(upbeat digital music)
- [Narrator] This isn't any ordinary gamer.
- [Nolan] I had the reputation at the time
of this mad genius.
- [Narrator] He created a bunch of companies
focusing on robots …
- [Nolan] Automobile navigation.
- [Narrator] Microwave components.
- [Nolan] And a bunch of others.
- He is the man who launched the video game revolution.
(upbeat digital music)
- [Narrator] But there's one more creation you may
not know about …
A place where a kid can be a kid.
- [Announcer] Let's welcome creative genius, Nolan Bushnell.
- [Broadcaster] Nolan Bushnell.
(upbeat digital music)
- [Narrator] In many ways, you can trace the history
of video games all the way back to this man, Nolan Bushnell.
In 1972, Nolan co-founded one of the first
video game companies.
They called it Atari.
Their first hit is a table tennis game called, Pong.
It sets record sales and permanently changed
the arcade world.
Even though arcades were hitting critical mass,
families were still hesitant to accept them
into their lives.
To change hearts and minds, Nolan knew that
arcades needed a new and friendly face.
This is the story of how he introduced the world
to a new mascot of gaming, Chuck E. Cheese.
(upbeat digital music)
In the 1970s and ’80s, this is what a video game looked like.
Yeah, it doesn't look like much.
But back then, games like these turned Atari
into a multi billion dollar company.
(digital music)
- At Atari, we had explosive growth.
We were just printing money because we were lean and mean,
and had good games.
- [Narrator] But having good games wasn't enough.
The market was saturated, and Atari needed to break
into a new demographic.
- [Nolan] I wanted to create a chain of big arcades
focusing on kids.
- They've even passed laws restricting the use of the games.
- But, there were certain cities that didn't
wanna have arcades because teenagers came and
they'd cause trouble.
So I felt that disguising it as a restaurant was
a good business strategy.
Chuck E. Cheese was an arcade, masquerading as a restaurant.
(laughing)
- [Narrator] Though Nolan had the idea, he needed someone
to turn it into a reality.
So he tapped one of the brightest
business minds within Atari.
A man as ambitious as he was.
A man as crazy as he was. - Come on, baby.
Meet the first president of Chuck E. Cheese, Gene Landrum.
(upbeat music)
- I have been pretty competitive in my life.
I was 20 years old, I was Mr. Ft. Lauderdale.
I won a hundred tennis tournaments.
So, I did business kind of the same way.
I happened to be an aggressive guy, and go get it done,
and win the game.
(upbeat music)
When Nolan hired me to do this, I actually looked at myself
and said, “What do you know about food, Gene?”
Nothing.
- [Narrator] But that was a risk Nolan wanted to take.
He knew that creating something unorthodox
required visionaries, not experts set in their ways.
- Experts don't understand the future.
Too many times you have to un-teach experts.
So, when it came to spinning up the Chuck E. Cheese project,
I thought Gene would be the perfect guy.
- [Narrator] So, where did Gene start?
Well, with food.
- [Gene] Pizza makes sense because families love pizza.
And, guess what?
It takes 20 minutes to make a pizza.
So, while they're waiting, the kids are playing
the games, and I had Chuck actually deliver the pizza.
And I went down south and found a guy who did
costumes for Disney.
I said, “Look I don't want a mouse.”
Disney's got Mickey.
And I don't want a rat, it’s too hard core.
I want a soft rat.
And he did it.
- [Narrator] And after only three months of work,
Chuck E. Cheese Pizza Time Theater opened its doors
for the first time on May 17, 1977.
(upbeat music)
- Everybody was willing to say that
talking robots in a pizza parlor with a lot of games
was a really stupid idea.
And in fact, the day we opened I knew we'd screwed up.
The place wasn't big enough.
- My joint was filled.
There wasn't a seat.
And once I learned how to do it, I opened a store a week.
Fifty stores I opened in one year!
- I had no fear.
I knew that it was gonna do well.
(subtle dramatic music)
- [Narrator] Chuck E. Cheese's initial stores were a hit.
But at the parent company Atari, things were going
a little differently.
- Warner bought Atari, and all of a sudden
you had a whole bunch of New York suits pruning
my pet projects.
I was really upset about that, and it dawned on me
that I was having a lot more fun working on
Chuck E. Cheese than on Atari.
- [Narrator] And so Nolan eventually left Atari.
Over time, the company struggled and faded away
as the spotlight turned to new gaming giants like Nintendo.
But while kids today may not know the name Atari,
Chuck E. Cheese is still a childhood hot spot.
After 40 years, the buck tooth, pizza-serving
stuffed rat still stands as a testament to
Nolan's innovation in the video game industry.
(subtle dramatic music)
- It was a whirlwind.
It was more successful than I thought it would ever be.
But, Chuck E. Cheese, it’s a viable concept.
It makes sense.
It still makes sense.
- Chuck E. Cheese's is better than ever.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
- There's a vanishingly small number of places
where parents and children can have a fun night out.
And that was one of the goals.
You know, I feel good about that.
I saw it, I did it.
I was at the beginning.
Enough.
(laughing)
(ding)