Allan Alcorn

Behind The Game: An Interview with Atari’s Co-Founder Allan Alcorn

Interviews, Stories
Allan Alcorn: The Visionary Behind Pong and Video Game Pioneering

Table of Contents

In May 2024, we had the opportunity to conduct an interview with Allan Alcorn, the pioneer behind the iconic video game Pong and a foundational figure in the video game industry. This interview was conducted via mail and email correspondence and provides insight into Alcorn’s innovative contributions to technology and gaming, his experiences during the early days of Atari, and his perspectives on the evolution of video gaming.

About Allan Alcorn

Photo of Al Alcorn
Photo of Al with the Pong prototype

Allan Alcorn is a pioneering figure in the video game industry, renowned for creating Pong, the first commercially successful video game. Born in 1948 in San Francisco, Alcorn’s fascination with electronics began early, influenced by a correspondence course in radio and TV repair. He attended UC Berkeley, initially pursuing a path in football before switching to focus on engineering, a decision that catalyzed his later innovations.

During his time at UC Berkeley, Alcorn took a job at Ampex where he met Atari co-founders Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. After joining Atari, Alcorn was tasked with creating a table tennis game as a training exercise, which led to the development of Pong. This game quickly became a cultural phenomenon and laid the groundwork for the video game industry. Alcorn’s contributions were instrumental in establishing Atari as a dominant force in the early days of video gaming.

Beyond Atari, Alcorn has engaged in various entrepreneurial and technical advisory roles. His career is marked by his continued impact on technology and gaming, mentoring new engineers and participating in tech startups. Alcorn’s legacy is not only in his direct contributions but also in his influence on the evolution of digital entertainment and interactive media.

Recommended Reading

Cover of Troublemakers: Silicon Valley's Coming of Age
“If you want to learn more about the early days of Silicon Valley, I suggest a book that has a whole chapter on me.” – Allan Alcorn

Troublemakers: Silicon Valley’s Coming of Age by Leslie Berlin is a captivating narrative that highlights the untold stories of the people who played crucial roles in the rise of Silicon Valley from 1969 to 1983. The book dives deep into the lives and careers of seven exceptional individuals who helped to shape this era, offering insights into the challenges and triumphs they faced.


Al Alcorn Interview

Related to Al Alcorn's Career
(left to right) Nolan Bushnell, Fred Marincic, and Al Alcorn. Photograph: Everett Collection Inc/Alamy

1. What was the first computer you owned/operated and what was the experience like?
The first computer I used was an IBM 7090–7094 1 in 1966. You had to write your program in Fortran and then take it on campus to punch a deck of cards 2 that you would then submit to the computer operator and come back a couple hours later and hope it worked. You had to check your work very carefully before submitting it. It was slow.
2. Can you describe the process of creating the Atari VCS and the significance of its ability to use interchangeable cartridges?
We have been making home video game consoles for a couple of years and it was very tedious and expensive because each game required a new custom chip that took about six months to get in production. With the advent of the 6502 microprocessor 3 , it was possible to put the microprocessor in the base unit, and with a very clever television interface chip a new game would simply be a new ROM in a cartridge. Fairchild with their product, the Channel F 4 , was the first home unit that used plug-in cartridges, but unfortunately, they had to use the Fairchild microprocessor that was very weak.
3. Was there a game concept that you really wanted to execute during your time at Atari but couldn’t due to the technological constraints at the time?
I was really focused on technology development not so much any particular game. So after our early success with the arcade video games, I left that behind and went off and designed a custom chip that played Pong and was used for the home version of Pong. That was the start of the Atari consumer division. Then we developed a cartridge-based machine called “VCS” 5 that soon led to $1 billion in sales. Then I developed a simple game that used holograms 6 and in the process of making that game we managed to invent the embossed holograms you see on credit cards today, but under Warner management, they would not release the product to the market. That is when I left Atari.
4. Early in your career, which software developers/engineers did you find to be the most innovative and inspiring for you?
The most impressive engineer I worked with at Atari was Steve Wozniak 7 . Even though he never actually worked for us, he wound up creating the game called Breakout. That was a big hit, but his design was absolutely mind-blowing. It was so remarkable that normal engineers couldn’t figure it out, so we redesigned it with about 100 chips and it was a big success.
Interestingly, in 1973 I hired Steve Jobs 8 as a technician and his buddy was would hang around at Atari after work. Was is the opposite of Jobs, he’s the sweetest guy you ever met and he has a great sense of humor.
5. How did your leadership style evolve over your career, particularly at Atari, and what lessons did you learn about fostering innovation within a team?
When I started at Atari, I was just 24 years old and I was the whole engineering department. As we grew, I became a vice president of R&D and was managing engineers not designing things myself. At first, it was very difficult for me to hire an engineer who was smarter than me, but I soon learned to get over that and hire the best people we could afford. I learned how to put together a small team of great engineers and give them the freedom to innovate while making sure they focused on the goal. After Atari, I worked for a while at Apple Computer in the advanced technology department and worked with some of the finest engineers and scientists in the country.
6. During your tenure as a Fellow at Apple, you worked on several innovative projects including digital video compression. Could you share some insights from your experience at Apple?
In the early 80s video publishing on the computer required a laser disk player, a custom-authored laser disk, and a video display along with a computer driving the laser disk. We realized that soon the computer would be powerful enough to create an in-store video, but it required some kind of digital compression technique. My boss, Larry Tesler, put together the most amazing team that he asked me to lead and we used our Cray computer 9 that we had at Apple to develop our compression algorithm. At the end of the project, we invited all the teams working on video compression from around the world to come to Apple and show us what they were doing. Even though our system was not the best, the video compression community did see a clear winner in the technique that used discrete cosine transform 10 , and that became the initial video compression standard. We had no idea that this would lead to all these videos of puppies and kittens clogging the Internet.
7. After leaving Atari, you founded Silicon Gaming and Zowie Intertainment. What inspired these ventures, and what challenges did you face in these new technology sectors?
I like to apply state-of-the-art technology to existing industries so as to make a significant difference and thus disrupt that industry. The slot machine industry has been around for 100 years and it was relying on very old technology. We developed a truly modern slot machine using the latest cryptography for the highest security. For a while, I was the smartest guy in that industry! The gambling industry is very closed and it is very difficult to enter that business.

Paul Allen 11 was one of the cofounders of Microsoft and he started a company called Interval Research that had about 100 truly great scientists that were tasked with creating new technologies that could change industries. I was asked to assist with making sustainable companies out of the technology, and then I was asked to be the vice president of engineering of one of the spinouts called Zowie Intertainment. The challenge was to develop and put in production a child’s playset that could detect the position of 10 different play pieces on the playfield and do this at a very low cost. We succeeded at this, but the company never really got off the ground because of the difficulties in the toy business.
8. During your time with the company, what was the work culture like? Were the days of wild parties over by the time you got there?
I joined Atari in 1972 and I was employee number three so the wild parties haven’t even started yet! We were all young engineers and really didn’t know much about how it was supposed to be done so we just treated all our employees well. We would celebrate victories as a company and we were all young and having fun. Yes, some of the parties were very good but remember, we did create new technologies and new industries so we were not just goofing off.
9. Do you still enjoy playing video games and if so which ones?
Not so much. As I said, I am an engineer and I enjoy solving interesting and novel technical challenges. The challenge with Pong was how to make a digital device that put out an analog signal that drove a conventional television and played a game. Once I did that I wanted to move on and did, creating Pong on a custom chip.
10. Looking back at your career, If you could give one piece of advice to your younger self at Atari, what would it be?
Don’t take it seriously.
11. As someone who witnessed the evolution of video games from a niche hobby to a mainstream entertainment medium, what are your thoughts on the current state of the industry compared to its early days?
I never dreamed that something I worked on for a few months would be the start of an enormous industry, that was never my goal. It was Nolan’s 12 , but I didn’t believe him. I am truly lucky as very few engineers get to see their babies grow up to be so successful.
12. Can you talk a little about working at Atari during the video game crash of 1983 13 or more broadly what it was like to be a game designer at that time?
By 1981 Warner had kicked out all of us founders and put his East Coast people in charge of Atari which eventually led to the crash. Warner tied us up with employment contracts that had noncompete in it that were effective until 1983 so we were being paid pretty well not to show up. By the end of that time we got restless and Nolan and the gang got together and put together one of the first incubators where we developed lots of product ideas including Etak the first in-car navigation company and a coin-op video game company that competed directly with Atari. We were starting a bunch of new companies and doing new things while Atari was dying.
Footnotes:
1. IBM 7090–7094: Early mainframe computers used primarily for scientific and engineering applications. These systems required programs to be written in FORTRAN and were commonly operated through the use of punched cards. ↩
2. Computer Punch Cards: Used for data input into computers, these cards stored information that computers could read. They were essential for programming in the early days of computing, including for the IBM systems Alcorn first used. ↩
3. 6502 microprocessor: A low-cost, high-performance microprocessor introduced in 1975 by MOS Technology. It was widely adopted in various computing systems, including the Atari VCS, due to its capabilities and affordability. ↩
4. Fairchild Channel F: The first video game console to use interchangeable cartridges, introduced by Fairchild Semiconductor in 1976. Although innovative, it was hampered by the less powerful Fairchild F8 microprocessor. ↩
5. VCS (Video Computer System): Later known as Atari 2600, this system popularized the use of ROM cartridges, allowing a variety of games to be played on a single console, thus significantly impacting the home entertainment landscape. ↩
6. Atari Cosmos: A holographic video game system developed but never released by Atari. It utilized holography to create visual effects for games, a novel concept at the time. ↩
7. Steve Wozniak and Atari: Although not an Atari employee, Wozniak developed the game Breakout for Atari. His design was considered innovative, pushing the limits of video game engineering at the time. ↩
8. Steve Jobs and Atari: Before co-founding Apple, Steve Jobs worked at Atari where he was involved in the development of the game Breakout alongside Steve Wozniak. ↩
9. Cray computer: High-performance computers used for complex computations. At Apple, Alcorn utilized Cray supercomputers to develop advanced video compression algorithms. ↩
10. Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT): A technique for converting signals into elementary frequency components, essential for video compression technologies and integral to modern multimedia applications. ↩
11. Paul Allen: Co-founder of Microsoft who later started Interval Research, aimed at fostering innovation in technology. Alcorn collaborated with Allen’s venture, particularly with the spinout company Zowie Intertainment. ↩
12. Nolan Bushnell: Co-founder of Atari and a pivotal figure in the development of the video game industry. Bushnell’s vision for interactive entertainment significantly shaped the early landscape of video gaming. ↩
13. Video Game Crash of 1983: A major downturn in the video game industry caused by market saturation and economic factors, leading to significant financial losses, especially for Atari. ↩

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