Nolan Bushnell

Nolan Bushnell is a legendary entrepreneur whose work helped launch both the video game industry and the modern concept of family entertainment centers. In 1972 he founded Atari, Inc., the company that brought video games into mainstream culture with groundbreaking titles such as Pong and later Asteroids, Centipede, and the Atari 2600 home console. Under Bushnell’s leadership, Atari rapidly became one of the fastest-growing companies in American history, shaping the early direction of home computing and electronic entertainment.

In 1977 he founded Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza Time Theatre, the first restaurant chain to combine arcade games, robotic animatronics, and family dining into a unified experience. The model pioneered by Chuck E. Cheese spread globally and set the template for countless entertainment venues that followed.

Across his career, Bushnell has founded more than twenty companies and has been a driving force behind interactive entertainment, early computing culture, and the commercialization of video games as a global industry. Recognized widely as the “father of the video game industry,” he continues to inspire entrepreneurs at the intersection of technology, creativity, and play.