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
Author: rolenta
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 Scott Stilphin’s Atari Compendium 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.ataricompendium.com/archives/articles/impossible_game/impossible_game.html Copyright © 2022 Leonard Herman
KUNG-FU COMBAT 2
Released in July 2021 by Good Deal Games/Homebrew Heaven Kung-Fu Combat 2, my twelfth manual, was the fourth one I did for Good Deal Games. As I did with Pro Golf, Kung-Fu Combat 2 did not mimic a manual design of an established company. The use of the “Chinese” font on the first page and…… Continue reading KUNG-FU COMBAT 2
CIRCUS CONVOY
Released in March 2021 by Audacity Games In early 2020 I had an agreement with Dan Kitchen to do the documentation for his new game Dan Kitchen’s Gold Rush that he was releasing under his own company TikiVision. This was to to be a sequel to his brother Garry’s Activision hit game Keystone Kapers!. I…… Continue reading CIRCUS CONVOY
TOOTING MY OWN HORN
I can’t help tooting my own horn but I just found a hard copy of an email sent to me on January 10, 2000 from Crispin Boyer, my editor at Electronic Gaming Monthly, which at the time was the world’s number one videogame magazine. Crispin stated that they received “loads of positive feedback“ regarding my…… Continue reading TOOTING MY OWN HORN
The Game Scholar 