If only Bob had been more enterprising

[LA the DJ]

Just an interesting little tidbit I noticed last night while watching G4 last night:

They did a show based around Ralph Baer, the engineer who created the Magnavox Odyssey, and basically fathered the home video game console.

Anyhow, the Odyssey was met with much indifference, so Magnavox toured the country with the machine, trying to get people to buy into the technology.

Long story short, Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari attended one of these shows, and created his own very similar game to a title on Odyssey: Pong.

Bushnell was sued, as Baer kept very close records of who attended the shows. Well, they showed one of the sign in sheets, and there, three lines above Bushnell, was the recognizable signature of one Mr. Bob Barker. Hey, if only he'd have thought of it first, he could've made millions and not had to host some game show for a couple of years...

But I guess all's well that ends well.

I suppose Bob was fascinated by the technology as much as anyone else back then. I grew up in the video game era, so I can't imagine ever being impressed by such a basic machine, but hey, Bob didn't even know Plinko yet :-D

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'nWo_Whammy\' date=\'Jun 16 2005, 09:45 PM\']I suppose Bob was fascinated by the technology as much as anyone else back then. I grew up in the video game era, so I can't imagine ever being impressed by such a basic machine, but hey, Bob didn't even know Plinko yet :-D[/quote]
Bill Cullen hosted a few tryout episodes of an odd local Ohio game show back in the seventies.  I got a chance to get some information from the producer about it, and he told me that they gave Bill a PONG game to keep him entertained between tapings and that he was absolutely fascinated with it.  So there must be something about TPIR hosts and crappy cutting-edge technology.

[Jimmy Owen]

I loved Pong!  Maybe someday I will host TPIR!  

There was a IGAS 72 with someone playing some sort of pong-type game, I want to say Rod "Liar's Club" Serling, but the memory is hazy.

[davewalls]

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' date=\'Jun 17 2005, 08:45 AM\']
Bill Cullen hosted a few tryout episodes of an odd local Ohio game show back in the seventies.  I got a chance to get some information from the producer about it, and he told me that they gave Bill a PONG game to keep him entertained between tapings and that he was absolutely fascinated with it.  So there must be something about TPIR hosts and crappy cutting-edge technology.

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[/quote]

Between Pong and his QUBE show, Bill Cullen was the man when it came to crappy 70's technology. ;p

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'davewalls\' date=\'Jun 17 2005, 12:56 PM\'][quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' date=\'Jun 17 2005, 08:45 AM\']
Bill Cullen hosted a few tryout episodes of an odd local Ohio game show back in the seventies.  I got a chance to get some information from the producer about it, and he told me that they gave Bill a PONG game to keep him entertained between tapings and that he was absolutely fascinated with it.  So there must be something about TPIR hosts and crappy cutting-edge technology.

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Between Pong and his QUBE show, Bill Cullen was the man when it came to crappy 70's technology. ;p

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So we're clear, it was the QUBE show that Bill was working on when he was given the PONG.

Here's another link.  I hope to have an update to it sometime this summer, some of the info is wrong.

[ilb4ever2000]

[quote name=\'Jimmy Owen\' date=\'Jun 17 2005, 09:17 AM\']There was a IGAS 72 with someone playing some sort of pong-type game, I want to say Rod "Liar's Club" Serling, but the memory is hazy.

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It WAS Rod Serling and he was playing a table tennis game with Steve Allen on the aforementioned Magnavox Odyssey.