Allan Alcorn is an engineer, computer scientist and pioneer in the video game industry.
Creating Pong
Pong, an electronic table-tennis game, was created by Allan Alcorn in 1972 at the urging of Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell. Bushnell prodded Alcorn during the three-month development cycle, telling him that General Electric had contracted Atari to develop and produce the game. "Pong was a hard-wired machine that just played Pong. There was no computer involved," [Alcorn] says.http://www.smh.com.au/news/articles/life-after-pong/2008/04/23/1208742950795.html] (April 24, 2008)
The first prototype was tested in Andy Capp's Bar, a local pub in Sunnyvale, California. When the game's sales far exceeded expectations, Alcorn began development of a home version. This established Atari as the leader in the fledgling home video game industry.
References
Fast Facts
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Birth place
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Graduated from University of California, Berkeley in 1971
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B.S. in Electrical Engineering / Computer Science
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Third employee hired at Atari.Wired: People of CGE: Al Alcorn (July 29, 2007) Employees #1 and #2 were co-founders Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney
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Designed first coin-operated arcade video game (Pong) in 1972
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Led development of the Atari VCS, the first video console system
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Worked with Apple Computer's Advanced Technology group from 1986 to 1991
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Early work with Apple Computer led to MPEG standard and QuickTime
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Founded Zowie Entertainment in 1998
