Gotta love Nolan Bushnell. He's the clever guy who brought Pong to our arcades, and then Pac Man (and Missile Command, Pitfall, Combat and Breakout) to our living rooms. Arguably the father of the home computer entertainment phenomenon in the US, during the late 1970's he branched out into a series of nationwide arcade eateries (parodied as Wall E. Weasel for confused non-US Simpsons fans) with terrifying animatronics, dodgy pizzas, sticky soda-covered floors, arcade machines and hundreds of thousands of screaming kids. I loved it. Had a birthday party there once. Thanks Mum!
He's at it again, at the age of 62, with a forward-thinking vision of dinnertime that might revolutionise the culture of computer gaming, bringing flavours of the East to the West. Fingers crossed it does the trick. Fingers doubly-crossed that we he exports it over here.
According to the NYT (reg. req'd), Bushnell's latest great idea is a restaurant called "Media Bistro" that has - wait for it - computer games at the tables, movies projected onto the walls and automated waiters to take your order. The intended age group is 21-35 year olds, giving an idea of what kinds of products will be on offer. Nolan's not playing with Pong anymore.
In an interview last week, he described how the 300-seat restaurant and bar would combine food and drink with ubiquitous interactive media. Touch-screen monitors, installed at every table, booth and barstool, will allow diners to place food orders, play some 70 different video and trivia games, and even take instant pop culture polls.
The monitors at the tables will be two-sided, so that two people, or two couples, will be able to play video games against each other. The restaurant will be divided into two sections, one with more casual gaming at the tables and another where games can be organized for large groups, as in bingo halls.
Alice and I spoke a few weeks ago at the University of Cambridge's Computer Science Lab about women and gaming, and afterwards the subject of PC Bangs came up. PC Bangs are a South Korean phenomenon which has pretty much insured that computer games are widely accepted by the general public. They're ubiquitous internet cafes with high-speed broadband and libraries of comic books where groups of mates congregate to play games together and with people they link up with across the country, and to just hang out. They're a model which for some reason hasn't made it over here, but is replicated in Japan and many parts of China. So what if somebody developed a PC Bang-esque games-related media cafe in the style that a wide Western population would view as cool, sleek and stylish? What massivley successful technology has captured the imaginations of young trendy things and has successfully branched out into consumer "spaces" on the high street? Apple Inc, of course.
Combining their sleek sense of fashion with interactive entertainment in a neutral space could break down the stereotypes of gamers as solitary teenage boys locked in their bedrooms, and open it out to a broader audience.
Video games today "are about social isolation," Mr. Bushnell said. "There needs to be a place that brings a little more balance and brings people together."
Couldn't have said it better myself.
Arcades like the Trocadero and Brighton Pier don't do that. They're cheap and nasty with rubbish food, no chill-out zone and a rabid, in-your-face, money-grubbing sensory overload vibe. Put some nice sofas in, cater to an older population, offer alternatives to just computer gaming (and fruit machines don't do the trick) and shazam you have something that might appeal across the generations.
Media Bistro sounds like a great idea; a modern twist to the roller-diner.
If the first restaurant succeeds, he said, he will add others, possibly in states like Minnesota and Michigan, where cold weather increases demand for indoor entertainment.
