Masters of invention

Nolan Bushnell (Born in 1943)

The father of home video games. He build Pong in 1972, starting the video-game craze that led to today's powerful super systems.

During the 1950's and 1960's, computers improved enormously. Still, only big businesses, universities and the military had them. Then in 1972, the video-game craze began. Computers were scaled down to small boxes, using electronic circuitry instead of the Mark Fs switches. They could do more than analyse data. They could play games.

The first big hit was a simple game called Pong. Two players sat in front of a television screen where a "ball" - a point of light - bounced back and forth. Using knobs on a cabinet, the players could hit the ball with inch-long "paddles" on the screen.

Pong was created by Nolan Bushnell, who grew up near Salt Lake City, Utah. He loved to tinker with machines and became an electrical engineer. He played primitive computer games that were even older than Pong.

"I build it with my own two hands and a soldering iron," Bushnell said of his creation of the first Pong game.

In 1972 Bushnell founded Atari Inc. In Sunnyvale, Calif., to build Pong games. By 1975 there were 150,000 Pong games in American homes. Steve Wozniak (Born in 1950) and Steven Jobs (Born in 1955)

Working out of a garage, the young video game fanatics invented the Apple computer in 1976. The age of home computers was born.

One of Atari's early employees was 19-year-old Steve Wozniak, who worked for another computer company, both loved video games.

Jobs and Wozniak dreamed of a personal computer, one that could do more than play games. From this dream, the Apple Computer Company started in family garage.

In 1977 Jobs and Wozniak sold their first Apple II, which launched the personal computer industry. By 1985 they had sold more than two million Apple II's.

The Apple II was more than a toy. People could use it to write letters, keep financial records and teach their children. And, yes, they could play games on it. The Apply II evolved into today's high-tech Macintosh computers. These computers popularised the use of the mouse, the hand-controlled device that moved the cursor on a computer display.

What's your opinion of computer games?

By Bill Gates

What is your opinion about computer games? Kail Pvnkkv, Finland (caspar(AT)Zal4l .stuitsLratol.fi)

I like games, off and on the screen.

My family played board games together when I was a kid, and I'm a fairly avid bridge, poker, go and chess player

When the PC саше out in 1981 my company offered several software products for n in addition to the operating system, MS-DOS Some of the applications we marketed, such as Adventure and Typing Tutor, are now obscure But we also released Flight Simulator, which is still selling very well after 17 years and nu­merous updates.

In recent years, Microsoft has offered a whole line of computer games, and encouraged other companies to invest m games, too Getting numerous companies to build good games will help build the market for PCs at home — PCs that will be used for games as well as other applications

I used to be embarrassed by how hard it was to install games on PCs It was terrible! In die days of Windows 3 1, conflicts between games and productivity applications were commonplace People often had to find an expert to help them install a game The frustration early held back the market

The situation is much improved now. It's a lot easier for pub­lishers to write games that install easily and run well on a wide variety of hardware Game publishers have seen the cost, of providing telephone support decline

Because hardware and software are improving, publishers are able to concentrate more on being creative and less on figuring, out how to coax performance from PCs Many action games still are fine-tuned for high performance, however, because many con­sumers have proven their interest in games that push the state of-the-art

The boundary between what's a game and what 5 not is less clear ever) day If you re using software that simulates an interactive fantasy space that you can seem to walk around in, is that a game⁷ If you or уоur children use educational software that offers challenges, rewards and feedback, is that a game

The Internet often has noticeable latency, or delay, particularly when accessed through telephone modems that don t use a recent software protocol called V90 Latency usually isn’t an is sue for people using the Internet to play bridge on chess, but it can be a big problem for multiplayer action games where instanta­neous response time is important

One solution is to design the software so it connects only people who happen to have fast connections to each other Another approach is for players of fast paced games to use private servers and networks

As technology improves, latency will be less of an issue and you play games that accommodate a large number of simulta­neous players It will become common for people from around a nation or die world to use the Internet to compete with each other

In some circles, it's common already At any given moment, my company typically has as many customers playing our games online (at www zone corn) as К has people using our online ser­vice We don't know how to make money with online games yet but we'll figure it out someday

In a speech, you spoke of bringing citizens and the gov­ernment into closer contact via a digital nervous system." Don't you think that this concept is contrary to what peo­ple want: distance from the government? Jthomp(AT)po-box.mcgill.ca

Government is pervasive, and most interactions people have with it are positive Governments create order and provide services, including school and health systems and roads

Even if you don't personally reach out to the representatives of government, certain infrastructures and issues related to the rule of law are important to you Nobody challenges the night of governments to issue a parking ticket or to ask you to get a busi­ness license or a passport or to pay your real-estate taxes

Since we agree these are legitimate functions of government, why not use technology to make government more efficient, for the benefit of the people it serves — you and me⁷ Why should dealing with the government-mean filling out рареrwork or standing in line.

As we make governments more efficient by equipping them with digital news systems, they'll have new potential to gather and consolidate information about individuals and groups.