I was on the University of Utah campus a few weeks back, hoping for a chance to meet one of Utah's truly notable serial entrepreneurs: Nolan Bushnell.
The occasion was the Micron Classic Gaming Tournament. Hosted by the U's Department of Electrical Engineering and sponsored by Boise, Idaho-based Micron, the whole idea was to pay homage to U. graduate Bushnell and the computer gaming craze he started several decades ago with his formation of Atari, the launch of Pong and then the later launch of Asteroids. Pong (you may well remember) was the first video arcade game, usually found in bars and pizza parlors, where one could play video ping pong either against the machine or against an opponent. As computer games go it was about as simple as one could get. But it worked and it was the coolest thing going at the time. Each contestant maneuvered a small flat white line on the screen side-to-side as one's paddle. The "ball" was launched by pushing a button and was represented by a moving light dot and could be "hit" so as to increase or decrease the ball's speed, line of flight, or even spin.
On the other hand, Asteroids was a dramatic leap forward in computer gaming technology as it allowed contestants to maneuver a small triangular shaped rocket ship that shot BB-like light bombs out of its cone in order to blow up misshapen asteroids. Larger asteroids were blown up into smaller asteroids and smaller asteroids were destroyed, but throughout the game all asteroids "fell" down the screen, moving inexorably closer to one's ship, making maneuverability of the ship and a quick trigger finger critical skills for superiority in Asteroids.
Bushnell graduated from the U. with a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering. In addition to Atari, he has started more than 20 companies in such diverse areas as robotics, computer gaming, automobile navigation and microwave communications. He was even the founder of Chuck E. Cheese Theater, a magnet to young children and purveyor of cheap pizza. Through his current venture, uWink, Bushnell is now attempting to change the face of Internet entertainment with coin-operated game terminals located in public venues that feature online multi-player access and worldwide tournaments. Interestingly, Bushnell says that 40 percent of uWink's current users are females.
When I arrived at the Merrill Engineering Building, the mano-a-machina contests were well underway, with a room full of mostly young men (and a few young women) battling it out against the computers for the prize of honor among geeks: Top Score and Top Combined Score. The fact that the big winner also got a trip to the national finals in Boise didn't hurt either, but the real prize was landing the best score.
In the end, 23-year-old Scott Little of Salt Lake City, a junior majoring in computer engineering, garnered the top prize for the day. According to Little, he and his siblings played a lot of computer games while growing up, with Little admitting that he spent three to four hours each summer day during his early teen-age years honing his skills on Atari games. Bushnell seemed bemused by the entire event, perhaps because of the pandemonium that raged around him. Or perhaps because of the near-worshipful reverence paid to him by student after student as they came up to shake his hand, snap a photo or share an anecdote from their computer gaming past.
I enjoyed my visit with the Clearfield, Utah native, and picking his brain about his thoughts about the next great thing someone somewhere would invent. (I'll give you a hint — Bushnell said to watch the field of transportation.)
In the ensuing weeks I've done a lot of thinking about my visit with Nolan, mostly musing about what it is that makes a person like him become a successful inventor and serial entrepreneur versus the other "average" college graduate.
These thoughts have taken on an expanded importance for me given that I have my first child in college, with four more on their way to higher education. I also wonder what implications our growing population holds for those bound for college and technical schools. Can someone like a Nolan Bushnell be replicated here in Utah given our current educational system? And can we get them to stay in Utah to build company after company here in Utah once they leave school, or will they be bound and determined to find their fortune elsewhere? Or for that matter, should we even be trying to create such a Bushnell clone in the first place?
Next week I hope to dig a bit further into this topic of genius building and mentoring, and the potential implications for all Utah residents.
David L. Politis is the president of Politis Communications, a public relations, investor relations and marketing communications agency.
E-mail: dpolitis@politis.com