BayCHI Monthly Program: Where Pong and Atari Took Me, with Atari Co-Founder Allan Alcorn
Channel: BayCHI, San Francisco Bay Area ACM SIGCHI
Date: 2021-12-15

https://baychi.org/calendar/20211214/

Allan will discuss the various human interface approaches he has worked on, from simple potentiometers on Pong to a user interface that required no interaction at all, and the challenges in making them in high-volume at low cost.  The coin-operated arcade environment is particularly challenging because the user is often drunk and very aggressive!

ALLAN ALCORN created the first commercially successful coin-operated video game: Atari PONG.  In 1974, he created the first video game on a custom chip (home Pong) followed by the Atari VCS home video game platform that launched the cartridge video game industry.

As an Apple Computer Fellow, he worked on digital formats for video and audio that led to QuickTime and MPEG.

He started Silicon Gaming in 1994 to develop a multi-media slot machine for casino gaming.

In 1998 Al founded Zowie Intertainment, a spinout from Interval Research.  It created a playset that used relative location to respond to the child's play.

In 2005 Al co-founded Integrated Media Measurement Inc.  IMMI measured media consumption using cell phones and acoustic matching algorithms to improve media viewing data.

Mr. Alcorn holds a Bachelors of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California and holds several patents.