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Original post and comments from Atari Museum’s facebook group here
.
I dislike facebook and wanted a snapshot of this.
Curt Vendel
Yesterday at 8:55am
In Regards to the GDC decision of Nolan Bushnell…
I am deleting the post that was put up from Verge, the article is clearly slanted and highly inaccurate, misleading and border on defamatory.
No one is to post any further regarding this matter EXCEPT any female Atari employee’s who would like to publicly state their recounting and position on this matter. So Carol Kantor Loni Reeder and as many other Atari employees who are part of this group and other Atari Museum related groups, you are welcome to comment and post.
It not for the armchair judges to make such accussations against Nolan, they weren’t there, they didn’t live during these times (heck, some of the editors of those articles weren’t even born at the time!) and they no right whatsoever to make such unfounded and unsubstantiated accusations against Nolan or the culture of Atari during its 70s and 80s years.
Many know that Nolan and I have been at odds in the past regarding historical accuracy, so much so he and I stopped talking for some time. Given that, I am stating here now that #IstandwithNolan and I have researched Atari these past 33 years, I worked there myself for 10 years and I spent with my good friend Marty Goldberg over 8 years intensely researching every aspect of Atari and of Nolan. I have things from his past - high school yearbook, real estate documents, negative films from various Atari events, things even Nolan himself no longer has.
I have never EVER in all of my years EVER in speaking with countless dozens of female employees ever heard any of them ever say they were ever uncomfortable, humiliated or assaulted by any other Atari employee or Nolan for that matter.
Yes, I have been privy to many inside private stories of sexual exploits by both make and female employees. Atari was a very free wheeling place, it even in later years had a co-ed hot tub in its engineer building (1272).
This talk of sexual assault is completely false and wrong. So I’m putting to a stop to it at least here in this group and I would hope other groups will follow and have some respect and decency and stop falling into the “Condemn first, find out the facts later” mentality that is perverting our day to day lives.
If anyone has an issue with my position and stance, unjoin the group.
Curt Vendel
It started with a 38 year old disgruntled ‘uber feminist’ woman/game designer from Massachusetts running for Congress who had a less than stellar experience in the predominantly male-dominated video game space, resulting in what came to be known as ‘GamerGate.’
Using the ‘MeToo’ movement and a moment in time for which she had no firsthand knowledge…………
And with zero complaints lodged against Nolan or complaints about the work culture by employees working at Atari during that time………..
And based on archival newspaper and magazine interviews with Nolan and others chatting about a work environment, time and culture that existed 40 years ago………
A work environment everyone - men and women - happily worked in TOGETHER… and partied in TOGETHER (or didn’t party in - there was no pressure and no judgement)…. an environment that has resulted in decades-long friendships, marriages, ‘little Atarians,’ business partnerships and frequent reunions……… providing us with amazing memories, and for most of us, spending the rest of our work careers attempting to replicate the MAGIC of the Camelot that we were lucky enough to work at.
By arming herself with a topical movement and being personally disgruntled and ‘offended’ by an environment existing 40 years ago which she played no part in - an environment she had ZERO first hand knowledge of………. and ‘intimating’ those of us who worked with or around Nolan, Al (Alcorn), the Gene’s (Lipkin and Landrum), Joe (Keenan), Steve (Bristow) and the rest of ‘Mahogany Row’ had been sexually assaulted, abused and disrespected by (in her estimation) abominations to the male species…….
Yes, based on her political aspirations, personal assumptions and libelous accusations against a man where no complaints have been raised or filed - she made a big, unfounded noise against Nolan - and the ‘Pioneer Award’ honor was withdrawn.
Atari was a large corporation with many facilities… but I worked in Corporate Headquarters, interfaced with every department in the company as a part of Communications, Security and Facilities groups……. and in being ‘adopted’ by the Coin-op and Industrial Design groups, I also spent a great deal of time in the Engineering (‘hot tub’) building, which would be the two locations where most of the fun and craziness occurred.
From my vantage point and having a first-person perspective of this time and the Atari environment, what has been done to Nolan is falsely mischaracterizing him for a lifestyle that did no harm or wrong to anyone.
Nolan created a company environment which opened the doors to many women into a field where they were never included before: HI TECH. Nolan never discriminated on any level and gave everyone a chance to prove on their own merits that they could be a part of Atari. From soldering boards to building arcade cabinets, drawing schematics and artwork to working on the assembly line.
For me personally, Nolan was the final word in my being hired at Atari - my first full-time job after college… he continued his belief in me years later, when we cofounded uWink in Los Angeles where I became an ‘equally compensated’ Vice President.
Nolan never profiled a person by their gender as to whether or not they were a fit for the job. He based his decision on the person’s skill, ability and passion for the job - because of that belief, we always rose to the occasion! We were a bonded teamship… AND A FAMILY.
Atari also saw a woman - the amazing Carol Shaw - go on to fame!
For me, and I’m sure for other women who will weigh in……. while this ‘feminazi congresswoman wanna-be’ may believe she is doing ‘Atari womankind’ a favor, in reality, she has done us a disservice by creating victims where there were none.
Personally, I am extremely angered by her words and conduct in this matter… not just for Nolan, but for the women of Atari - all of us!
We ALL were, and remain to this day extremely strong and intelligent women…… and there isn’t any ‘man’ who would dare take advantage of us (not if they intended to procreate in the future!).
My other anger is the callous and unnecessary hurt I’m sure this matter has inflicted on Nancy and their kids and grandkids.
Finally… by not doing their due diligence before terminating the honor, the GDC did a disservice to Nolan, to my fellow Atarians - and to the truth.
Nolan was extremely gracious in this matter via his tweet… Hopefully the GDC will right this misstep on their part at some point in the future.
If you have read Brianna’s Twitter, it doesn’t appear she is getting much support in this matter… And in fact, she has backtracked and is now playing victim and being apologetic.
We had a back-and-forth for quite a while… And she kept claiming that she had names and stories from women who worked at Atari that were compromised, but she was unwilling to provide me with that information, stating that I was ‘unworthy’ to have that information… stating that I was harmful to abuse victims and that I was a detriment to the #MeToo movement.
… even to the point of discounting the fact that I am ALSO a ME TOO survivor, from a different period in time.
From what I can gather… There are a lot of women working in the video game industry who have been held back in their professional pursuits and/or sexually assaulted in the process of trying to get ahead in their profession… But they are attempting to hold Nolan RESPONSIBLE for the actions of others, based on the Atari ‘lore’ - which was a crazy, fun time… but as in people playing the game of ‘telephone’ - I’m guessing even THAT was embellished for the (at that time) ‘coolness factor.’
Source: https://twitter.com/lonireeder/status/959664935797112832
Perhaps a politically incorrect work environment by today’s standards, but yet these same outraged people will embrace The Simpsons or read Mad Magazine.
I agree with Curt that this was a political stunt… and it’s a shame that a libelous assumption from someone looking to score brownie points to gain a seat in DC would do this at the expense of someone uncharged and unaccused.
(… and there’s that name - I miss Steve Bristow - such an awesome man) 😢