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Atari co-founder Ted Dabney dies
The game industry has lost one of its most influential early figures. Ted Dabney, who co-founded Atari along with Nolan Bushnell, has died after deciding against treatment for esophageal cancer. He and Bushnell created Atari's predecessor Syzygy in 1971 and produced Computer Space, the first commercially available arcade game. They then used that experience as the launching pad for Atari and, along with developer Al Alcorn, released the iconic game Pong in 1972.
Computer Space turns 40, video games gear up for mid-life crisis
It was November of 1971 that Nolan Bushnell, Ted Dabney and Computer Space officially ushered in the era of the video game. Before running off to start Atari, the two men created the world's first coin-operated video arcade cabinet and, indeed, the first commercial video game ever -- a full six months before the Odyssey. Computer Space was a relatively simple title in which a player used four buttons to pilot a ship around the screen and do battle with flying saucers. The mechanics and graphics should be familiar to anyone who has ever tried their hand at Asteroids. In fact, it is essentially Asteroids without the titular space debris. Technologizer has a rather fascinating and in depth look at the pioneering game, tracing its evolution all the way back to a 1962 DEC PDP-1 tech demo. Head on over to the source to get the full story.
