Atari's Founder
Goes ROBOTIC
Nolan Bushnell's$119.95
Programmable Robot!
by NAT FRIEDLAND
Antic Editor
Nolan Bushnell, the Silicon Valley legend
who brought out the first videogame, "Pong," and founded the Atari company
has tooled up for his first major push into the consumer electronics market
since his Atari non-competition contract ran out in November 1983.
He's gambling that significant numbers of computer hobbyists
are eager to step into 3-D interaction with what he calls "the peripheral
of the '80s" - robots.
But judging from the tremendous reader response to the three-part
Antic robot series (12/83, 1/84 and 6/84) as well as the eager questions
about robots that we are asked every time someone from Antic speaks at
a users' group, Bushnell may well be right again.
Bushnell's Sunnyvale-based Axlon company is producing the first
mass-merchandised low cost computer-programmable robot, the $119.95 Andy.
Before this summmer, Andys made in Hong Kong are supposed to
start arriving at major retail outlets like Toys 'R' Us. Bushnell believes
that the price can eventually be brought down to $70, after enough robots
have been manufactured to create economies of scale.
However, unlike so many of the "coming soon" products Antic
covers, a preview edition of Andy is available right now. Axlon has the
components to assemble 10,000 Andys at its Sunnyvale workshop. And these
robots are now being marketed via mail-order ads in Antic and other
key computer magazines as well as via direct mailing to our subscribers.
PERSONALITY ROBOT
The Antic Editors have seen Andy in action both at the magazine
office and at Axlon. We've seen other affordable robot models too and Andy
is clearly the most programmable and most versatile "training robot" so
far.
Andy's long cord plugs into joystick port 2 of an Atari 800,
800XL, or 600XL with 48K expansion (or a Commodore 64, for that matter).
Direct joystick control is available via port 1. But most programmers will
probably be more interested in getting Andy's responses to a series of
instructions in BASIC.
The included disk software also includes a "Personality Editor"
that lets the non-programmers in the family set up robotic behavior patterns
by using English, Logo-like, or BASIC-like commands plus menu options.
Andy has feedback sensors for light, sound and touch. The robot
can wheel its way through mazes, roll through a complex programmed route,
automatically back off from immovable obstacles it touches head-on. It
makes sounds as it maneuvers at two speeds on all floor surfaces.
Andy admittedly can't do much that's immediately useful. Andy
is being marketed as the first home introduction to current robotics technology.
The theme is, "Andy can't bring you breakfast in bed, but he will give
you food for thought."
ANDY'S DAD
Nolan Bushnell loves having fun with technology His black-glass desk
is like what the boss of the computer company had in "Tron." The desk has
two built-in computer monitors, a pull-out keyboard and a full line-up
of LEDs and switches that control things like window shades and the hidden
video projection screen.
"It's great when it's all working, but like most prototypes
it breaks down a lot," said Bushnell. He's a tall, bearded former engineer
from Utah. And even people who disapprove of his flamboyant business style
have to concede that the man has monumental charm and charisma.
Antic's exclusive interview started with Bushnell wanting
to know all the latest Atari gossip. "You never forget your children,"
he laughed. The Atari 400 and 800 computers were developed while he owned
the company, but marketed under the Warner Communications management.
"I think the biggest mistakes Warner/Atari made were closing
off the architecture and the serial bus of the computers," he said. "It
was wanton mishandling of technologically superior machines. At least now
I can be cautiously optimistic that Atari will prevail under Jack Tramiel.
And all those evangelical Atari users will be vindicated."
Historical commentaries having been made, Bushnell swiftly turned
the conversation to robots. "I believe that personal computers are essentially
robots without limbs," he said. "And it's going to take an breakthrough
in useful home robots to move computers onto a ten-times greater level
of acceptance during the next five years."
Bushnell admitted this breakthrough hasn't been made yet. "What
we really need is the right software-a VisiCalc for robots," he said.
But he feels that even now robots can be challenging experimental
tools for personal computer users. "It's a new horizon for the hobbyist,
artificial intelligence and personality simulations. It can develop an
additional level of awareness about how people perceive emotional states."
Bushnell said, "True robot pets are just about here. It's a
lot easier to simulate a stalwart pal that's more entertaining than a real
pet, than it is to computerize actual high-level reasoning or operation
of an opposable thumb."
Going along with this line of thinking, Axlon also has a 1985
line of MicroPet toys for the non-computing public. They're cute enough
to make Cabbage Patch Dolls look like wallflowers-sort of like miniature
Chuck E. Cheese Pizza Time Theater characters on hidden wheels.
The MicroPets aren't programmable. But since they were designed
after Andy, they tend to have slightly more sophisticated sensors which
will obviously be showing up in later Andy models.
One goofy looking cat, MicroPet, purrs when you stroke its fake
fur. The MicroPets roll around making silly noises. They'll come towards
you if you clap your hands. When they get stuck in dark corners under the
furniture, they simply turn off their motors and go to sleep until awakened
by a handclap.
The projected price is $59.95 and MicroPets will have their
own "Pet Shop" displays at department stores with little yards where they
can roll around.
We also spotted lying around Axlon a $49.95 baby-talking Teddy
Bear that responds to your speech rhythms. And there were various infra-red
beam guns that are apparently part of some cops-and-robbers type of survival
game.
BUSHNELL'S GOAL
With all this electronic creativity coming out of Axlon, it looks as
if Nolan Bushnell once again has a shot at dramatically changing the way
we interact with our world.
His associates, a number of them formerly key executives at
Atari, say that Bushnell is in the office daily and is totally involved
with everything going on. This dedication contrasts with Bushnell's past
track record-which he freely admitted-of getting bored with his companies
after the start-up phase.
It's possible that Bushnell may be settling down as he gets
a little older. He probably also has a an intense need to prove something.
Something that's only a bit more subtle than Jack Tramiel's overwhelming
drive to beat his former Commodore partners by making Atari #1.
Much of the established business press has written off Nolan
Bushnell as a one-hit wonder who fell out of touch with the market after
classic arcade videogames lost momentum. The pundits say that after all,
Bushnell lost interest in running a fast-expanding restaurant chain and
Pizza Time Theater wound up in bankruptcy.
I think it's clear that Bushnell is now fiercely determined
to go all-out and prove decisively that he's still the leader in electronic
entertainment technology.