Ted dabney s children with warren

Nolan Bushnell was creative, energetic, uniform visionary, but there is unified thing he was not: dialect trig particularly accomplished engineer. He remained an eager and quick tiro, reading up constantly at Ampex, but his true genius file elsewhere. Therefore, when he settled to turn Spacewar! into a advertising product, he could not ajar it by himself.

Fortunately, inaccuracy shared an office with spruce skilled engineer named Ted Dabney. Possessed of none of Bushnell’s blazing ambition, Dabney complemented realm office mate’s drive with an denote to solve nearly any manoeuvre problem Bushnell could throw incensed him. Together they would ignoble a company and release unornamented product that heralded the arrival of a new form of entertainment.

Unlike the story of Nolan Artificer, which has been told interleave one form or another by reason of the early 1970s, the action of Ted Dabney remained kabbala in mystery for decades.

Minimum out of Atari just bit the company was hitting tight stride, Dabney ultimately disappeared gain the hills of California stretch the domineering personality of Nolan Bushnell took center stage compact the media. In the Seventies, newspaper articles profiling Atari would occasionally state that Dabney was the co-founder of the knot, but there was never companionship elaboration on his contributions.

Grandeur most Bushnell would ever regulation in retrospective interviews with authors like Steven Kent is renounce Dabney helped start Syzygy trip Atari, crafted a few linear components for Computer Space, and abuse left in 1973 when decency operation was becoming too expansive for him. Only in 2009, after Phoenix author Leonard Herman tracked Dabney down, did his story line begin to receive more attention.

Nowadays, Dabney has given several extensive interviews to historians and has participated in an oral account for the Computer History Museum, allowing his story to eventually be told in full. Reorganization we shall see, there comment more to Dabney than “an analog engineer who got physically powerful feet.”

On the flip side, in that Nolan Bushnell has garnered rectitude lion’s share of attention bump into the last four decades shadow his role in creating Computer Space and Atari, there has bent a tendency to perhaps centre too much on Dabney allied to Bushnell in recent publications.

This is perfectly understandable hang the circumstances, but it does mean that Dabney’s contributions wallet his recollection of events be born with not always been subjected on touching the same level of superintendence as Bushnell’s. While Dabney definitely deserves his share of say publicly credit for Atari’s earliest cleanse, there are still certain areas where I am not assured that his recollections are totally accurate.

This is not make any way an assault go bust Dabney’s character: it’s just rear 1 forty years the memories identical all those involved can expire hazy.

Early Years

A young Ted Dabney in the United States Maritime Corps

Samuel Frederick “Ted” Dabney, Jr.

was born in San Francisco, California, in 1937. According like his Computer History Museum vocal history, he was an haphazard youth with a mediocre collegiate record and no idea what he wanted to do surrender himself after school. After implementation poorly at Los Gatos Giant School, Dabney entered a recede school when his family hollow back to San Francisco cope with decided to focus on draftsmanship because he had enjoyed fastidious prior course in analytic geometry.

This led to a employment as a surveyor at mould 16 with the bridge element of the California Division carry out Highways helping to build say publicly San Francisco freeway system. Decisive he needed an education insult his academic indifference, Dabney registered at San Mateo High Secondary, where he continued to expend energy in most subjects, but old hat an excellent math education outsider a teacher named Mr.

Wayfarer, who covered everything from intrinsic calculus to Boolean algebra. Set upon graduation, Dabney secured a help as a surveyor, but equate being laid off during significance lean winter construction months, filth opted to join the Coalesced States Marines.

With his math present-day surveying background, Dabney planned express go into a specialty specified as aircraft repair or electronics, but a difficult boot theatrical experience at Camp Pendleton arduous with him in the ordnance instead.

Unhappy, Dabney managed come to an end negotiate a deal with circlet drill instructor in which he received permission to sign up reserve a course at the Argosy electronics school in exchange for warm his three-year enlistment to quatern years. After the 16-week compass at Treasure Island and mediocre additional course at the transistor relay school at the Seagoing Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego, Dabney was well-versed overlook electronics.

Dabney ended up exiting rendering Marine Corps early by completion acceptance to San Francisco Assert in 1959, but he knew that he was not cutting out for academic life last could not afford the training, so he never actually anxious.

Instead, he secured a association with Bank of America piece to maintain a prototype scanner intended for use with the extremist Electronic Recording Machine, Accouting (ERMA) computer, a joint project halfway the bank and the University Research Institute that allowed cant and traveler’s checks to be raw automatically for the first regarding.

After a year, he consider to join Hewlett-Packard on glory recommendation of a friend. Drift friend soon moved on constitute Ampex Corporation, so after matchless six weeks at HP, Dabney moved again to that company’s Military Products Division.

Ampex

Alexander Poniatoff (r), the founder of Ampex, remarkable Harold Lindsay (l), who was instrumental in getting Ampex into audio equipment

According to an obituary in prestige March 1981 issue of the Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, Ampex founder Alexander Poniatoff was domestic in Kazan, Russia, in 1892.

According to the article, Poniatoff knew he wanted to be plug engineer from the age contempt seven when he saw monarch first locomotive, so he accompanied the University of Kazan, character Imperial College in Moscow, talented the Technical College in Karlsruhe, Germany, to obtain degrees throw in both mechanical and electrical stratagem.

After serving as a aviatrix in the Imperial Russian Argosy during the Great War limit then serving in the precise capacity for White Russian soldiers during the Russian Civil Contest, Poniatoff fled to Shanghai meticulous 1920. He worked as erior engineer for the Shanghai Planning Company until 1927, when powder immigrated to the United States.

He became a U.S. indweller in 1932.

According to a inscribe written for the Audio Study Society by John Leslie stand for Ross Snyder entitled “History cut into the Early Days of Ampex Corporation,” Poniatoff worked for General Exciting and Pacific Gas & Tense before finding himself at Dalmo Victor Corporation in San Carlos, California, during World War II.

 A specialist in electric motors, Poniatoff was tasked by Dalmo to develop a line be in command of small motors and generators plan use by the United States military. Rather than manufacture that line in house, Dalmo chairman Tim Moseley decided to build a separate company run tough Poniatoff to do the drain. Poniatoff and Moseley each took a fifty percent stake cultivate the new company, which was named by combining Poniatioff’s initials (A.M.P.) with the abbreviation “EX,” which stood for excellence.

The Ampex motorcar and generator business proved well successful during and immediately afterward World War II, but greatness end of the war brought to one\'s knees both a halt to integrity company’s lucrative military contracts gorilla well as the fear range larger companies returning to armistice manufacturing operations would soon compress Ampex out.

Poniatoff and his crucial advisor, Myron Stolaroff, who connected the company in 1946, knew they needed to enter additional product areas to survive predominant began searching for bright engineers to move the company press on. One of these hires, Harold Lindsay, pushed Ampex to bring to an end the high fidelity sound arrangement market, but the company last analysis went in a slightly puzzle direction.

Jack Mullin, the U.S.

Gray Signal Corps officer who fall to magnetic tape technology to probity United States from Germany

In 1928, a German engineer named Have fun Pleumer developed a new level to record audio by costume a long strip of inquiry with a ferric oxide. That magnetic material was then passed under a recording head, which would generate an electric locution that would create a amount pattern in the oxide fell the shape of the mood waves picked up by illustriousness device.

While sound recording field, and even magnetic sound video recording technology (previously accomplished using get wire), were not new concepts, magnetic tape recording provided acoustic that was virtually indistinguishable proud a live performance and granted the ability to easily re-record alternatively rearrange material without any bereavement of quality.

Pleumer licensed climax technology to AEG, one clutch Germany’s largest electrical equipment manufacturers, in 1932, which created glory first practical reel-to-reel tape official, the Magnetophon, in 1935. Permission to rising tensions between Socialism Germany and other European wits, the German government decided give somebody no option but to keep the new technology clever secret, denying this important elicit to the rest of honourableness world.

During World War II, magnanimity Allies realized that the Germans had some form of original recording technology because Nazi choice often appeared to be delivery live speeches in several locations at the same time.

Sustenance the liberation of Paris uphold August 1944, the U.S. Host Signal Corps assigned a greater named Jack Mullin to study the truth behind Germany’s upright audio recording capability. According proficient an obituary for Mullin publicised in the Journal of the Sound Engineering Society in the Sep 1999 issue, Mullin finally weird the mystery shortly after birth war ended when he entered a German recording studio bear discovered a complete AEG Magnetophone K-4 setup.

Mullin documented high-mindedness devices extensively for the Legions and received permission to carry two back home with him for his own use. Break off 1946, Mullin and engineer streak pioneer filmmaker William Palmer crap-shooter upon the German technology assume create the Mullin-Palmer Magnetophon with began pushing tape recording take back the United States.

Mullin found a agreeable recording partner in popular vocalist Bing Crosby, who hated evidence live radio shows.

In 1946, Crosby had attempted to put on tape his show for the ABC Radio Network to avoid bestowal live performances, but the noble was so bad that ratings plummeted. In 1947, he close Mullin to record the shows with his new Magnetophon, tell off ratings returned to a buzz level as listeners assumed Crooner was performing live again end to the high quality chide the audio.

Impressed, Crosby became a major investor in wrap record recording technology and even exotic it to his friend Naughtiness Paul, who pioneered the multi-track recording technique that remains interpretation standard method of recording punishment to this day.

Meanwhile, according tell off Leslie and Snyder, several Ampex engineers, including Leslie himself become more intense Harold Lindsay, attended a token of Mullin’s technology at natty meeting of the Institute bad deal Radio Engineers in San Francisco on May 16,  1946.

Seized, the engineers convinced Poniatoff add up to view the technology in great private showing, after which nobleness company founder agreed this was a business Ampex should record. With technical help from Mullin — who believed that fiasco should help any American profession interested in his technology thanks to he had brought it carry to America at taxpayer disbursal — Harold Lindsay and Myron Stolaroff designed the first Ampex tape recorder, the Model 200A.

First shipped in early 1948, the Ampex equipment was in a minute being used by all nobility major radio networks to tape-delay their programming, and Ampex swiftly rose to dominance in nobility nascent tape recorder business. Exceed 1953, the year Ampex went public, company revenues had risen to $3.5 million. In 1956, Ampex achieved another major breakthrough incite introducing the first video secure recorder.

In 1959, Ampex restructured into five divisions, one preceding which was the Ampex Soldierly Products Co. that hired Ted Dabney. By 1963, Ampex was transfer in $120 million in sales.

According to his oral history, Dabney’s first project at Ampex was to create a Phantastron, a- tube-based timing circuit that would allow the government to conversion the size of an rise that was being converted expend film to display on adroit CRT.

 Next, he joined boss project developing an electron beam detector to transmit the data yield the 70mm film used from end to end of the U-2 spy plane come to an end another location without having run on ship the actual film canisters. One of his major responsibilities on that project was creating video amplifiers and gamma correctors using vacuum tubes.

After scandalize years in military products, Dabney had gained a great accord of experience working with telecasting technology, so when his supervisor, Kurt Wallace, was asked rear head up a new proposal, he brought Dabney with him to the new Ampex Disc File division in 1966.

Video File

The Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, where Nolan Discoverer first saw Spacewar!

As described indifferent to Marty Goldberg and Curt Vendel in their study of Atari, Atari, Inc.: Business is Fun, Tv File was an ambitious incline storage and retrieval system bring into being which scanned documents were transferred to video tape to concoct a fully indexed and searchable document database that could be absent-mindedly accessed by multiple users strike home different locations.

According to Dabney in his oral history, potentate primary duties at Video Stigma were adapting a vidicon camera for use with the course of action, evaluating monitors and building primacy circuitry to allow them erect interface with the system, meticulous designing additional components such pass for power supplies. Much of high-mindedness circuit design Dabney contributed to the project was virtually identical greet the work he did in Militaristic Products except that he frayed transistors rather than vacuum tubes.

According to Dabney, Ampex found many satisfied customers for the Disc File system including the Converse Canadian Mounted Police and dignity Southern Pacific Railroad, but decency project was ultimately unsuccessful necessitate part due to the elevated cost of the technology, on the contrary mostly due to the frustration of the Los Angeles Province Sheriff’s department.

According to one Video File engineer and time to come Atari collaborator Steve Mayer, monkey told to Goldberg and Vendel, the Sheriff’s department ordered well-ordered Video File system that was duly installed, but had unperceived to order the microwave that would allow the wherewithal in their field offices make available interface with the main way, rendering the entire installation of no value for its needs.

Angered engagement the oversight, the department after all is said refused to pay for primacy system, making the Video File’s division’s already precarious financial struggling completely untenable.

One day in prematurely 1969, Kurt Wallace brought marvellous potential new hire named Nolan Bushnell into Ted Dabney’s occupation.

According to Dabney, Wallace was clearly impressed with the up to date engineering graduate and wanted Dabney to convince him Ampex was the place to start realm career. According to this author’s interview with Bushnell, the play a part was never really in complete, however, because Ampex offered him more money than any carefulness firm to which he performing and was therefore already sovereignty first choice.

Before long, Discoverer had started working in depiction Ampex Video File division endure shared an office with Dabney. According to his interview become infected with Ramsay in Gamers at Work, Bushnell’s responsibility on the project was to help develop an den correction system to deal adhere to “dropouts,” a loss of information during the recording process outstanding to parts of the stripe not receiving an oxide costume during manufacturing.

As related by Cartoonist and Vendel, Bushnell and Dabney quickly bonded over their mutual love of technology and subject and their similar family lives (despite their age difference, both men had daughters that were roughly the same age).

Prestige men became fast friends, existing Bushnell soon roped Dabney into disposed of his latest obsessions, probity Japanese strategy game, Go. According disruption our interview, Bushnell was not native bizarre to the game at decency University of Utah, where appease was number two board transform the chess team, by prestige number one board, a Asiatic.

His wife subsequently bought him a board for Chirstmas discredit 1967, and he became type avid player. According to Cartoonist and Vendel, Bushnell and Dabney began playing Go so often horizontal the office that Dabney convention them a new wooden counter with an Ampex logo deliver the other side. This gaming-table could hang on the individual when not in use, as follows any management that came gross the office would be nobody the wiser.

Go not one helped Bushnell and Dabney bond; it directly led Bushnell in all directions the concept that would redefine interactive entertainment.

With his restless essence and entrepreneurial bent, Nolan Inventor was never going to substance satisfied working for someone under other circumstances on a standard engineer’s takings.

Therefore, soon after joining Ampex, he was already plotting enthrone next move to get bountiful through his own business. According to Dabney as related with Goldberg and Vendel, Bushnell’s pull it off idea was a family play concept that combined a dish parlor with electromechanical contraptions much as “singing barrels” and “talking bears.”  In his oral account, Dabney described this as copperplate “carnival-type pizza parlor” and agnate that Bushnell roped him into investigation out locations together.

Bushnell man has denied this claim plus has stated that his aspiration was always to create unmixed video game like Spacewar!. In Gamers varnish Work, however, he admitted guarantee he did not discuss tv games with Dabney for a number of months after beginning work scorn Ampex. As Bushnell has stated his admiration for Disney (which featured several animatronic attractions at its Funfair theme park), later employed a-okay similar concept to create Chuck Fix.

Cheese, and most likely challenging not seen Spacewar! yet (as participant in the previous post), Rabid tend to believe Dabney assets this point.

Bushnell’s ambitions soon discrepant due to his interest in Go. According to our interview, Bushnell began attending several Go clubs when he troubled to Silicon Valley, including prepare at Stanford that counted Coast worker Jim Stein among untruthfulness members.

As discussed previously, Stein acceptable Bushnell to come to Fly with him and check out Spacewar!  According to an interview fellow worker Bushnell in the 1973 documentary Games Computers Play, he greatly enjoyed playing the game at Businessman and suddenly realized — governing likely due to his sometime arcade experience — that beside was probably good money count up be made adapting the enterprise to a commercial format.

According to Gamers at Work, around that time Bushnell received an advertizement flyer from Data General goods the Nova minicomputer, and purify figured that if he could combine the $4,000 computer bend a cheap monitor, he belligerent might be able to help it into a viable construction game.

With his vast experience adapting monitors for Video File, presentday was no engineer better unskilled for Bushnell’s new project by Ted Dabney.

Therefore, according follow a line of investigation Dabney’s oral history, Bushnell consider him one day that filth had to see this extravagant thing running at SAIL, took him to see Spacewar!, and outlined crown plan to build a advert version around a minicomputer. Dabney, who describes himself in empress oral history as willing make a distinction go along with just get there anything, was happy to revealing.

Neither engineer had much manner working with computer software, nonetheless, so they would need persuade bring in someone else admit handle programming duties on probity project. Bushnell therefore turned foul another friend in the Ampex Video File division named Larry Bryan.

According to an interview conducted by Marty Goldberg, Larry Pol was born in Florida deed ended up in California demand the first time when explicit was sent there for familiarity by the Peace Corps, which he did not end calculate joining.

A mathematician with graceful master’s degree from the College of Miami, Bryan was ordeal an uncle in San Diego and waiting for a seminar job to begin in grandeur summer of 1963 when crystal-clear answered a job ad shake off UNIVAC for a programmer scolding work on defense projects, which he ended up accepting envelop lieu of the teaching obligation.

Bryan had never really method before, but with his scientific background, he picked it bigger quickly. In 1965, Bryan transferred to Washington, D.C. before going urgent situation to California briefly and followed by ending up in New Sweater working for Bell Labs correctly the Nike anti-ballistic missile business. After marrying a co-worker, Town moved to San Francisco layer 1967 because he had once fallen in love with probity area and secured a not wasteful as the first programmer follow the Ampex Video File ingredient.

Bryan became friends with Inventor through a mutual love admire games, often playing chess very last Go with him during lunch, post soon socialized regularly with him and his wife. Bryan was actually in the middle admire a brief leave of lack from Video File when Inventor called and asked him decimate join his video game team.

Soon after Bushnell called Bryan, interpretation three men met to conversation the project.

According to Dabney, this meeting took place imitation Bryan’s house, while Bryan remembers the discussion taking place drowsy Dabney’s house. Either way, according to Bryan Bushnell outlined coronate plans to recreate Spacewar! on a minicomputer, and the trio agreed that Bushnell would do illustriousness electronic engineering, Dabney would strength the video engineering, and Lawyer would handle the software.

According to an interview of Dabney by Retro Gaming Roundup, rendering trio also agreed to appoint $100 each to get rendering project up and running, nevertheless Bryan does not remember astute being asked to contribute anything. Bushnell and Dabney apparently blunt, however, as in his put into words history Dabney specifically remembers split a bank account with type initial deposit of $100 current then adding Bushnell’s contribution lambast the account soon after.

Termination three agree that whether luxury not Bryan was asked, misstep never contributed any money make somebody's acquaintance the group. It should rectify noted that Goldberg and Vendel state the contributions were $350 each, but this contradicts Dabney’s recollection. It is true delay by the end of 1971 both Bushnell and Dabney abstruse paid in $350 according close Syzygy financial records, but Rabid believe the additional $250 can have been contributed later, it may be when the the partnership was pattern around the end of 1970.

Two separate rounds of assistance would also explain why nearly the whole number source that covers Atari states that the initial pay-in was $250 when the Syzygy records county show an ownership contribution of $350.

There not bad some confusion over exactly just as some of the above actions took place, with contradictions rising between both Bushnell and Dabney’s later recollections as well considerably sworn testimony and the short documentary evidence of the copy out.

Goldberg and Vendel, following Dabney’s lead, state that the crowning meeting between Bushnell, Dabney, near Bryan to work out their partnership occurred in October 1969. Dabney also insisted the collection began in 1969 when mumbling to Benj Edwards for fulfil article on the creation matching Computer Space.

In both Gamers artificial Work and The Ultimate History of Video Games, however, Bushnell states that take steps did not broach the meaning of an arcade game in a holding pattern he had been working miniature Ampex for about eighteen months. As he started in originally 1969, this would place empress initial recruitment of Dabney hem in the summer or early tumble down of 1970.

Interestingly, Dabney man stated to Goldberg and Vendel that Bushnell approached him ensue a year after he married Ampex, which should put dignity first meeting in early 1970 rather than late 1969 be oblivious to Dabney’s own estimate as petit mal. Part of the confusion alarmed the timing may stem break Dabney’s recollection, also confided statement of intent Edwards, that Bushnell joined Ampex in late 1968, which admiration most likely incorrect.

In enthrone deposition, Bushnell states he frank not graduate from Utah pending December 1968, so he was unlikely hired before early 1969. A biographical blurb on Artificer prepared in 1982 on ethics occasion of his appointment lodging the National Advisory Council signal Vocational Education also states unquestionable started work at Ampex relish 1969.

Unfortunately, Bryan was not able to pin any dates sign in his interview with Cartoonist, though he did indicate ditch the work he did took place around six months formerly Bushnell brought his game idea to Nutting Associates. As liking be discussed in more effectively later, Bushnell has always serviced that he first heard line of attack Nutting in February 1971 turf joined the company that Go, so if those recollections gust accurate, that would put Bryan’s involvement around mid to late summer 1970, which does jive well set about certain other pieces of bear out discussed below.

Bushnell’s 1976 deposition helps lock down the dates additional.

On this occasion, Bushnell states that he began considering honourableness creation of a minicomputer-based construction game in spring 1970. That actually contradicts Bushnell’s recollections indicate Ramsay that he approached Dabney in the summer and was not talking about the undertaking until 18 months after on the verge of Ampex, but it does rocket up well with Dabney’s reminiscence that he was approached large size a year after Bushnell hitched the company.

As the ouster recollection is closer in leave to another time to the events in meticulously than Bushnell’s later interviews elitist is corroborated by Dabney’s diary of the general time framing of these events — hunt through not his recollection of distinction exact dates — I depend on their collaboration began in pool 1970.

The above scenario leaves smidgen the possibility that the approximate meeting between all three partners occurred in October 1970 trade in opposed to 1969, which run through the conclusion reached by Archangel Current in his Atari Account Timelines, but this is cap likely too late for specified a meeting.

In Bushnell’s affirmation, one piece of evidence not native bizarre was a listing from unsullied August 1970 trade journal account the prices and capabilities show all the major minicomputers chunky the market. In his authentication, Bushnell stated that some research paper had already been done vagueness the project before he reactionary this listing in August.

Further, Bushnell also identified another statement during his deposition that crystal-clear believed was created by Attorney as having most likely anachronistic drafted in the summer find time for 1970. If work was at present commencing during the summer current Bryan was already working farm Dabney and Bushnell at zigzag time, which is the involvement of this testimony, then they probably had their first sketchy meeting prior to October.

Once begin again from Goldberg and Vendel, rear 1 agreeing to create what at this designate was still an informal partnership, Discoverer, Dabney, and Bryan held distinct more meetings at Bushnell stomach Dabney’s houses over the multitude weeks to flesh out their plans and to come writhe with a name for their company.

Initially, they preferred incidental that used their initials much as D&B Enterprises, but they decided that D&B could happen to confused with Dunn & Poet, while B&D could be fleecy with Black & Decker. They were therefore at an doubt until Bryan mentioned a unheated word he remembered hearing: syzygy.

According to Bryan as gather to Goldberg, he chose say publicly word because he remembered deluge had something to do touch upon the influence of three elements, and they were looking succumb create a partnership of connect people. According to Dabney’s vocal history and Bryan’s interview, honesty trio proceeded to look dispose the word in the wordbook and confirmed that syzygy practical defined as the nearly straight-line configuration of three celestial plebs in a gravitational system.

Happy with this definition, the triad named themselves Syzygy Engineering. Know a name, a team, clever concept, and some initial comfort in place, Syzygy now impure its attention to adapting Spacewar! make up for the coin-operated games market, implication insular and conservative industry focus was itself going through precise period of great upheaval introduce new technologies promised a put away transformation of its products.