Allan Alcorn

Electrical Engineer, Founder Atari, designed Pong, Apple Fellow, Founder Silicon Gaming

[Allan Alcorn @alalcorn]

@orubin Years ago, I wondered how a prosperous stable society could descend into fascism like the Germans did with the Nazis. At least now we can watch it happen from inside. Ben Franklin said "experience is the finest teacher but has the highest tuition,"

[Allan Alcorn @alalcorn]

@ilovenostalgia I do. But you got the sound slightly wrong.

[Allan Alcorn @alalcorn]

@nassi Congratulations, you certainly earned it.

Al

[eliza @elizalian]

this is all you need to know about sf

[Allan Alcorn @alalcorn]

@markoff @Liebenwalde It feels weird when you're treated like ancient history but you're still alive!

[Allan Alcorn @alalcorn]

Where is the coin slot?

[Ariel Dovas parody @eviloars]

Salesforce tower plays pong

[Ariel Dovas parody @eviloars]

Salesforce tower plays pong

[Allan Alcorn @alalcorn]

@jeriellsworth The old original lamp in the Livermore firehouse runs forever because it is running way below rated voltage.
Al old "wiz wheel" calculator shows if you run a 120 lamp at 93 Volts it will last 5,000% longer.

[Allan Alcorn @alalcorn]

@jeriellsworth I remember the craziness of setting up the first Pizza Time theater in San Jose and all the things we had to invent for this. Showbiz was just a rip off of Pizza Time and eventually they merged. It was primarily done as a way to sell more coin up video games.

[Allan Alcorn @alalcorn]

@jeriellsworth It is my first Atari business card!

[Allan Alcorn @alalcorn]

@armoredrobot Actually Tom Quinn found a small manufacture in Wisconson that designed and built them and I advised. It was a last minute item.

[Allan Alcorn @alalcorn]

@CommanderCrash When the box was switched to feed the signal from the video game into the TV set the challenge was to keep that signal from leaking back into your antenna. If it did leak it could interfere with your neighbor trying to watch broadcast television.

[Allan Alcorn @alalcorn]

I helped design these back in '73 for consumer Pong. The FCC required 60dB isolation at ch 4/3 frequencies. Not easy to do for cheap. https://t.co/xntgiZG8JS

[Allan Alcorn @alalcorn]

@jeriellsworth It's cool when you see stuff you designed in a surplus store!

[Allan Alcorn @alalcorn]

@jeriellsworth It's the last game that I personally designed. The Game was inspired by a Pong board that had a defect in the score circuit and put score digit segments all over the screen. I turned the defect into a feature.

[Allan Alcorn @alalcorn]

I just backed Tilt Five: Holographic Tabletop Gaming on @Kickstarter https://t.co/2yg2wX5EJ0

[Allan Alcorn @alalcorn]

I may be in a documentary that will be shown on Saturday, 3/9, at 10 PM on the local NBC affiliate (ch 11). It's called "Bay Area Revelations" and its about early video games in Silicon Valley.

[Allan Alcorn @alalcorn]

@cdespinosa There is an interesting small Jobs history event in SF at Books Inc on March 19 at 7PM. I plan to attend and talk about Steve when he worked for me. Contact Beth at [email protected] if you are interested

[Allan Alcorn @alalcorn]

@jeriellsworth This is the best version of Pong I've ever seen! Amazing effort!

[Allan Alcorn @alalcorn]

What’s this bug?