<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="204039" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Atari">Atari</keyword> co-founder <keyword id="947153" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Nolan-Bushnell">Nolan Bushnell</keyword> came up with the idea for <a href="https://www.insider.com/chuck-e-cheese-backstory-origin-2017-6">Chuck E. Cheese</a> back in 1977. </li><li>Combining <keyword id="47758" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Arcade-games">arcade games</keyword>, <keyword id="6358351" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="pizza">pizza</keyword>, and animatronics, <keyword id="1739173" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Chuck-E-Cheese">Chuck E. Cheese</keyword> was a success, and it rose to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/rise-and-fall-of-chuck-e-cheeses-2020-4">kids' birthday party stardom</a> by the 90's.</li><li>But due to its $1 billion debt load and the COVID-19 pandemic <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/chuck-e-cheese-sets-up-restructuring-committee-lenders-organize-2020-4">forcing closures of all its locations</a>, the parent company, CEC Entertainment, declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June 2020. </li><li>Experts say the company will be fine, but may come out of the pandemic and bankruptcy looking different.</li><li>CEC Entertainment did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment.</li></ul>Following is a transcription of the <keyword id="21654" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="video">video</keyword>.♪ Chuck E. Cheese ♪ ♪ Chuck E. Cheese ♪ ♪ When you're hungry for fun ♪ ♪ It's Chuck E. Cheese ♪Narrator: Chuck E. Cheese was once the go-to spot for birthday parties, marketing itself as a place where a kid could be a kid. Kid: When my mom asked me where to go for my birthday, I said, 'Chuck E. Cheese's!'Narrator: With its infamous pizza, iconic games, and this guy.Kate Taylor: People loved the rat.Narrator: It was a huge success from the start.Kate: Kind of like living your seven-year-old dream to just roll around in a ball pit and play some arcade games.Narrator: Through the decades it became a behemoth of a brand. In 2019 Chuck E. Cheese saw $913 million in revenue. It had about 15,000 employees and over 600 locations across the globe.But with nearly a billion dollars in debt and a 21% drop in sales in the first quarter of 2020, Chuck E. Cheese declared bankruptcy in June. So what happened?Nolan Bushnell, the co-founder of the video game company, Atari, came up with the idea for Chuck E. Cheese. He felt there was something lacking in restaurants. He once told Fast Company, "I wanted to add a dimension of fun "to the act of having a meal." So he put <keyword id="25195" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="video-games">video games</keyword> into a restaurant, and he served pizza. So while customers waited for their pies, they could play arcade games.Kate: He was not someone who was coming from this from a pizza angle. He was like, 'Okay, I know video games. And I think that I can bring animatronics into the world of pizza.' Which is kind of a crazy idea. But clearly it has worked over the years.Narrator: Originally, Bushnell planned to name the restaurant Coyote Pizza. So he ordered what he thought was a coyote costume for his lead animatronic. It turned out to be a rat, and Bushnell decided to run with it. First he thought of changing the restaurant's name to Rick Rat's Pizza, but his team convinced him that having rat in the restaurant's name wasn't the best idea. So they agreed on calling the mascot Chuck.Kate: Chuck E. Cheese was originally almost more geared towards adults. He smoked a cigar, he had a Jersey accent. It was kind of like an adult night out.Chuck E. Cheese: Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. You get it?Kate: But pretty quickly it became clear that kids are the ones who actually enjoy being around animatronic animals.Narrator: And thus, Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theater was born, with the rat mascot front and center. The first restaurant opened up in 1977 in San Jose, California.And the concept blew up. Thanks to three things: Chuck E. Cheese's could fit over 400 guests, way more than any other pizzerias. And the 20 minute window waiting for pizza was a gold mine for the arcade. They could lure people in with a few free tokens with each meal. People would stay, popping in quarter after quarter into those 75 arcade games.Gustavo Schwed: Restaurants tend to be low-margin businesses, and those games are very profitable. Narrator: Those games accounted for 40% to 50% of Chuck E. Cheese's restaurant profits.Kate: The iconic Chuck E. Cheese tokens, that's where people are spending of their money, to get the tokens, to play the arcade games, to kind of have this party experience, not so much on pizza.Narrator: Now, before Chuck E. Cheese even launched, Bushnell sold Atari, including the Chuck E. Cheese concept, to Warner Communications in 1976. So in '78, Bushnell bought back Chuck E. Cheese for $500,000, and he quickly expanded into new locations. Then things got a little complicated.♪ Stay for the fun ♪Narrator: Chuck E. Cheese's success caught the attention of businessman Robert Brock, and he signed on to franchise more than 200 locations. But that same year, Brock ended up canceling the deal, finding an engineer for animatronics, and launching a family restaurant chain of his own. He called it <keyword id="9836519" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="showbiz-pizza">ShowBiz Pizza</keyword>.Kate: The concept was pretty much the same. It was different characters, but the same kind of like pizza, arcade games.Narrator: And while Chuck E. Cheese's had been growing alongside the blossoming gaming industry, through the early '80s, it found itself in a bitter battle with copycat ShowBiz.Kate: There was definitely a rivalry between the two at the time.Narrator: And ShowBiz had arguably better animatronics. Chuck and his friends were limited to frames on the wall. ShowBiz had an entire band called Rock-afire Explosion, made of full-body characters.By 1981, ShowBiz locations were raking in nearly $1.5 million in revenue, outperforming Chuck E. Cheese's by $260,000 per store. But Chuck E. Cheese still had more locations, and was still outpacing Pizza Hut and McDonald's at the time. So that year, Bushnell took Chuck E. Cheese's public, but there were problems looming on the horizon.Chuck E. Cheese's was no longer the best arcade, and it definitely wasn't the best pizza restaurant. As the market became crowded, novelty wore off, and things turned sour. To try and outpace ShowBiz, Bushnell expanded faster and faster, opening a new location every five days and driving the company into debt.Then came the video game industry crash of 1983. As people turned to computer games, consoles and arcades were hit hard. Video game sales dropped 97% nationally, and arcades closed across the country. It wasn't a great time to have a restaurant centered on arcade games. That year, Chuck E. Cheese's losses reportedly totaled $15 million. And a year later, Chuck E. Cheese's declared bankruptcy.But it's rival ShowBiz? Well, that company weathered the crash a little better. And in a wild twist, ShowBiz ended up buying Chuck E. Cheese for $35 million. The copycat had bested the original.But the acquisition breathed some life back into Chuck E. Cheese. By the early '90s, all the ShowBiz restaurants were transformed into Chuck E. Cheese's.Kate: For some reason Chuck E. Cheese, the mascot, really did have staying power. People loved the rat.Narrator: And those better animatronics over at ShowBiz got a new life too. The Rock-afire Explosion band was stripped of its costumes and replaced with Chuck E. Cheese and crew.Kate: The fact that Chuck E. Cheese died and then was reborn in a new company is just very bizarre.Narrator: Fast forward to 1998, and Chuck got a little bit of a makeover. The parent company dropped the name ShowBiz for CEC Entertainment. By 2000, there were 300 locations, and the company was steadily growing.Kate: I would say the '90s, the early 2000s, <keyword id="9836518" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="chuck-e-cheeses">Chuck E. Cheeses</keyword> was really thriving. That's when people my age have the memories of childhood, the really nostalgic memories. The best era for Chuck E. Cheese really.Narrator: This renaissance didn't last long. Twelve years later, even though locations continued to open up, they'd hit another sales slump. So again, Chuck E. the Rat was rebranded. This time as a rockstar mouse with a backstory. According to the company's website, Charles Entertainment Cheese is an orphan, who celebrates other's birthdays to make up for his tough childhood. The new mouse came alongside an option of gluten-free pizza.Two years later, despite slumping sales, private equity firm Apollo Global Management saw an opportunity. Chuck E. Cheese still had brand recognition and locations across the globe.Gustavo: Restaurants tend to have a short life cycle. What's nice here is the children age out, and new children come in. So that gives the business, or gave the business, a certain degree of resilience.Soma Biswas: Private equity firms, they approach the owners with that idea that like, 'Hey, we're gonna expand this business. We're gonna bring it overseas to other countries.' And so that's attractive.Narrator: Apollo acquired Chuck E. Cheese Entertainment in a leveraged buyout for about a billion dollars. In a leveraged buyout, private equity firms purchase a company with partly their own money and partly borrowed money. That turns into debt the company is responsible for paying. Ultimately the acquisition saddled Chuck E. Cheese with nearly a billion dollars in debt.Gustavo: It was quite a bit of debt for a company like Chuck E. Cheese.Narrator: Chuck E. Cheese already had a lot of expenses: monthly rent on all of its locations, pricey arcade games, and animatronics to maintain.Soma: They haven't actually paid off any debt, but they've been able to service their debt. So, in other words, make the interest payments.Narrator: The company has reported losses five of the six years since the acquisition. Similar private equity buyouts have contributed to the fall of Toys "R" Us, Gymboree, and Payless ShoeSource in the past decade.To try and keep up with debt payments, Chuck E. Cheese tried revamping again. It retired it's famous animatronics, added an interactive dance floor, redesigned the restaurant, and replaced the iconic gold tokens with a Play Pass card. But operating income had slowly been declining. And the last couple of years haven't been much better.A 2019 planned reverse merger was going to help them with their debt load, but it didn't come through.Things only got worse when famous YouTuber Shane Dawson posted a video circulating decades-old rumors that Chuck E. Cheese recycled pizza.Kate: Chuck E. Cheese definitely denied that they're recycling their pizza. However, pictures make it look like they do.Narrator: Despite the company's insistence of zero pizza foul play, the damage to Chuck E. Cheese's reputation had been done. Then, as we all know, in 2020, the coronavirus pandemic hit, forcing Chuck E. Cheese to close down locations for dine-in in March.Kate: When you can't have kids in for parties, that is kind of their bread and butter, and that's always been their bread and butter, so to lose that during coronavirus, it's really the final nail in the coffin.Narrator: By June, only about half of the nearly 560 locations had reopened for dine-in, delivery, or takeout.Soma: Anyone who's in casual dining is much worse off than someone who's like a burger chain has drive-in. Whatever little revenue some of these other restaurants are getting from takeout, that's not really going to help them so much.Narrator: Sales declined by 94% during the last two weeks in March, and 21% overall in the first quarter. And the company was forced to furlough 65% of its support staff, and the majority of hourly employees. By June 25th, the parent company had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy with nearly $2 billion in debt. An announcement of 34 permanent store closures soon followed.Even though this all may look bad, experts say Chuck E. Cheese will be fine. For one, there's its valuable name recognition.Kate: Will the company survive in its current form? It's hard to say. As we saw, even if a concept is not financially viable, the brand itself kind of still has power.Narrator: Chuck E. Cheese said it's taking the bankruptcy to off-load some debt and restructure. There have even been reports that the company plans to continue opening stores while going through bankruptcy proceedings.Gustavo: The whole purpose of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy is to try to protect the integrity of the business while getting rid of the large amount of debt that put the company in the bankruptcy to begin with.Narrator: And the Wall Street Journal reported interested buyers are circling.Soma: I think a lot of it depends on what happens with the pandemic and what happens with the economy.Narrator: So what Chuck E. Cheese might look like in the future is still unknown, but it's likely the company will have to redesign itself again.Kate: They're definitely going to want to emphasize some of the really nostalgic aspects of the brand, but they're going to have to rethink a lot about what their revenue streams are, how they're making money. Everyone in the restaurant industry is struggling right now, and everyone's kind of throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks.Narrator:CEC Entertainment did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment.Chuck E. Cheese: At Chuck E. Cheese's, we celebrate over a million happy birthdays every year.

The rise and fall of Chuck E. Cheese

<img class="float_right" src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/4cebd8694bd7c8372b220000-400-300/Nolan.jpg" border="0" alt="Nolan Bushnell" />No one will ever be able to replace <keyword id="6357934" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Steve-Jobs">Steve Jobs</keyword>.
But there are plenty of creative, talented visionaries out there today who have the potential to innovate and disrupt the tech industry just like Jobs did. 
In <keyword id="204039" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Atari">Atari</keyword> co-founder <keyword id="947153" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Nolan-Bushnell">Nolan Bushnell</keyword>'s book, "<a href="http://netminds.com/books/finding-the-next-steve-jobs/">Finding the Next Steve Jobs—How to Find, Hire, Keep and Nurture Creative Talent</a>," Bushnell discusses how to find and hire people who have the potential to be as effective as Jobs. 
Before Jobs cofounded <keyword id="6354427" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Apple">Apple</keyword> alongside Steve Wozniak, the pair worked for Bushnell over at Atari. Bushnell also infamously turned down the opportunity to own one third of Apple in its early days. 
<a href="http://allthingsd.com/20130326/qa-atari-founder-nolan-bushnell-on-innovation-the-next-steve-jobs-and-why-mobile-games-are-over/">In an interview with AllThingsD's Eric Johnson</a>, Bushnell talked about how we're looking for the next Jobs because he "took a failing computer company" and "turned it into the highest-market-cap company in the world."
But in fact, we already have tons of Jobses around us, Bushnell says. 
"Really, what is happening is that they're being edited out of importance," Bushnell tells Johnson. "Right now, Google is doing some great things, but Hewlett-Packard is trying to commit suicide. Every company needs to have a skunkworks, to try things that have a high probability of failing. You try to minimize failure, but at the same time, if you're not willing to try things that are inherently risky, you're not going to make progress."
That's likely why Bushnell speaks so highly of Google, which has a history of experimenting with projects that may or may not see the light of day.
Google X, the search giant's special projects division, is responsible for self-driving cars and Project Glass. And <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/google-x-lab-control-systems-2013-3">it's reportedly already</a> at work on its next "moonshot."

Atari Founder Nolan Bushnell: 'There Are Steve Jobses All Around Us'

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5756d59352bcd028008c74e7-2400/gettyimages-53205484.jpg" alt="nolan bushnell" data-mce-source="Kevin Winter/Getty Images" data-mce-caption="Creator of 'Pong' and game designer Nolan Bushnell arrives at Video Games Live at the Hollywood Bowl on July 6, 2005 in Hollywood, California.">Kevin Winter/Getty ImagesAtari co-founder Nolan Bushnell arrives at Video Games Live at the Hollywood Bowl on July 6, 2005 in Hollywood, California.</img></div></div></div><ul><li>One of Atari's co-founders and most prominent faces, Nolan Bushnell, was set to get an award at this year's Game Developers Conference.</li><li>The "Pioneer Award" was being given to Bushnell, "which honors breakthrough business and game design milestones."</li><li>Following backlash citing Bushnell's history of conduct at Atari, specifically with regard to female employees, GDC has rescinded the award.</li><li>"I apologize without reservation," <a href="https://twitter.com/NolanBushnell/status/958770585433120768">Bushnell said in a statement</a> on Wednesday.</li></ul><hr> Atari co-founder and prominent video game industry icon Nolan Bushnell is most well-known for having helped create "Pong" - one of the most important and influential games ever made.Bushnell was scheduled to receive a "Pioneer Award" at the prestigious Game Developers Choice Awards this March at the annual Game Developers Conference. That award has now been rescinded amid backlash to the choice.Rather than Bushnell, there will be no recipient this year. Instead, the award will be dedicated to honoring, "the pioneering and unheard voices of the past."So, what happened?As <a href="https://kotaku.com/gdc-pulls-award-after-outcry-over-atari-founder-nolan-b-1822592638">Kotaku's Cecilia D'Anastasio highlights</a>, Bushnell has a long history of unsavory professional contact - specifically with female subordinates:"Bushnell also gave 'Pong' the codename Darlene after a woman at the company whom he said in Playboy 'was stacked and had the tiniest waist.' 'Some ladies feel comfortable around me, and some don't,' Bushnell told the San Francisco Chronicle at the time. 'I find the aura of power and money is very intimidating to an awful number of girls.' In response to these widely-circulated stories, some Twitter users created the hashtag #notnolan."The awards were announced on Tuesday. By Wednesday morning, the GDC 2018 page announcing the award had disappeared. Soon after, a new page appeared without Bushnell's information.A statement from GDC followed soon after:And then, on Wednesday afternoon, Bushnell himself <a href="https://twitter.com/NolanBushnell/status/958770585433120768">offered a statement on Twitter</a> regarding the change.Here's that statement:It's unclear how many people voted for the award that Bushnell was awarded, or how the group who chose him wasn't aware of Bushnell's past. He's widely credited as a driving force in the history of video games, and no doubt was an early pioneer of the medium. At the same time, Bushnell has been repeatedly quoted making salacious remarks and having been involved in questionable acts - one such moment from Atari's history involves Bushnell and another executive inviting a female coworker into a hot tub for a meeting.<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><a href="https://t.co/ma5txGiIx7">pic.twitter.com/ma5txGiIx7</a>- Official_GDC (@Official_GDC) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/958736758094680067?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 31, 2018</a></blockquote><script async="" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">A statement from me <a href="https://t.co/OfsrgaCmgW">pic.twitter.com/OfsrgaCmgW</a>- Nolan K Bushnell (@NolanBushnell) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/958770585433120768?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 31, 2018</a></blockquote><script async="" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div> <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/footage-shows-meteor-explodes-close-michigan-shook-houses-lit-night-sky-2018-1">A meteor exploded so close to Michigan that it shook houses and lit up the night sky</a></h3> <div> <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" data-player="jwplayer" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/WUxCUykM-CEZHWCBG.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><script>function receiveMessage(event){ console.log(event.data.fullscreen); Android.fullscreen(event.data.fullscreen); }window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessage, false);</script> </div> </div></hr>

The legendary founder of Atari had a lifetime achievement award revoked over his sordid past - and he applauds the decision

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5756d59c52bcd024008c75bc-2400/gettyimages-53205484.jpg" alt="nolan bushnell" data-mce-source="Kevin Winter/Getty Images" data-mce-caption="Creator of 'Pong' and game designer Nolan Bushnell arrives at Video Games Live at the Hollywood Bowl on July 6, 2005 in Hollywood, California." />Kevin Winter/Getty ImagesCreator of 'Pong' and game designer Nolan Bushnell arrives at Video Games Live at the Hollywood Bowl on July 6, 2005 in Hollywood, California.</div></div></div>Nolan Bushnell, the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ataris-nolan-bushnell-on-steve-jobs-2013-3">founder of various companies</a> including Atari and Check E. Cheese's, is joining the board of MGT Capital Investments, the mysterious new tech firm that plans to appoint John McAfee as its CEO.Bushnell has founded and worked for a variety of technology companies over the years, according to a release from MGT, and was brought on to consult on the development of cybersecurity projects."Nolan is one of the brightest minds in cyber technology," said McAfee <a href="http://www.nasdaq.com/press-release/mgt-appoints-nolan-bushnell-to-its-board-of-directors-20160607-00590">in a release</a>, who is slated to take over as Chairman and CEO of the tiny tech firm."In his career, he has founded more than 20 high tech companies, giving him unprecedented knowledge of the tech industry. As a director, he will help MGT identify and cultivate the necessary strategic partnerships to position the company as the world leader in cyber security."MGT gained notoriety in May by appointing McAfee to lead the firm and proposing a name change to McAfee Global Technologies. It also <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/john-mcafee-mgt-stock-2016-5">announced a sudden pivot</a> from mobile gaming to cybersecurity, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/john-mcafees-mysterious-new-company-is-going-wild-2016-5">announcing a number of acquisitions</a> which sent the stock soaring.While the MGT stock jumped 1000% in the week after announcing the shift, it has since tailed off, dropping 37% from its high of $4.15 a share. On Tuesday, the stock was again on the rise following the announcement jumping 8.8% as of 9:57 a.m. ET.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image"><a title_source="Google Finance" title_caption="" class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5756d2e452bcd029008c74e3-960/screen shot 2016-06-07 at 9.57.39 am.png"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5756d2e452bcd029008c74e3-1120/screen shot 2016-06-07 at 9.57.39 am.png" alt="Screen Shot 2016 06 07 at 9.57.39 AM" data-mce-source="Google Finance" /></a>Google Finance</div></div></div> <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mythbusters-adam-savage-wont-work-with-jamie-hyneman-anymore-2016-5">Adam Savage reveals why he and 'MythBusters' cohost Jamie Hyneman won't be working together anymore</a></h3> <div> <div> <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="8yMjBqMTE64Z8GLc4yQx9nPkambvO6n4" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> <script> if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; } RunFunctions.push(function() { var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', '8yMjBqMTE64Z8GLc4yQx9nPkambvO6n4',{ autoplay: 'false' }); }); </script> <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div> </div> <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script> </div>

The founder of Check E. Cheese's and Atari is joining John McAfee's mysterious new company

<div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/53f7713ceab8ea374fedb7b1-896-672/steve-jobs-young-6.png?maxX=480" border="0" alt="Steve Jobs Young" width="480"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/sigalakos/839742222">www.flickr.com</a></img></div></div>
Everyone knows Steve Jobs as the genius who made Apple a tech goliath.
But Jobs wasn't born as Apple's CEO. After he dropped out of Reed College, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ceosfirstjobs/steve-jobs">Jobs started working at Atari</a> as a technician. 
In <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2e7z17/i_am_nolan_bushnell_founder_of_atari_chuck_e/?sort=new">a Reddit AMA</a>, Atari founder Nolan Bushnell explained why he put Jobs on the night shift.
"Did Steve Jobs really stink that bad that he had to be relegated to work the night shift," asked one Reddit user.
Bushnell didn't directly address Jobs' hygiene (or lack thereof), instead offering this neat insight into why he had Jobs work nights:
"Yeah. I knew that Jobs and Woz were fast friends and Woz worked days at HP. If I put Jobs on the night shift, I'd get two Steves for the price of one. A very good business proposition," he said.
Bushnell is talking about Steve Wozniak, Jobs' close friend and Apple cofounder. 
Bushnell could have been an Apple cofounder himself, but turned down the opportunity. This obviously came up in the AMA. 
One user asked, "Are you sad that you turned down 1/3 ownership of Apple?"
"As for turning down 1/3 of Apple for 50,000 dollars, what do you think? I regret it," said Bushnell, adding a frown emoji.
That stake would be worth untold billions today.

A Young Steve Jobs Smelled So Badly He Had To Be Put On The Night Shift At Atari

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5485c62f6da811db77319231-1200-924/ap101202021784-1.jpg" border="0" alt="AP101202021784">AP</img></div></div></div>There are three guaranteed spots on the Mount Rushmore of video games: Nolan Bushnell, the founder of Atari; Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of Nintendo's Mario and Zelda franchises; and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_H._Baer">Ralph Henry Baer</a>, who is commonly known as "The Father Of Video Games."
Baer died on Sunday. He was 92. 
Baer was born in Germany, but his family fled to the US before the start of World War II. In the 1960s, as the price of TVs was starting to fall, Baer said he dreamt of using a TV set for other applications, like games. 
He was working for a military defense contractor called Sanders Associates from 1956 to 1987. Sanders dealt with electronics. He became obsessed with the idea for video games, and according to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/08/business/ralph-h-baer-dies-inventor-of-odyssey-first-system-for-home-video-games.html?emc=eta1">The New York Times</a>, he ended up writing a four-page outline in 1966 that described how people could play all sorts of games - sports, board, action, and others - on a TV set.
In order to create games for the TV, Baer needed help: specifically, people and money. With $2,500 and his fellow engineers Bill Harrison and Bill Rusch, Baer created the "Brown Box," since it was wrapped in brown tape that looked like wood grain.
There was immediate interest in Baer's Brown Box. Upon bringing one unit to the patent office, "every examiner on the floor of that building was in that office wanting to play the game," <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/ralph-h-baer-a-father-of-video-gaming-dies-at-92/2014/12/07/a24c8964-7e6e-11e4-8882-03cf08410beb_story.html">according to The Washington Post</a>. 
<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5485c43469beddbf50e370aa-828-621/ralph-baer-brown-box.jpg" border="0" alt="ralph baer brown box">Wikipedia</img></div></div></div>He licensed the console to Magnavox in 1971, and it was released to the public the following year - its success, selling about 300,000 units, inspired Atari's Nolan Bushnell to create the first arcade machine, as well as Pong, which was based off Baer's original idea for virtual table tennis, according to the documentary <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3214002/">"Video Games: The Movie."</a>
<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5485c464ecad041664e3c3f6-1200-924/ralphbaer-bush.jpg" border="0" alt="ralphbaer-bush">Wikipedia</img></div></div></div>Baer received many awards over the years for his role as a pioneer of video games; in 2006, President George W. Bush <a href="http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2006/02/images/20060213_d-0217-515h.html">awarded him</a> the National Medal of Technology for his "groundbreaking and pioneering creating, development and commercialization of interactive video games."
Video game technology has made substantial progress since Baer's Brown Box - it was a $90 billion market in 2013, but it's probably exceeded that value since then thanks to development on current- and next-gen consoles like the Oculus Rift. Still, today's video games may have existed were it not for Baer's creativity and initial curiosity.
Baer is survived by his two sons, James and Mark; a daughter, Nancy; and four grandchildren. Many of Baer's original works have been donated to museums across the country, <a href="http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object-groups/the-father-of-the-video-game-the-ralph-baer-prototypes-and-electronic-games">including the Smithsonian</a>.

The Father Of Video Games Has Passed Away

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5550a38569beddbb7502b698-944/ackman-11.png" alt="Ackman" data-mce-source="Jon Nissenbaum" data-link="http://jonniss.tumblr.com/" /><a href="http://jonniss.tumblr.com/">Jon Nissenbaum</a></div></div></div>Finance Insider is Business Insider's summary of the top stories of the past 24 hours.To sign up, scroll to the bottom of this page and click "Get updates in your inbox," or <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/newsletter/wall-street-career-advice" target="_blank">click here.</a>There's a massive mismatch in the hedge fund industry.Hedge fund investors are expecting too much, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/hedge-fund-investors-predicting-returns-2016-6">and the hedge funds themselves are underdelivering</a>.Valeant Pharmaceuticals on Tuesday morning reported a Q1 earnings loss of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/valeant-getting-crushed-after-earnings-2016-6">$373.7 million, or $1.08 a share</a>. It also cut guidance for the rest of the year. The stock has fallen 16% in Tuesday's trading day.And there was <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/valeant-average-prices-suppressed-2016-6">one piece of information in the company's earnings statement that really upset Wall Street</a>.In related news, this has been the worst year for <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/diversity-on-wall-street-2016-6">Wall Street's 'bros' in a long time</a>.The SEC could be about to <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/pdq-enterprises-keith-ross-iex-sec-2016-6">destabilize the stock market</a>, and the Dow topped 18,000 for the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/market-update-june-7-2016-6">first time since April 28 on Tuesday</a>.One of the oldest banks in the world <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/berenberg-hires-ecm-director-2016-6">just made a move on Wall Street</a>. Something puzzling has been going on in the economy, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/interesting-theory-on-business-investment-amid-low-interest-rates-2016-6">and we now have an explanation for why</a>. There's a $6.6 trillion reason <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/66-trillion-reason-us-nearing-recession-2016-6">the US might be nearing a recession</a>. And China has <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/china-demographic-problems-2016-6">looming demographic problems</a>. People are ignoring one of the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/investors-are-constantly-missing-one-of-the-most-obvious-and-important-factors-2016-6">most obvious ways to make money in the market</a>.Finally, this $500,000 supercar sold out so fast that <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mclaren-675lt-spider-mso-carbon-2016-6">McLaren is building more for those who missed out</a>.Here are the top Wall Street headlines at midday: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ralph-lauren-job-cuts-store-closures-outlook-2016-6">Ralph Lauren is getting decimated after announcing layoffs, store closings, and weak guidance</a> - Ralph Lauren shares fell 9% in premarket trading on Tuesday after the company announced job cuts, store closings, and a forecast for lower revenues.<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/german-10-year-bund-yield-record-low-2016-6">Germany's 10-year Bund yield just tumbled to a record low</a> - The yield on the Eurozone's benchmark government bond fell three basis points to as low as 0.048% amid heavy buying from investors and the European Central Bank.<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/netflix-is-a-buy-for-2-reasons-2016-6">MORGAN STANLEY: Buy Netflix for these 2 reasons</a> - Netflix expanded its service to 130 new countries in January, and the company will be reaping the benefits for years, according to Morgan Stanley.<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/deutsche-bank-ceo-john-cryan-on-the-banks-digital-transformation-2016-6">DEUTSCHE BANK CEO: 'Every discussion we now have is about technology'</a> - Deutsche Bank CEO John Cryan says the bank "need[s] to revolutionize our business because the world has changed so much" but admits its diverse customer base makes it hard for the bank to fully embrace digital.<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/atari-founder-joining-mcafees-mysterious-company-2016-6">The founder of Chuck E. Cheese's and Atari is joining John McAfee's mysterious new company</a> - Nolan Bushnell, the founder of various companies including Atari and Chuck E. Cheese's, is joining the board of MGT Capital Investments, the mysterious new tech firm that plans to appoint John McAfee as its CEO.<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/meet-the-9-most-powerful-female-ceos-in-corporate-america-2016-6">Meet the 9 most powerful female CEOs in corporate America</a> - America may be on the verge of electing a female President, but women are still struggling to compete with men for the highest positions in corporate America.

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The Father Of Video Games Has Passed Away

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