A less fun FunFact about Bushnell:. On a cheerier note, though, here is the best Bushnell FunFact, for my money: Nolan Bushnell, inventor and engineer and entrepreneur The full name of which is Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza-Time Theaters.
Bushnell, at his core, is a gamer; he'd long been an admirer of what Walt Disney had done with his theme parks and other properties.
Bushnell, basically, wanted to take the infrastructure of the arcade -- games, everywhere! See above: eight children. So Bushnell invented a restaurant that would offer just that combination. And: boom!
Despite his 76 years, the entrepreneur shows no signs of slowing down and he's launched a brand new voice-controlled game. Called St. During a recent visit to the United Arab Emirates and in an interview with Euronews, Bushnell told Rebecca McLaughlin-Eastham that he believes the combination of Artificial Intelligence and rich narratives is the next big thing in the gaming industry.
Noire, in which you're the detective and you're interviewing suspects. Meanwhile, Bushnell had already founded another company, Chuck E. Cheese pizza restaurants , which gave kids the chance to simultaneously enjoy the fun of playing electronic games and the fun of eating out.
Bushnell has founded more than 20 companies. He has worked in many fields, including personal computers and robotics. Bushnell has always been convinced that computer games are an excellent way to foster curiosity and creativity in a social context.
In other words, Bushnell sees computer games as a means of education; and certainly his own games paved the way for the myriad of explicitly educational video games available today.
As Bushnell sunk more of his dwindling fortune into Androbot, he saw a light at the end of the tunnel. Merrill Lynch offered to underwrite an Androbot public stock offering. If Catalyst could sell Androbot, Bushnell could get his money back and carry on as usual. But the plan hit a huge snag in the summer of So they withdrew the IPO, and Bushnell was devastated. In , Bushnell had another very bad year. While he was busy scurrying from one project to the next, one of his most promising business ventures, Pizza Time Theatre, ran into trouble.
The chain had overextended itself, building too many franchise locations to be profitable. In March , Pizza Time filed for bankruptcy and ended up being acquired by its principal competitor. Once Androbot sucked my cash, it was hard to keep it afloat.
In , Bushnell resigned all of his Catalyst firm chairmanships except one: The toy company Axlon, where he consolidated his business interests and personal attention. Before long, Odak left Catalyst, followed by Calof and Anderson. Catalyst was no more. As long as the firms sold to larger companies—even if they did not sell profitable products themselves—the ultimate business goal was achieved.
So how well did Catalyst do on its investments? According to Bushnell and Calof, seven out of the 14 major Catalyst firms ended up making money for their investors. Two broke even. And six ended up as losses.
Etak started an industry. Axlon went public and was later sold to Hasbro. In the years since Catalyst shut down, Bushnell has been unrelentingly busy. Why should I do it? His frequent startup hopping has left industry observers dazed—and maybe slightly jaded—about the potential for Bushnell to actually bring any of these technologies to life. After all, he dreams big, sells hard, and appears to believe his own hype.
Everything lined up, and it made it easy. His relaxed management style rubbed off on employees who left Atari to form other companies, including a young engineer named Steve Jobs. The oft-forgotten third Apple founder, Ronald Wayne, was also an Atari alum. What keeps Bushnell going, after experiencing decades of both stunning heights and painful setbacks? AWS Deloitte Genpact.
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