Atari Co-founder Ted Dabney Dies Aged 80

[Megalith]

According to a Facebook post by Historian Leonard Herman, Atari Co-founder Ted Dabney has passed away at the age of 80 after a battle with cancer. In partnership with Nolan Bushnell, Dabney developed arcade game Computer Science, which would serve as the foundation for Pong.

In 1971 Dabney co-founded Atari predecessor Syzygy with Bushnell and developed Computer Space, the world's first commercially available arcade video game. In 1972 the pair co-founded Atari, and Computer Space was used for the basis of Pong, the video game that made the company its early-days millions. Dabney later left the company after a falling out with Busnhell.

 

[bigdogchris]

Reminder for any of you who have not yet watched Microsoft's Atari documentary on Netflix.

 

[pfc_m_drake]

Atari - one of the pioneers.
RIP

 

[gwarren007]

RIP. The Atari 2600 provided many hours of fun in the late 70's and early 1980's.

 

[scojer]

RIP

Had the chance to meet Bushnell at a pinball convention a couple years ago, it was a cool experience to meet one of those responsible for my favorite past time. Sucks I won't be 2 for 2.

 

[pentiumiiislota]

Rip. I had lots of fun playing the original console and even bought the new atari mini.

 

[atp1916]

RIP to one of the original Nerds.

Troublemakers: Silicon Valley's Coming of Age

 

[Red Falcon]

Very sad, hope he can RIP.

 

[Master_shake_]

Fuck cancer

 

[mps]

I happen to be taking a week of vacation away from my "real job" to do some game repair at the American Classic Arcade Museum when news of Ted's passing made its way to me. I was very sad, but not shocked to hear the news. I had heard from Lenny Herman some time ago that Ted was not well. I will certainly be playing our Computer Space & Pong in his honor while here.

RIP Ted. Your contributions will certainly be remembered here at ACAM. Best wishes to Ted's family & friends.

Mike Stulir, Vice President
The American Classic Arcade Museum

 

[Red Falcon]

Oh jeeze, I completely forgot that Ted Dabney was one of the makers of Computer Space.
It was also featured in the 1973 movie, Soylent Green, as the very first arcade game to ever be featured in a movie, so not only is Computer Space historic itself, but it is also very historic in cinema as well!

Strangely enough, I even made a synthwave music video featuring 1970s movies which had the scene with the Computer Space arcade cabinet:



(can be clearly seen at 2:41)

 

[lostin3d]

RIP TD. The company you helped co-found had a huge impact on my life.

Sometime in the early 70's I remember visiting a relatives house and they had Pong. A number of years later(around 80-81) I had a paper route and saved something like $300 and bought a used Atari console(the predecessor to the 2600) along with extra controllers, games, and even replacement parts for the joysticks. Sometime after that I learned of a trick involving the switches that often gained access to debug level/dev modes on some games. A year later I saved more money and got my 1st computer. A used Atari 400 with the GTIA chip, cassette drive, and some manuals. It really was the beginning of computers and modding for me. Started getting compute!, and about a half dozen other era magazines. Learned basic, pascal, and some assembly. Later upgraded the keyboard to a mechanical(man connecting those old style ribbons sucked). Upgraded to the next model of cassette drive and then the first of many floppies. I gained an awareness of CP/M and extensively learned about DOS's from those. Upgraded from 16k to 48k with a kit that involved soldering 16k onto a 32k board. That rig was kicking butt till around 83-84.

 

[Red Falcon]

RIP TD. The company you helped co-found had a huge impact on my life.

Sometime in the early 70's I remember visiting a relatives house and they had Pong. A number of years later(around 80-81) I had a paper route and saved something like $300 and bought a used Atari console(the predecessor to the 2600) along with extra controllers, games, and even replacement parts for the joysticks. Sometime after that I learned of a trick involving the switches that often gained access to debug level/dev modes on some games. A year later I saved more money and got my 1st computer. A used Atari 400 with the GTIA chip, cassette drive, and some manuals. It really was the beginning of computers and modding for me. Started getting compute!, and about a half dozen other era magazines. Learned basic, pascal, and some assembly. Later upgraded the keyboard to a mechanical(man connecting those old style ribbons sucked). Upgraded to the next model of cassette drive and then the first of many floppies. I gained an awareness of CP/M and extensively learned about DOS's from those. Upgraded from 16k to 48k with a kit that involved soldering 16k onto a 32k board. That rig was kicking butt till around 83-84.

I am putting your quote/story into my retro computing thread on here.
That is super inspirational, and I didn't really realize how much computing and learning was being done back in the 1960s through the 1980s.

Nice work on all of your upgrades from back then, especially before the advent of the World Wide Web - can't even imagine what POTS + BBC would have cost back then, especially for anyone who isn't an adult with a decent-paying job!
You might find this interesting as well:

 

[juanrga]

My first computer was an Atari! It must be at home still.