Night Driver, Breakout, and, of course, Space Invaders - pewpewpew!
Nolan Bushnell (illustration), inventor of Pong and co-founder of Atari, is considered the father of electronic gaming. After inventing Pong in 1971, Bushnell founded Atari in 1972, leading to the rise of the video arcade industry. He later sold Atari to Time Warner for $28 million and founded Chuck E. Cheese pizza restaurants.*
Back in the grocery store this new version of the device was marketed as a stocking stuffer. Really? This new smaller Atari console was just a thumb drive full of game software (no more cartridges) and two paddles. The drive connected to the HDMI port of a current TV. On Christmas Eve in the year we got the original Atari, after my sister and I went to bed, my dad and cousin opened our gift. They played it into the wee hours of the dark morning. When they finally finished playing, they repackaged and wrapped it for delivery in actual morning daylight.
In the split second I saw the new Atari in the grocery store I went to that story about Christmas Eve. At 3am I imagined my dad and cousin were having a ball, laughing and cursing at space invaders and each other.
*Source, lemelson.mit.edu