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Bushnell: That was Britta, second daughter. And I put her in with her older sister and turned her bedroom into a lab. | ||
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Gemperlein: You were about 29 years old then. What do you know that you wish you had known when you were 29 that you know now? | ||
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People would look at you like you like you had three heads. You mean you're going to put the TV set in a box with a coin slot and play games on it? |
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Bushnell: I wish I knew how big money worked. How the stock market actually operated. How the New York establishment and capitalizations worked. I think that I did a lot of things on no money that could have been more efficient if I'd have just the right ways to fund and grow companies. | ||
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Gemperlein: Were you thinking at the time of making money, or were you just thinking of what you wanted to do? | ||
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Bushnell:
I was always trying to make payroll. And so you have to think about money.
You can tell the difference between an employee and an entrepreneur by the way they look at payroll. If they look forward to it, they're an employee. If they hate it, they're an employer. I was always looking for the project. I think most people look for the project, and they know in the back of their mind that if the project is successful and does everything that they expect, that the money will follow. |
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Gemperlein: Were there times when you were frustrated or people looked at you like, ahh, you're just a kid and you have a game and didn't take you seriously? | ||
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Bushnell:
It happened incessantly. In fact, there are still people who don't understand that games are serious business even though it's a multi-billion dollar industry. You'd go to these conferences, and they're called multimedia conferences. And they'd say, "What's the killer app?"
And I'd say: "Guys, the killer app for multimedia is games..." And then they'd say: "But what's really going to be important?" ... People would look at you like you like you had three heads. "You mean you're going to put the TV set in a box with a coin slot and play games on it? Oh, and then you're going to have people hook them up to their own TV set? Oh, I don't think so." Gemperlein: Did you ever have any doubts yourself? Bushnell: Oh, of course not! |
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