Released in 2025 by Champ Games/Good Deal Games In November 2023 Michael Thomasson of Good Deal Games asked me if I wanted to design the manuals for two new Atari 2600 games that he was producing through his company, Good Deal Games. Naturally I said yes and he sent me files of the game so…… Continue reading LUCKY CHASE & TOMAHAWK 777
Author: rolenta
INNOVATIVE LEISURE: A HISTORY OF ATARI – PART 2 – THE WARNER YEARS
Old School Gamer – September 2024 It took me a while to write the second part of the Atari article so it wasn’t published until nearly two years after the first part. Unfortunately, as I wrote this one, I realized that it would have to be continued again into a third part, and probably a…… Continue reading INNOVATIVE LEISURE: A HISTORY OF ATARI – PART 2 – THE WARNER YEARS
INNOVATIVE LEISURE: A HISTORY OF ATARI – PART 1
Old School Gamer – November 2022 Ryan Berger, the publisher of Old School Magazine, called me and asked me if I’d like to write a 3,000-word article about the history of Atari through the mid-nineties for the Fall 2022 issue. Once I started working on it, I realized that I had taken on much more…… Continue reading INNOVATIVE LEISURE: A HISTORY OF ATARI – PART 1
THE FINAL CORRESPONDENCES WITH NOLAN
Three men make up the pillars of videogame history. One was Ralph Baer, who invented the home videogame console. The other two were Nolan Bushnell & Ted Dabney, the co-founders of Atari and creators of Computer Space, the world’s first arcade videogame. I maintained very close relationships with Ralph and Ted until their deaths, and…… Continue reading THE FINAL CORRESPONDENCES WITH NOLAN
THE FINAL CORRESPONDENCES WITH NOLAN – PART 1 – RALPH BAER
The rivalry between Ralph and Nolan was legendary. Ralph invented the first videogame console, the Magnavox Odyssey, which was released in 1972. Working independently, and completely unaware of Ralph, Nolan & Ted created the first videogame arcade machine, Computer Space, which was released in 1971 and was a commercial failure. After seeing a demonstration of…… Continue reading THE FINAL CORRESPONDENCES WITH NOLAN – PART 1 – RALPH BAER
THE FINAL CORRESPONDENCE WITH NOLAN PART 2 – TED DABNEY
In early 2006 I began work on the fourth edition of my videogame history book, Phoenix: The Fall and Rise of Videogames. I had a lot of questions about the early days of Atari and I believe I reached out to Nolan Bushnell but if I did, he never responded. So I decided to try…… Continue reading THE FINAL CORRESPONDENCE WITH NOLAN PART 2 – TED DABNEY
MY FATHER’S LEGACY
Although I was never an athlete, I grew up in the shadow of one. My father, Ronnie Herman, was a table tennis player. He didn’t play professionally but he had dozens of trophies that sat atop our dining room breakfront. My father joined the New Jersey Table Tennis Club during the fifties, when it rented…… Continue reading MY FATHER’S LEGACY
RALPH BAER’S RELEVANCE IN THE MODERN WORLD
On Saturday, May 21, 2022, the city of Manchester, New Hampshire celebrated Ralph Baer’s 100th birthday by rededicating the statue of him that they put up a few years ago. I was invited to give a speech about Ralph’s relevance in the modern world. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend due to an onset of…… Continue reading RALPH BAER’S RELEVANCE IN THE MODERN WORLD
FIRST IS NOT ENOUGH
The assumption is that we mostly remember the people who did things first or the products that came out first. But that isn’t necessary true. There were several people who came up with the idea of the incandescent light bulb before Thomas Edison but how many of them could you name? And how many people…… Continue reading FIRST IS NOT ENOUGH
ATARI VCS/2600 TELESYS’ THE IMPOSSIBLE GAME
I wrote this short article for Joe Santuilli’s Digital Press website. Truthfully, I don’t remember writing the article and I came upon it when I was doing a Google search for Ralph Baer’s 100th birthday on 3/8/22. https://www.digitpress.com/archives/arc00067.htm Copyright © 2022 Leonard Herman
The Game Scholar 